EDUCATION AFTER THE PANDEMIC: REFORM AND RENATIONALISATION

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged A-Level, assessment, BBC Bitesize, coronavirus, Covid-19, data, digital technology, education, entertainment, exams, featured, GCSE, higher education, internet, jeremy corbyn, Labour, Lenin, lockdown, mental health, National Education Service, NHS, online counselling, online education, pandemic, policy, politics, primary education, privatisation, schools, secondary education, student mental health, teachers assessment, tony blair, Youtube, zoom.

By Howard Green

Tony Blair, upon his election into government in 1997, famously declared that his top three priorities were “Education, education and education”. At the other end of the century, Vladimir Lenin proclaimed that education that didn’t teach about life and politics was indeed a “hypocrisy”. Education has been a central focus of politics for over a hundred years, and today is no different. As the Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted conventional ways of learning for many, the modern British educational system needs short term and long term reform if it is to adapt to the issues of the 21st century. With the advent of Zoom lessons and online assessments, now is the time to explore the full potential of digital technology as the new frontier of education.

THE MORNING AFTER #GE2019

Posted on December 13, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Community, Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged 2019, austerity, basic income, Boris Johnson, Brexit, candidates, direct action, election day, elections, EU, featured, funding, GE, ge2019, general election, green new deal, Green Party, greens, human rights, Labour, manifesto, MP, NHS, our streets, Parliament, platform, policy, politics, PR, racism, resist, samaritans, self care, self-help, toriesout, Tory, transphobia, Universal Credit.

The Norwich Radical Editorial Team

By now you’ve seen the headlines. There’s no easy way to say this: in the coming months and years, many in this country and elsewhere will suffer under a Tory government led by a racist liar. Social services will be dismembered. Workers’ rights will be eroded. Vulnerable people will face violence at the hands of increasingly aggressive immigration authorities and police. All of which will be sanctioned, incited, and protected by the country’s highest authorities and institutions.Continue Reading

DR ANDREW BOSWELL, GREEN PARTY BROADLAND CANDIDATE #GE2019

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #votetactically, 2019, austerity, basic income, Brexit, Broadland, candidates, elections, EU, GE, ge2019, general election, green new deal, Green Party, greens, human rights, Labour, manifesto, MP, NHS, Norwich North, norwich south, Parliament, platform, policy, politics, PR, toriesout, Tory, Universal Credit.

The Norwich Radical editorial team has asked candidates for the constituencies of Norwich South, Norwich North, and Broadland, Norfolk to contribute a short piece regarding the upcoming General Election on 12th December 2019. We have contacted all candidates belonging to parties that reflect or adhere to our values as seen in our Founding Statement, highlighting what role they see their candidacy playing in the coming years in a changing political landscape, their vision of what Norwich’s role should be, and how they will approach that in practice. These are the responses from the candidates who replied.

Dr Andrew Boswell

We are living in dangerous times, dark times. The country is deeply divided over our place in the world – the Brexit crisis – whether we align with Europe or we align with Donald Trump’s US.

And we face a Climate and Ecological Emergency, our young people desperately calling for action to literally save the planet and save their futures. They are literally showing the leadership that political leaders have failed to grasp for decades. On both issues, people feel that democracy has failed. Trust in politicians is eroded.

This is the most important election for a generation, and the result of the election could shape the future for many generations if we miss the opportunity to take radical action on climate change and influence the world to do so too. Continue Reading

KAREN DAVIS, LABOUR PARTY NORWICH NORTH CANDIDATE #GE2019

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #votetactically, 2019, austerity, basic income, Brexit, Broadland, candidates, car sharing, elections, EU, farmshare, GE, ge2019, general election, green new deal, Green Party, greens, human rights, Labour, manifesto, MP, NHS, Norwich North, norwich south, Parliament, platform, policy, politics, PR, toriesout, Tory, Universal Credit.

Karen Davis

People are fed up with career politicians who’ve never had to struggle to get by. I know exactly what that’s like and will never forget where I’ve come from. I believe the place and the people who put you in Parliament should always come first. I grew up in Norfolk and have lived in Norwich for 20 years. Most of my jobs have been insecure and low paid and I did my teaching degree at UEA juggling childcare and studies.Continue Reading

ADRIAN HOLMES, GREEN PARTY NORWICH NORTH CANDIDATE #GE2019

Adrian Holmes

As a Green Party candidate at this election and in previous elections, I see my role as standard-bearer for a movement away from a competitive and environmentally damaging way of life to a genuinely sustainable society. By sustainable I mean one that is concerned with environmental and social justice. An end to consumerism and towards a circular economy where waste is radically reduced by making goods made to last that can be upgraded or reused. I want to see a fundamental change in the way politics is practised from the bottom up. I believe that the political landscape today is far too top-down oriented. I want to see the creation of Citizens assemblies as a forum for continuing political discussion and decision-making at the local level. I want to see citizens assemblies feeding into to a reformed Parliament which is based on proportional representation. The job of the MP would be listening to and reporting back from citizens assemblies as well as still voting as informed individuals on matters of conscience.Continue Reading

DR CATHERINE ROWETT, GREEN PARTY NORWICH SOUTH CANDIDATE #GE2019

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #votetactically, 2019, austerity, basic income, Brexit, Broadland, candidates, elections, EU, GE, ge2019, general election, green new deal, Green Party, greens, human rights, Labour, manifesto, MP, NHS, Norwich North, norwich south, Parliament, platform, policy, politics, PR, toriesout, Tory, Universal Credit.

Dr Catherine Rowett

I have been serving as the Green Party MEP for the East of England since May last year. Most impressive in that election were the rise in Green Party representation (up from three to seven MEPs) and the spectacular result in Norwich, where the Green vote outstripped all other parties—with a lead of over 3,000 votes over the Labour Party.

Norwich has always known that voting Green is a serious option. Under proportional representation, and in local elections, voting Green gets results. In the Vote for Policies websites, Green policies score highly. One of our key policies—perhaps the most important reason to vote Green, next after the climate—is voting reform. Had this country had Proportional Representation by 2015, we would not be in the pickle we are now in, I submit. And if we don’t get PR now, much more is at risk: the unity of the United Kingdom, for instance; even our representative democracy as such.Continue Reading

FIRE, WATER AND GOVERNMENT

Posted on November 23, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Bolsonaro, climate change, climate crisis, climate emergency, elections, environment, featured, floods, overfishing, policy, Trump, wildfires.

“Fire, water and government know nothing of mercy.”

Albanian proverb

by Gunnar Eigener

The climate emergency is becoming increasingly obvious, with weather events wreaking havoc both near and far. Increasingly uncontrollable and expansive fires continue to burn across many global regions. Heavy rains have brought flooding, endangering small communities. Droughts dry out forests and land, leaving livestock and livelihoods at risk. The demands of human society are taking their toll. Yet even as climate change finally takes its place at the top of the agenda for many countries, those who are the worst carbon emitters continue to fail in their duty to protect their citizens. Economy remains the priority for government domestic policies across the Western world and beyond.

SORRY ANDREW SELOUS MP, BUT GYPSIES & TRAVELLERS WILL NOT BE ASSIMILATED

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged act, andrew selous, antigypsyism, assimlaion, bill, black history month, Caravans Sites Act, commons, culture, discrimination, featured, GRT, human rights, integraion, international, law, local authorities, policy, racism, response, Roma, Romani, Tory, travellers, uk.

By Jonathan Lee

Meet Conservative MP for South West Bedfordshire, Andrew Selous.

Andrew recently took a break from opposing gay marriage, overseeing prison cuts, calling for benefits cuts for non-english speakers, and claiming disabled people work hard because they’re grateful just to have a job, and turned his attention to Romani Gypsies and Travellers.

On 13th November, he proposed a bill in the Commons to convert existing sites for Gypsies and Travellers into settled accommodation, remove any obligation on local authorities to build more permanent sites, and make unauthorised encampments a criminal offence.

He also added a bit about making provision for the education of Gypsy & Traveller children, which is nice.Continue Reading

EDUCATION AS EMANCIPATION – BEYOND TUITION FEES #7

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Beyond Tuition Fees, capital, capitalism, commodification, corbyn, cultural capital, david richardson, degrees, dissent, economy, education, featured, Free Education, government, HEFCE, higher education, Labour, labour market, marketisation, nationalisation, office for students, pedagogy, policy, professional classes, public ownership, research, society, state funding, student experience, student satisfaction, students, teaching, tuition fees, UEA, uk, UKRI, universities, university staff, workers.

By Michael Kyriacou

It is a time of extraordinary potential for change in UK Higher Education. Labour’s promise to end tuition fees has defied the critics and united many behind Corbyn’s political project. But what will the implications for universities be if this comes to pass? And what can we do to leverage this progress? In this series, the Norwich Radical and Bright Green are bringing together perspectives from across the sector to explore these questions.

The traditional arguments for ‘free education’ focus on reducing the upfront price of university courses to zero. Rather than HE being a commodity to be traded on the open market, it becomes a good paid for by the government. This kind of argument rests on a contradiction: we cannot solve the commodification of HE by continuing to assert the existence of HE as commodity, even a nationalised one. Abolishing tuition fees is undoubtedly a good thing, but to move beyond their legacy we must understand HE as devoid not only of its price but also its status as a commodity. We need to explore the potential for HE grounded not in classification or institution but in the fundamental equality of intelligences – HE without the degree.

THE FUTURE OF STUDENTS’ UNIONS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #4

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged activism, Arts SU, Beyond Tuition Fees, block grants, bureaucracy, Charities Act 2011, Charities Commission, charity law, checks and balances, co-operatives, consumer culture, consumerism, corbyn, democracy, Education Act 1994, Free Education, grassroots, hierarchy, higher education, Labour, legislation, Lincoln SU, NUS, online voting, Parliament, policy, politics, representation, sabbatical officers, Sahaya James, Stop the Elephant Development, student activism, students' unions, SU finance, trade unions, transparency, trustees, tuition fees, UAL, uk, union bars, university management.

By Bradley Allsop and Calum Watt

Students’ Unions are meant to defend students’ rights, fighting with and for them during their time at university and beyond. However, modern SUs are often dominated by corporate thinking, consumer culture and cosy collusion with university management. Radical, grassroots democracy is often muted or discouraged, channelled instead into more temperate, gradual and piecemeal avenues by Unions centralised in their functioning and timid in their approach.

policy

EDUCATION AFTER THE PANDEMIC: REFORM AND RENATIONALISATION

THE MORNING AFTER #GE2019

DR ANDREW BOSWELL, GREEN PARTY BROADLAND CANDIDATE #GE2019

DR CATHERINE ROWETT, GREEN PARTY NORWICH SOUTH CANDIDATE #GE2019

FIRE, WATER AND GOVERNMENT

SORRY ANDREW SELOUS MP, BUT GYPSIES & TRAVELLERS WILL NOT BE ASSIMILATED

EDUCATION AS EMANCIPATION – BEYOND TUITION FEES #7

THE FUTURE OF STUDENTS’ UNIONS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #4

Support the Radical

Subscribe

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Support the Radical

Subscribe