14Esther McVey
The Northern Powerhouse
AGCSE in natural history – in effect, climate change – is about to be added to the list of 36 GCSEs pupils can already choose from.Why? Especially when, from geography to PSE classes (personal and social education) the environment is already being taught in schools. In fact, I was slightly taken aback when I visited a primary school recently where they were learning about Net Zero and climate catastrophes... in their art lessons! They had made banners Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil would be proud of, and in their lunch break they were in the playground learning how to protest.
If this is what this new GCSE will be all about – agitation and anti-Government sentiment – it’s a GCSE we could well do without.
Surely we’d be better served by pupils studying science so they can solve the problems of the day, and engineering – in order to design solutions rather than having this indoctrination and protest practice masquerading as lessons.
It’s not as if pupils are short of choice at GCSE level, from media studies to PE, design and technology to astronomy, they have a lot to choose from. But given that one in five leave school at 18 with no basic qualifications, surely it would be better if the focus was on getting better grades in existing subjects rather than on inventing new ones.
And how can it be that children, who have spent 14 years in compulsory education, often having more than £100,000 spent on their education, still can’t achieve basic qualifications? And what of the pupils who missed so much of their education because of lockdowns? The priority for them has to be extra study time for maths and English – not dreaming up another subject they can study.
If that wasn’t enough,Tony Blair popped up this week wanting to extend even further the numbers going to university. Not content with 50 per cent of school-leavers going, he’s calling for 70 per cent.
This is utter madness.We should have fewer people going not more. Let’s ignore Blair, and promote getting in the workplace, learning on-the-job and apprenticeships.
The last thing we need is even more half-baked courses in schools and Mickey Mouse degrees in our universities.
WORRYINGLY, four in 10 people might be in fuel poverty by autumn when the energy price cap goes up again in October.
How much longer can the Government leave those green levies on fuel bills? It’s time for them to be axed and for fuel bills to be reduced by £153 at a stroke.
The Conservative Party should be the party of low taxes, but has lost that reputation in a poll this week. This should be a wake-up call to the Government – removing those green taxes would be a good place to start.
AS HARRY and Meghan swan around the world promoting their deal with Netflix, is it a coincidence that Netflix has lost 200,000 viewers and its share price has collapsed? What’s the betting the first in the queue to cancel their subscriptions were William, Kate and Charles?
DOUBLE-barrel names are on the rise and 2020/2021 saw the biggest increase ever at 30 per cent. It’s credited with women wanting to remain independent after marriage and not wanting to give up their maiden name.
I got married that year and wanted to keep my maiden name, but not to become doublebarrelled. If I’d have known by doing so I’d have been the height of fashion, would it have been McVey-Davies or DaviesMcVey? Oh, the dilemma! It’s enough to keep a woman single.