94% of integrated education budget unspent due to ‘single minded’ failure to create a cohesive policy?

Earlier this week the Irish News reported that the Department of Education underspent a £50m budget by a staggering £47m. Under the Fresh Start agreement, the money is part of an alleged £500m of new capital funding to support shared and integrated education over 10 years. In its first year, Education Minister Peter Weir has allocated just £3m. As a former primary pupil, mother of a nursery child and PTA member of Hazelwood Integrated Primary in Belfast I was horrified. To …

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Since Corbynistas joined @UKLabour digitally, it looks like they prefer to fight their battles that way too.

Strong piece from Polly Toynbee at the Labour Party conference today, where she’s been fielding puzzled inquiries from fervent Corbyn-ites as to why she’s anti-Jeremy Corbyn when both she and he stand for roughly the same things. It’s more than a decent and comprehensive response. Corbyn could apply a little balm to the great gash in his party. If he meant peace and unity, he could stop dead all talk of deselecting MPs, and protect MPs such as Walthamstow’s Stella Creasy and …

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‪#‎FridayThread‬ – Corbyn’s networks as a modern digital ecclesia?

Newsnight had a fascinating conversation (with not a little tension) between Charles Moore (the conscience of the British right, let’s call him) and Matthew Parris (ferociously bright and pragmatic) over the elevation of a Remainer to the head of a Brexit government. Moore bemoaned the fact that in an age which the voters warm each time to a message of change, the new Prime Minister does not fit the bill of those looking for that change to become tangible. The only …

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#GE2015: The UK electorate prepares to go seriously off script, again…

In the aftermath of the last Westminster election I was asked to London to speak on several wash up panels to examine the faultlines of an historic election. Labour’s long single party rule had come to an end, not with the crash some (in fact most) in London’s Tory press had hoped for but with the narrowest of victories. At the RSA’s PDF Replay event, I described the result as “a really intelligent outcome by what was possibly the UK’s first really intelligent electorate…” by which …

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21C Governance: Practical tips for thriving in social media

So whilst we bask in the unbidden glory of getting named as one of the UK’s top political blogs, here’s some timely advice on how to handle difficult conversations in social media… Do stay calm. – That would be dependent on successfully negotiating the what I often call the go-and-stick-your-head-in-the-freezer moment. Do ask questions. – The strength of social media is in the name. The real advantage of social is figuring the weaknesses and limitations in your own arguments. Don’t …

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