Category: Science and Technology

I woke up recently to a Times headline: “Crime spree by Met Police officers waved through in diversity push.” As you can imagine, a headline like that got my spidey senses tingling! The article began: “A diversity panel at Britain’s biggest police force overturned vetting refusals, which led to rogue officers and staff committing rapes, assaults […]

Yes, young people have too much pressure and expectation and it feels like nobody listens to you. We get it and we want to help. Share your voice, get published, and pocket some (not much) cash in the South West Future Journalists Awards.  West Country Voices, Totnes Pulse and the PRSD have put their collective […]

What decades of research (and millions of children in Sweden and Japan) really tell us about acetaminophen and pregnancy. It’s been a couple of weeks since Trump and RFK Junior told the world that acetaminophen (aka Tylenol or paracetamol) use in pregnancy causes Autism. Thankfully, there was considerable pushback from doctors and scientists worldwide. I want to bring […]

I used to work in an environment in which the attitude of some senior colleagues was to disrespect and undervalue the knowledge and skills of those who worked for them, on the basis, apparently, that “I didn’t need it to get to where I am!”. That seems to describe a certain US president. It is […]

We could probably do with a break from Trump this weekend, and when I saw this tweet over on X, with 5000 likes and 3,600 comments – overflowing with anti-Muslim rhetoric, it felt like a classic example of a post designed to make you think: “That’s outrageous!” Which, of course, is precisely the point. So let’s look […]

I can’t imagine a life in which home education didn’t play a major part. Since 2012 my life has been inextricably linked with the home educating community; from beginning my own home-ed journey at the age of 13, to now supporting the community with educational resources and opportunities alongside my Mum. The decision my parents […]

Could there have been a more topical time to focus on social media disinformation? The day after Donald Trump was sworn in (again) as US President, a live online event on the issue took place, co-organised by West Country Voices. We saw how Elon Musk’s X became a MAGA mouthpiece during Trump’s 2024 election campaign, […]

Following what I thought was a simple online search, I learnt an important lesson about the trustworthiness, or otherwise, of AI. I asked Google the simple question; “Does ITV get money from the TV licence?” I was fairly certain that it doesn’t but wanted to double check before making that claim online. And as is […]

A few days ago, George Monbiot posted that he was considering leaving the site and suggested that maybe we all leave in a co-ordinated fashion. We agreed and the original thought was that a mass exodus on Inauguration Day might make a point. But….and it’s a big but… the idea of hanging around a moment […]

The government’s recent proposal to drop any cap on the number of pupils that state-funded faith schools can select on the basis of their parent’s belief has brought arguments back into focus about the role religious organisations play in running parts of our education system. The UK is one of only four OECD countries that […]

Fellow citizen-journalist editor, Peter Shearn of Totnes Pulse, contacted me to see if I would like to interview the secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan. Apparently she had elected to kill two birds with one stone and give a ‘puff’ to the government’s free childcare for two-year-olds, and (presumably) to the re-election chances of […]

The Chancellor is due to announce his Autumn Statement on November 22. Truss will apparently also announce her own so-called ‘Budget for Growth’. This is an open letter to the Economics Editors of our major newspapers and broadcast media setting out a few suggestions for how to analyse the Budget(s) in a way which accurately […]

It was a surprise when one of the big new announcements made by a desperate Rishi Sunak at the Conservative Party Conference was a reform of further education. It was less of a surprise that the proposal was hastily conceived and not thought through. Calling a qualification designed for England an Advanced British Standard illustrates […]

Since Labour announced their plans to either remove the charitable status of private schools, or add VAT to school fees, social media and right-wing outlets have been awash with people claiming it wouldn’t raise any money in reality, or it would cause untold private schools failing and ‘flooding’ the state sector with students. I thought […]

Dear Editor, I have sent this response to the BBC, after their wholly inadequate response to my complaint about the lack of coverage of the big rejoin march in London on September 23: I am incensed and insulted by the generic, risible, unsubstantiated and facile response to my original complaint. “BBC News is unable to […]

On Saturday 23 September, tens of thousands of people marched from Hyde Park to Parliament Square to listen to speakers including former prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt and Gina Miller, who has repeatedly stepped up to defend democracy and the rule of law. The BBC did not cover the march or rally, choosing instead […]

Dear Editor, The British Science Festival is running in Exeter from September 7 – 10, co-hosted by the University with events happening across the weekend both on campus and in the city centre.  This celebration of science links quite neatly to today’s announcement on the UK finally reaching agreement on membership of the EU’s Horizon […]

So here we are again. In the middle of yet another ‘how long have they known and why did they do nothing about it’ saga. The RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) scandal demonstrates the same callous disregard for the lives outside the circles of the privileged few as did the care home tragedy during Covid. […]

Dozens of UK councils face bankruptcy in 2026. In response, the government is forcing them to slash their Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) budgets. This will needlessly put at risk thousands of SEND children. The plan won’t work. But there’s a simple way out. How did this crisis arise? Since 2010, local authorities have […]

Rishi Sunk has said that this year’s public sector pay awards have been agreed in full but with no new or additional funding to cover them. There is literally no economic sense in this whatsoever. Pay rises of around 6 per cent for education and health have been announced – with there being no room […]

Dear Editor, I am appalled by the Phillip Schofield scandal. Not (absolutely not) by the behaviour of Schofield himself – who seems to have done nothing worse than what innumerable other men in positions of power have done, and continue to do, usually without any reckoning – but by the behaviour of the media, in […]

The head teacher of a Devon primary school wrote to us as follows: Since the first lockdown in March 2020, leaders and governors in our school have prioritised the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children, staff and families, recognising the far-reaching consequences of the pandemic for all members of our school community. We have […]

Colleen Bower has a mission. With her background in education, she is concerned that young people in South Somerset – a largely rural population – are missing out on experience of, and access to, Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM subjects). Over time, she has got together with local councillors and many organisations and businesses […]

The social media platform has become a fully weaponised promotional tool for far-right content, toxic conspiracy theories and cryptocurrency scams. And Putin’s regime is loving it, writes Tom Scott.  Like millions of other Twitter users, I logged on to my account a couple of days ago to find that the familiar blue bird logo on […]

Dear Editor, I got an email from the Secretary of State for Education today (Gillian Keegan) basically saying that if we don’t agree what they’ve proposed, the offer is withdrawn and the £1000 one-off payment (which is in lieu of an award for this year) won’t be on the table. (Incidentally, that one-off payment is […]

Dear Editor, Once again, I find myself in complete agreement with the analysis of one of your contributors (Jim Grace, writing about the Conservatives’ capture of the BBC). Although I don’t watch Match of the Day, following the Lineker debacle I made a formal complaint to the BBC about long-term right-wing bias within that organisation. […]

Dear Tobias Ellwood, I was a social worker before I had to resign to care for my son, who has additional needs and high anxiety, and I’m currently on Income Support and Carer’s Allowance, as he struggles with school attendance. I have encountered parent blame, particularly prior to my son’s diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder […]

Somerset’s politicians can’t sneak anything past Mick Fletcher when it comes to further and adult education… Tucked away at chapter 12, in a document only of interest to specialists in further education, is evidence of another quiet failure of Tory dogma. In a routine administrative update from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) two […]

Mick Fletcher on another back-of-the-envelope policy. There are some huge issues in the Prime Minister’s in-tray. The health service is facing its worst ever crisis; the economic cost of Brexit is increasingly evident and falling living standards are driving mounting social unrest. In a rational world it would make no sense at all for Rishi […]

Dear Editor Our exports are falling, farmers are discouraged from farming, fishermen from fishing, miners from mining, windfarms are blocked, and the London Stock Exchange has been overtaken by Paris. There is, however, still one profitable sector where the UK is genuinely a world leader – and Bournemouth is its second most important base. Publishing, entertainment, tourism, hospitality, […]