With the party conference season almost upon us, I've been asking people which one of the current party leaders would they select to go out for a drink with tonight (see also Wisdom of Forethought &
An important but elusive asset for British political party leaders)?
The news so far is that the batting order is clearly coming out as:
1. David Cameron
2. Nick Clegg
3. Ed Miliband.
Should we worry that only 27% of England's cricket team went to state secondary schools?
On returning from holiday (and after quite a while of silence), I'm finally getting back to blogging - thanks to being bothered by a burning question about the composition of the England cricket team that's deprived Australia of the Ashes for a little while longer.
In the past, I've blogged about the problem of getting more non-public school boys into Oxbridge (HERE) and about my own failure in early teenage years to be noticed by the Yorkshire County Cricket Club (HERE).
Now, however, I realise that only three members (i.e. 27% - Anderson, Bresnan, Swann) of the England team that defeated Australia yesterday went to state secondary schools.
All the rest, including those born in South Africa, went to independent schools.
So, although I've proposed what I believe to be a perfectly viable solution to the problem of how to open up Oxbridge admissions selection to more students from state schools, the problem of opening up selection to England's cricket team is not so easy -- other than to make sure, somehow or other, that more children in more state schools get the opportunity to play cricket.
But, with a Scot in charge of education, it's rather unlikely that Mr Gove will ever put cricket very high on his list of priorities...
In the past, I've blogged about the problem of getting more non-public school boys into Oxbridge (HERE) and about my own failure in early teenage years to be noticed by the Yorkshire County Cricket Club (HERE).
Now, however, I realise that only three members (i.e. 27% - Anderson, Bresnan, Swann) of the England team that defeated Australia yesterday went to state secondary schools.
All the rest, including those born in South Africa, went to independent schools.
So, although I've proposed what I believe to be a perfectly viable solution to the problem of how to open up Oxbridge admissions selection to more students from state schools, the problem of opening up selection to England's cricket team is not so easy -- other than to make sure, somehow or other, that more children in more state schools get the opportunity to play cricket.
But, with a Scot in charge of education, it's rather unlikely that Mr Gove will ever put cricket very high on his list of priorities...
Latest press release by Ed Balls disguised as a speech to Thomson Reuters
While top Tories like David Cameron and George Osborne have recently read our their press releases at Morrisons' distribution warehouses, today opposition shadow chancellor Ed Balls read out his latest announcements at Thomson Reuters in London - from which a gripping video excerpt can be seen HERE.
Whether or not this was a subtle Labour wheeze to move up-market from Messrs Cameron and Osborne is anyone's guess.
But, judging from the amount of noise from the Twitterati and elsewhere on the internet, the venue was a good enough choice for plenty of journalists to have made the effort to turn up, even if no one else was there.
So Mr Balls didn't have to worry too much about how he delivered his 'speech' (if it really was a speech), or whether the audience responded with any applause, booing or heckling - of which I heard none.
The unfortunate public can now look forward to more video clips of Mr Balls in action (action?) for the rest of the day on 24 hour and prime-time TV news programmes. Whether any of it will inspire any of us enough to be able to remember anything from it, I very much doubt...
Full script of the speech HERE.
Related Posts:
More nails in the coffin of political speech-making in Britain
David Cameron 'makes a speech' at Morrisons
George Osborne 'makes a speech at Morrisons
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