OPINION

 One of the working groups submitting policy to Federal Conference in Glasgow next month will probably have a harder time than the other groups. The “14+ Education” policy which looks at school leavers, Further Education and Higher Education and presents its findings and policy ideas to be voted on (PDF of the full text is http://bit.ly/14yqTtH). I’m not going to argue here the pros or cons of the current system, old system, any new system or free-to-s

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Last week we heard the case for “Jumping off the Ladder” with regard to nuclear disarmament  from George Potter. David Grace responded on LDV here.

I think it is arguable that it is the education policy space that has seen more turmoil than any other policy area since the coalition began in 2010.  The tide of ceaseless initiatives and new structures, conceived—seemingly at least--from Michael Gove’s view of how the world should operate mixed with his personal boyhood experiences of education, have left the education world reeling. The thunderbolt hurled down recently from the DfE, announced by Nick Clegg, that pupils at Year 6 should be cl

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As a consistent crit

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According to reports, the new Prince George of Cambridge is worth around £20million already, if you take the wealth of his parents into account. A stark contrast to other babies born on the same day as him last week. Whilst the media were focused on the birth of one boy-just because his Dad is the ‘heir to the heir to the throne’-hundreds of other babies, here in the UK, were born into poverty. Of course the baby can’t help who it was born to or, indeed, the life of privilege it will have and

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Glasgow will give Liberal Democrats the opportunity to debate Trident, climb down the ladder or jump off altogether? George Potter makes the case for jumping off and we will hear from David Grace later this week on the case for "climbing down".   The recently published Trident Alternatives Review must now force social liberals to climb off the fen

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In the early 80’s I was at an education conference where someone was talking about youth unemployment and the devastating impact it was having in his community in the North East – his words still ring in my ears “that time is lost and it’s lost forever”. At least in those days there was still a youth service which was geared up to work with those young people but today it’s not just nothing to do, it’s also nowhere to go. The energy, creativity and joy of being young is being crushed, not only i

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It’s being billed as a set piece set-to. The rapidly approaching Autumn Conference in Glasgow is of great significance. Discussions that shape the content of the next General Election manifesto will be at the core of the agenda. It would appear that Nick Clegg and his aides are aiming to use a string of votes at Conference to push the party in his preferred direction. The major Clegg-sponsored motion on the economy – which basically asks voting reps to sign up to Osbornomics as official party p

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