Politicians, Peter and Paula

I was chatting recently to a friend who lives in France.  We were musing sadly over the state of a country which we both love - she as a long-term resident, me as a sometime resident and frequent visitor.  The French economy is in poor shape, they have major social fractures, French culture seems to have lost its cutting edge;  and the political situation is dire, from almost every angle. There was an interesting recent piece by a political journalist (I'm afraid I can't remember who it was) which argued that the French presidency was designed by de Gaulle for himself; more or less worked for him for most of…
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Learners’ achievements

Today will be full of news about A level results and what is happening to student access to higher education.  I hope at least some attention will be paid to the continuing plunge in mature student enrolments, and especially to the way in which part-time higher education has been harshly squeezed over the last years, but the focus will be on school leavers.  My firm bet is that a count of the images used in the press reports on exam results will show a big majority of girls.  One reason of course is that papers find them more photogenic , and they probably smile more easily than boys;  but another…
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Citizen’s Income and its relevance

I've just finished reading Money for Everyone by Malcolm Torry.  It's an exhaustive, and quite exhausting, account of the case for a Citizen's Income - a basic unconditional payment to be made to every citizen -  man, woman and child.  A simpler version of the case is available from www.citizensincome.org.uk. The CI would bring together our current tax and benefits systems - if they can be described as such.  Torry goes into gruesome detail on the complexities of the benefits system.  He shows how strong the incentives are for people to cheat.  The complexity and perversities of the 'system' are such that anyone with an unstable earnings record is likely to…
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Wikipedia and (self-)promotion

I watched Jimmy Wales being interviewed on Newsnight last night.    They are aiming to increase the diversity of their contributors, on gender and other dimensions.  He said that only 9-14% of the contributors to Wikipedia are women.I found this figure surprisingly low, and wondered what the reasons for it might be.  The most likely seems to me to be to do with self-confidence:  women are less likely to consider themselves authoritative enough to provide an entry, or to correct others' entries - even though there is no entry barrier to contributing, as far as I know.           A few days ago I interviewed Ann Oakley.…
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Politicians, Peter and Paula

I was chatting recently to a friend who lives in France.  We were musing sadly over the state of a country which we both love - she as a long-term resident, me as a sometime resident and frequent visitor.  The French economy is in poor shape, they have major social fractures, French culture seems to have lost its cutting edge;  and the political situation is dire, from almost every angle. There was an interesting recent piece by a political journalist (I'm afraid I can't remember who it was) which argued that the French presidency was designed by de Gaulle for himself; more or less worked for him for most of…
Read More

Learners’ achievements

Today will be full of news about A level results and what is happening to student access to higher education.  I hope at least some attention will be paid to the continuing plunge in mature student enrolments, and especially to the way in which part-time higher education has been harshly squeezed over the last years, but the focus will be on school leavers.  My firm bet is that a count of the images used in the press reports on exam results will show a big majority of girls.  One reason of course is that papers find them more photogenic , and they probably smile more easily than boys;  but another…
Read More

Citizen’s Income and its relevance

I've just finished reading Money for Everyone by Malcolm Torry.  It's an exhaustive, and quite exhausting, account of the case for a Citizen's Income - a basic unconditional payment to be made to every citizen -  man, woman and child.  A simpler version of the case is available from www.citizensincome.org.uk. The CI would bring together our current tax and benefits systems - if they can be described as such.  Torry goes into gruesome detail on the complexities of the benefits system.  He shows how strong the incentives are for people to cheat.  The complexity and perversities of the 'system' are such that anyone with an unstable earnings record is likely to…
Read More

Wikipedia and (self-)promotion

I watched Jimmy Wales being interviewed on Newsnight last night.    They are aiming to increase the diversity of their contributors, on gender and other dimensions.  He said that only 9-14% of the contributors to Wikipedia are women.I found this figure surprisingly low, and wondered what the reasons for it might be.  The most likely seems to me to be to do with self-confidence:  women are less likely to consider themselves authoritative enough to provide an entry, or to correct others' entries - even though there is no entry barrier to contributing, as far as I know.           A few days ago I interviewed Ann Oakley.…
Read More

Politicians, Peter and Paula

I was chatting recently to a friend who lives in France.  We were musing sadly over the state of a country which we both love - she as a long-term resident, me as a sometime resident and frequent visitor.  The French economy is in poor shape, they have major social fractures, French culture seems to have lost its cutting edge;  and the political situation is dire, from almost every angle. There was an interesting recent piece by a political journalist (I'm afraid I can't remember who it was) which argued that the French presidency was designed by de Gaulle for himself; more or less worked for him for most of…
Read More

Learners’ achievements

Today will be full of news about A level results and what is happening to student access to higher education.  I hope at least some attention will be paid to the continuing plunge in mature student enrolments, and especially to the way in which part-time higher education has been harshly squeezed over the last years, but the focus will be on school leavers.  My firm bet is that a count of the images used in the press reports on exam results will show a big majority of girls.  One reason of course is that papers find them more photogenic , and they probably smile more easily than boys;  but another…
Read More

Citizen’s Income and its relevance

I've just finished reading Money for Everyone by Malcolm Torry.  It's an exhaustive, and quite exhausting, account of the case for a Citizen's Income - a basic unconditional payment to be made to every citizen -  man, woman and child.  A simpler version of the case is available from www.citizensincome.org.uk. The CI would bring together our current tax and benefits systems - if they can be described as such.  Torry goes into gruesome detail on the complexities of the benefits system.  He shows how strong the incentives are for people to cheat.  The complexity and perversities of the 'system' are such that anyone with an unstable earnings record is likely to…
Read More

Wikipedia and (self-)promotion

I watched Jimmy Wales being interviewed on Newsnight last night.    They are aiming to increase the diversity of their contributors, on gender and other dimensions.  He said that only 9-14% of the contributors to Wikipedia are women.I found this figure surprisingly low, and wondered what the reasons for it might be.  The most likely seems to me to be to do with self-confidence:  women are less likely to consider themselves authoritative enough to provide an entry, or to correct others' entries - even though there is no entry barrier to contributing, as far as I know.           A few days ago I interviewed Ann Oakley.…
Read More

Politicians, Peter and Paula

I was chatting recently to a friend who lives in France.  We were musing sadly over the state of a country which we both love - she as a long-term resident, me as a sometime resident and frequent visitor.  The French economy is in poor shape, they have major social fractures, French culture seems to have lost its cutting edge;  and the political situation is dire, from almost every angle. There was an interesting recent piece by a political journalist (I'm afraid I can't remember who it was) which argued that the French presidency was designed by de Gaulle for himself; more or less worked for him for most of…
Read More

Learners’ achievements

Today will be full of news about A level results and what is happening to student access to higher education.  I hope at least some attention will be paid to the continuing plunge in mature student enrolments, and especially to the way in which part-time higher education has been harshly squeezed over the last years, but the focus will be on school leavers.  My firm bet is that a count of the images used in the press reports on exam results will show a big majority of girls.  One reason of course is that papers find them more photogenic , and they probably smile more easily than boys;  but another…
Read More

Citizen’s Income and its relevance

I've just finished reading Money for Everyone by Malcolm Torry.  It's an exhaustive, and quite exhausting, account of the case for a Citizen's Income - a basic unconditional payment to be made to every citizen -  man, woman and child.  A simpler version of the case is available from www.citizensincome.org.uk. The CI would bring together our current tax and benefits systems - if they can be described as such.  Torry goes into gruesome detail on the complexities of the benefits system.  He shows how strong the incentives are for people to cheat.  The complexity and perversities of the 'system' are such that anyone with an unstable earnings record is likely to…
Read More

Wikipedia and (self-)promotion

I watched Jimmy Wales being interviewed on Newsnight last night.    They are aiming to increase the diversity of their contributors, on gender and other dimensions.  He said that only 9-14% of the contributors to Wikipedia are women.I found this figure surprisingly low, and wondered what the reasons for it might be.  The most likely seems to me to be to do with self-confidence:  women are less likely to consider themselves authoritative enough to provide an entry, or to correct others' entries - even though there is no entry barrier to contributing, as far as I know.           A few days ago I interviewed Ann Oakley.…
Read More