Patrick Ainley FORTHCOMING IN HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW The Consumer Experience of Higher Education, The Rise of Capsule Education by Deirdre McArdle-Clinton, Continuum 978-1-4411-7919-7 (pbk), £27.99 I read this book as a treat after two week’s marking. At this point I should stop because the state of higher education in Ireland so presciently described by Deirdre … Continue reading Book Review: ‘Capsule Education’
Alan Milburn,social mobility and education
Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley ‘Social mobility,’ Nick Clegg declared on 26th May, ‘is the central preoccupation of this government.’ His speech trailed a report by Alan Milburn, former New Labour Minister and now the Coalition’s ‘social mobility Tsar’, which attacked the professions for failing to be more socially inclusive. The Report (Fair Access to … Continue reading Alan Milburn,social mobility and education
Book Review : Peter Latham The State and Local Government
Patrick Ainley reviews Peter Latham's The State and Local Government: Towards a New Basis for 'Local Democracy' and the Defeat of Big Business Control http://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviewofbooks/reviews/2012/541#.T80czA5BSdQ.email
Pots of paint and ladders……
Barely a week now goes by without a new report about youth unemployment or a new set of solutions. Now it’s the turn of revenant Lord Young, a failed property developer put in charge of the Manpower Services Commission to pioneer contracted out Youth Training Schemes in the 1980s and more recently sacked as an … Continue reading Pots of paint and ladders……
The hire and fire economy
Vince Cable’s opposition to Tory donor Adrian Beecroft’s ‘no fault’ dismissal proposals apparently led to him being branded a ‘socialist’ by the venture capitalist. In railing against the plans for further labour market deregulation, Cable may have forced Coalition colleagues to ditch proposals that would allow employers to sack staff considered ‘unproductive’ without explanation. For … Continue reading The hire and fire economy
A fall in youth joblessness but an increase in students
At first reading, the 12,000 fall in the number of 18-24 year olds unemployed between Jan-March 2012 would seem consistent with the general fall in unemployment of 45,000. At the same time however, there has only been a 3,000 increase in the number of 18-24 year olds working. This discrepancy reveals significant changes in … Continue reading A fall in youth joblessness but an increase in students
Young people and the ‘ageing’ workforce
It’s certainly true that if you go into any supermarket these days you will find far fewer young people on the tills. As Will Hutton observes ‘Talk to Sainsbury’s or any other major retailer and they say that they like older workers. They are more reliable, their absenteeism is lower, customers like them’ (quoted in … Continue reading Young people and the ‘ageing’ workforce
Mayors make a mockery of our local democracy
Patrick Ainley Guardian letter May 7th 2012 Your extensive coverage of last week's near unanimous rejection of elected city mayors in local referendums (Editorial, 5 May) missed the point made by Peter Latham in his authoritative book, The State and Local Government: "US-style directly elected mayors with cabinets are the optimal internal management arrangement for … Continue reading Mayors make a mockery of our local democracy
Part-time Britain
Even though the Coalition has claimed that over 500 000 new private sector jobs have been created since it came to office, a large number, a majority in fact, have been part-time. The monthly labour market figures from ONS regularly confirm the significance of part-time working in the UK economy. Figures for Dec 2011 -Feb … Continue reading Part-time Britain
What next for teacher unions?
Attacks on teachers employment conditions and the undermining of their ‘professional autonomy’ are hardly new, but education minister Michael Gove has intensified the assault, pushing through major changes to the pension scheme, introducing new ‘performance management’ regulations -making it easier to dismiss ‘incompetent’ teachers and threatening to impose ‘regional pay’. Teachers are threatened further; by … Continue reading What next for teacher unions?
Education, Economy and Society 