Andrew Simpson, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Northampton North, has called on the County Council to shelve plans for Weston Favell school to become an Academy. This is after the Council delayed for a second month a decision on the

Whilst I'm getting into the swing of the human biology course, the cardiovascular diseases one is something else together.In principle, the human biology course as a level 2, 30 point course should clearly be harder than the cardiovascular diseases courses

The Vanessa George affair showed the major weakness of the CRB system ie that you'll get an "all clear" if you haven't been caught yet.However, the various schools are required to have the CRB check done on anyone who comes

I've been weaning everyone off Windows over the past year so we're getting into the first multi-computer upgrade of Ubuntu.One of the problems seems to be that an Ubuntu upgrade seems to take forever if you've been installing bits and

When John started school this year he only went to noon which wasn't too bad as it gave us a sensible break before needing to go back for James at 2.30pm.However, they changed that to a 1.30pm finish for John

With the incredibly long-winded process of passing the Lisbon Treaty now seemingly complete, and with the resultant reluctant climb-down by the Conservative party on its promise to hold a referendum on said treaty, the British relationship with the EU has

Social democrats need to move beyond neoliberalism to find new ways of promoting the well-being of ordinary citizens.The crisis of neoliberal capitalism was widely supposed to be a huge opportunity for the mainstream left, in Europe and elsewhere. Having been

Jerry Cohen's camping-trip fable offers a down-to-earth approach to social-democratic principles. Being a socialist often requires a leap of faith. Though there are real institutions we can point to that at least in part embody key socialist values such as

David Cameron has just made a speech in which he signified a massive U-turn on his 'cast iron' referendum scheme for the Lisbon Treaty, by abandoning the referendum itself (a breathtaking demonstration of hypocrisy in action), and instead rashly promising

Social democrats need to work more closely together in Europe to reassert a policy agenda reflective of their values.Social-democratic parties are not dominating decision-making in Europe. The recent gain in Greece was matched with losses in Germany and Bulgaria, and

A rejuvenation of the party-trade union link could play an important part in the recovery of European social democracy. Coinciding with the biggest financial crisis since the second world war, and an economic crisis whose full consequences have yet to

Since I wrote the blogpost "One of the 3 top EU jobs must be held by a woman" early October, I've been delighted to see that the idea of a woman at one of the top EU jobs has gained

Social democracy will only be able to sustain a social Europe through strengthening European democratic institutions.German Social Democrats are lucky. Although in September they received their lowest vote in a federal election since the war- 23 per cent - things

In spite of their rhetoric, the right's solutions to the crisis will lead to ordinary people paying the costs.This past year has been overshadowed by the dark clouds of economic crisis. Ordinary people have taken many hard knocks. Unemployment is