Every quarter I do a brief update on the substack, about how things are going, and what will be coming up over the next few months. Welcome to the 7,000 of you or so who have signed up since the last update, we’re nearly up to 30,000 now. Thank you to all of you and especially those paying, you make it possible for us both to spend significant amounts of our time on this.
Speaking of political messes, how about a guest article on Northern Ireland's politics and Brexit? If memory serves, a minority British Conservative government in need of DUP support, played no small part in the current post-Brexit impasse.
A post on Northern Ireland would be very interesting - has the new Windsor framework solved the Brexit problems? Is what seems like an increase in violence (from the outside having not been to N.I for years now) going to sustain or will it peter out with the right policy and getting the assembly/Stormont back to work? Rise of Sinn Fein across Ireland etc. So much to touch on so can appreciate it won't be an easy or quick to put together (probably would need several and will be diving in to Bertie Aherns podcast on the GFA).
Hi Sam. Congratulations on the book - it sounds like it will be very worthwhile.
I've got a request - for a piece on the Covid-related GCSE and A Level (and other qualifications too? Not sure what Covid did to BTECs etc) grade inflation and how OFQUAL and the exam boards might ever be able to get back to 2019 levels. (And maybe whether that's even a good thing to aim for. )
I must admit a personal interest (my son is doing his A Levels next month) and because my ear is to the ground I think I'm picking up the beginnings of another pushback against the stated aim of returning to 2019 levels of As and A stars; on Mumsnet and elsewhere I can see the rumblings beginning. And really, how can this process ever be 'fair', whether it's a cliff edge or increments? Even if we wait ten years, there will always be cohorts who can quite reasonably say that they're being comparatively disadvantaged.
But I think most of all I'm interested to know whether you think another U-turn might be on the horizon, motivated by the short-term urge to avoid pissing off this year's cohort of parents.
My guess is they will try to stick to their guns now and the only chance of a u-turn would be a concerted campaign in friendly papers - most likely Telegraph and Times.
Came for your posts on policy and politics, and stayed for that too, but have been a little surprised by how I've been sucked in to really enjoying the posts on the Ukraine war. Deeply insightful to someone with no understanding of the complexities that are entangled in there. Well worth the money (especially compared to some other substacks whom post far less and much shorter pieces and want [to me] quite wild sums!).
Speaking of political messes, how about a guest article on Northern Ireland's politics and Brexit? If memory serves, a minority British Conservative government in need of DUP support, played no small part in the current post-Brexit impasse.
You could call it Schroedinger's Border
A post on Northern Ireland would be very interesting - has the new Windsor framework solved the Brexit problems? Is what seems like an increase in violence (from the outside having not been to N.I for years now) going to sustain or will it peter out with the right policy and getting the assembly/Stormont back to work? Rise of Sinn Fein across Ireland etc. So much to touch on so can appreciate it won't be an easy or quick to put together (probably would need several and will be diving in to Bertie Aherns podcast on the GFA).
Hi Sam. Congratulations on the book - it sounds like it will be very worthwhile.
I've got a request - for a piece on the Covid-related GCSE and A Level (and other qualifications too? Not sure what Covid did to BTECs etc) grade inflation and how OFQUAL and the exam boards might ever be able to get back to 2019 levels. (And maybe whether that's even a good thing to aim for. )
I must admit a personal interest (my son is doing his A Levels next month) and because my ear is to the ground I think I'm picking up the beginnings of another pushback against the stated aim of returning to 2019 levels of As and A stars; on Mumsnet and elsewhere I can see the rumblings beginning. And really, how can this process ever be 'fair', whether it's a cliff edge or increments? Even if we wait ten years, there will always be cohorts who can quite reasonably say that they're being comparatively disadvantaged.
But I think most of all I'm interested to know whether you think another U-turn might be on the horizon, motivated by the short-term urge to avoid pissing off this year's cohort of parents.
Thanks - I wrote a report about this for Institute for Government in 2021 anticipating this problem and proposing that they rebased at 2021 levels but that suggestion was not taken up! https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/report/covid-tests-schools-and-exams-2022-and-beyond
My guess is they will try to stick to their guns now and the only chance of a u-turn would be a concerted campaign in friendly papers - most likely Telegraph and Times.
Came for your posts on policy and politics, and stayed for that too, but have been a little surprised by how I've been sucked in to really enjoying the posts on the Ukraine war. Deeply insightful to someone with no understanding of the complexities that are entangled in there. Well worth the money (especially compared to some other substacks whom post far less and much shorter pieces and want [to me] quite wild sums!).
Thank you very much. I will have a read of your report!