Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Gove wrong about GCSEs

First published Thursday 20 September 2012 in Letters

FIRSTLY I would like to congratulate all the hardworking students who have just taken their GCSEs , since Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has failed to do so.
These exams are in no way less valuable than the ancient O Level exams, which I found to be exceedingly easy.
Indeed, since all of the original O Level papers were destroyed years ago, there is no yardstick with which to compare the two types of examination paper. In all the sciences, a hypothesis requires stringent proof and rigorous testing before an assertion can be made.
In this case there have been no proper empirical studies carried out to provide evidence for the hypothesis that O Levels were harder.
It is pure conjecture and possibly vanity on the part of Michael Gove to state that the exams that he took were harder and therefore, by inference, he is a lot more intelligent than the youth of today.
What about the matter of grade inflation? More A grades are being achieved than ever before.
According to Gove, the reason behind this inflation is probably due to middle class parents helping write the course-work essays at home.

Bills have risen to pay for policy changes

First published Tuesday 8 October 2013 in Letters

THE recent Labour Party pledge to freeze energy bills demonstrated how to have a political cake and eat it. The pledge is an attempt to rectify a heinous political mistake caused by political hubris and vanity.
In 2008, the then energy minister, Ed Miliband, vowed to enact the most stringent cuts in power emissions in the entire world to achieve an unrealistic 80 per cent cut in carbon emissions by closing down fully functioning coal power stations.
He was playing the role of climate saint to win popularity and votes.
I was a member when Ed Miliband spoke in Oxford Town Hall to loud cheers from numerous low-carbon businesses, who stood to profit from his legislation. I was concerned at the impact on the consumer, since it is widely known that coal power stations offer the cheapest energy to consumers compared to nuclear and wind.
So I wrote to Andrew Smith MP at great length and he passed on my concerns to the newly-formed Department of Energy and Climate Change that had replaced the previous Department of Energy and Business.
This new department sent me a lengthy reply, mapping out their plans for wind turbines at a projected cost to the consumer of £100bn to include new infrastructure and amendments to the National Grid. This cost would be added to consumer electricity bills via a hidden green policy tariff.

This has already happened and explains the rise in utility bills.
Some consumers are confused and wrongly believe that energy companies are ‘ripping them off’.
It was clearly stated on Channel 4 recently that energy bills have risen to pay for new policy changes. These policy changes were enacted by Ed Miliband in his popularity bid to play climate saviour in 2008. Energy bills have now rocketed. So Ed has cost every single consumer in the land several hundred pounds extra on their bills each year.
SUSAN THOMAS, Magdalen Road, Oxford

Be polite if candidate knocks on your door

First published Thursday 24 April 2014 in Letters

SOON it will be election time once more and doors will be knocked upon by election hopefuls.
No matter which political party knocks on my door, all will be most welcome.
It takes a lot of nerve to knock on a stranger’s door and political candidates are worthy of a polite response and respect.
So please be sure to be polite and welcoming if a candidate knocks on your door, even if you will not be voting for their party.
All political parties have good people working for them and Oxford is blessed with many talented and industrious councillors of all political persuasions.
SUSAN THOMAS, Magdalen Road, Oxford

Well done idiots in the Foreign Office. You have excelled yourselves again.

Ironically, Sharia Law is now prevalent in Libya thanks to the monumental incompetence of our Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Under the democratic regime of deposed Gadaffi, Libya had exemplary rights for women.

Indeed I would go as far to say that Colonel Gadaffi was a good leader.
Under his rule, Libyans had free university education and free electricity.
Even the unemployed were entitled to receive a comparable wage as that of a working person. Women had full and equal rights.

Gadaffi was correct in saying that the rebels were Al Qaeda.

William Hague was the prime instigator of the military action. He fancies himself as a Rambo action man.

There are those who believe that Gadaffi was behind Lockerbie or the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher.

There is no proper forensic proof to corroborate either of these theories.

The shots that killed the WPC could not possibly have come from the Libyan embassy.

Gadaffi was smeared and used as a fall guy.

His son also gave millions of pounds to the LSE.

Our Government has cocked up by killing Gadaffi and enabling repressive Sharia law to take the place of the democracy.

Libya is a mess now thanks to William Hague.

Well done idiots in the Foreign Office. You have excelled yourselves again.

SUSAN THOMAS,
Magdalen Road,
Oxford

We’ve made it worse

First published Monday 16 July 2012 in Letters

RECENTLY the Taliban executed a young woman for adultery in line with the strict Sharia law in Afghanistan.

Ironically, Sharia Law is now prevalent in Libya thanks to the monumental incompetence of our Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Under the democratic regime of deposed Gadaffi, Libya had exemplary rights for women.

Indeed I would go as far to say that Colonel Gadaffi was a good leader.
Under his rule, Libyans had free university education and free electricity.
Even the unemployed were entitled to receive a comparable wage as that of a working person. Women had full and equal rights.

Gadaffi was correct in saying that the rebels were Al Qaeda.

William Hague was the prime instigator of the military action. He fancies himself as a Rambo action man.

There are those who believe that Gadaffi was behind Lockerbie or the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher.

There is no proper forensic proof to corroborate either of these theories.

The shots that killed the WPC could not possibly have come from the Libyan embassy.

Gadaffi was smeared and used as a fall guy.

His son also gave millions of pounds to the LSE.

Comments (3)

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11:52am Tue 17 Jul 12

Zaxharias Ziegla says...

Though time prevents menton of them all, I should have thought Gaddafi's choice of friends rather gave his game away.

Back in the 1960s there was Jean-Bedel Bokasser 1 of Central Africa; later Charles Taylor of Liberia (tried and convicted for crimes against humanity at the Hague); and more recently that charming fellow 'Bob' Mugabe.

Perhaps Susan is hoping for a script witer's job with The Now Show?

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7:16pm Tue 17 Jul 12

Fantomas says...

"The shots that killed the WPC could not possibly have come from the Libyan embassy"

If you have any new evidence, (not conspiracy theories) pertaining to this then I hope that you'll bring them to the proper authorities.

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10:51am Wed 18 Jul 12

Megs says...

I worked, on women's issues, during the 1990s, in countries where there was Sharia Law. Some have recently seen revolutions and some military action from foreign organisations and countries. I can assure Susan Thomas that extreme, unacceptable behaviour towards women, for which Sharia law may have been used as the excuse, existed in many of these countries and certainly predates the UK's & it's allies interventions in the cases she mentions, of Afghanistan and Libya. Further, the women I have worked with in such countries know that freedom from dictatorship is a fundamental aspect of human dignity. They have not been ignorant the fate they might face if dictatorship is removed and tentative democracy introduced; but is it not perhaps conceivable that they might like to engage in the battle for their own rights in their own nation rather than have some Susan Thomas blethering on about how much better it all was before, under the old regime?

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

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