Speaker's Mandy Plan Destroys Democracy

Disturbing moves to dismantle democracy are underway with squeaker Bercow's plans to allow unelected Mandy to answer questions in commons. Spun as a 'modernising' breakthrough, the cross dressing merely shores up the current crony culture and deepens the divide between elected and unelected chosen ones.

What's left of democracy is already being whittled away. There's already an unelected head of state, an unelected second chamber and an unelected prime minister. Boney Blair is set to be anointed unelected president of a new EU empire.

The galling spectacle of unelected and unaccountable Mandy announcing laws in the Lords before elected MPs had time to draw breath is certainly an affront to the democratic process. But letting Mandy into the commons before he scurries back to the safe sanctum of the Lords is no solution.

The whole charade will not make unelected government ministers who sit in the upper house accountable to MPs. But the move will break the heart of the democratic process that has kept the commons and Lords apart.

Tories are already busy drawing up their shortlist of a new breed of goat to graze in the Lords to redress the balance after Blair stuffed the place with his cronies. The Orange Party doesn't expect to see much change there after the New Labour election wipe-out.

MPs who accept the speaker plan will fall into a carefully laid trap. That then becomes the acceptable norm for the protected chosen ones to call the shots, leaving elected MPs twiddling their thumbs.

The solution is to end the crony culture where pals are given a peerage and a full cabinet post. Arguments put forward by Blair and the gang that there's not enough talent in the lower chamber is an insult to elected representatives.

Voters have had their fill of pork-pie politics. They've had their fill of lies from a fag-end, discredited government disappearing up its own arrogance. For too long unaccountable ministers have been allowed to ride rough-shod over the electorate pushing through policies without recourse to the electorate.

Both unelected and unaccountable cabinet ministers Mandelson and Adonis have welcomed the move. But then they would wouldn't they?

The thin end of the wedge is racketed up a notch with plans to let both ministers appear at the bar of the House and eventually allow them to sit on MPs' green benches.

Then the distinction between elected commons lawmakers and the backstop of the upper chamber at the heart of our democratic process will disappear in a fuzzy blur of weasel-worded ermine.

The prime-minister-in-all-but-name already sticks in the throats of decent folk. There is no slicker smoother operator than Mandelson who can pay lip service to democracy.

Do any MPs really think they can get get one over on the Master before he legs it back to the Lords?

The house of lords is not accountable to MPs. That's the whole point of having two chambers to prevent the regimes of a banana republic.

Voters already have to suffer an oligarchy dressed up as democracy. Ministers who have not been voted in by the public and who cannot be removed from office by the public, makes a mockery of what little is left of elections.

What is so wrong with having the top jobs around the cabinet table chosen from the commons so that they are directly accountable to the electorate?

Black Rod will have to give up the tights and day job. What's the point of a state opening of parliament and the annual ritual of the lords and the commons coming together, when Mandy is left hiding behind the speaker's chair.

Read More...

On The Right Track

A glimmer of hope is on the horizon for the country's costly railways shambles with the government stepping in to take over the troubled East Coast main line franchise. With jobs on the line, discredited rail privatisation in chaos and the country in the grips of economic recession depression, a little bit of nationalisation is a welcome relief.

With paper franchise holder National Express facing losses around £20m in the first half of the year, the East Coast main line has been offered a life-line from an unlikely socialist savour in the shape of transport secretary, Andrew Adonis, one of Blair's 357 political peers.

Casting MPs and parliament aside, unelected and unaccountable Adonis banged the drum for nationalisation, popping up bold as brass on BBC R4 to tell listeners the government is to take it into public ownership for "about a year" because he was not prepared to bail out the struggling rail operator.




Time and again the government has said it won't bail out rail franchises during the recession but rejected nationalisation. That always begged the question: what if a rail franchise came to breaking point?

National Express agreed to pay the government £1.4 billion to run the East Coast main line after it won the franchise from GNER. All part of a very dodgy banking deal, laid bare by the BBC's Robert Peston.

Since then cuts have been made in shareholder dividend and pay-outs, while 750 jobs have been lost.

Only recently the firm started to mug passengers with a new profiteering con to charge 'customers' £5 to reserve a seat, on top of the already astronomical fares.

National Express, Virgin Trains and their fellow train operating monopoly conspirators have plumbed the depths in their quest to wring every last penny from rail travellers.

But the government dismissed rail nationalisation, harking back to the bad old days of BR and a "joke" railway which became a laughing stock.

Tell that to passengers crammed for hours on a train that reeks of urinals, forced on to replacement buses during a never ending round of maintenance, with meaningless reliability targets using every trick in the book to fiddle the figures.

Of course the railways have to be "modernised" since BR was scrapped. But that shouldn't mean immoral reductions in quality and reliability in return for sky-high fares and a whopping taxpayer subsidy.

So why stop at the East Coast main line? Beardie Branson is making a fat personal profit from his unique guarantee against competition on the West Coast main line. Why should one railway be propped up by taxpayers and another allowed to milk passengers for profit and Beardie live in the lap of luxury?

The Orange Party has long been a supporter of public ownership for strategic public services. Setting up not-for-profit companies can work for the railways. As long as a government which couldn't run a whelk stall isn't in the driving cab.

A long-term solution to the chaos of discredited rail privatisation is staring the government in the face, not least for the future of the country's railways and lucrative franchises.

Time and again rail nationalisation comes up as an issue which would get public support. The Post Office and Royal Mail too could be transformed into not-for-profit companies. Investing in the future with public ownership would lift the spirits of economic recession depression.

Top picture: The Flying Scotsman BR publicity poster, 1962

Read More...

Adonis Arrogance Over Academies

The Blairite Adonis plan for a huge expansion of City Academies, revealed in yesterday's Sunday Times, took many in government and the Labour Party by surprise. Adonis and his pet project have been lying low recently.

Schools minister Lord Adonis, the architect of the programme, had the arrogance to say:

“My motto as an ardent Blairite is, in the master’s words, what matters is what works ... We will make a political decision in due course on where we go beyond 400. On the basis of the results and the demand, the only issue is how far. We have 100 opening in 2010. ”

Many have seen through the academy programme as nothing more than a clever way of building schools under the discredited PFI scheme, to keep the building off the public balance sheet. 

Then handing them over to an army of non-elected education consultants and bureaucrats in privately managed academies, out of the control of the local education authorities. Pupils and targets are manipulated to suit their own ends.

As observed here, expanding the academies programme further will result in more schools branded as 'failures'. 

The government has already earmarked 638 schools in England as 'failures' under the National Challenge programme. They face funding cuts and a switch to the academy programme, unless they meet unrealistic government GCSE targets.

Adonis is well-suited to the task. As Andrew Adonis, Blair gave him a peerage in 2005. A neat way of getting Blairite sympathisers into the heart of govenment. His elevation to the House of Lords, paved the way for his appointment as a government minister. 

So here we have a non-elected, non-democratic minister, not an MP, coming up with a plan to increase the number of undemocratic, unaccountable schools. That's probably why he's comfortable using the royal 'we'.

The teaching unions and true Labour Party members are incensed at the idea of more Blairite academies spin and see it as a further example of the Blairite stranglehold on the New Labour government.

In a delicious twist of irony, it was the city academies which first blew the whistle in the 'Cash for Honours' political scandal - when academy business backers were given peerages in return for New Labour Party loans - first exposed by the Sunday Times. 

Read More...

More Schools To Be Branded 'Failures'

Government moves to privatise state schools and hand them over to undemocratic business backers, are revealed in today's Sunday Times, with plans for a huge expansion of the flagging academies programme.

Last week's GCSE results showed, once again, how schools are being forced to play the education system and fight government obsession with league tables, to produce record GCSE results, to stave off closure and meet unrealistic targets. 

The government has already earmarked 638 schools in England as failures under the National Challenge programme. They face funding cuts and a switch to the academy programme, as the government hands them over to the vast army of education consultants and bureaucrats in privately managed academies.

Now the Sunday Times reports that Blairite academies architect, schools minister, Lord Adonis, is planning an expansion of the academies beyond the current target of 400.

Teaching unions and true members of the Labour Party will be incensed by the idea of a further 'focus on failure and closure' to switch to academies and see it as another example of the Blairite stranglehold on the New Labour government. 

Adonis, is quoted as saying: “My motto as an ardent Blairite is, in the master’s words, what matters is what works ... We will make a political decision in due course on where we go beyond 400. On the basis of the results and the demand, the only issue is how far. We have 100 opening in 2010.”

So just who is the royal 'we' that Adonis refers to? Certainly not the non-Blairites in the government or Labour Party, the teaching unions or the parents who have to put up with the hype and spin of the shallow academies. 

Read More...

Inflated GCSEs Let Everyone Down

The government's obsession with GCSE targets is an inflatable joke. They've let the schools down, they've let the pupils down and they've let themselves down.

Schools are playing the education system and fighting government obsession with league tables, to produce record GCSE results, to stave off closure and meet unrealistic targets. A view shared by the leader in  today's Independent.

With the spotlight on school league tables, today's GCSE results show more and more pupils are being entered for soft option and 'pointless' vocational subjects to boost results and school performance. The biggest jump in top grades since 1990, according to the BBC. 

Traditional tough subjects like physics and chemistry and being replaced by the easier combined science and languages shunned altogether. Single subjects are being rebranded as 'studies' which require less rigourous academic study.

Schools, afraid of being branded failures, are coming under increasing pressure, as the government tries to switch schools to its flagging Adonis academies programme - using PFI schemes to keep public spending off the balance sheet and handing control over to big business backers, sympathetic to the government. 

In June, it was highlighted by the Orange Party here, that the government is planning a cull of one in five secondary schools in England, unless they make the grade and hit the benchmark targets of 30% of pupils gaining five good GCSEs including maths and English. 

In a desperate attempt to boost targets, the government has already threatened to take funding away from so-called 'specialist schools', which promote themselves in areas like arts, technology, unless they deliver.

These schools face being stripped of funding and placed under the control of New Labour sympathisers as part of the 're-education' process.

The 638 schools targeted are being unfairly stigmatised as 'failing' as an excuse to hand them over to the vast army of education consultants and bureaucrats in privately managed academies.

Teaching unions are rightly indignant and reject this "focus on failure and closure".

Meanwhile, the government is trying to massage the GCSE figures by introducing course-work modules and more retake opportunities for students. 

In an attempt to produce a meaningful 16+ examination and counter the spin, some schools have started to switch pupils to the International GCSE which is more akin to the old 'O' level.

Today's artificial 'record' GCSE results come hard on the heels of last week's artificial 'record' A-level results. Both spun in a desperate attempt to prop up the government's failed education policies which are failing our children. 

Read More...

Ministers 'Failing' Schools Gimmick

Schools secretary Balls' latest academy plan for 'failing schools' is a cheap gimmick, a government wheeze to privatise state education and put it in the hands of the 'education' business.

New Labour has squandered millions of pounds on education over the past decade and little has been achieved. How embarrassing.

The much vaunted 'flagship' plan for academies is stalling. It's not working fast enough for its architect, Lord Adonis. So schools are being unfairly stigmatised as 'failing' as a pathetic excuse to hand them over to the vast army of education consultants and bureaucrats in privately managed academies.

This has nothing to do with raising standards or performance and everything to do with the half-baked ideas of politicians who are systematically undermining English state schools to save face and put their own political self-interest over the education of children.

The cull is targeting one in five secondary schools in England, so in two years time (election time?) almost one in 10 secondary schools will have academy status.

The teaching unions are rightly indignant and reject the "focus on failure and closure". These schools are not failing. They just haven't met the ridiculous and unrealistic targets set by this government.

The education of our children should not be in the hands of politicians looking for cheap headlines and education consultants after a quick buck. Academies and trust schools are part of the problem, not the solution.

Maybe Edward Michael 'call me Ed' Balls (independent public school and Keble College, Oxford) and Andreas 'Lord' Adonis (independent public school and Keble College, Oxford) should listen to what the real and realistic education professionals have to say, starting with the Campaign for Real Education.

Read More...