Diane Abbott says a wealth tax of 2% on people with assets over £10m would raise £24bn a year
Amanda Spielman, the former head of Ofsted, has accused the government of putting the interests of teaching unions ahead of the needs of pupils.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, she launched a wide-ranging attack on the eduction secretary, Bridget Phillipson, arguing that her policies would put educational improvement in England into reverse.
There is much interest from other countries in what has been achieved in England, and in learning from us. Just in the past year I have been working in Flanders and in the UAE, visited Australia, and talked to people in Poland and the USA. They are as astonished as I am by the speed and thoroughness with which Bridget Phillipson has moved to dismantle every main pillar of the system.
It is hard to understand the motivation, beyond being seen to be different, though the new minister is clearly giving a great deal of time and attention to the desires and demands of unions. And alas, unions will always defend the interests of the adults in
schools over those of children.
The schools bill will cut the autonomy of schools and school groups right back, even though this has clearly been a contributor to system success. A better first step would have been a proper evaluation to see which dimensions of autonomy should be protected and which need adjusting …
It will probably take a while for parents to see through the polished verbiage and jazz hands that accompany every announcement. But unless they do see through it, and exert enough pressure to counteract union dominance, it is current and future generations of children – the people who were most harmed by lockdowns – who will bear the brunt of these changes.
European economies will experience fewer direct economic effects from the tariff measures incorporated in the baseline projections, but heightened geopolitical and policy uncertainty is still likely to restrain growth. Euro area growth is projected to edge up from 0.7% in 2024 to 1.0% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026, with growth in the United Kingdom projected to be 1.4% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/mar/17/keir-starmer-labour-welfare-disability-cuts-latest-live-politics-news
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2025-03-17 11:49:00
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