What are schools for? If they're intended to give every child a good start in life, how can anyone defend the old-style Secondary Modern Schools? And how can the other side of this equation, Grammar Schools, be justified? These are institutions defined only by the fact that their students 'passed' or 'failed' an examination at age 11; and the children know it.
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Today marks the start of UK National Vegetarian Week. The arguments for a balanced vegetarian diet are persuasive - it 'saves' energy, it uses less carbon and water, it can respect the seasons, it has potential to make a huge contribution to resolving global hunger, and it's good for us. So how can we make vegetarianism more often the diet of choice? ...
U.K. clocks go forward on Sunday morning, 30 March '08, and the lighter evenings which British Summer Time brings will cheer up almost everyone. But there would also be many other anticipated benefits, from road safety to energy conservation and healthier lifestyles, were we to keep 'Daylight Saving' all year. A Downing Street petition has now been set up to urge a continuous BST trial period of three years, with research to establish the extent of these benefits. ...
Senior women leaders are often criticised for being less confident than the men, and for feeling unable to delegate. Is this any wonder, when those very men don't play fair? It's time for sexist attitudes in the corridors of power to be challenged head-on - which is exactly what Margot Wallström, Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders Ministerial Initiative, has just been doing. ...
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has told it as it is: many of us, men and especially women, are fearful of being out alone at night. Only really unimaginative or insensitive people - or perhaps some opportunist political opponents - would disagree with Ms Smith. This is not a new state of affairs. We have but to recall past feminist campaigns to 'reclaim the night' to know that. ...
The British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) annual conference is in Liverpool this year, on 30th and 31st January 2008. The conference, bringing together some 300 people, will see brisk debates between professionals and community leaders from across the U.K. One important focus may be the search for consensus on what regeneration is 'about'.
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The Liverpool city region (Merseyside) looks on available evidence to have only about half the number of scientists which might be expected on the basis of the overall national statistics. So by what indicators might Merseyside measure progress in the retention and development of graduate scientists and technologists? ...
Today (30 October) is UNISON and the Fawcett Society's 'Women's No Pay Day' - i.e. the date in the U.K. year when, compared with men's average wage for a given job, women doing it cease to be paid. But there are many people, men and women alike, who are determined that things will change, and change much more quickly than to date. ...
'Incremental' is the mode of choice when we talk about the massive changes required for the sustainability of ourselves and our planet. People find it hard to make large or sudden changes, so we try to do them bit by bit. Seen like this, the benefits of daylight 'saving', keeping lighter evenings, become increasingly compelling. ...
This is the time of year when churches urban and rural across the nation urge us to attend their services for Harvest Festival. For many of us however this annual celebration is now marked more secularly, observed at one remove, via our newspapers, rather than physically in our communities. Media celebration of seasonal food is the order of the day. ...
'The next president of the United States of America will control a $150 billion annual research budget, 200,000 scientists, and 38 major research institutions and all their related labs. This president will shape human endeavors in space, bioethics debates, and the energy landscape of the 21st century.' So says Chris Mooney in his seriously impressive review of the options - options in reality about human beings, not 'just' about knowledge - awaiting electors of the next President of the USA.
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Well, happy birthday to us all!
Today is two years to the day from when I posted my first 'real' blog - a day my website designer Nick Prior and I had worked towards for several months. And a whole twenty four months later, we're still going fine, with ever-growing numbers of visitors and well more than three hundred pieces, about 'all sorts', up and on-line. ...
All regeneration and strategic planning professionals need to have excellent formal qualifications and wide experience; the job is far too important for anything less. But what other characteristics are also required to make a good regeneration official into an outstanding agent of delivery on the ground? Here is a list of such characteristics, from a rather specific observational position. ...
Here in Liverpool we are about to start our 2008 Year as European Capital of Culture. But apparently the connection between this year-long Capital of Culture event and hard European cash has yet to dawn on some local businesses. This is serious. Who's failed to get the message over? And will things improve? ...
Civic leadership in action requires a range of perspectives and understandings. No single 'type' of person can hold all the wisdom to take communities forward in this complex age. A range of experience is required. The overwhelmingly white, male hegemony in Liverpool's corridors of power is a civic embarrassment, demonstrating a fundamental lack of will to learn from the richly diverse insights of its citizens. ...
Yesterday we saw the grebes on Sefton Park lake in Liverpool. There were the two adults who caused such excitement when they arrived some three years ago, plus two quite large chicks, all bobbing up and down happily in the centre of the lake. Then, a little further on we saw swans, a pair with four cygnets this year. ...
Is large-scale sustainable transport possible? Should we welcome Britain's fastest-ever domestic train, which has arrived in Southampton this week? The UK's North- South economic divide brings these questions into sharp focus. The further one is from London, the more important connectivity can become. So is carbon footprint a critical issue only after the economics have been taken care of? ...
The BBC Proms offer many different routes to enlightenment, but this is a new one to me. A listing of events for August tells us that some singers are 'singers' or 'vocalists', and others are sopranos, mezzos, tenors, basses or, indeed, 'voices'. A look at the particular concert programmes suggests why this may be... ...
The rain it raineth every day; but, strange as this British 'Summer' weather feels, we know a lot about what's triggered the deluge. We can debate the extent of global warming, but the big issue is how to ensure it doesn't carry on. This is where conventional science gives way to understandings of human behaviour. Hearts and minds will help us meet the challenges of climate change, not simply technology.
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An ippr report by Ioannis Kaplanis tells of increasing employment polarisation in Britain - with differences most significant amongst female employees in London. Regional economies must learn from Kaplanis's studies, looking especially at policies for the full use and retention of women's high-level skills. One emphasis must surely be on how very senior decision makers outside London (a hugely male population) respond to this challenge. ...
It's often claimed that politicians are out of touch or otherwise irrelevant to their electorate. The website 'They Work For You' is one way in which this claim can be examined, at least for Members of the UK Parliament. But can MPs ever meet all the demands put upon them, and what else do we need to know?
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Vegetarians have long maintained that 'beans are best'. Morally and practically, they say, vegetarian diets win over carnivorous varieties. Now there's another string to the non-meat-eaters' bow: veggie, especially vegan, is eco. So will people choose carrots, not carne, to reverse climate change? ...
This website seems to be used as a learning resource, as well as by a more general readership. Teachers and students refer to it for a range of reasons; and amongst these is the opportunity for people whose first language is not English to read short articles linked to other websites on the same topics. So, how do / could you use this site as an educational resource? ...
A White Paper on sustainability and planning rules is about to appear. Ruth Kelly, the Government's Communities Secretary, wants climate change to be an integral part of the agenda for the overall planning process, regarding both infrastructure and local renewable technologies. So why has the Local Government Association already rejected the White Paper? ...
Is freeing northern inner-city land the best way to a more equitable and ecologically sustainable national economy? For wealthy city-based Southerners this is possibly an obvious strategy. But some of us Up North, or anywhere in the inner-city / rural hinterland, might want a few safeguards built in.
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AWC (Alternate Weekly Collection of recyclable and non-recyclable household waste) has a bad reception in the UK, although it increases the extent of recycling. But why is something designed to sustain our environment - an ambition held by most of us - producing such hostility? ...
Rarely are artistic installations truly inspirational, but the use by George Michael and Kenny Goss of John Lennon's piano, on which Lennon composed the song Imagine, is one such example. This travelling piano scenario is art, goodwill and common humanity all rolled into one.
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Recycling things we don't need or want anymore can be time-wasting and even counter-productive, if it's a big hassle to get done. So one very good idea is using the that global force, the internet, to share news of offers and requirements for items on a strictly non-commercial basis between people who live in a local area. This is what the Freecycle Network sets out to do. ...
World Water Day, today, is a little-remarked event but concerns an absolutely vital aspect of life. Wherever we live, and whatever we do, we can't be without water. This is an opportunity to pause and take a check (should we say, a 'raincheck'?) on how we view this most critical commodity, and on what we can do to help.
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Today's Independent newspaper offers us a mixed message. Under a front page story entitled 'The Climate Has Changed' it features a special issue on 'the bill which makes action on global warming a reality'. And then, at the point of sale, it proposes a special offer of a free plastic bottle of water.... Celebration of a major breakthrough in environmental legislation is greatly to be welcomed. But toasting this particular achievement with such an environmentally unfriendly product tells us a lot about the contradictions of the market. ...
Not all academics are happy to see their students referred to as 'customers'. They have a point. The role of college lecturers is to ensure that their students gain the knowledge and skills required to take them further in their chosen fields. The 'student as customer' model is incomplete, if only because teaching staff inevitably know more about the chosen field than do learners. Along with the actual knowledge required, there may be scope to look afresh at the skills base students need - and at the implications of that for the 'consumer' status of students. ...
People who care about the environment do not always have the same priorities. For some the emphasis is on maintaining the habitat of 'natural' flora and fauna. For others the most important objective is sustaining an environment in which human beings can flourish now.
Who is right, and can these two objectives both be achieved? ...
It's surprising that so little music happens in most European cities in August. Obviously some musicians take their holidays then, but others might be pleased to work during the holiday period. The scope for entertaining and engaging tourists and visitors during the high summer season is probably quite significant. ...
Person specifications for 'Lay' Public Appointments often require Board candidates to demonstrate 'confidence'. Increasingly I wonder whether this quality by itself enhances board members' contribution to the common good. Any confident Lay person might have a clear line and stick to it; but does this benefit the public? Or is it an obstacle to diversity in selection, continuing business as usual? ...
What do the terms 'Conservation' and 'Sustainability' say about our attitudes to change? And can we apply them to the same sorts of things? ...
What are the relationships between science, technology and 'modern society'? How are these interactions determined? And what is 'progress'?...
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