Googling lessons
Delegates at the National Union of Teachers conference complained about Michael Gove’s ‘pub quiz’ curriculum and suggested that children didn’t need to learn facts any more because they could Google them. Some things you can Google about the NUT:
— The union was formed on 25 June 1870 as the National Union of Elementary Teachers, and was renamed the NUT in 1889.
— It has had only 11 general secretaries since 1870. The current general secretary, Christine Blower, began her career as a French teacher at the ‘socialist Eton’, Holland Park Comprehensive, in 1973. She is reported to earn £142,000 a year.
— In 1996 she withdrew her daughter Sophie from Key Stage 2 tests, in protest against what she saw as excessive testing of children. Sophie went on to study at Edinburgh University.
Low flying
The chief executive of Birmingham Airport says a decline in budget airlines has left Britain with too many lightly used airports. Which UK airports have the fewest paying passengers? (Many have other functions, such as freight and private traffic.)
| Paying passengers in 2007 | |
| 2,696 | Lydd |
| 8,026 | Shoreham |
| 2,151 | Cambridge |
| 5,059 | Lerwick (Tingwall) |
| Paying passengers in 2012 | |
| 445 | Lydd |
| 480 | Shoreham |
| 2,130 | Cambridge |
| 5,041 | Lerwick (Tingwall) |
Source: CAA
Benefit shopping
Iain Duncan Smith was ridiculed for claiming he could live on £53 a week if he had to. Is it possible to do this and have a wholesome diet?
| Room in shared house in Crook, County Durham, all bills included | £37.50 |
| 2kg Tesco Value potatoes | £1.38 |
| 2 packs of 4 apples | £1.34 |
| 1 pack of 4 oranges | £0.74 |
| 1 cabbage | £0.69 |
| 1.5kg carrots | £0.69 |
| Lettuce | £0.50 |
| 8 pints semi-skimmed milk | £2.58 |
| Pack of unsalted butter | £0.98 |
| Small chicken | £2.48 |
| Tin pilchards | £0.55 |
| Small pack cheddar | £1.69 |
| 1 kg porridge oats | £0.75 |
| Total | £51.87 |
Which leaves £58.76 a year to stock up on clothes at a charity shop (actually, benefit-claimants are entitled to far more than £53 a week when housing benefit and other payments are taken into account).
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