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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/09/may-minds-her-grammars-all-due-to-a-lack-of-a-decent-ringbinder
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| May minds her grammars, all for want of a decent ringbinder May minds her grammars, all for want of a decent ringbinder | |
| (4 months later) | |
| Monday | Monday |
| You’d have thought that government officials would have wised up to the fact that the Downing Street snappers can read their briefing notes if they wander about with them in their hands. So for the want of a decent ringbinder, the government was forced to bring forward plans to reintroduce grammar schools, a policy the education secretary, Justine Greening, is far less keen on than Theresa May. Still, at least the row about selection and parental choice has taken everyone’s eyes off another embarrassment for the Department for Education. Last year’s SATs are now acknowledged to have been so hard that even primary schools that performed above average have been given a negative progress-related target for next year’s tests. In layman’s terms, this means the majority of schools will have to do less well than last year to prove they are doing better. | You’d have thought that government officials would have wised up to the fact that the Downing Street snappers can read their briefing notes if they wander about with them in their hands. So for the want of a decent ringbinder, the government was forced to bring forward plans to reintroduce grammar schools, a policy the education secretary, Justine Greening, is far less keen on than Theresa May. Still, at least the row about selection and parental choice has taken everyone’s eyes off another embarrassment for the Department for Education. Last year’s SATs are now acknowledged to have been so hard that even primary schools that performed above average have been given a negative progress-related target for next year’s tests. In layman’s terms, this means the majority of schools will have to do less well than last year to prove they are doing better. |
| Tuesday | Tuesday |
| It’s an ill wind ... Keith Vaz announced he would stand down as chair of the home affairs select committee just as many of his colleagues were going through the division lobby to vote on the government’s finance bill. One Labour MP just happened to be standing behind a colleague who is on the committee. Seeing news of Vaz’s resignation on the colleague’s mobile, without blinking an eye, she immediately turned to another Labour MP and said: “I trust you will be supporting my candidacy for chair of the home affairs committee.” The king is dead, long live the queen. She hopes. Still, Vaz does have a few friends left in the Labour party. Ken Livingstone went on Sky News to say a politician shouldn’t be judged on one or two mistakes, such as apparently offering to pay for cocaine and appearing enthusiastic about breaking in an inexperienced east European sex worker. Ken then went on to mention Hitler. | It’s an ill wind ... Keith Vaz announced he would stand down as chair of the home affairs select committee just as many of his colleagues were going through the division lobby to vote on the government’s finance bill. One Labour MP just happened to be standing behind a colleague who is on the committee. Seeing news of Vaz’s resignation on the colleague’s mobile, without blinking an eye, she immediately turned to another Labour MP and said: “I trust you will be supporting my candidacy for chair of the home affairs committee.” The king is dead, long live the queen. She hopes. Still, Vaz does have a few friends left in the Labour party. Ken Livingstone went on Sky News to say a politician shouldn’t be judged on one or two mistakes, such as apparently offering to pay for cocaine and appearing enthusiastic about breaking in an inexperienced east European sex worker. Ken then went on to mention Hitler. |
| Wednesday | Wednesday |
| Relationships don’t get much more meta than this. Having very openly got together at the Met Ball in the summer, actor Tom Hiddleston and singer Taylor Swift then went on to conduct their romance almost entirely in public, with photographers on call to detail every hook-up of l’affaire Hiddleswift. Swift has now very publicly broken up with the Hid on the grounds that their relationship had become too public and the Hid has been very publicly photographed mooching around looking broken-hearted. To make matters worse for the Hid, it now looks as if he won’t land the job of playing the next James Bond that he or his people had been angling for after his success in The Night Manager. Daniel Craig has reportedly been offered $150m to continue as 007 for another couple of films. | Relationships don’t get much more meta than this. Having very openly got together at the Met Ball in the summer, actor Tom Hiddleston and singer Taylor Swift then went on to conduct their romance almost entirely in public, with photographers on call to detail every hook-up of l’affaire Hiddleswift. Swift has now very publicly broken up with the Hid on the grounds that their relationship had become too public and the Hid has been very publicly photographed mooching around looking broken-hearted. To make matters worse for the Hid, it now looks as if he won’t land the job of playing the next James Bond that he or his people had been angling for after his success in The Night Manager. Daniel Craig has reportedly been offered $150m to continue as 007 for another couple of films. |
| Thursday | Thursday |
| At last something Labour can win. For years now, the title of Westminster dog of the year has been a safe Tory seat, but Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds’ two labradoodles, Clinton and Kennedy, managed to see off a strong field to be crowned 2016 champions. “I speak for everyone in the Labour party when I say it’s about time we won something, so we might as well accept this,” Reynolds said. Mind you, Clinton and Kennedy did have an advantage as the competition seemed to be rigged in favour of the bigger dogs: the assault course jumps were twice the size of Clem, the diminutive shih tzu owned by Labour MP Anna Turley. Despite there being two Tories on the judging panel – Andrea Jenkyns and Hugo Swire, the owners of last year’s winners – the result wasn’t well received by some Tories, who felt Reynolds’ pooches should have been marked down for not being sound enough on Brexit. | At last something Labour can win. For years now, the title of Westminster dog of the year has been a safe Tory seat, but Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds’ two labradoodles, Clinton and Kennedy, managed to see off a strong field to be crowned 2016 champions. “I speak for everyone in the Labour party when I say it’s about time we won something, so we might as well accept this,” Reynolds said. Mind you, Clinton and Kennedy did have an advantage as the competition seemed to be rigged in favour of the bigger dogs: the assault course jumps were twice the size of Clem, the diminutive shih tzu owned by Labour MP Anna Turley. Despite there being two Tories on the judging panel – Andrea Jenkyns and Hugo Swire, the owners of last year’s winners – the result wasn’t well received by some Tories, who felt Reynolds’ pooches should have been marked down for not being sound enough on Brexit. |
| Friday | Friday |
| Today is the day Britain starts a huge round of trade deals that will be wrapped up within one to two years. At least that’s what the Brexit minister, David Davis, promised in a piece for the Conservative Home blog in July: “I would expect the new prime minister on September 9th to immediately trigger a large round of global trade deals with all our most favoured trade partners. I would expect the negotiation phase of most of them to be concluded within 12 to 14 months.” Except, as the Australians, the US and the Japanese have pointed out in the past week, that isn’t going to happen. Partly because they have said they will prioritise concluding trade deals with the EU, but mainly because it will be impossible to conduct meaningful trade negotiations with other countries until the precise nature of our own exit from the EU has been finalised. So it will be at least two and a half years before we can even start negotiating. All of which is great news for the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, as it means he can do what he likes doing best – flying round the world doing not very much. With or without his friend Adam Werritty. | Today is the day Britain starts a huge round of trade deals that will be wrapped up within one to two years. At least that’s what the Brexit minister, David Davis, promised in a piece for the Conservative Home blog in July: “I would expect the new prime minister on September 9th to immediately trigger a large round of global trade deals with all our most favoured trade partners. I would expect the negotiation phase of most of them to be concluded within 12 to 14 months.” Except, as the Australians, the US and the Japanese have pointed out in the past week, that isn’t going to happen. Partly because they have said they will prioritise concluding trade deals with the EU, but mainly because it will be impossible to conduct meaningful trade negotiations with other countries until the precise nature of our own exit from the EU has been finalised. So it will be at least two and a half years before we can even start negotiating. All of which is great news for the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, as it means he can do what he likes doing best – flying round the world doing not very much. With or without his friend Adam Werritty. |
| Digested week, digested: Brexit means never having to give a running commentary on Brexit. | Digested week, digested: Brexit means never having to give a running commentary on Brexit. |