Opinion

Here I comment on a wide range of issues from education to politics, the arts and more. I welcome lively and opinionated debate, so please leave your comments.

  • Appearances on BBC News and Daily Politics

    Appeared on BBC News talking about Alan Steer’s new recommendations that teachers should have the right to search pupils for alcohol and drugs, as well as knives. I pointed out that it was sad that there had to be a law to enable teachers to do this: it was yet another indication that we’ve lost […]

  • Two Hour Guest Appearance On BBC World Service

    I was a guest on a two show that the BBC World Service Host in the evening to Africa and and the rest of the world in mid June. It was a discussion held in a Glasgow town hall where callers from all around the world and the eclectic guests in Glasgow gave their views […]

  • Metal detectors at Paddington Academy

    Very interesting to see that Paddington Academy is one of the few schools to bite the bullet — or pull the knife if you like — and introduce metal detectors to stop knife crimes in the school. Even more interesting to note, that it was the pupils who wanted it. As I argued previously on […]

  • The Road Home wins — and now perhaps Tremain will get the recognition she deserves

    Rose Tremain has deservedly won the Orange Prize for her brilliant, complex and beautifully written novel, The Road Home. Now perhaps, she will be viewed as the writer she is: I think she IS our major British novelist, putting the likes of others from her generation in the shade — Amis, McEwan, Barnes. Will she […]

  • Appearance on BBC Breakfast

    Appeared this Tuesday on BBC Breakfast giving my views about homework. A recent survey shows that not many parents understand their children’s homework and don’t have much of a clue about how to help. I spoke about the two types of parent: the nagger, who is always hovering over their child, checking to see if […]

  • Casual violence that children learn to live with

    A disturbing analysis of the current state of gangs in Britain: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3950162.ece‘

  • Girl gangs

    A fascinating piece on the evolution of girl gangs which ties in with some of the stuff I point out in Yob Nationhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/14/do1403.xml‘

  • Appearing on the Wright Stuff

  • BBC Interviews

    Spoke at length on two radio interviews today: BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Scotland. The Ulster interview asked for my comments on the Tories’ new proposals to stop the parents of excluded children appealing against a headteacher’s decision to exclude them. I said it was all a bit of a sound bite and that […]

  • Tender is the night

    Finished reading Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Tender is the Night’ and was struck by the author’s deep psychological insight, his ability to scrutinise the tiniest reactions of people when they are confronted or challenged, his uncanny, enlightened cynicism that sees multiple causes behind every gesture, every flick of the eye, every glance. The scene where Dick Diver […]

  • Violence in the classroom

    A depressing survey that shows violence in the classroom is on the increase: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3564297.ece http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/onethird-of-teachers-threatened-796778.html‘

  • Interesting article on the brain controlling accent

    Great article for English Language A Level students on how the brain controls accents here.’

  • BBC Radio 5 Live Debate On Universities

    Appeared on Richard Bacon’s show, arguing that too many students were going to university, studying non-courses’. Too many courses are not serious: Outdoor Adventure With Philosophy, Ghost-Hunting, Surfing Studies. The guest arguing the other point of view, said that students should be able to study whatever they want. I argued there was limited money in […]

  • Rose-tinted government recruitment campaign on BBC Breakfast

    Appeared yesterday on BBC Breakfast talking about the new government advertising campaign to recruit teachers. I complained on the Beeb’s very red sofa that the government didn’t tell the truth, that it gave false hopes and that it sold the lie that teachers are paid like people in the corporate world. The campaign highlights all […]

  • Good analysis of the crime statistics

    The Sunday Times ran a good analysis of the crime stats in this interesting comment piece. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article3382270.ece?openComment=true‘

  • Good analysis of the crime statistics

    The Sunday Times ran a good analysis of the crime statistics in this interesting comment piece. The same edition ran an illuminating interview with a former gang member.

  • The Asbo Round The Corner

    Our local corner shop has finally had an Asbo slapped on the local youths in our area to stop them intimidating and harrassing them, after years of abuse and violence. The local residents rose up and named and shamed the miscreants in court. All seems peaceful now at the shop: there are no youths smoking […]

  • Newsnight — Yob Culture

    Appeared on Newsnight talking about yob culture with Ken Jones, a top policeman, Rob Williams from the Children’s Commission, and a leading magistrate.

  • Two In A Tower and The Trumpet Major

    Going through a major Thomas Hardy phase, as if teaching ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’ wasn’t enough. I felt his novella, ‘Two In A Tower’ is a marvellous achievement. It’s about a poor, young, pretty astronomer who falls in love with an unhappily married lady of the manor. The pair secretly marry, only to have […]

  • Pere Goriot — Balzac in Paris

    Loved reading Balzac’s most famous novel in Paris, walking the streets, observing the lemony sunlight on polished stone, and living the life of Raustignac, the poor student, who seeks the high life in the ballrooms and salons of 19th Century Paris. The novel is a real pot-boiler, full of melodrama, wronged fathers, conniving daughters and […]