November 2014

  • Pity Hefce – to think it was once world-leading

    In the summer, ELSA, the English Learning and Sustainability Alliance, wrote to David Willetts MP (now reshuffled off the ministerial coil).  The focus, broadly speaking, was to wonder whether the Department for Business, Industry and Skills [BIS] might pump some lead into...

  • Trick or Treat Stats

    It seems that US citizens spent some $7.4bn in the run up to Hallowe'en.  This included: $2.2bn on confectionery ("candy") $1.1bn on costumes – for kids $1.4bn on costumes – for adults $0.35bn on costumes – for pets That's ~$15 each,...

  • Another day – another letter to ministers

    Steve Martin and I have sent this letter to Nicky Morgan.  I do not anticipate a positive response. Dear Secretary of State, Education and Sustainable Development-The UK Government’s Response? UNESCO’s Director-General, the Crown Prince of Japan and Princess Lalla Hasna...

  • The other side of the COIN

    A recent report "Young Voices", from COIN, says research shows current climate engagement strategies are failing to reach young people.  Adam Corner, COIN’s Research Director, said: “Our research suggests that many young people care deeply and passionately about climate change. However, there has...

  • Very forgettable samosas

    I had hoped that no matter how dull the seminar in Birmingham last Friday might turn out to be, the samosas would be brilliant.  Not so; the samosas were dull: flaccid, pasty confections; happily, the rest of the lunch on...

  • Children, their World, their Education

    I'm in Birmingham at the "Children, their World, their Education" seminar organised by Tide~ global learning, the Cambridge Primary Review Trust, and Birmingham City Council.  The blurb for the event says: Children and young people are growing up into an...

  • Don't they know it's time to revive the media profile of ageing rockers

    I'm not going to buy Band Aid 30.  Neither, it seems, is Fuse ODG who has been put off by the patronising view of Africa that the whole idea represents.  Indeed!  Not that this is new.  The original Band Aid had...

  • Greenpeace in bed with climate sceptics – how did it come to this?

    When your guiding principle is that your enemy's enemy will have to be your friend, you run all sorts of risks.  You've only got to examine American Cold War policy about supporting dictatorships and terrorists to see that, not to mention the...

  • Aichi-Nagoya 9 – Finally: a Testament of Youth

    My last word on the ESDFest.  Sadly, this has not been written by Vera Brittain. It is a Youth Statement that was adopted at the UNESCO ESD Youth Conference in Okayama, Japan, on 7 November, to provide "a vision, commitment, and recommendations from...