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?
‘The British public is running out of patience with a state that does not work, where interactions with public services are beset by inconveniences and delays even as outcomes slip and costs rise.’ The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change is not wrong there, but what is its solution? Not to sack the state’s clock-watchers
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