Rapid Responses
Occupy a year on
[Re: One year after the start of Occupy Wall Street, has the movement had any positive impact?, yesterday]
Sam Bowman is correct that the Occupy Movement asked the right questions about the close relationship between big business and governments. But its answers weren’t always asinine. There was a strong free market movement within Occupy.
Roderick Tracy Long
Unfortunately Louise Mensch was right about Occupy. Long lines of bedgraggled anti-capitalists queueing up outside Starbucks put paid to their claim to be truly fighting against consumerism. Occupy was simply posing at being revolutionary.
Scarlett Fuller
………………..
GCSEs and beyond
[Re: Gove’s reforms will help better equip young people for life, yesterday]
Michael Gove certainly wins prizes for the boldness of his move to scrap GCSEs. But I hope this is the first step of even bolder reforms, and not their culmination. The GCSE curriculum is absolutely central to many students’ experience of education. It defines several years of their school life. But unless Gove does more to challenge the assumption that university is right for everyone, that vocational subjects are to be sneered at, and that excellent students should be educated to the same level as their less academic peers, then Britain’s school system will continue to disappoint. We need to expect more.
Dan Thompson
………………..
TOP TWEETS
I’m firmly against the BAE-EADS merger. Defence is so key to national interest that it rises above company priorities.
@DCBMEP
Unions fear that BAE’s 35,000 workforce is not sustainable due to cuts. And BAE has warned of major job cuts if the merger fails.
@Marc_MH
The Ebacc is sensible. I once submitted an essay seven times until I got a good mark. A single exam board per subject is also good.
@philaberry
Grade inflation has undermined pupils and the UK economy. International companies are extremely cautious about GCSEs.
@RichardNorthey