Tuesday 30 June 2009

SOAS Cleaners at Yarl's Wood

Marina Silva and Rosa dePerez were picked up in a brutal immigration raid on 12 June at the School of African & Oriental Studies (SOAS) in London. They both worked as cleaners, along with other colleagues who were deported. Marina and Rosa are in detention at Yarl' s Wood Immigration Removal Centre at Clapham.

Marina is 63. She has applied for asylum following the killing of her husband and threats to her own life. The campaign for the Home Office to grant leave to remain for both Marina and Rosa is supported by UNISON and UCU (Universities and Colleges Union). As a UCU member it is a campaign that I fully support.

The Future of Middle Schools

My own view on Middle Schools is that they should be scrapped. The present three tier system should change to two tiers, ending what for many pupils is a disruptive break at age 13. The educational and social arguments are well known, and the changeover ought to have been made many years ago. The council should give a clear lead and present to parents the various options for making the change.

Monday 29 June 2009

Doctors Condemn 'Commercial' NHS

The BMA chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum has said that moves to create polyclinics and PFI schemes, which use private money to build hospitals, are draining the health service of resources and fragmenting care, the BBC News reports.

This was a Labour government in the good times. As the recession continues we face a bleak future of cuts in public services. Nobody believes that following the General Election, a Conservative or a Labour goverment would do anything other than continue the policies that are slowly but surely destroying the NHS.