Education Secretary Michael Gove says he wants to rewrite the national curriculum in history to concentrate on figures such as Cromwell and Churchill instead of Mary Seacole. Some institutions which have been named after Seacole in recent years:
— Mary Seacole House, ‘mental health drop-in centre primarily for black and ethnic communities in Liverpool 8’
— Mary Seacole Research Centre ‘provides a base for diversity orientated research’ at De Montfort University, Leicester
— Mary Seacole Housing Association, provides ‘supported housing for young single people in Luton’.
— Mary Seacole Awards: bursaries of £12,500 awarded by the Department of Heath for nurses, midwives and health visitors in England
One man, one vote
A selection of petitions on the government’s e-petitions site which, as we went to press, had only one signature:
— ‘Keep sharia law in our courts’
— ‘Privatise the NHS’
— ‘Ban the Tachograph’
— ‘Create a sovereign wealth fund’
— ‘Do not grant a pardon for Alan Turing’
— ‘Remove Baroness Ashton from her EU post’
Social club
The OECD revealed that Britain spends 2.4 per cent of GDP on disability benefits, more than any other country. How does our overall public social expenditure (pensions, health, welfare) compare with others?
A woman crying elicits sympathy – even if, à la Rachel from Accounts, she is some kind of nightmare soap-opera figure from the suburbs of south London. When a woman we do not know bursts into tears in public our gut reaction is to assume she must have a good reason for doing so. She
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