The first 100 days.

Elegran, it’s a good idea and would give the other children and the teacher a break as well as those going for the experience.

The number of disruptive children nowadays would make it more difficult, but not insurmountable to place them. e.g. lack of places like Men’s Sheds, or the need for those working with the pupils to be DBS checked if it became an official scheme.

It was one of the reasons there used to be secondary modern schools, for those who were not academically minded, to provide opportunities for learning practical skills.

Even at Grammar school, we had the opportunity to learn woodwork and metalwork. My little box died, but my fancy copper bracelet lives on.

GrannyGravy13

Casdon

An initiative I saw this morning, to target finding people who are illegal immigrants. A sensible use of resources.
news.sky.com/story/nail-bars-and-car-washes-to-be-targeted-in-summer-immigration-raids-13182400

We have several nail bars in our High St, along with takeaways and a car wash, all have been raided at some time over the last few years.

Staff disappear only to be replaced with new ones.

This is not a new initiative.

I agree that it's not a new initiative, but if there are more frequent raids and revoking of owners' licences to operate, it might deter employers from recruiting people in the first place and, thus, remove the smuggling networks' end goal.

Mollygo

Elegran, it’s a good idea and would give the other children and the teacher a break as well as those going for the experience.

The number of disruptive children nowadays would make it more difficult, but not insurmountable to place them. e.g. lack of places like Men’s Sheds, or the need for those working with the pupils to be DBS checked if it became an official scheme.

It was one of the reasons there used to be secondary modern schools, for those who were not academically minded, to provide opportunities for learning practical skills.

Even at Grammar school, we had the opportunity to learn woodwork and metalwork. My little box died, but my fancy copper bracelet lives on.

There is no need to segregate pupils into secondary modern/grammar schools. I worked in a comprehensive school, where we had exactly that kind of initiative 30 years ago. It's not just about giving practical skills. It's about providing a non-school environment. For all sorts of reasons not necessarily related to academic learning, some young people just do not thrive in a school environment.

Seems about right I suppose

In my day it was called borstal

Have you read Borstal Boy by the Irish writer Brendan Behan?

growstuff we had that kind of initiative at the Grammar school I went to, so the need was acknowledged before comprehensives were invented.

Am doubting myself now about the author of that book🤔

My GSs partner works in a boarding school for children who are extremely badly screwed up by their parents, whilst doing an MSC apprenticeship towards a fully fledged psychologist.. it is clear that these children are far too disruptive and terribly damaged to attend an ordinary state school, and I thought that there was similar for children who whilst not so terribly damaged were, nevertheless too disruptive in class to deal with?

Urmstongran

5.5% pay rise on the cards for teachers and nurses. I’m happy with that (disclaimer: our youngest daughter is a teacher these past 15 years) but can the country afford pay rises above inflation? Doctors will be next. Behind them, the firefighters, police - in fact all public sector workers I think.

The 5.5% pay rise for teachers is probably long overdue.

From a selfish point of view, I think this will be an added problem for independent schools, who will now have that to contend with that on top of the VAT on education. Historically the pay rises awarded to teachers at private schools were just above those in state schools. This new leap will cost heavily for them to match it.

Green energy backlash

The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has been warned he faces battlegrounds across the country over plans to install thousands of pylons in unspoilt rural areas to deliver a “clean power” revolution.
Council leaders and communities oppose proposals for a vast new network of pylons across large parts of several counties, including Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The proposals are part of a £30bn National Grid overhaul – including the “great grid upgrade” plan announced last year – with connections to proposed vast new solar farms, battery storage facilities and offshore windfarms. A new generation of gas power stations may also be built and plugged into the upgraded grid to back up renewable energy and prevent the risk of blackouts.

National Grid said the cost of the Lincolnshire pylon scheme is about £1.1bn, while the cost would be about £6.5bn for underground cabling and about £4.4bn for undersea cabling.
Officials said planning guidance stipulates that “overhead lines should be the strong starting presumption for electricity networks”.

National Grid said in a statement: “Transporting new clean, green energy to homes and businesses across the country will require the largest overhaul of the grid in a generation. Communities are playing a fundamental role in this energy transition, and we believe those that host energy infrastructure should receive fair and enduring benefits for doing so.
“Communities also play an important role in helping shape development of our infrastructure projects and we would encourage everyone to continue to share views through the consultation process across our projects.”
Officials say they are awaiting guidance from the government on the delivery of community benefits linked to the projects.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Securing Britain’s clean energy future requires improving outdated infrastructure to get renewable electricity on the grid and unleash its true potential.
“It is also important we listen to people’s concerns, and where
communities live near clean energy infrastructure, they should benefit directly from it.”

I have two comments to make on the clean energybacklash.

The first is my home village of Delabole, was the first place in the U.K. to get a wind farm. This has been plying its trade now for donkeys years. The people in the village have been receiving reduced energy bills ever since and must have saved thousands over the years.

I live now on the South Downs and look out at a wind farm in the channel. The electricity from this has been cabled into the U.K. underground, and cost squillions. So my opinion is that it is necessary to get the green energy project underway, and if it means that we can’t complete it because of cost, then I would rather have pylons for a few years until they can be dealt with.

Sorry, Whitewavemark2, I see there's been a new thread created on the teachers' pay rise while I was out. I'll transfer my comment from this thread.

I am totally against the governments proposed solar farm in East Anglia. The residents and local council planning committees, are opposed to this development but according to Rachel Reeves this morning they do not matter and it will go ahead.

Why on earth would anyone cover farmland with solar panels?

Solar panels can easily be installed on the roofs of existing factories, shopping centres, car parks etc., without the need for covering usable and productive fields.

Joseann

Sorry, Whitewavemark2, I see there's been a new thread created on the teachers' pay rise while I was out. I'll transfer my comment from this thread.

It doesn’t matter, I think it is good to comment on labours policies.

No pylons, should be put underground and would cost less to do than( for example) taking away the 2 child benefit cap.
We should be doing this now for the future generations.

Rachel Reeves pledges ‘big bang’ for private pension funds

Labour has promised to bring forward wide-ranging reforms of the £2tn private pensions industry in a review that aims “to boost investment, increase pension pots and tackle waste in the pensions system”.
A taskforce of industry executives and ministers from the Treasury and department of work and pensions will propose ways to cut costs and improve investment options, allowing retirement scheme managers to boost pension pots by up to £11,000.
The taskforce will also consider making it easier for pension funds to broaden their investment strategies to include a larger slice of UK businesses. The move follows the announcement of a pensions bill in the king’s speech this month, which critics said failed to signal an ambitious overhaul of the industry.
Rachel Reeves said the review is part of “a big bang of reforms” that includes a £7bn national wealth fund and planning reforms to unlock the UK’s potential growth. The chancellor added: “There is no time to waste. That is why I am determined to fix the foundations of our economy so we can rebuild Britain and improve people’s lives.”

One aim of the taskforce is to pave the way for a merger of the 87 individual pension schemes in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) covering England and Wales. The scheme, which ranks as the seventh largest pension fund in the world, managing £360bn worth of assets, spends £2bn on fees, which could be reduced following a formal merger.
Pooling the assets in the LGPS would enable the funds to be invested in a wider range of UK assets.

The aim is to reverse a decades-old trend in which billions of pounds of UK savings have been invested abroad.

Andrea Rossi, the chief executive of M&G, one of the UK’s largest fund managers, welcomed the review, saying it is long overdue. She said the firm has “a rich heritage of investing in the UK” and there are “significant opportunities ahead to give the real economy a boost over the next decade and beyond”.

Reeves said the government would consider legislating to mandate pooling LGPS assets if insufficient progress is made by March 2025.

Oreo

No pylons, should be put underground and would cost less to do than( for example) taking away the 2 child benefit cap.
We should be doing this now for the future generations.

National Grid said the cost of the Lincolnshire pylon scheme is about £1.1bn, while the cost would be about £6.5bn for underground cabling and about £4.4bn for undersea cabling.

I have to confess to rather liking pylons and disliking windmills!

However, as they both contribute to keeping us supplied with electricity I'm happy to accept them.

However. Didn't the Bank of England call for wage restraint in the battle against inflation. So why is the chancellor, a former senior member of the Bank of England, now saying wage rises more than double, nearly triple, inflation is OK?

I don’t get it.

Urmstongran

However. Didn't the Bank of England call for wage restraint in the battle against inflation. So why is the chancellor, a former senior member of the Bank of England, now saying wage rises more than double, nearly triple, inflation is OK?

I don’t get it.

Maybe he’s supporting Starmer?

But, if maintaining the 2 child benefit cap would save up to 3.6 billion that would go a long way towards underground cables and other avenues could be explored along with attracting investors maybe.
It seems quite ridiculous to be putting pylons up as if it was 100 years ago.

Not removing the two child cap, won’t save a single penny, it simply won’t be spending money that the Treasury says we don’t have.

I don’t happen to agree, but that is another debate.

I don’t agree either and spending on public infrastructure is something that any government can do.
I wish Labour hadn’t pledged not to put up taxes tho!

If it does save money - then spending it on children (ie the schemes for nursery age children planned) seems the fairest outcome.