In the latest cuts to niche educational programmes Labour is scrapping the “hugely successful” Advanced Mathematics Support Programme. Running since 2018, the initiative helped state schools teach further, higher, and core maths. Delivered by the Maths Education Innovation charity the scheme is seen as crucial in the age of AI…
The programme had a budget of only £17 million over two years. The government justifies the “difficult decision” to cut it by claiming the “22 billion black hole” left by the Tories must be addressed. Guido thinks that argument might have more teeth if Labour wasn’t handing £17 million on the exact same day to controversy-ridden Gaza aid agency UNRWA. Anneliese Dodds today hails UNRWA’s “vital role” as she announces the new taxpayer funded “humanitarian package” to agencies in the region. Priorities…
Anneliese Dodds is in Cairo today to kick off a three-day trip to the Middle East focussed on Gaza. With millions in taxpayer cash to hand over…
£6 million each is going to the UN’s World Food Programme and Office for Coordinated Humanitarian Affairs while Dodds says the FCDO will hand £7 million directly to the UN’s scandal-ridden Palestine relief agency UNRWA. That figure alone is 875% of the “landmark” amount given to Baghdad last week which will apparently deal with small boats…
The Tories suspended taxpayer funding to UNRWA back in January after 12 employees were accused of participating in the October 7th attacks. The UN then fired nine staff who were “likely or highly likely” to have been part of the attacks, a month after Lammy restarted UK funding in July. £7 million can buy a fair few passports…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”