19/02/2012 Sunday Politics East


19/02/2012

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Here in the east, a new report on the people premium, not all is

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1719 seconds

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being spent directly. The Swedish That afternoon, our guest is they

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that roughly MP, and the chair of the Cambridge Labour Party. Coming

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up, the Pupil Premium. A new report by one of our MPs looks into what

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it is actually being spent on, but we can reveal at least some head

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teachers are using it to plug gaps in funding elsewhere. First, the

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unemployment figures. Another increase in our region. Up by 3,000

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from the previous quarter. Told a number of people I'd have work in

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our region is 213,000. -- iota of work. David, at long-term youth

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unemployment doubled in the region. It is an appalling figure, we need

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it Cup National Insurance on employers, and they will employ

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more people. Inevitable that the Government should find itself in

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this difficulty because of what it was handed by the Labour government.

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I do not think so, what we need to do now is paid a tax back on the

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bankers. That would save that generation. The Swedish

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unemployment rate is lower than ours, but what do we think about

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their schools? Michael Gove, the education secretary, thinks a great

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deal. It was inspired by a visit to Sweden. Three schools are set up by

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parents, charities are businesses. A new won in Suffolk will be run by

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a Swedish company. Can a foreign profit-making firms do a good job?

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Do you like Sweden? This is the school that impressed Michael Gove

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so much he decided to introduce free schools into Britain. It is in

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a suburb of Stockholm. It teaches local students in English and

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Swedish. The same situation. It is run by a company which owns 17 free

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schools across Sweden. This one is so popular, it has no spaces until

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2021. We have happy children and happy children make happy parents.

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There are playrooms, a councillor, and healthy food. Students to go to

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the school's score some of the highest marks in Sweden. There is a

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heavy emphasis on discipline and good manners. The company is run by

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a former teacher from Burnley. strive to teach young individuals,

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the subject are important, but we develop the all-round individual.

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Three schools are free to attend. The government pays so much per

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pupil. -- free schools. What concerns some people is the role of

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profit-making companies like this one they can only make money by

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cutting costs. The student to teacher ratio is the highest. It

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means they do not hire as many teachers. They also hire less

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experienced teachers and none certified want. -- and certified

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teachers. They denied this claim, and they do seem to have young

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teachers, but the company says the results and the fact it has long

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waiting lists Stewart provides a good service. Our focus is top

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quality education, and how do we achieve that? It would be cutting

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off our nose to spite her face if we did not ensure there was quality.

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But you are getting exactly the same amount of money as every other

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school get sport taking on a pupil, so where is the money made? Is it

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because you are good at managing your costs? That is one aspect.

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They will charge a management fee for running the school. It was set

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up by local parents who did not one Brandon's only school to close.

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This policy has allowed a school to stay in Brandon all the way up to

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the age of 16, and also be a crucial part of the local community.

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There is only a handful of these schools in the region. The

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government wants many more. It will be no reduction in pupils at other

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perfectly good schools, and patients should be alarmed at the

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way money is being wasted on this philosophy. There are no more than

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700 of these schools in Sweden, teaching 96,000 students. Some

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critics question whether they make that much difference, and there are

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concerns they lead to greater segregation of communities. There

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is no escaping the fact they are very popular. Do the Swedish

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schools actually work? Have the improved results? You can visit

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three schools in Sweden and get a very positive impression, but I

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have been researching the schools and it is not a rosy picture

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entirely. In terms of attainment levels, segregation, and cost, it

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does not look that promising. they actually cheaper? -- will they

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be? They have actually increased the cost, not reduce it. That is

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because of bureaucracy and surplus of school places. In more general

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terms, are there are significant differences with the Swedish system

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of education and our system of education? Yes. If you look at the

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state school system it is organised on a comprehensive principle as

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opposed to the school system in England. You could not call a

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comprehensive any more, it has become more divided. This is not

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the case in Sweden, it is still a comprehensive school system you

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have there. It is changing, maybe, because of the increase of three

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schools, but they are still relatively small in number. -- free

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schools. They do provide choice. People do not like the school

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reorganisation in Suffolk. We are seeing waiting lists all over the

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country. We're also seeing surplus places. That is one question I

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would put back to the expert, what is the effect on the other schools

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in my area? I worry it damages the other schools. What is your

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experience of that? There has been an expectation that competition

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between a school will be too high attainment levels, and that has not

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really been the case. You have seen increased attainment level on a

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moderate level at lower secondary level. That is even now completely

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in the opposite direction. Should private companies be allowed to

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profit at the expense of the taxpayer? If they can cut costs and

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deliver higher standards that should not matter. It will still be

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free at a point of use. This is government money funding the school,

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and the company could be making a profit from that. But there will

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not be any charge to parents. early days, in my region parents

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think it is a free ticket to set up a school. There is a huge amount of

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bureaucracy which I think is putting some of, but it is also the

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case that it is not proven. If you have a group of parents now that

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are happy to Machin and help run the school, will they be doing that

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in 10 years' time when their children have left? There is a

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question mark about how sustainable some of these will be. It is

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certainly worth trying. I do not agree with the comparative analysis,

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we have a different system as the expert pointed out, we have

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streaming and setting within comprehensives, and I am not sure

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the comparison is terribly helpful. You mentioned in passing the word

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segregation, what do you feel the impact has been? In Sweden, the

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schools have certainly lead to social segregation of the last 10

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years. That is mainly due to the fact that free schools are attended

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by middle-class parents. This is a phenomenon you also see in England.

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That would not happen in rural areas, we would not see that kind

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of segregation. A new bill because people are prepared to travel. The

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other issue is the schools can imply teachers with virtually no

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qualifications. That is a very big worry. The question will be asked

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whether they actually raise standards. Thank you very much.

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From one of the Conservative key ideas on education to the Lib Dems,

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they have just published an you report on funding. Every school

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receives more money for any pupil entitled to free school meals, and

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an extra �2.5 billion is being added to the budget to fund it. We

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have discovered it is being spent in a variety of ways, not all

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supporting the pupils it is intended for. At this school in

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Corby it is not a shepherd's pie on the menu. Almost a quarter are not

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just served a free school meal, they also get an additional helping

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of Pupil Premium, �480 of money funding -- government funding per

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child this year. The government wants to close the gap in academic

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performance between lower and higher income families. The school

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is using the money across the board. We will use it for the benefit of a

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wider clientele than those students on free school meals, because that

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is a blunt instrument. It is not a perfect measure of the students

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that might need help. The head teacher at spends a lot of time

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doing administration, though he would prefer doing teaching. At the

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moment I cannot balance the books. This funding disappears into a

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great black hole. But it is funding that is useful. It is funding that

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perhaps I had not expected. Department of Education says a free

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school meal pupil has less than 33 % chance of reaching Level 2 in

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reading and maths. At high school, they have a chance of achieving

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less GCSEs. They are also less likely to study at university. That

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is why the coalition government introduce Pupil Premium. It was a

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key commitment in the Lib Dem manifesto. It was designed to give

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them extra resources. Norman Lamb has just carried out his own

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research to check where schools are spending the money. He wants to

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ensure it is not used elsewhere. am seeing already some really good

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practice in local schools, interestingly, a head teacher from

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Cromer said this is the first time disadvantaged kids in rural areas

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have been recognised by government. That enables them to do things like

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imply extra class loomed -- employ extra classroom assistants.

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Pupil Premium partly pays for one- The National Union of Teachers

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welcomed the concept of Pupil Premium, but is not convinced it

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will address the needs of specific skills. Providing best guess at

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cash sum to anyone who falls into the category of free school meals,

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and we believe that is too general and inflexible to target money

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directly. The Department of Education says poverty is the

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single most important factor in Predicting a child's future.

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heard in that report that the Pupil Premium is welcome. Let me correct

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some inaccuracies, a new introduction he said to 0.5 billion

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extra was spent. It is not extra money, it was taken from other

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parts of the education budget. -- �2.5bn. What we're seeing from your

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report is head teachers are using it to cover up the cuts that are

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being made to their board of -- to their budget. The school down the

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road, he tells me they are no better off even though they have

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the highest level of pupils on free school meals in the county. This

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should be extra money to focus on supporting these pupils, and as we

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heard from some of the people in that report, it is not being used

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for that. There will be more money going to the poor pupils. It is for

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head teachers to decide, if they have a large number of pupils on

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free school meals, for them to make sure the money goes to help those

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individuals, what depresses me about this debate is we have done

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something good here, put more money on the heads of pupils who are

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disadvantaged, who could disagree with that? Let head teachers make

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that happen for those children with the extra resources. Should it be

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better monitored. --? He heard it had been used to build a bike shed,

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some of the money. I agree but government ministers cannot be

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responsible for decisions that should be decentralised to a good

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head teacher. If they are making pictures are bike sheds, it is up

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to the school to ask those questions. Who can dispute the

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policy of putting more money into budgets which have large numbers of

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free school -- disadvantaged pupils? What about the principle of

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basing it on the number of pupils getting free school meals? I have

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nothing against redistributing resources to poor people. All the

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evidence is money is being distributed away from the needs of

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the poor. The people in Basingstoke are getting �6 per head extra, the

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people Liverpool �200 less. The Pupil Premium is merely eight �2

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billion out of �50 billion. It is a drop in the ocean. Do you think it

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is a good idea? I have nothing against

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redistribution, but this is not necessarily the best measure.

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to our weekly round-up. This week, green measures take a back seat,

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Natural England's plans for a new conservation area as along the

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Norfolk coast where people would be banned have not gone down well.

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There is not a case for anything additional, and we should not be

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interfering with activities that have gone on for hundreds of years.

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Despite the National Trust decrying large wind turbines as a menace,

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investors are still in search of cheaper ways to keep the lights on.

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Southend airport hopes to increase its carbon footprint as it opens

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its doors to the new terminal. The big freeze was on author council's

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mind as it signed up to a zero % rise on council tax. Happy ending

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for this man who fell through thin ice on this forever. He rescued his

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dog. Adrenalin kicks in and you just think this is a precious

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family member. We could not let him die. Not to be recommended. What

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about wind farms? We are short of the target we hope to achieve by

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2020. The best thing would be to insulate our homes better, which is

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why it is crazy that scheme is being axed. People do not wind

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farms -- do not want wind farms. That is why people wrote to the

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Prime Minister saying be huge amount of subsidy put into wind

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farms, which are not terribly effective, should be switched to

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more reliable forms of renewable energy, so there was a many

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rebellion. Many individuals in the region agree it is the wrong kind

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of renewable energy, it is also deeply unpopular and does not work.

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What about offshore wind farms? strongly support them. We have got

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no choice, we need to go for renewables, if we do not have that,

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