An ambitious government plan to rebuild all 3,500+ of the UK’s state schools has run into trouble, following findings by a planning body claiming that it would lead to a generation of  completed ‘mediocre’ schools.

The Guardian reports today that findings in a report by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) said that the flagship Building Schools for the Future project was being hit with problems. They said that:

Eight out of ten new designs for secondary school buildings were either ‘mediocre’ or ‘not yet good enough’, and only around a fifth were considered either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.

Frequent problems discovered in a number of designs were:

• Potential for bullying in secluded schoolyards.
• Noisy open areas, making teaching difficult.
• Classrooms which are either too dark or prone to overheating on sunny afternoons.

The Building Schools for the Future project is due to be completed in 2020, with a cost of around £35billion.

Given the government’s poor record for delivering major projects on time and budget, many critics of the policy will certainly see the findings and say “I told you so.” Why should be such a high-profile project be taken at a national level? Surely if a school needs to be rebuilt or newly constructed, that should be the responsibility of either the schools themselves or the local authorities with the government providing some financial help were necessary.

This is the government’s latest betrayal of our young people. In the future, our children will be forced to be taught in sub-standard buildings which are poorly designed and will be extremely difficult to maintain properly. If this is the big educational legacy that they are leaving us,  then the parents of today should oppose it.

Once again, after another week of highly gruesome knife murders, the government has introduced yet another crackdown on youth crime. Rightly, critics from the opposition politicians to victims’ families and those working with young offenders, dismissed these plans as yet another gimmick.

There is a huge problem with knife crime in Britain. But very little is done to combat the problem from its roots and causes. Many of the government’s harsh policies towards young people during its current reign has contributed to the crisis. Talk of targeting problem families and increasing stop-and search will further increase alienation from those they should be helping.

Here are a few, obvious questions:

• Where is the help for our children at schools?
• Where are the youth clubs?
• Where is the support for families, particularly in the cities?
• Why is it that increasing numbers of our young people prepared to turn to violence to resolve issues that were not entirely their fault in the first place?

Answer: it’s the government, stupid!

I can hardly believe this. How on earth can they give a state funeral for that old hag? The woman whose policies divided Britain when she was PM for eleven years? She may still command respect from friends and foes alike, but she doesn’t deserve it….none whatsoever…

…if you’ve read the front page headline in the ‘Daily Mirror’ today.

The Cost of Living Index, compiled with retail publication The Grocer and price comparison website Money-Supermarket.com, show the actual inflation figure is now around 18.5 per cent, at least six per cent up on last month. Food prices are up 14 per cent, fuel taxes rose 30 per cent, making getting around on public and private transport more expensive, and total household bills rose 4.3 per cent. The figure quoted by the Mirror is at least five times higher than the government’s official figures.

Once again, the hard-pressed working masses are continuing to struggle with increasingly high bills. The government will easily find ever decreasing resources to bail out badly-managed banks, but struggle to put forward a decent plan to reduce the tightening financial burden on the general public.

And here’s some evidence that the UK is heading for a deep recession…