Chris Whiteside's Blog

Today the UK government  published  plans to reduce illegal deforestation and protect rainforests. These include reducing negative effects on the world ecology from the UK economy by creating a world-leading new law to clean up the UK’s supply chains, ensuring we continue to protect our vital forests and support livelihoods as we build back greener from coronavirus.  There is a hugely important connection between the products we buy and their wider environmental footprint, and our proposed legislation will make clear that illegally produced commodities have no place in the UK market, as we build back greener.   That is why the government proposes to make it illegal for larger businesses operating in the UK to use products grown on land that was deforested illegally, with businesses required to carry out due diligence on their supply chains by publishing information to show where key commodities came from and that they were produced in line with local laws protecting ...

The government has announced that the Northern Powerhouse is stepping up to transform the production of PPE (personal protective equipment), by joining the national drive to provide millions of protective equipment to our health and care workers heroes. As part of the Make initiative to harness the production power of the UK’s manufacturing sector to deliver PPE equipment, we have awarded contracts to three companies in Yorkshire and Manchester to produce and deliver more PPE to health and social care staff. To date, over 2.9 billion items of PPE have been delivered to the frontline and are working with more than 130 companies including the Royal Mint, Amazon and the Royal Mail to source, manufacture or deliver millions of items at scale and pace. All part of building a more resilient UK-based supply chain that will guarantee an interrupted flow of PPE to the frontline. The response by UK companies and manufacturers to our national drive has been phenomenal, and while we work to keep t...

Our local MP, Trudy Harrison has today started her Virtual Skills Fair!  This showcases the range of careers and skills in our patch.   It starts with Architect Allard Newell. 👍

The government is today announcing a multi-million pound package to  help schools boost early language skills  for those in Reception – ensuring no child is left behind as a result of the coronavirus.  Research shows that children who start school with poor vocabulary are twice as likely to be unemployed as an adult, and it is vital that we focus on raising outcomes among those whose education has been disrupted by the coronavirus at a crucial time for their development.   That’s why the government is delivering up to £9 million through the new Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme –providing schools with training and resources for five-year-olds, helping them deliver one-to-one and small-group support. This is part our National Tutoring Programme – a key pillar of the £1 billion Covid catch-up package.   Britain cannot afford for our youngest children to lose out, which is why we are focused on improving early language skills for the Reception children...

Today,  the Prime Minister has made a direct appeal  to parents to return their children to the classroom when schools reopen next week.  The Prime Minister has previously spoken of the moral duty to reopen schools to all pupils safely, and he has thanked the school staff who have spent the summer months making classrooms Covid-secure in preparation for a full return in September.    the government has always sought to be guided by scientific and medical experts, who now know far more about coronavirus than was the case earlier this year.    As the Chief Medical Officer has said, the risk of contracting Covid-19 in school is very small and it is far more damaging for a child’s development and their health and well-being to be away from school any longer.    A Public Health England study , published yesterday, shows that just 0.01 per cent of pre-schools and primary schools had an outbreak in June – all of which were successfully contained and...

 

 

'This is a virus that is going to be with us forever in some form or another and almost certainly will require repeated vaccinations.'   'So, a bit like flu, people will need re-vaccination at regular intervals.'  ( Professor Sir Mark Walport , who is a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and was government chief scientific adviser from 2013 to 2017, speaking on BBC Radio 4 this morning. This was put forward as an opinion, not something he is suggesting is proved, but this is an illustration that the awareness of all of  us- not just governments or officials but everyone - of public health risks needs to be much greater on a permanent basis. This is one sense in which things should never be allowed to go back to what we regarded as "normal" before the pandemic.)

 Latest briefing on the grades and university/college place position received this morning reads as follows. "Yesterday,  we offered students reassurances  on their university places and took action to lift the cap on medical and teaching courses for the coming academic year.  This has been an incredibly difficult time for students - we want to reassure them that every effort is being made to make sure all those who planned to can move on to higher education.   Following discussions with the higher education sector we have agreed that all students who achieved the required grades will be offered a place at their first choice university this coming year wherever possible, or if maximum capacity is reached to offer an alternative course or a deferred place. To support this commitment, we have also lifted the cap on domestic medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and undergraduate teacher training places.   Additional teaching grant funding will also be provi...

More nurses have been recruited as the government continues to make progress towards the election promise to deliver a net change of 50,000 in the number of nurses through increased recruitment of 30,000 and increased retention of 20,000. New statistics released yesterday revealed that the  number of nurses  working in the NHS is now at a record level.  The coronavirus pandemic has confirmed what we already knew – that our NHS and all the wonderful people who work for the NHS deliver superlative care, and we must strive to make sure that this continues.   That is why the government has been taking action to ensure our NHS has the staff it needs to keep people safe, and new statistics show that these efforts have been paying off, with 13,840 more nurses compared to last year, and 9,306 more doctors.   The government has protected the NHS, and we are investing record sums into the NHS, hiring more doctors and nurses so that the NHS is always there for people and t...

To speed up the delivery of major public projects, the government has today announced the creation of a  new Acceleration Unit , which will speed up the delivery of transport projects across our nation as we build back better from COVID-19.  As the UK begins to get moving again, we must ensure that we are driving those much needed infrastructure projects at a pace our country deserves – creating jobs and levelling-up across all corners of the UK.   This new team of specialists will make sure projects stay on time, tackling delays and ensuring the delivery of high-quality projects. The creation of this Unit comes alongside a £360 million investment in our roads and railways which will help drive our economic recovery from coronavirus – ensuring we build back better, greener and faster in the future.   The plan is to accelerate Britain’s recovery by investing in vital infrastructure that will help get businesses back on their feet, create jobs to replace those that hav...

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed."  There are a vast number of falsely attributed quotes, supposedly from Albert Einstein which he never actually said or wrote, to be found on the internet. However, the above quote really is by Einstein , from his 1930 essay, " The world as I see it ."

Today students receive their  final GCSE results based on teacher assessed grades .   This has been an extraordinarily difficult year for young people who have been unable to take their exams due to the coronavirus outbreak.    Although coronavirus caused the cancellation of exams and has overshadowed the annual celebration of results day, the government wanta to ensure that the vast majority of students are able to continue with their dreams of furthering their studies or entering the workplace.    In March, the scientific and medical advice from SAGE and the great majority of other experts was to close schools to protect the NHS and save lives – but every young person waiting for their results wants to know they have been treated fairly, and that they won’t be disadvantaged through any fault of their own.   That is why Ofqual, in agreement with Government, on Monday decided to award students the grades which schools and colleges assessed they we...

 

The Environment Secretary has  announced  plans to use ambitious, legally-binding environmental targets to ensure that Britain can build back greener from coronavirus, better able to combat the environmental and climate challenges we face. Outside the EU, the UK has the opportunity to set its own course and take ambitious action to protect the environment for future generations.   As part of the landmark Environment Bill currently making its way through Parliament, the government will introduce at least one long-term target in four priority areas to deliver significant and lasting environmental improvements, including in cleaner air, cleaner water, less waste and more biodiversity.   These ambitious targets will help the UK to build back better and greener after coronavirus, guaranteeing lasting progress on some of the biggest environmental challenges facing us today.

  Today, the Education Secretary has  announced  £200 million to repair and refurbish college buildings and campuses, as part of our work to overhaul further education, levelling up skills and opportunities for more people across the country. We need to build a world-class further education system, and a key part of this is ensuring that colleges have the facilities and brand-new buildings they need to deliver it.   The government will provide £200 million to begin immediate work from this September to repair and refurbish buildings and campuses at more than 180 colleges across England. The cash boost is part of the £1.5 billion pledged by the Chancellor at the last Budget to transform further education over the next five years.    Further education will play a crucial role as we recover from coronavirus, supporting students to gain the skills they need to find jobs and helping the economy to recover and grow.

Obviously the U-turns of the last few days, while they were in my opinion the only possible course of action, have put Universities and colleges in a challenging position. I've had a briefing note on what the government is doing about this, which reads as follows. "We are working closely with the higher education sector to address the challenges facing universities and provide as much support as we can. Following the move to award students centre assessed grades, we have established a new taskforce which is meeting daily to urgently address universities’ concerns.   We are supporting universities, including by announcing our intention to remove temporary student number controls and working with them to help them prioritise students and uphold their first choice either this coming year, or as a last resort the following year.   We are also working to ensure capacity issues for certain regulated courses, such as medicine, dentistry and nursing, are resolved quickly."

  Yesterday, the Health Secretary  announced  the creation of a new National Institute for Health Protection, in order to give us the best chance of beating coronavirus, and of being ready to respond to other health threats both now and in the future. The coronavirus pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge for our health system, and it is vital that we give ourselves the best chance of beating this virus once and for all.   We have created a National Institute for Health Protection, bringing together the expertise of Public Health England with the enormous response capabilities of NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre, to ensure we are able to control infectious diseases and deal with pandemics both now and in the future.   This brand-new approach to public health will put us in the best possible position for the next stage of the fight against coronavirus and for the long term.

Following on from my quote of the day this morning, here is an example of a lesson to learn from the events of the last two weeks in UK politics, in each of the four countries of the UK, in respect of student grades. A lgorithms and rules, whether programmed into a computer or used by humans, can be very valuable when used correctly but are only as good as the data put into them and cannot be used to make sound decisions when the detailed data they would require to make those decisions does not exist.

"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.