Thursday, 22 March, 2007
- 22 Mar 07, 05:44 PM
As part of our Iraq series our Diplomatic Editor Mark Urban asks what went wrong during the first 18 months of the Iraq war. He'll be answering questions about his report online tomorrow. To put a question to him click here.
The EU estimates 26 million more people will take to the skies over the next five years because of the Open Skies travel agreement.
And it's School Report day at the 成人论坛. We visit two schools in Bradford to find out what they think of each other.
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 17:46 GMT
Just seen the above on the top of the newsnight website
but the site was updated last night after that time well in terms of Greenwich Mean time
i'm just curious but does this mean the moderators of this blog are operating by a different time zone, which i guess would mean they are not in this country?
Alice Springs perhaps?
best wishes
Bob
I would consider it a sporting gesture by the moderators to let this one through!
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Regarding the schools in Bradford, I couldn't help noticing how much drugs were a problem in the Asian school - no mention of drugs at all at Hanson.
It has to be said that the 成人论坛 are being somewhat disengenuous in their presentation of schools in Bradford. The birth rate among Muslims is four times as high as that among whites, and the vast majority of primary schools in the *City* of Bradford are tending towards 90%+ Asian - predominantly Pakistani Muslim. One wonders how long a school like Hanson will manage to survive as a school with a white majority.
What I would really like to see is the true extent of racist bullying in both schools. Also it would be interesting to see how the ethnic mix of both schools changes over time. Sometimes the turnaround is pretty rapid once a tipping point is reached.
The last Ofsted report for Hanson had around 10% South Asians
Laisterdyke was around 20% white the last time that Ofsted produced an ethnic breakdown
... but they no longer do. Wonder why..
Comparing some recent results is interesting...
Notice that Laisterdyke had 48% of their kids taking GCSEs with special educational needs. Could that have anything to do with the high incidence of congenital disorders common among Bradford's Pakistani community as a result of first cousin marriages as mentioned by Anne Cryer?
/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/11_november/16/newsnight.shtml
Will anyone at the 成人论坛 even dare pose the question? Will anyone even mention that around 80% of the students have English as an additional language?
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JPseudonym:
If you want to know where the country as a whole is heading, check out, (and remember it relates to 2001):-
Counpound those figures year on year with the addition immigrants + the 100's of 1,000's of Brits who have left the country.
You will be able to work out how long we have left - and it aint long!
What is amazing is, neither the 成人论坛 nor the liberal lefty Politicians give a toss!
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They probably consider it "good for the economy"? After all, with 'indigenous' TFR being so low, how else will the Treasury fund the DWP?
Whilst the Comments above draw attention to worthy issues, one has to be careful about SEN. That percentage SEN cited above covers more than the genetic anomalies 'professionally' assessed under Statemented SEN. Consanguineous dysgenesis will *primarily* show up in the much smaller, Statemented SEN percentage. The percentage here is not atypical I would say.
In 2006 the DfES started reporting SEN differently in these tables, aggregating School Action Plus and Statemented SEN which can mislead. Compare 2005 with 2006 figures, and also look at the N, which is small. In earlier years, high Non-Statemented SEN included School Action along with School Action Plus. The former *could* theoretically cover any non-externally assessed special 'educational need' (which requires careful thought).
The bottom line:- this is a treacherous area.
2005:
2006:
Finally, whilst on the subject, the new Contextual Value Added (CVA) model includes quite a set of independent variables which need to be looked at *very* carefully for loadings I suggest (these include loadings for ethnicity and deprivation).
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Apologies, some links were left off.
H & L 2005:
H 2006:
L 2006:
Consanguineous marriage comprises a gene barrier, which won't help future attainment/IQ much if there is high heritability of IQ. Many of Pakistani origin (Mirpur) like many of Bangladeshi origin (Sylhet) are chain-migrators from poor rural/agricultural areas, so consanguineous marriages and other Islamic practices may not help them socio-economically in the longer term.
They're not the only ethnic groups to have 'inbreed' of course. Jews, especially in the past, have reaped the consequences of this, as have Travellers of Irish heritage, and Gypsy/Roma today. Although all minority groups face these risks to the extent that they remain endogamous, there is some evidence that Jewish mutations may have actually conferred some cognitive advantages (albeit at a price).
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