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Wednesday 18th January 2012
It wasn't 'ageist' of David Cameron to call Dennis Skinner a 'dinosaur'Dennis Skinner is trending on Twitter, thanks to an orchestrated campaign by Labour MPs to brand David Cameron as "ageist" for referring to the 80-year-old MP as a "dinosaur" at Prime Minister's Questions today. After answering Skinner's question about when he would appear before the Leveson Inquiry, Cameron then made the following joke: "It's good to see the honourable gentleman on such good form. I often say to my children, 'No need to go to the Natural History Museum to see a dinosaur. Come to the House of Commons at about half past twelve.'" (To read more, click here.)
Tuesday 17th January 2012
If the captain of the Costa Concordia had been British, would he have abandoned ship?According to an Italian news agency, Captain Francesco Schettino abandoned the Costa Concordia more than four hours before the evacuation was complete in spite of being ordered by the Coast Guard to return to his ship. If true, his behaviour is unforgivable. According to the law of the sea – an ancient code of conduct that all sailors are bound by – it is the duty of a ship's captain to remain with a stricken vessel until all the passengers and crew are accounted for. Under no circumstances must he leave the ship before them. (To read more, click here.)
Monday 16th January 2012
Ricky Gervais bombs at the GlobesFor almost 12 months Ricky Gervais has been telling anyone who'll listen that he really doesn't care about the Golden Globes, a point made by Andrew Anthony in a recent profile in the Guardian. Two months ago, he told an interviewer: "I do the Golden Globes like some people play golf. Win, lose or draw, it doesn't affect me. I'm not beholden to anyone. I don't have to be nice to directors. I don't have to be nice to anyone." Last week he added: "Maybe I'll be a bit more chilled about it this year. Or not. Whatever. I don't care." Well, judging from last night's performance, this isn't an affectation. He really doesn't care. His jokes were so feeble – and his delivery so lacklustre – that the audience didn't know where to look. Last year, he succeeded in embarrassing the Hollywood A-list; this year, they looked embarrassed for him. It made for uncomfortable viewing, like watching a slightly sleazy uncle making an inappropriate speech at a wedding. (To read more, click here.)
Saturday 14th January 2012
Ed Balls's extraordinary volte-faceThere's a jaw-dropping interview with Ed Balls in this morning's Guardian in which he says Labour would not reverse any of the public spending cuts made by George Osborne. Here's the key passage: My starting point is, I am afraid, we are going to have keep all these cuts. There is a big squeeze happening on budgets across the piece. The squeeze on defence spending, for instance, is £15bn by 2015. We are going to have to start from that being the baseline. At this stage, we can make no commitments to reverse any of that, on spending or on tax. So I am being absolutely clear about that. (To read more, click here.)
Friday 13th January 2012
At last, Michael Gove is going to make it possible to sack bad teachersThere’s a great story in the Daily Mail this morning saying that Michael Gove has pledged to make it easier for schools to sack bad teachers. At present, head teachers in maintained schools find it almost impossible to get rid of under-performing teachers, so great is the power of the teaching unions. In 2010, Panorama investigated this phenomenon and found that only 18 teachers in the UK has been struck off for incompetence by the General Teaching Council in the past 40 years. (To read more, click here.)
Thursday 12th January 2012
Free the press!Listening to Kelvin Mackenzie give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry on Monday, the most striking thing was not his admission that he’d never given much thought to journalistic ethics or even his impersonation of John Major, good though it was. Rather, it was his claim that News International should have been fined for lying to the PCC about the extent of phone hacking at the News of the World. “In the end newspapers are commercial animals,” he said. “I would be in favour of fines – and heavy fines for newspapers that don't disclose the truth to the Press Complaints Commission.” (To read more, click here.)
Saturday 7th January 2012
BBC News online publishes grossly misleading, anti-free schools pieceBBC News online has published an extremely hostile piece about free schools this morning that is almost comically misleading. The headline reads "Free schools 'will not boost access to good schools'", a conclusion that's purportedly based on "a new study" carried out by Bristol University's Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO) (To read more, click here.)
Thursday 5th January 2012
Was Diane Abbott's tweet racist?Diane Abbott is in hot water again. The gaffe-prone Labour MP sent a tweet to a black journalist that read: "White people love playing 'divide & rule' We should not play their game #tacticasoldascolonialism" This is vintage Abbott. The original tweet from Bim Adewunmi criticised some black leaders for being out of touch with the people they purported to represent. Instead of engaging with that point, Abbott smacked down the freelance journalist, effectively saying that any criticism of black leaders was a betrayal of her ethnic heritage. (To read more, click here.)
Wednesday 4th January 2012
Michael Gove is right: Academies are raising standardsMichael Gove launched a robust attack on the opponents of the academy programme today, branding them "enemies of promise" and accusing them of being "happy with failure". Needless to say, his remarks were immediately condemned by the leaders of the teaching unions. "The assertion that the opponents of the government's forced academy programme are 'happy with failure' is an insult to all the hard-working and dedicated teachers, school leaders, support staff and governors in our schools," said Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT. "If academy status brought the benefits claimed by the government why have so few of England's schools opted to convert?" (To read more, click here.)
Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Labour luvvie gives The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe the politically correct treatmentThere's a shocker of a story in the Times (££) this morning. Rupert Goold, the award-winning director of Enron, is working on a politically correct stage version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in the hope of making it more "relevant" to kids today (To read more, click here):
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