FSM pilots and Outcome Indicators

First published 21 April 2010

Free School Meals are to be extended to families include primary school-aged children in low-income working families on a household income up to £16,190.

Fantastic news it is too. (Continue)

Early Intervention, The Child Trust Fund and Cuts

First published 12 April 2010

The age of austerity is spoken of without a second thought now, but spending cutbacks are relative to a situation, and for the past 10 years of financial boom (that is before the crash) it might appear that throwing money at problems was the UK solution, particularly at a local level.

This resulted in many different agencies, not working joined-up, to try and solve problems and/or find solutions, while treading on the toes of other frontline workers in the process. (Continue)

Alan Greenspan and the death of libertarian economics

First published 9 April 2010

US Economist Alan Greenspan has been giving his testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, criticised for failing to implement rules that would have curbed an overstretched banking system. (Continue)

The Price of Philanthro-Capitalism

First published 6 April 2010

One month ago I argued that there were certain instances where charity giving was both a way of disavowing the feeling of guilt, and that it operated like a business, trying to drive out other competition.

I argued that though this was the case, it is surely better to have charity for the many good things it has achieved, but that it must be remembered that certain wealthy individuals may use charity as a way of market dominance. (Continue)

The Familiarity of Core Conservative Values

First published 12 March 2010

For some, relativism has always been the turf of the left, particularly on the subject of poverty. Emerging ideas from within the Tory right are now trying to claim relativitism as more important to Conservatism than it currently is. One such development is the Progressive Conservative project at Demos. Their latest essay, entitled Everyday Equality, deals exclusively with trying to demonstrate the importance of inequality and the wealth gap and how this can be important to the future of Conservatism. (Continue)

Theses on Progressive Conservatism

First published 10 March 2010

Republicanism, communitarianism, John Lewis, EasyCouncils, co-operatives, mutuals, the ethic of engagement, the reinvention of the firm, motivation and productivity in employee ownership and a market economy based on common ownership. Suggestive of the fact that from both the left and right a convergence will soon take place that seeks to undermine the legacy of Thatcher, or an effort from both the left and right to pretend to the electorate that they have their interests at heart? It is all rather indicative that what is fashionable in British politics today is the return to community – and the surpassing of current modes of government and market structure. (Continue)

On Charity and other guilt-driven processes

First published 6 March 2010

The 7^th of March marks the end of fair trade fortnight; and what a noble campaign it is too, not simply serving to allow indifferent middle class westerners to drop a couple of coins in a pot, but actually a way of addressing some of the pitfalls of our trade system in a way that promotes fair remuneration for hard work in the world’s most impoverished countries. (Continue)

A model for Christian atheism

First published 13 February 2010

Sigmund Freud, that ever-controversial figure, is more known for his views on the unconscious and the Oedipus complex than for his theological work, but indeed, as time spent in his house, now museum, in North West London will reveal, a lot of his efforts and interests were devoted to religious symbols, figurines, artworks and texts.

From as early as childhood Freud viewed religion as merely a fantasy based entirely upon a childish wish fulfilment, this view most explicitly stated in his work of 1927 entitled The Future of an Illusion where he made clear that though many childhood wishes were unlikely, they were not impossible. (Continue)

Pedagogy: A new youth engagement or social fascism?

First published 5 February 2010

The heading is not simply bombastic. Walter Lorenz – foremost pedagogy academic, and author of Social Work in a Changing Europe – asked:

Is social pedagogy essentially the embodiment of dominant societal interests which regard all educational projects, schools, kindergarten or adult education, as a way of taking its values to all sections of the population and of exercising more effective social control; or is social pedagogy the critical conscience of pedagogy, the thorn in the flesh of official agenda, an emancipatory programme for self-directed learning processes inside and outside the education system geared towards the transformation of society?(p. 93)

As Sunker and Otto in their book Education and Fascism. Political identity and social education in Nazi Germany noticed, social pedagogy was used by the Nazi’s as a way of social manipulation, to address and enforce their dominant ideology on to children. (Continue)

Hasn’t the fiscal stimulus argument won the day?

First published 23 January 2010

At the end of 2008 a European challenge had emerged – cash injection or hands on heads.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy who voiced his aggravation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for not implementing a measure of fiscal stimulus said, “While France is working, Germany is thinking.”

Merkel was actually remaining loyal to the “Stability and Growth Pact” (SGP), the purpose of which was to tune the euro so it would be able to compete with the US Dollar and strengthen the stability of the euro-zone. (Continue)