Today marks the last day in office de facto of Amanda Spielman, who has been the longest serving Chief Inspector of Schools since Ofsted’s foundation in 1992. She is to be replaced by Sir Martin Oliver, who has a formidable in tray to cope with. Let us consider the problems that face him: On Spielman’s own admission Ofsted is currently completely discredited. It is difficult to argue with this assessment given that Ofsted has just been declared guilty of lying…
When it comes to political betting the 2007 general election that never was when I turned from an occasional political gambler to a serious political gambler in this field. Mike Smithson had consistently been pointing out for years Gordon Brown’s ratings might be an issue up against David Cameron and the Brown bounce I put down to a relief that Tony Blair had been replaced so I was betting heavily against an early election and selling Labour on the spreads…
TSE
Reviewing 2023 I thought I’d go for one of the moments that genuinely left me speechless and it was the revelation that Boris Johnson wanted to be injected with Covid-19 live on TV, this was part of some other revelations Boris Johnson “wanted to be injected with Covid-19 on television” to calm public fears, an ex-aide has said. The claim – by Lord Lister – came in a witness statement to the Covid inquiry. He said Mr Johnson “suggested to…
Following on from the Northern Irish peace process one of my expectations was MPs would be safer but a different type of malevolence has replaced Irish republicanism, from Jo Cox to Sir David Amess you can understand why MPs are taking precautions like Mike Freer. If this is the reality of being an MP then expect a lot of good people to decline the opportunity to become a member of parliament. TSE
Just look at those expectations amongst independents. Unsuprisingly the odious Trump has embraced this polling. TSE
Boxing day football is one of our many British Christmas traditions. The season tends to end much as at this halfway point, though rarely precisely, so quite the benchmark. While nearly all politicians pay lip service to supporting a football team, Keir Starmer has a more genuine love of football than most in politics. Like Jeremy Corbyn and Osama Bin Laden he is an Arsenal fan, and a season ticket holder for many years. He also played himself in a…
Across 1 Labour MP declared bonuses (8) 5 Politician on god’s side? (6) 9 Opening up most of UK city – no way! (8) 10 Country with a European President (6) 12 Muse over a Tory stuffing! (5) 13 PM to strongly admire, not starting in political office (9) 14 Blair has expressed Churchill’s Cold War diplomacy ably (6,6) 18 Notes written in blue by a musical Tory (6,6) 21 Journalist by trade originally covers item honouring US President (5,4) …