The new Great British Energy will be given £8.3 bn of public money with a target of generating 20/30GW of electricity by 2030 (i.e. within this parliament). Much of this is via a tie up with. the Crown Estates (and a significant cash bonus for the Winsors!). The tie up will allow the new company to borrow money outside the fiscal restraints of the Treasury’s self-imposed limits. The company is modelled on EDF (although with a fraction of the financial power). It is hoped that the move will create another £60bn of investment by private companies. Personally I am disappointed at the lack of policy on insulation and household solar panels. However one step at a time! Ed Miliband seems prepared to become a champion of clean energy – let us hope other cabinet appointees show the same enthusiasm for their briefs – no more mass cabinet reshuffles (with subsequent pay offs!). Instead lets have professionals who understand the needs of their Department. In a school would Heads of Department be shuffled, say between, Home Economics, PE, Science, English and Geography? Of course not – but that is what has happened for the last 14 years with the incumberants only interested in their own careers.
Education – talking to my grandson – he stated that Reform won in a mock election in every year group. This made me think! 12-18 year olds are most exposed to porn – is there an Andrew Tate impact? If so there is a very real problem! If the next generation are swayed towards the misongystic, racist bollocks he spouts, and which is then retweeted by Reform MP’s we as a society need to counter this. It has made me think about my time as an educator – did I do enough to get children to think about the society they want to live in?
This should start with the home – what sort of environment do they want to grow up in? What responsibilities and duties does each individual have within it? Then the local area with the same questions of responsibilities and duties but now including a larger sample of perhaps relatives, neighbours but also users of facilities like parks and businesses like shops.
The questions basically become the same as the scale is increased to regional, nation, country and international levels. This would encourage critical thinking, could be neutral (I am sure Reform Brochures could be used in most situations!). I am sure that the vast majority of students would want a society that is empathetic and kind, that rewards hard work and respects the environment and others.