Nov 12
Village Idiocy redux
Ten years of Ofsted, and schools are still failing — one-third more than
last year, according to Ofsted chief David Bell.
If the government made fewer mistakes on its Jobcentre Plus and Disability
Living benefit pay-outs, it could save 8 million pounds, says the NAO.
1.4 million pensioners fail to claim council tax benefit, perhaps confused
by the paperwork. Well, we don’t want to make it easy for them, do we?
Whitaker’s Almanack says 47 percent of us cannot name the deputy PM. (Well,
it is hard: this week he’s changed it from Four Pads to Three Pads.)
Left-wing firebrand Diane Abbot conceded that it was ‘indefensible’ for her
to send her child to a 10k-a-year private school. But she did, anyway.
Who says GCSEs are too easy? A Skills for Life study says half the adult
population would fail, with 15 million of us struggling with basic maths.
Macmillan Cancer Relief says that despite committing an extra 570 million
pounds to cancer care, ministers have no idea how it is being spent.
Business bankruptcies are up 20 percent since 1997, running at an annual
rate of 50,000 a year. (Brown’s budget is pretty near the edge, too…)
Despite government efforts to encourage public transport use, the proportion
of journeys undertaken by car last year remained stuck at 85 per cent.
The Public Accounts Committee says that the 400-million-pound computer
contract for magistrates’ courts is one of the worst deals it has ever seen.
(Remember, PAC Chairman Edward Leigh visits ASI soon — see EVENTS below.)
