Thursday, September 27, 2012

Six of the Best 280

Jennie Rigg surveys the possible alternatives and concludes that Nick Clegg is safe as Lib Dem leader for a while yet.

"One of the key changes he wants to see from Nick Clegg this year isn’t just the distinct Lib Dem vision that every activist is calling for, but a desire to articulate that vision at every opportunity, even when it makes the coalition travel over some bumpy terrain as a result. He says the failure of House of Lords reform will give the party ‘leeway’ to do this, and expects Clegg and colleagues to use the loss of the legislation as a justification for opposing more than just the boundary changes." Isabel Hardman interviews David Hall-Matthews, chair of the Social Liberal Forum, for the Spectator's Coffee House blog.

"Choice? What does it mean? And in practice, do we actually get it when it comes to the public services we use? If you happen to have children the state school system, then more than 85 per cent get their first choice of school. That’s a success, but what about the ones who didn’t? What did they feel and is there anything that can be done about it in future?" David Boyle, who is leading the independent review of barriers to choice in public services, writes for ResPublica.

The link between schools and house prices is now an established fact, says Steve Gibbons on the British Politics and Policy at LSE blog.

York Stories has some photographs of the floods in the city.

"One of the unsung heroes of the war was the Women's Institute. The book examines the tremendous voluntary work the WI put in during the war years to increase the country's food supply. Not only did they turn Britain's bounty of wild foods into the jams and preserves that are always associated with them, they also turned themselves into a mobile university and training organisation, teaching others the skills needed to preserve food and increase the food supply." Jonathan Wallace enjoys "The Wartime Farm" - the book of the current television series.

2 comments:

Simon Titley said...

The ResPublica link is broken.

Jonathan Calder said...

Not now it's not. Thanks.