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Monday 16 January 2012

Verity Murphy | 17:08 UK time, Monday, 16 January 2012

Tonight we lead on Syria. We will be hearing from Tim Whewell who has spent the last few days assessing the grassroots mood amongst supporters of President Assad and those who have been trying to oust him for the past 10 months, visiting the flashpoint city of Homs on a government-led tour and an anti-regime protest.

And in the studio we will be discussing what the international community should about the worsening crisis as David Cameron says that Syria should face UN-backed backed sanctions if it fails to halt its violent repression of the protests.

Also Liz MacKean reports on claims that some academy schools are unofficially pushing disruptive and failing students out to avoid affecting their league table standings.

We will discuss the claims and the plusses and minuses of academy schools with Vic Goddard, head teacher at Passmore's Academy, the school featured in the TV series Educating Essex, and prominent educator Katharine Birbalsingh.

Plus as the Daily Mirror's editor Richard Wallace tells the Leveson Inquiry that a hacked voicemail could have been the source of a scoop revealing Sven-Goran Eriksson's affair with Ulrika Jonsson, Richard Watson examines where the inquiry has got to so far and if there is any sense of where it is going.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    HAS ASSAD SAID ANYTHING TO DAVE ABOUT THE LIAR FLYER AND DAVE'S ILLEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT?

    The Conservatives issued a False Instrument in the 2010 election, which 10 (or more) SITTING MPs had delivered to UK homes. This Parliament is illegitimate, and Dave is a usurper. How fortunate he majors in gall and hypocrisy; Syria does not (as we do) hold itself up as a paragon of democracy and honour, to the world.

    Dave, of his own assertion, is sort of quite well disposed to Christianity; somebody ask him how he interprets the parable of the Moat and Beam.

    Nuff sed

  • Comment number 2.

    AND CHILCOT? A LITTLE HIGHER ON THE MACHIAVELLI-SCALE?

    How is Chilcot getting on? The Chilcot ENQUIRY. Are Campbell's pants still on fire? Has Mrs Powell written any new plays?

    Oh well, it was only a little war - mostly Johnnie Foreigner dispossessed, destroyed and distraught.

    Very small tea.

  • Comment number 3.

    A workmans viewpoint on wages and jobs here, or the lack of them...........

  • Comment number 4.

    Sounds like a great programme. Hope though that at some point you'll manage to do something on today's resignation of Tom Harris MP as Labour's Scottish Tweet Tsar for his foolish blog protraying Alex Salmond and the SNP as Hitler and his bunker staff? This is 'dog whistle politics' at its worst from an MP who just a few weeks back was aspiring to be Scottish Labour Leader. He must surely now lose the Whip and be a candidate for de-selection? Timing of this is also disastrous for the new Labour leader in Scotland given the stushie over the referendum - and it also comes when the Central London Employment Bureau judges are just about to hand down their verdict in an important case brought by a former British diplomat who was born in Germany and who allegedly had to put up with 'Nazi' abuse in British Embassy in Paris and who is now suing FCO, UK DfID and the British Embassy ...

  • Comment number 5.

  • Comment number 6.

    Notice how Tim Whewell only illicits comments from the very young and especially very young females in Syria.

    The young are easily seduced by the 'West's freedom'.

  • Comment number 7.

    MORE HECTORING OF JOHNNIE FOREIGNER BY KIRSTY

    Does she not know our standing as a global arms seller?

    Embarrassing.

  • Comment number 8.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 9.

    My word...Gareth Malone, move over and make way for the libertarian darling Ms K. Birbalsingh!

  • Comment number 10.

    Ecolizzy

    Immigration drives down wages for truckers, removes opportunities for the young to get experience as plumbers and electricians, so says the artical in your Guardian link.

    No way! reeeeeeeeally! I never would've guessed that Labours uncontrolled immigration would've had the effect of pushing out the indigenous of these Islands from employment opportunities.
    I occasionally had a gut feeling that was the case, I tried to engage some folk in discussion about my concerns -often in whisper - but I was picked up and sent to the Labour socialist gulags for re-education. I was often strapped to a chair and forced to watch ´óÏó´«Ã½ 24/7. I've since escaped and have been receiving professional help, he's really good. He's rid me of all memories of Eastenders, Skating on ice and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Looknorthwest propaganda local news programs...but sadly find myself still drawn to watching newsnight. My psychiatrist is somewhat puzzled. He observes me whilst I watch and thinks he has seen a pattern emerging. He calls its the Warkster effect. He reckons its the Scottish accent, he may be right.

    Sorry Ecolizzy, I went somewhere else there. Maybe I should up my medication a little.

    Academy schools
    : All must have prizes, dumbing down of education, leftwing radicals getting control of education, discipline removed from teachers where children control the class rooms with garbage teachers AKA overpaid professional child minders. Some of the thickest and most useless people I've ever meet are teachers...and trust me, I'm not bright, so what does that tell you. Its all Labours fault.. thinking they could manage schools with their failed Marxist dogma..idiots!

    Hacking:
    Other than twitching bent police, journos, disgruntled celebs, not to mention lawyers and other vermin..is there anybody else interested in this story?

  • Comment number 11.

    SCHOOL IS FOR FISH - AND SOME VERY SLIPPERY ONES BECOME HEADS

    I knew a headmaster, in the late '80s, who protected the IMAGE of his INSTITUTION above all other considerations. He replaced the PTA with a proscribed, fake group, that had no power to influence the school. He retained a very poor teacher whose pupils routinely took private tuition. Exam results avoided listing those who had been prevented from sitting, thus inflating apparent success, and they made no mention of private tuition.

    Am I to believe such men no longer become heads? If they take their lead from politicians, the chicanery won't stop there!

    Scanners have now revealed the damage British ‘culture’ (de-mothering) does to our babies. I predict that, before long, brain scans will show irreversible modification of young brains, attributable to SCHOOLING: showing most reduced to conformity, AND THE REST TO INSANITY.

    Not a subject for NewsyNighty.

  • Comment number 12.

    #10 Ah but Kev this wasn't an article by the Guardian, this was a real worker, (lorry driver) writing to complaining about this article...



    He was as angry as you or I am.

    p.s. yes upping the meds does help ; )

  • Comment number 13.

    #11 Yup Barrie agree about Headteachers, a lot of them in it for their own glory, or in one I know, their MBE!

    I think that is what's lacking in our education system these days, free spiritedness!

    Now I must write out a hundred times,

    I must conform...
    I must conform..........

  • Comment number 14.

  • Comment number 15.

    "..David Cameron says that Syria should face UN-backed backed sanctions.."

    would that he had enough backbone to call for "UN-backed sanctions" against Israel, Palestine needs our support. (as does Sudan and any number of 'regions' where vested interests collide)

    when will the ´óÏó´«Ã½ report on allegations that the Syrian crisis is financed and managed by US American agencies?

  • Comment number 16.

    'our support'

    Speaking of all-inclusivity, please 'do'...

    'we will be discussing what the international community should about the worsening crisis ... failing students ... and ...' standards?

    Richard Watson examines where the inquiry has got to so far and if there is any sense of where it is going

    The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has a handy guide already.

    /news/uk-16535724

    Oddly, two papers, the Mirror and Guardian, do not seem to be mentioned. Maybe it's based on ABC ratings, if not public-representational influence via broadcast quoting?

    SOURCE: ORAL AND WRITTEN EVIDENCE TO THE LEVESON INQUIRY... via ´óÏó´«Ã½ edit suite.

  • Comment number 17.

    'We will discuss the claims and the plusses and minuses of academy schools with Vic Goddard, head teacher at Passmore's Academy, the school featured in the TV series Educating Essex, and prominent educator Katharine Birbalsingh.

    ...but not the valued input of 'independent educational consultant Roger Titcombe'?



    This ''independent educational consultant Roger Titcombe'?:



    '...campaigner Roger Titcombe, a retired head teacher who used to run one of the schools the academy could replace.' Of the the group 'Our Schools Are Not For Sale (OSANFS)'?.

    Two rather different call-out box captions for who seems the same person.

    When sources say, and experts pronounce expertly (being featured in a TV series or being 'prominent' not necessarily meaning much in terms of objectivity or competence), it may be best viewed as the start of a journey to inform oneself, as those who presume to also educate, at just £145.30pa, can be... less than forthcoming on the totality of, and behind the story at times.

    Now, who could accuse who, of what?

  • Comment number 18.

    Guess what? Educational standards in 1898 were higher than those today. A modern day 6th former's command of the English language is only half the standard of a nine year old child of 1898. Shameful.

  • Comment number 19.

    Watching this now.

    /news/education-16587907

    Noting two talking heads that are allowed to pronounce at the outset, with no explanation of who they are.... only identified later... and in one case, again rather less extensively than might be considered honest.

    'Collecting figures... which suggest..' So... a ´óÏó´«Ã½ PR punt based on bias in favour of 'dark arts' ambulance chasing claimants and their grievance industry mates then?

    The notion of public one-on-one tuition for the feckless to complement their pole-dancing is also interesting, as most kids seem to have to put up with going to classes with others and paying attention to succeed.

    The emoting Ms. McKean bears careful watching, perhaps as much for what she leaves out as she chooses to frame in the the edit suite.

  • Comment number 20.

    OUR CULTURE HAS NO PLACE FOR SHAME 76

    One day I will write the full story of the Liar Flyer and the many defences of Westminster that prevent it being democratically challenged.

    No shame, no honour, no virtue, no integrity, no dignity, no altruism, no humility and NO ACCOUNTABILITY.

    Weep

  • Comment number 21.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 22.

    The Sacrificial Caste


    Especially note the second last paragraph

  • Comment number 23.

    NOT ALL DAMAGED CHLDREN LEAD SHORT DEPRIVED LIVES (#22 link)

    Monbiot: "But remember that this is not the only place in which governments endorse the damage done to children."

    Children of the privileged classes - routinely damaged - rise to the top of our Westminster-Ethos-based governance. And Westminster CHOSES ITS SUCCESSORS - MORE DAMAGED JUVENILES.

    This is doom institutionalised.

  • Comment number 24.

    #23 Ah good comment Barrie! As you say Dave heir to bliar!

    Until parents take full responsibility for their children and their upbringing and put their childrens needs before theirs, children will continue being damaged.

    And having such mixed race countries as ours and the US, no one standard is achieved, so each of us have people from around the world with different ideas of the value of children. Some exploit them, some neglect them, and some spoil them, some abuse and torture them, and with so many "experts" telling everyone how to live and what to do, I can't see any improvements on the way.

    There is no cohesion anywhere in this country anymore, no standards, no norms, they have all been taken away from us, by PC behaviour, extreme feminists and governments.

  • Comment number 25.

    Obviously no one involved in the piece on academies has children at state schools. Had they, they would have known that the real problem with state education and one that no one can easily fix, is the appalling behaviour of a small but significant minority. The young pole dancing girl who had been excluded was a very good example. She could have continued her education at the off-site class which most state schools have, but chose not to, she could have gone to a local college to continue her GCSE's, but chose not to, she wanted another go at the system in the same school, a school where she had admitted hitting a teacher, were we in all seriousness supposed to agree to such ludicrous demands? The idea of giving a child a new start at a new school is not new and it makes perfect sense and it works, what was so startling about it? Surely Newsnight of all programs could have researched this a little more. And surely someone (it was fairly obvious that Kirsty and Liz had little knowledge of the state system) at Newsnight sends their children to state schools? My son, has just finished 6 form at an inner city comprehensive not far from the newsnight studios, (the only comprehensive in the richest borough in the country), he mixed with the whole spectrum of British society from the richest to the poorest, and until he reached 6 form bad behaviour was the biggest problem. The school had money & committed teachers. But according to my son, a heck of a lot of time was spent dealing with violent and aggressive children. This invariably leads to less time being able to be spent on learning and it also leads leads to a high turnover of teachers.

  • Comment number 26.

    NATURE ABHORS A VACUUM - AND TRIES HARD TO WEED OUT DUFF CONCEPTIONS (#25)

    Meddling Man - on the other hand - has for many generations, tricked the reject-foetus into continued life. How many of these, might be possessed of faulty function, that expresses negatively - MAGNIFIED in the restrictive institution of school?

    Culture should reinforce Nature; school is bad enough for the 'OK' among us, its part in driving the reluctant cohort, to nihilism and madness, goes unchallenged. This factor is unquantified and - in the case of governance - unrepented.

    We should not elevate the vacuous to governance. The change of paradigm is way beyond Westminster Creatures.

  • Comment number 27.

    '25. At 17:07 17th Jan 2012, pengelli wrote:
    Obviously no one involved in the piece on academies has children at state schools.


    That is an interesting view, borne of evidently relevant experience.

    Which again brings to mind who, when the ´óÏó´«Ã½ and its many employees intone 'we want to hear your views', whose are offered, whose are sought, and whose make it through the edit suite to broadcast.

    That is, broadcast to mil... well, a few hundred thousand, while any alternative is consigned to an online backwater of hundreds.

    A concern around the message that goes out, and gets received, especially when complemented by 'expert' testimony of those who are less than objective, and/or identified in being so.

    I wonder who is the minority really, if by how well or accurately served, and if consigned to that role more by being silent or not fitting with the needs of the narrative.

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