Michael Edwards for South Derbyshire

Went down this morning to the school that I chair and was surprised to see how relaxed kids were as they got results - so different from the drama often portrayed on breakfast TV programmes. 

Children at the school (serving one of the most challenging cohorts in the region) have again achieved best ever results, up 4 percentage points on 5 good GCSEs.  Nationally, the improvement has been 2.4%. 

There was a particular focus on achieving maths and English and this score has gone up 14 percentage points, a big step forward for the school. 

A new year 11 base for the most challenged pupils appears to have been particularly useful innovation. 

Andrew Adonis, schools minister, has published an assessment. 

Went down this morning to the school that I chair and was surprised to see how relaxed kids were as they got results - so different from the drama often portrayed on breakfast TV programmes. 

Children at the school (serving one of the most challenging cohorts in the region) have again achieved best ever results, up 4 percentage points on 5 good GCSEs.  Nationally, the improvement has been 2.4%. 

There was a particular focus on achieving maths and English and this score has gone up 14 percentage points, a big step forward for the school. 

A new year 11 base for the most challenged pupils appears to have been particularly useful innovation. 

Andrew Adonis, schools minister, has published an assessment. 

Went down this morning to the school that I chair and was surprised to see how relaxed kids were as they got results - so different from the drama often portrayed on breakfast TV programmes. 

Children at the school (serving one of the most challenging cohorts in the region) have again achieved best ever results, up 4 percentage points on 5 good GCSEs.  Nationally, the improvement has been 2.4%. 

There was a particular focus on achieving maths and English and this score has gone up 14 percentage points, a big step forward for the school. 

A new year 11 base for the most challenged pupils appears to have been particularly useful innovation. 

Andrew Adonis, schools minister, has published an assessment. 

In today's Daily Express, there's a report of a magazine interview where David Cameron admits he has difficulty taking decisions.  To counter this, he then says "you have to take quite tough decisions quite early on so that you can get things done within the life of a Parliament".  It's time to ask what these tough decisions will be; after all, he has called for a General Election after the summer holidays. 

In the Guardian earlier this month, David Cameron likened politics to a video game in which he had only reached level 2. 

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The Daily Express article starts -

In today's Daily Express, there's a report of a magazine interview where David Cameron admits he has difficulty taking decisions.  To counter this, he then says "you have to take quite tough decisions quite early on so that you can get things done within the life of a Parliament".  It's time to ask what these tough decisions will be; after all, he has called for a General Election after the summer holidays. 

In the Guardian earlier this month, David Cameron likened politics to a video game in which he had only reached level 2. 

-

The Daily Express article starts -

In today's Daily Express, there's a report of a magazine interview where David Cameron admits he has difficulty taking decisions.  To counter this, he then says "you have to take quite tough decisions quite early on so that you can get things done within the life of a Parliament".  It's time to ask what these tough decisions will be; after all, he has called for a General Election after the summer holidays. 

In the Guardian earlier this month, David Cameron likened politics to a video game in which he had only reached level 2. 

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The Daily Express article starts -

"Cities in northern England such as Liverpool, Sunderland and Bradford are "beyond revival" and residents should move south, a think tank has argued.

"Policy Exchange said current regeneration policies were "failing" the people they were supposed to help.

"A mass migration to London, Cambridge and Oxford would stop them becoming "trapped" in poorer areas, it said.

"The think tank is seen as being close to David Cameron but the Tory leader branded its findings "insane". "  (From the BBC.)

And you wonder why the Tory party have tried to avoid going public on their policy. 

"coastal cities like Liverpool and Sunderland had "lost much of their raison d'etre" with the decline of shipping"

Watch out Nottingham!   Originally founded cos of the ease of creating caves for living in.  Then made important because of the castle defending the last fordable part of the river.  (Apparently all put at risk by the invention of gunpowder.)

In this global trading, electroniic age, is it really beyond us to more ably balance the country's economy so that more of the jobs are available where more of the people without jobs live and where more of the available housing could be more fully utilised? 

Not apparently to the people who are, or perhaps now were, David Cameron's favourite policy group. 

A basic understanding of regeneration would show that cities like Nottingham have lost tens of thousands of jobs from manufacturing, but the concentration of activity and people have led to new businesses in their place - IT, games software and now most importantly - science.   (Only today, an important breakthrough on tackling Parkinson's disease was announced.)

P.S. Why not tell us how your village, town and city has thrived despite the industrial revolution and the invention of electronics? 

"Cities in northern England such as Liverpool, Sunderland and Bradford are "beyond revival" and residents should move south, a think tank has argued.

"Policy Exchange said current regeneration policies were "failing" the people they were supposed to help.

"A mass migration to London, Cambridge and Oxford would stop them becoming "trapped" in poorer areas, it said.

"The think tank is seen as being close to David Cameron but the Tory leader branded its findings "insane". "  (From the BBC.)

And you wonder why the Tory party have tried to avoid going public on their policy. 

"coastal cities like Liverpool and Sunderland had "lost much of their raison d'etre" with the decline of shipping"

Watch out Nottingham!   Originally founded cos of the ease of creating caves for living in.  Then made important because of the castle defending the last fordable part of the river.  (Apparently all put at risk by the invention of gunpowder.)

In this global trading, electroniic age, is it really beyond us to more ably balance the country's economy so that more of the jobs are available where more of the people without jobs live and where more of the available housing could be more fully utilised? 

Not apparently to the people who are, or perhaps now were, David Cameron's favourite policy group. 

A basic understanding of regeneration would show that cities like Nottingham have lost tens of thousands of jobs from manufacturing, but the concentration of activity and people have led to new businesses in their place - IT, games software and now most importantly - science.   (Only today, an important breakthrough on tackling Parkinson's disease was announced.)

P.S. Why not tell us how your village, town and city has thrived despite the industrial revolution and the invention of electronics? 

"Cities in northern England such as Liverpool, Sunderland and Bradford are "beyond revival" and residents should move south, a think tank has argued.

"Policy Exchange said current regeneration policies were "failing" the people they were supposed to help.

"A mass migration to London, Cambridge and Oxford would stop them becoming "trapped" in poorer areas, it said.

"The think tank is seen as being close to David Cameron but the Tory leader branded its findings "insane". "  (From the BBC.)

And you wonder why the Tory party have tried to avoid going public on their policy. 

"coastal cities like Liverpool and Sunderland had "lost much of their raison d'etre" with the decline of shipping"

Watch out Nottingham!   Originally founded cos of the ease of creating caves for living in.  Then made important because of the castle defending the last fordable part of the river.  (Apparently all put at risk by the invention of gunpowder.)

In this global trading, electroniic age, is it really beyond us to more ably balance the country's economy so that more of the jobs are available where more of the people without jobs live and where more of the available housing could be more fully utilised? 

Not apparently to the people who are, or perhaps now were, David Cameron's favourite policy group. 

A basic understanding of regeneration would show that cities like Nottingham have lost tens of thousands of jobs from manufacturing, but the concentration of activity and people have led to new businesses in their place - IT, games software and now most importantly - science.   (Only today, an important breakthrough on tackling Parkinson's disease was announced.)

P.S. Why not tell us how your village, town and city has thrived despite the industrial revolution and the invention of electronics? 

Television's ability to convey a powerful message was demonstrated on Sunday evening.  And its ability to miss one too. 

A fur-loving chef resolved to demonstrate that wearing fur could be acceptable.  I caught the programme halfway through as she was about to show anti-fur campaigners what was what.  I feared for Mark Glover of Nottingham (Director of Respect for Animals) as the interview was being set up, but he started playing his video tape of animals raised in fur farms and the presenter was crushed by the cruelty and wept over what she was shown. 

Still, if fur could be hunted as nature has always condoned, then perhaps she could show that the trade could be acceptable.  A brusque approach from a hunter in North America (with some confusing notions on how traps, that hurt him when he snagged his fingers, were not hurting trapped animals) left the presenter with something of a score draw (at best) as she set off to Denmark to a fur market where she hoped the source of the pelts could be shown and the welfare of the animals farmed could be demonstrated. 

A shame then the one of the fur dealers at the market was so openly and crassly dismissive of the significance of the source of the fur being sold - even though he could plainly see he was on camera. 

The presenter finished the programme by binning her furs; made pertinent cos I suspect this was not the conclusion the programme had originally set out to reach. 

Andrew Marr - viewing Britain from the sky - had the potential to make equally powerful points on top of the exceptional graphics demonstrating the scale of our commercial activity.  Taxis, lorries, jets, cars with sat navs; power, water and waste; electronic communications - all got the treatment. 

The automation of goods distribution shown in one of the warehouses was exceptional.  The pitch however was spoilt by assertions that a lorry being 15 minutes late could drastically throw the works out.  Unbelievable cos you'd expect such systems to cope (I'm sure they do) - and because the programme showed that with our motorways so busy, a driver reacting late to changes in traffic (and braking too hard) could create a traffic jam that no-one would ever be able to determine the cause of. 

With BBC2 running a documentary showing how wonderful and sensitive our atmosphere is, surprising then that no real points were drawn about the impact of the activity.  When the scale of commuting or driving kids to school was shown, the programme stated how extraordinary it all was and shook its head in an "aren't we all strange" kind of way; rather than say, or bring someone on to say, that we will need to change. 

Television's ability to convey a powerful message was demonstrated on Sunday evening.  And its ability to miss one too. 

A fur-loving chef resolved to demonstrate that wearing fur could be acceptable.  I caught the programme halfway through as she was about to show anti-fur campaigners what was what.  I feared for Mark Glover of Nottingham (Director of Respect for Animals) as the interview was being set up, but he started playing his video tape of animals raised in fur farms and the presenter was crushed by the cruelty and wept over what she was shown. 

Still, if fur could be hunted as nature has always condoned, then perhaps she could show that the trade could be acceptable.  A brusque approach from a hunter in North America (with some confusing notions on how traps, that hurt him when he snagged his fingers, were not hurting trapped animals) left the presenter with something of a score draw (at best) as she set off to Denmark to a fur market where she hoped the source of the pelts could be shown and the welfare of the animals farmed could be demonstrated. 

A shame then the one of the fur dealers at the market was so openly and crassly dismissive of the significance of the source of the fur being sold - even though he could plainly see he was on camera. 

The presenter finished the programme by binning her furs; made pertinent cos I suspect this was not the conclusion the programme had originally set out to reach. 

Andrew Marr - viewing Britain from the sky - had the potential to make equally powerful points on top of the exceptional graphics demonstrating the scale of our commercial activity.  Taxis, lorries, jets, cars with sat navs; power, water and waste; electronic communications - all got the treatment. 

The automation of goods distribution shown in one of the warehouses was exceptional.  The pitch however was spoilt by assertions that a lorry being 15 minutes late could drastically throw the works out.  Unbelievable cos you'd expect such systems to cope (I'm sure they do) - and because the programme showed that with our motorways so busy, a driver reacting late to changes in traffic (and braking too hard) could create a traffic jam that no-one would ever be able to determine the cause of. 

With BBC2 running a documentary showing how wonderful and sensitive our atmosphere is, surprising then that no real points were drawn about the impact of the activity.  When the scale of commuting or driving kids to school was shown, the programme stated how extraordinary it all was and shook its head in an "aren't we all strange" kind of way; rather than say, or bring someone on to say, that we will need to change. 

Television's ability to convey a powerful message was demonstrated on Sunday evening.  And its ability to miss one too. 

A fur-loving chef resolved to demonstrate that wearing fur could be acceptable.  I caught the programme halfway through as she was about to show anti-fur campaigners what was what.  I feared for Mark Glover of Nottingham (Director of Respect for Animals) as the interview was being set up, but he started playing his video tape of animals raised in fur farms and the presenter was crushed by the cruelty and wept over what she was shown. 

Still, if fur could be hunted as nature has always condoned, then perhaps she could show that the trade could be acceptable.  A brusque approach from a hunter in North America (with some confusing notions on how traps, that hurt him when he snagged his fingers, were not hurting trapped animals) left the presenter with something of a score draw (at best) as she set off to Denmark to a fur market where she hoped the source of the pelts could be shown and the welfare of the animals farmed could be demonstrated. 

A shame then the one of the fur dealers at the market was so openly and crassly dismissive of the significance of the source of the fur being sold - even though he could plainly see he was on camera. 

The presenter finished the programme by binning her furs; made pertinent cos I suspect this was not the conclusion the programme had originally set out to reach. 

Andrew Marr - viewing Britain from the sky - had the potential to make equally powerful points on top of the exceptional graphics demonstrating the scale of our commercial activity.  Taxis, lorries, jets, cars with sat navs; power, water and waste; electronic communications - all got the treatment. 

The automation of goods distribution shown in one of the warehouses was exceptional.  The pitch however was spoilt by assertions that a lorry being 15 minutes late could drastically throw the works out.  Unbelievable cos you'd expect such systems to cope (I'm sure they do) - and because the programme showed that with our motorways so busy, a driver reacting late to changes in traffic (and braking too hard) could create a traffic jam that no-one would ever be able to determine the cause of. 

With BBC2 running a documentary showing how wonderful and sensitive our atmosphere is, surprising then that no real points were drawn about the impact of the activity.  When the scale of commuting or driving kids to school was shown, the programme stated how extraordinary it all was and shook its head in an "aren't we all strange" kind of way; rather than say, or bring someone on to say, that we will need to change. 

By drawing on many thousands of years of history of inventions and creations, the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics by the Chinese sets us a bit of a challenge for 2012. 

Denied of any kind of claim on inventing paper or the printing press, will we be brave enough to still claim the invention of the telephone and to celebrate the creation of chicken tikka masala? 

Will we have morris dancing?  Transpires even this was taken from the Moors.

It's not that we'd be wrong to celebrate taking other people's ideas and developing them. 

That after all is how the modern olympics came about  - and I know this cos I originally come from Shropshire - when a Physician from Much Wenlock who advocated physical fitness developed a new set of games based on the olympics tradition. 

There is something wonderful about the notion of the classical olympics being so valued that all wars stopped for the duration of the games. 

A bit of a shame then that Russia has reversed the tradition by starting a military conflict on the opening day. 

War can't be the answer and whilst there are grievances on both sides and legitimate problems to solve (2/3rds of the population of South Ossetia identify with Russia), it's salutary that the population of South Ossetia is similar to a typical British parliamentary constituency. 

By drawing on many thousands of years of history of inventions and creations, the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics by the Chinese sets us a bit of a challenge for 2012. 

Denied of any kind of claim on inventing paper or the printing press, will we be brave enough to still claim the invention of the telephone and to celebrate the creation of chicken tikka masala? 

Will we have morris dancing?  Transpires even this was taken from the Moors.

It's not that we'd be wrong to celebrate taking other people's ideas and developing them. 

That after all is how the modern olympics came about  - and I know this cos I originally come from Shropshire - when a Physician from Much Wenlock who advocated physical fitness developed a new set of games based on the olympics tradition. 

There is something wonderful about the notion of the classical olympics being so valued that all wars stopped for the duration of the games. 

A bit of a shame then that Russia has reversed the tradition by starting a military conflict on the opening day. 

War can't be the answer and whilst there are grievances on both sides and legitimate problems to solve (2/3rds of the population of South Ossetia identify with Russia), it's salutary that the population of South Ossetia is similar to a typical British parliamentary constituency. 

By drawing on many thousands of years of history of inventions and creations, the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics by the Chinese sets us a bit of a challenge for 2012. 

Denied of any kind of claim on inventing paper or the printing press, will we be brave enough to still claim the invention of the telephone and to celebrate the creation of chicken tikka masala? 

Will we have morris dancing?  Transpires even this was taken from the Moors.

It's not that we'd be wrong to celebrate taking other people's ideas and developing them. 

That after all is how the modern olympics came about  - and I know this cos I originally come from Shropshire - when a Physician from Much Wenlock who advocated physical fitness developed a new set of games based on the olympics tradition. 

There is something wonderful about the notion of the classical olympics being so valued that all wars stopped for the duration of the games. 

A bit of a shame then that Russia has reversed the tradition by starting a military conflict on the opening day. 

War can't be the answer and whilst there are grievances on both sides and legitimate problems to solve (2/3rds of the population of South Ossetia identify with Russia), it's salutary that the population of South Ossetia is similar to a typical British parliamentary constituency. 

Children have made further progress at the end of their primary education, shown by the results of standard assessment tests for children at the end of key stage 2.

For the second year running, the children reaching level 4 in Englsh and maths in Derbyshire has increased by 2%. 

Children have made further progress at the end of their primary education, shown by the results of standard assessment tests for children at the end of key stage 2.

For the second year running, the children reaching level 4 in Englsh and maths in Derbyshire has increased by 2%. 

Children have made further progress at the end of their primary education, shown by the results of standard assessment tests for children at the end of key stage 2.

For the second year running, the children reaching level 4 in Englsh and maths in Derbyshire has increased by 2%.