What Berman shows up so brutally about Ramadan, the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood Hassan al Banna, is that he is the direct heir – both familially and intellectually – not only to the ideologues of jihadi Islamism but also to the axis of European fascism. Drawing on accounts already published of the alliance between... Yesterday brought us the eye-rubbing remarks to the Sunday Times (£) by Ofsted’s departing chairman, Zenna Atkins: ‘It’s about learning how to identify good role models. One really good thing about primary school is that every kid learns how to deal with a really s*** teacher. In the private sector, as a rule, you need to performance manage 10% of people out of the business. But I don’t think that should be the case in teaching
Wednesday, 14th July 2010
Paul Berman rides into battle
11:13pm
I have recently finished reading Paul Berman’s latest book, ‘The Flight of the Intellectuals’. It’s terrific. The first part is an evisceration of that Islamist in westernised clothing, Tariq Ramadan. By the time Berman has finished with him, there’s not much left of his reputation as the western establishment’s poster-boy for modernised Islam. The second part is an evisceration of two prominent western intellectuals who fell for Ramadan’s propaganda, Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash. There’s not much left of them either.Monday, 12th July 2010
Sweeping up for the enemy
11:19am
One of the many flawed assumptions beneath the managerialist approach to government – aka Titanic, rearrangement of deckchairs on -- is that standards in public services can be effectively policed by regulators. Hence the creation of quangos such as the Office for Standards in Education or the Inspectorate of Probation. But what happens when these regulators themselves become part of the problem?
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Wednesday, 14 July 2010
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