“We cannot take part in the work of education till we are ourselves deeply imbued with the Communist ideal and unless our thoughts and our desires are constantly turning towards it.” – Sylvia Pankhurst, 1918
On Saturday I went along to the ‘teach-in’ at Kings College London, organised by the London Education Activists Network. There were [...]
The so-called sexualisation of children has been all over the news this week with a report for the home office being published by Dr Linda Papodopoulos. Amongst recommendations are those about softcore men’s mags such as Nuts and Zoo being made to be top-shelf publications, as they are often seen by eight to fifteen year [...]
The whirlwind of cuts facing higher education is one of those things its hard to get your head round. The idea of entire departments, even colleges, closing, is one that few people have totally got to grips with. Richard wrote last week about the issues at King’s. Estimates vary wildly about how much they want [...]
The proposed equality bill has generated much debate – in particular the question of whether churches should be banned from discriminating on grounds of sexual orientation. Yet what strikes me is the sheer hypocrisy of these measures, from a government which has actively institutionalised such discrimination.
Under laws that went into force last year, the new [...]
I have a confession to make. In my youth I made some rash decisions, fell in with a bad crowd…and ended up taking GCSE Media Studies. It wasn’t entirely my fault – I was to some extent pushed into it by the limited options open to me when picking subjects – but ultimately I have [...]
The beginning of January is an exciting time – at least for a tiny sliver of households. Around this time of the year, a number of 6th formers will recieve letters informing them whether they have made it into Cambridge (Oxford manage to get the letters out a few weeks earlier).
Having spent years listening to [...]
Two events, at each end of the last week here in London, have highlighted the real range of activities and viewpoints of the left community in this country. The 7th annual Historical Materialism Conference, held last weekend at SOAS and Birkbeck, offered a fantastic opportunity for over 700 attendees from around the world to discuss [...]
I am exceptionally lucky. All the main political parties care deeply about me. They show their love weekly with solicitous letters, cards and visits. I fully anticipate flowers soon enough. I bet most of you don’t get that.
So why the special treatment? I’m not a special person, I haven’t had a recent bereavement that can [...]
In an exclusive interview with The Third Estate, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg sets out his vision for change
It can’t be easy, being the leader of Britain’s third major political party. Caught between a disintegrating New Labour and a resurgent Conservative Party waiting for its coronation, convincing the British public that what you have to [...]
Is it not enough that we choose to lock our children up in institutions for twelve years without exposing them to what is becoming a grave system of Machiavellian management structures? These days people do MBAs in education, so-called “super-heads” are earning in excess of £100k a year, and schools are being transformed into multi-level [...]
