AV campaign heats up

The 5 May referendum will ask voters whether they want to keep the first-past-the-post system for electing MPs or to replace it with the alternative vote (AV), under which candidates are ranked in order of preference. The president of the “no” campaign was named last night as Margaret Beckett, the former Foreign Secretary. She will be joined by four other Labour veterans – Lord Prescott, Lord Reid, Lord Falconer, and David Blunkett. Three Tory Cabinet ministers will be campaign patrons – William Hague, Kenneth Clarke, and Baroness Warsi. The heavyweight line-up – described by No to AV as “titans of the British political system” – is evidence the campaign to retain the status quo will be highly-organised. Supporters of a yes vote intend to portray themselves as the “people against the political establishment”. – The Independent

The depth of division within Labour over voting reform was exposed tonight when it was announced that Margaret Beckett, the former foreign secretary, is to lead a group of the party’s big beasts in a campaign to reject the reform in a referendum on 5 May. Beckett will chair the campaign against the alternative vote system, with the help of figures including two former Labour home secretaries, David Blunkett and Lord Reid, former lord chancellor Lord Falconer, and the former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott. Labour’s manifesto committed the party to the referendum, and several shadow cabinet members, including Alan Johnson, John Denham and Peter Hain, will campaign for a yes vote. – The Guardian

The No to AV campaign has unveiled its list of patrons, and a fascinating picture emerges of cross-party co-operation between some of the biggest hitters (Prescott’s on the list) from the Labour and Tory sides. It starts to look like a pincer movement by the establishments of the two big parties, designed to squeeze a Lib Dem orientated Yes campaign in the middle. And, yes, yes, I know there are Labour people in the pro-AV team but unless they can pull a rabbit out of the hat soon then they risk the widespread perception being that their campaign is broadly Clegg’s creature. Considering recent developments, such as the emergence of considerable opposition to the Lib Dems on student fees, having Nick Clegg out front isn’t likely to be a campaigning advantage. – Wall Street Journal

Ed sets out his stall

Thirteen years in government led to many lasting achievements, but also to a party remote from many people’s hopes and aspirations. In government we lost the humility to listen and learn. In opposition we must find it again. We must understand why, despite all that was achieved over the last decade, so many people who work hard and want to get on came to feel squeezed. Why did too many families feel that the gap between their lives and their dreams became larger and harder to bridge? It is a gap that I fear this Coalition will widen dramatically. The prospects for millions of families under Mr Cameron’s government look bleak. Slashing funding for universities and tripling student fees risks making the burden of personal debt far worse. The slogan “we are all in it together” is being used as rhetorical cover to push millions of families outside of the basic social deal, that if you work hard and do the right things, you will be helped to get on. It’s not just Child Benefit. Scaling back support for child care through tax credits and support for young people in education will hit the aspirations of millions. – Ed Miliband, The Telegraph Read the rest of this entry »

Gove announces schools shake up

Tough new powers to stop pupils repeatedly re-sitting GCSEs and A-levels. New moves to make it harder for potential recruits to enter teaching, and easier to get rid of those who do. Fines for schools who wrongly exclude pupils, plus a responsibility to ensure any expelled pupils continue to get a full-time education.These are the key planks of the biggest educational upheaval for more than two decades which was announced yesterday by Education Secretary Michael Gove in his much-trailed government White Paper. – The Independent

Chris Keates, general secretary of teachers’ union NASUWT, said: “We are seeing a vicious assault by the secretary of state on teachers’ commitment and professionalism. We are now witnessing the plans for another lost generation of young people.” The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said Mr Gove was dismantling state education and Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham said the “elitist” reforms would create a two-tier system. Mr Gove laughed off spelling “bureaucracy” wrongly on the Commons statement. He justified the error by saying his “eyes glaze over” when he sees the word. – The Mirror

Mr Gove’s contradictory instincts take tangible form in his attitude to spending on school sports. Suddenly there is no “We will…” driving his approach. Instead he is dropping the ring- fenced cash that was targeted on sport. No doubt ring-fencing of cash has a sinister ring to it. It sounds indiscriminately proscriptive to those, including most in the Coalition, that regard the state with extreme wariness. But ring-fencing is a highly effective way of targeting tax payers’ money on a particular worthy cause and making sure the cash is spent productively. In this case head teachers popped up on the airwaves to say, whether the money was ring-fenced or not, they would continue to spend it on sports, only the cash was being scrapped altogether. – The Independent

SCHOOL sport co-ordinators have invited the Education Secretary to Bristol to see first-hand the work of the partnerships he wants to scrap. They believe the decision by Michael Gove to cut the £162-million funding for School Sport Partnerships will have a “devastating effect” on the sporting opportunities for young people in Bristol. And they claim hundreds of events will no longer take place if the £750,000 funding for the three SSPs in the city is pulled, as planned, in March. SSPs cover every school in the country. Each one consists of a sports college or academy, secondary, primary and special schools, working together to develop sport opportunities for young people. – Bristol Evening Post Read the rest of this entry »

Clegg pleads with students

Clegg said he would defend the planned trebling of tuition fees, despite campaigning for their total abolition during the election: “I will defend the government’s plan for reforming the funding of universities, even though it is not the one I campaigned for. It is not my party’s policy, but it is the best policy, given the choices we face.”

His remarks came as it emerged that threats to Clegg’s personal safety had led his security advisers to review his travel arrangements. He has been told by his protection officers it is no longer safe for him to cycle from his south London home to Downing Street, and that he must travel by car. He has also dropped plans to visit university campuses, once the heartland of his support base, until emotions have subsided. – The Guardian

Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, is expected to be handed a letter by a group of students who claim “no amount of twisted reasoning” can hide the fact the party lied to young voters. It will read: “In the general election hundreds of thousands of young people, many voting for the first time, chose your party … they identified in particular with your public pledge to oppose raising tuition fees.”We call on you to withdraw Lib Dem support for Conservative cuts to our education system, or face the disappointment and anger of a generation that has been betrayed.” Nick Clegg on Tuesday night urged students to call off the protest, claiming the coalition’s plans were “even fairer” than the graduate tax supported by the National Union of Students. – The Telegraph Read the rest of this entry »