politics

MPs call for action on pandemic-widened gap between England’s poor and rich pupils - 10 years of progress lost since pre-pandemic #

Khan extends free meals, but could leave schools £39m short - In short, based on City Hall figures, the subsidy would be £2.54/meal, whereas the cost to schools is £3.30/meal as estimated by the NEU. HT @tonyparkin@mastodonapp.uk #

The political, moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the current Conservative party - Award-winning economist Simon Wren-Lewis dissects the failures of the current government. Notwithstanding their claim to be “neo-liberal”, when compared to two other recent neo-liberal administrations in the UK (Thatcher 1979-1990 and Blair/Brown 1997-2010) their economic failure is stark. Throw in the accompanying moral vacuum and a clear picture emerges of just how disatrous they have been. #

Now the UK needs leaders #

Op- Ed in the New York Times: A serial liar. A campaign of online disinformation. The risk of foreign meddling. Sound familiar? #

Pointer to article that highlights the link between lower fire safety and historic changes to the systems of governance in the UK #

Several commentators, dismayed at the recent antics of the Brexit party MEPs, have been tweeting variants of a quote from Josef Goebbels in the Nazi paper Der Angriff 1 : We enter the Reichstag to arm ourselves with democracy’s weapons. If democracy is foolish enough to give us free railway passes and salaries, that is its problem. It does not concern us. Any way of bringing about the revolution is fine by us. #

I have just finished reading Cultural Dementia by Prof. David Andress. The book both places current populism (in the UK, USA and France) in an historical context, and highlights the distorted and partial view of national history peddled by such as the Trumpists, the Front National, and the Brexit Party and their allies.. In Andress’s own words: “The demands of contemporary ‘populist’ movements make manifest a vision of the past that is the opposite of a coherent history. #