News and Updates

I see that Ofsted is encouraging consultation on proposed changes to its inspection framework.  I wondered whether to bother thinking about thinking about responding. I decided not to.  I might have done so if I thought that Ofsted had any...

Every news bulletin I hear seems to have an item on either that Wall – the one between the USA and Mexico, or the one that no one wants to see built across Ireland. None have so far mentioned the...

When we arrived in Germany to be with Mrs M the plane decanted us at a Schengen gate and so we were able to enter the country without a passport check – the first time since the EU opened its...

These are not my words, and oddly do not relate to the UK.  "Germany is standing on the brink of a transport collapse,” Oliver Luksic, an MP and infrastructure expert for the liberal German Free Democrat party, was quoted by...

For those of you keen to see how much progress we've made over recent years, here is the 2004 submission made by the Council for Environmental Education to the Select Committee on Education and Skills in their 2004 enquiry into out...

I see that 78% of graduates from UK universities now get Firsts or 2.i degrees.   But are we supposed to celebrate this mark of undoubted excellence or fret over obvious grade inflation?  This is a glass half-full or half-empty...

Whilst visiting Mrs M's Earthly Paradise earlier this month, we went to the Schloss Adler (not that one), had a 1970s lunch and saw some grey wolves.  These fine, though pitiable, creatures were fenced in around the castle and were...

The UK government has a policy that electricity suppliers should persuade households to install smart(ish) meters to monitor their electricity supply.  It also has a policy that householders should switch suppliers to get better deals. Up to now, some 2.8...

My local independent free newspaper – the MIN – is actually quite good.  It carries lots of stories (most of them positive) about local activities and paints a fine picture of town and village life.  It's view on Wiltshire Council...

This is what I did just before Christmas at the last I-SEE seminar of 2018 in Bath when Anil Markandya (Director of the Basque Centre for Climate Change in the Basque Country) talked about the relationship between the costs of climate mitigation...