AH

@RogersHistory Tell me you don’t understand private schools without telling me you don’t understand private schools…

I agree with her wholeheartedly on this. Sorry - It is a luxury and there is no reason whatsoever that private schools should get the breaks and privileges they have got used to.

@Miss_Snuffy Good results but the claim about the impact of grammar schools is absurd. The nearest grammars are half way across north London with combined annual admissions of <300, and scores of other secondaries closer to them than Michaela is.

Don’t forget that Michaela doesn’t get the top slice of kids. They go to the local grammar schools. Every top set of ours - majority of the kids sat the grammar school exams and did not get in. So they come to Michaela. Yet Eton got 53% grade 9s and we got 52%.

@Miss_Snuffy @miconm “Local” 🤣

QE boys and Henrietta Barnet. Both have selective tests and all of our top sets - most of the kids in them sit the tests and are not accepted. Often families who come to our open events, then get into one of the grammars and will then drop out of the application process for other Brent schools. To be clear, this doesn’t just affect us. It also affects the other Brent schools. When we have done Cat tests, very few (fewer than 5) get above 120. And that makes sense given the grammars.

@BrentToderian Duncan Gay was a stone cold moron. Sounds like Ontario has found a few of them too.

Years ago, while I was doing consulting work for the City of Sydney, Australia, there was an INFAMOUS day where a particularly bad state minister of transportation was stuck in traffic, and saw bike riders zoom by his limousine in a safe, protected bike-lane. He had a petty temper tantrum, and ordered that the bike-lane be ripped out. Those were people safely riding who would otherwise have been inside cars, making traffic even worse on that street. They were saving public money, improving their health (and public health costs), reducing pollution and emissions, improving their happiness and quality of life, enhancing their affordability, reducing noise, supporting businesses, reducing traffic congestion, and making more space for better streets and cities for everyone. That transportation minister didn’t understand urban transportation. He didn’t understand geometry. He sure didn’t understand the public interest. Or he did understand, but didn’t care. There were plenty of studies and evidence proving that bike-lanes in Sydney weren’t causing congestion. The bike-lane hadn’t even replaced a lane of car traffic! It replaced street parking, which ironically can contribute to street congestion. He wasted public money, put lives in danger, made the city less healthy, undermined the economic development success of the city, increased pollution, made congestion worse. and a lot more. All because he was petty. It was pretty much one of the dumbest, most damaging things I’ve ever seen a bad politician do. And that’s saying a lot. And now we have what’s happening with the Ford Government in Ontario, with his war on evidence-based decision making, bike-lanes and better cities. Sound familiar, Ontario? The good news? That Australian politician actually didn’t last very long in government.

@LouHaigh x.com/EllieChowns/st…

@IanDunt Moronic. Truly.

Sigh. Reeves becomes latest chancellor to refuse to increase fuel duty and retains supposedly temporary 5p cut. That's £3bn that could have been used on something more worthwhile than a petrified fear of the Sun.

Here we go. Budget is go, people. parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/f2…

@WG_RumblePants Not good enough @ECB_cricket

@tomhfh Unbelievably daft @UKLabour

BREAK: Starmer raises bus fare cap from £2 to £3

@PronouncedAlva No kidding. It’s nuts.

Politics would be much more honest if Labour had just said the country couldn't afford the national insurance cuts under Truss/Sunak, opposed them, and reversed them in office.

This train has FOUR carriages. It’s absurd.

@crosscountryuk if so many of your trains are clearly oversold perhaps you could add more carriages or run more trains? This Reading-Birmingham service is ridiculous, aisles packed all the way. Paying a small fortune for tickets to stand half way across the country is a joke.

@WallbanksSam @CrossCountryUK Reading to Birmingham is the same. People in the aisles through the whole train. @CrossCountryUK need to sort it out. Paying a small fortune for tickets to stand half way across the country…shambolic.

@daverich1 This is putrid @guardian

This Guardian review is a typical example of the liberal misconception that the worse Hamas atrocities become, so the more legitimate their grievances must be. As if there’s something wrong with sympathising with an Israeli child cowering in fear rather than the terrorists coming to kill her.

@JonathanBrash OK, but education issues deserve better than this kind of facile sloganeering.

Today, the Conservatives and their cheerleaders in Reform had the chance to bring a motion to parliament. Did they choose to talk about child poverty, the cuts to state schools, the crisis in children’s social care? No. They chose to talk about a tax subsidy for the well-off.

@haveigotnews @kevinbridges86 @helenlewis @ChloePetts Excited it’s back. But a disappointing show last night. Odd story selection and a poor lineup. Kevin struggled to lift it. Chloe not remotely funny.

@s8mb Essentially cost free. An open goal.

Prisons might be full, but there is no reason we can’t give more severe non-custodial punishments to dangerous criminals. I’d take away most of these people’s right to drive for the rest of their lives.

@pamck25 1. 🤨 2. 🥱 3. 🤣

1. The phone is likely being kept to incentivise students to return the tie. 2. “It’s only white socks” quickly leads to “it’s only a tie / blazer / trainers etc. The school either has a uniform policy or it doesn’t. 3. This child is being set up to fail in the workplace.

@LouHaigh OK, so manage it properly and BUILD IT then.

@FelicityBuchan Bye bye.

🚨BREAKING🚨 Sadiq Khan is pushing ahead with his disastrous plans for Holland Park Roundabout, ignoring the 3,500 residents who joined my campaign to stop him. This is what happens when you get a Labour MP that won’t stand up to a Labour Mayor - your voice is ignored.

@TheNewsAgents @Victoria_Spratt @maitlis @jonsopel Bizarre argument. Because a scheme that pumped up demand didn’t make housing more affordable, therefore increasing supply won’t either?

"Housing doesn't seem to function in the same way other assets do." Labour are promising to build 1.5M homes in the next 5 years. Housing journalist @Victoria_Spratt explains why this increased supply won't make homes any cheaper. @maitlis | @jonsopel