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| Academies are not the way forward for education | Academies are not the way forward for education |
| (4 months later) | |
| Will Hutton's interesting analysis of the social consequences of the segregation of privately educated students from those in state-funded schools concluded (surprisingly and without evidence, apart from his visit to one school and Andrew Adonis's personal account of his reinvention of the comprehensive schools) that academies are the solution ("We all lose when we separate our children at the school gate", Comment). | Will Hutton's interesting analysis of the social consequences of the segregation of privately educated students from those in state-funded schools concluded (surprisingly and without evidence, apart from his visit to one school and Andrew Adonis's personal account of his reinvention of the comprehensive schools) that academies are the solution ("We all lose when we separate our children at the school gate", Comment). |
| Does he really believe that contracting each of 20,000 schools to the secretary of state and thereby creating the most centralised control over education in western Europe since Germany in the 30s is the way forward? | Does he really believe that contracting each of 20,000 schools to the secretary of state and thereby creating the most centralised control over education in western Europe since Germany in the 30s is the way forward? |
| Certainly not on the basis of the evidence so far available. Despite the extra funding that such schools received (including the £1bn over the budgeted sum) and despite (according to the recent RSA report) the apparent manipulation of admissions to improve results, the academies as a whole do not compare well with those schools that remain accountable to the local community. | Certainly not on the basis of the evidence so far available. Despite the extra funding that such schools received (including the £1bn over the budgeted sum) and despite (according to the recent RSA report) the apparent manipulation of admissions to improve results, the academies as a whole do not compare well with those schools that remain accountable to the local community. |
| Professor Richard Pring | Professor Richard Pring |
| Green-Templeton College | Green-Templeton College |
| Oxford | Oxford |
| Women denied abortion rights | Women denied abortion rights |
| Your report on the threat to the life of "Beatriz", if denied her pregnancy's termination, showed the brutal limits on reproductive choice in El Salvador ("'Let me end my pregnancy': one woman's plight grips El Salvador", News). However, women face similar repression in the neighbouring countries of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, though the latter two allow therapeutic abortion to save the mother's life. Anti-abortion laws in all three states not only regulate access to safe abortion, but also ban the use of the emergency morning-after pill and restrict the content of sex education. | Your report on the threat to the life of "Beatriz", if denied her pregnancy's termination, showed the brutal limits on reproductive choice in El Salvador ("'Let me end my pregnancy': one woman's plight grips El Salvador", News). However, women face similar repression in the neighbouring countries of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, though the latter two allow therapeutic abortion to save the mother's life. Anti-abortion laws in all three states not only regulate access to safe abortion, but also ban the use of the emergency morning-after pill and restrict the content of sex education. |
| In the Central American region, 95% of all abortions are unsafe and a leading cause of maternal death. As religious extremists abuse their power to deny basic freedoms, campaigners will step up our battle for women to have control over their own bodies. | In the Central American region, 95% of all abortions are unsafe and a leading cause of maternal death. As religious extremists abuse their power to deny basic freedoms, campaigners will step up our battle for women to have control over their own bodies. |
| Virginia Lopez Calvo | Virginia Lopez Calvo |
| Co-ordinator, Central America Women's Network, London N1 | Co-ordinator, Central America Women's Network, London N1 |
| Peace flames broke no law | Peace flames broke no law |
| Your article states that the symbolic flying of five Peace Flames from five continents into the UK would have "breached aviation laws" (Church concerns over 'peace flame' plan", News). Had you asked us how this took place, you would have been informed that the flames were flown by airlines in specially designed safety lamps in the same manner as the Olympic flame is flown, and of course without breaching aviation laws. | Your article states that the symbolic flying of five Peace Flames from five continents into the UK would have "breached aviation laws" (Church concerns over 'peace flame' plan", News). Had you asked us how this took place, you would have been informed that the flames were flown by airlines in specially designed safety lamps in the same manner as the Olympic flame is flown, and of course without breaching aviation laws. |
| The World Peace Flame organisation is an education and awareness-raising initiative that works at grass roots level. Our education packs are used in schools and youth projects in several countries to give thousands of young people the skills and awareness to deal constructively with conflict in their own lives. | The World Peace Flame organisation is an education and awareness-raising initiative that works at grass roots level. Our education packs are used in schools and youth projects in several countries to give thousands of young people the skills and awareness to deal constructively with conflict in their own lives. |
| The World Peace Flame monuments celebrate the heroic efforts that individuals and communities make to build bridges and find common ground where differences exist. As your article points out, they burn in several European cities and remind us that aggression is all too often an instinctual and tempting option where misunderstanding threatens to prevail. I think that it is high time that London had its own monument in a suitable place of prominence. | The World Peace Flame monuments celebrate the heroic efforts that individuals and communities make to build bridges and find common ground where differences exist. As your article points out, they burn in several European cities and remind us that aggression is all too often an instinctual and tempting option where misunderstanding threatens to prevail. I think that it is high time that London had its own monument in a suitable place of prominence. |
| Those responsible for the World Peace Flame have always been open about their initiative and all the information about the peace flame can be found on its website at worldpeaceflame.com | Those responsible for the World Peace Flame have always been open about their initiative and all the information about the peace flame can be found on its website at worldpeaceflame.com |
| Savitri MacCuish | Savitri MacCuish |
| Director, the World Peace Flame Foundation, the Netherlands | Director, the World Peace Flame Foundation, the Netherlands |
| Tax reform to get the big ones | Tax reform to get the big ones |
| Your leader did not discuss an option that could be a simple but effective solution to tax evasion by companies: to tax gross turnover separately in each of the countries in which they operate ("Time for a moral crusade against tax scams", Comment). There would be but one deductible allowance – company taxation agreed for the previous tax year. | Your leader did not discuss an option that could be a simple but effective solution to tax evasion by companies: to tax gross turnover separately in each of the countries in which they operate ("Time for a moral crusade against tax scams", Comment). There would be but one deductible allowance – company taxation agreed for the previous tax year. |
| Regular PAYE and other taxpayers would see their contributions fall as a percentage of the total tax take necessary to run the country, as the likes of Google, Amazon, Boots and Starbucks pay their fair share. | Regular PAYE and other taxpayers would see their contributions fall as a percentage of the total tax take necessary to run the country, as the likes of Google, Amazon, Boots and Starbucks pay their fair share. |
| Mike Gotch | Mike Gotch |
| City councillor, Oxford | City councillor, Oxford |
| Rebirth of the history man | Rebirth of the history man |
| Tristram Hunt was correct to draw attention to the need for progressive historians to challenge the rightwing ideology underlying much current historical writing ("History is where the great battles of public life are now being fought", Comment). This is one of the main reasons that we are editing a book, EP Thompson and English Radicalism. Its main aim is to show how Thompson's writing on history and political ideas, his peace campaigning and his socialist-humanist philosophy are as relevant today as they were when they were written. They constitute a very powerful challenge to the current historians of the right. | Tristram Hunt was correct to draw attention to the need for progressive historians to challenge the rightwing ideology underlying much current historical writing ("History is where the great battles of public life are now being fought", Comment). This is one of the main reasons that we are editing a book, EP Thompson and English Radicalism. Its main aim is to show how Thompson's writing on history and political ideas, his peace campaigning and his socialist-humanist philosophy are as relevant today as they were when they were written. They constitute a very powerful challenge to the current historians of the right. |
| Roger Fieldhouse and Richard Taylor | Roger Fieldhouse and Richard Taylor |
| Thorverton | Thorverton |
| Exeter | Exeter |
| Manc overboard | Manc overboard |
| I enjoyed nearly all of the tribute to Sir Alex Ferguson (Supplement). But oh my, Paul Morley's mythologising of Manchester, that "molten, international" city with "preserved mongrel integrity". I trust that Manchester is as wary as ever of the pretentious and the opportunistic. | I enjoyed nearly all of the tribute to Sir Alex Ferguson (Supplement). But oh my, Paul Morley's mythologising of Manchester, that "molten, international" city with "preserved mongrel integrity". I trust that Manchester is as wary as ever of the pretentious and the opportunistic. |
| Sean Cordell | Sean Cordell |
| Manchester | Manchester |
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