The coalition must fight to defend performance-related pay for teachers August 29, 2013 PUPILS will return to school next week with the usual trepidation and excitement. But this year more than most, teachers may feel the same. From September, all schools will be able to link teachers’ pay more closely with performance. The government’s reform to pay will transform the market for teachers. Pay rises based on length [...]
Networks see more to 4G than travel games – despite limited roll out August 29, 2013 EE’S TEN-month monopoly on 4G in the UK came to an end yesterday, with Vodafone rolling out a competing network in London and O2 launching in the capital, plus Bradford and Leeds. These small-scale launches have been disappointing to many. But two factors underpin the operators’ abundance of caution: the expensive 3G debacle a decade [...]
Letters to the editor – 30/08 – Crisis in Syria, Best of Twitter August 29, 2013 Crisis in Syria [Re: We must accept our limited capacity to resolve conflict in tinderbox Syria, yesterday] Liam Fox makes some interesting points, but Iraq was an invasion and not an intervention. And not all interventions are bad things – the failure to act in both Rwanda and Bosnia comes to mind. Dean Miah This is [...]
We must accept our limited capacity to resolve conflict in tinderbox Syria August 28, 2013 ONE OF the enduring consequences of the war in Iraq, and to a lesser extent Afghanistan, is a deep scepticism towards military intervention abroad among the British people. In the case of the civil war in Syria, I share that scepticism. There are four questions that need to be asked and answered by policymakers [...]
Talking down the recovery won’t close the gap in SME lending perceptions August 28, 2013 IT’S AMAZING the difference just a few months can make. If we wind back to the spring, the news was dominated by economic doom, gloom, and concern about the UK entering an historic triple dip recession. Now the pendulum seems to have swung the other way, with survey after survey reporting increasing business confidence and [...]
The new Bank objective of supporting growth could prove ineffective August 28, 2013 THERE were many positive aspects to Mark Carney’s first speech as new Bank of England governor, held in Nottingham yesterday. It was broadcast over the internet. He took questions from the audience and then gave a press conference afterwards. All this was accessible to the public at large via the Bank’s website. This is a [...]
Letters to the editor – 29/08 – Jobless youth, HS2 failings, Best of Twitter August 28, 2013 Jobless youth [Re: Why far too many young people still struggle to find work after education, Friday] Lottie Dexter makes for good reading, but I disagree with her conclusions. Enforced apprenticeships will not save Britain’s young – they are the hallmark of a corporatist industrial policy. We live in an age of innovation: machines or even [...]
How betting markets could solve the problem of inaccurate Bank forecasts August 27, 2013 IN HIS first major speech since becoming governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney is today likely to defend a policy that has come to be described as the “Carney rule”. Also known as forward guidance, the rule effectively promises that interest rates will stay at present levels until unemployment drops below 7 per [...]
Against the Grain: The recovery isn’t unsustainable – but we could learn from the US on austerity August 27, 2013 SOME people are never satisfied. The evidence is mounting that the UK economy is now on the path to recovery. But to those who denied the possibility of any economic revival at all under the policies of “austerity”, this is simply not good enough. It is the wrong kind of recovery, they say. Fuelled by [...]
Limited strikes against Assad would solve little in Syria’s miserable war August 27, 2013 THE USE of chemical weapons on a massive scale in the area around Syria’s capital Damascus has understandably elicited condemnation from the international community – including both Russia and Iran. And we seem to be clear on where responsibility lies. The League of Arab States and many Western powers now state clearly that the [...]