| Goddard reclaims backstroke gold England's James Goddard wins a second Commonwealth 200m title as Gemma Spofforth and Fran Halsall take silver and bronze, while Scotland take relay silver. news.bbc.co.uk |
Nick Clegg and the Catholic school row | Catherine Pepinster The Lib Dem leader is eyeing the London Oratory for his son – but claims the church is creating an elitist education are unfairIn the last 15 years, I've been phoned twice by friends in a state of anxiety about the applications they've made to a secondary school for their sons. Like Miriam González Durántez, they are Catholic mothers. Like González Durántez, they are married to nonbelievers. Like González Durántez, the school they were so keen on was the London Oratory. Well, good news for Miriam: their nonbelieving partners were no bar to their sons getting in to the Oratory – both boys got places.The London Oratory – unlike the Mail on Sunday, which reported on González Durántez's husband, self-confessed atheist Nick Clegg, looking round the Catholic comprehensive as a prospective parent with a one-word splash headline of "Hypocrite" – does not see lack of faith on the part of one parent as dubious. Mixed marriages are part of the warp and weft of contemporary British Catholicism.Occasionally, such a situation can be a problem: I recall one priest telling me that the non-Catholic father of one child, faced with the prospect being asked to attend a session for parents of infant candidates for baptism, offered him a sizeable sum of money instead. The priest pointed out he wanted him to come along to find out what he was letting himself in for, rather than his cash. To that dad, though, the cash may well have seemed a sound investment: baptism is the key to what many see as heaven on earth: a place in a Catholic school. The ideal pupil will also, as the Oratory examples show, have at least one Catholic parent.So far, so straightforward. But there are tensions in the Catholic system – tensions partly created by critics inside it as well as those outside who accuse the church of creating a privileged education for which taxpayers are paying. Many of the pressures are due to the success of faith schools, their consequent popularity and the huge competition for places, particularly in London.Special privilegeCatholic schools owe their origins to 19th-century bishops, who focused on education more than church-building as Catholicism grew in this Protestant country, following the 1829 Emancipation Act and the arrival of mostly Irish economic migrants. Today, there are more than 2,000 Catholic-maintained schools in England and Wales, which educate about 800,000 pupils. The idea that these are especially privileged, socially selective places is a nonsense, put about by those hostile to faith schools.The facts tell a different story: there are as many children in Catholic schools eligible for free school meals as in other schools; about 27% of pupils at Catholic secondary schools are from ethnic minorities, a sizeable 5% more than the average of other schools. And with Latin Americans, Indians and Afro-Caribbeans forming part of Catholic congregations as well as Irish, Italians and Poles, the Catholic church is one of the most racially mixed, multicultural places in Britain.The idea that Catholics are getting some special financial deal from the state is hardly borne out by the facts, either: just as all taxpayers contribute to the state system, so do Catholic taxpayers. But they pay twice over, for 10% of the capital expenditure of Catholic schools is provided by the Catholic community. This is about ÂŁ20m a year, and given that nearly a third of pupils are not Catholics, the church is clearly providing a sizeable subsidy towards all children's education.Back in 2006, the Catholic church flexed its powerful political muscles when it fought off an attempt by the then Labour education secretary, Alan Johnson, to alter its schools' admissions criteria to force them to offer a quarter of their places to non-Catholics. It was the enforcement that the church objected to, envisaging a situation where Catholic parents wanting a Catholic education for their Catholic children would be turned away, while those who are indifferent would be given places.What the average figure of 30% non-Catholics getting schooled in these faith establishments masks, however, is the unevenness of the system. Up in urban parts of Lancashire, where Catholic schools helped previous generations of migrants' children thrive, they are now in neighbourhoods where Catholics have moved away, sometimes leaving the schools to educate large numbers of Muslims in their catchment areas instead.Down in London the situation is markedly different, and it's in the capital that the internal tensions of the system are particularly noticeable. With a sizeable – and growing – Catholic population, and concerns about the state of what Alastair Campbell so memorably called "bog-standard comprehensives", there is huge demand for Catholic school places. Hence the tears and anxieties of my friends, worrying about getting a place at the London Oratory for their boys.Selection processSo how do the schools pick the pupils? In recent years, the traditional ways in which these schools made their selections – evidence of not only baptism of the child, but that they have also been admitted to other sacraments such as holy communion, that they regularly attend mass, and that their parents are pillars of their parish – have become increasingly contentious. Schools are no longer allowed to interview parents or children – an attempt to limit the ability of middle-class parents and their articulate kids to benefit most from the system. The schools are also asked not to consider how involved parents and children are in parish life, or focus on the parents' marital status.This recent system, promoted by both the state and the bishops, has served to do two things: put enormous pressure on the parish priests on whose reference for a school place a child's fortune might turn, and put certain oversubscribed schools on a collision course with the bishops who have backed these methods.Priests are faced with this type of question when giving an applicant a reference: is the child a member of a practising Catholic family? How does he decide? Because the O'Flahertys make a point of turning up each week to mass and very obviously make sure they speak to Father Jim? But what about Mrs de Costa, whose husband walked out on her for his secretary, leaving her to raise three children alone, do two jobs, one of which entails working alternate weekends, and she has to frequently care for her elderly mother as well? Is she less of a practising Catholic because her family circumstances mean that she just cannot get to church every Sunday?Oversubscribed schools such as Cardinal Vaughan in Westminster diocese and Coloma Convent in Southwark have been told by bishops in recent years to alter their admissions procedures, much to the fury of their governors, who wanted to take into account extra parish activities by prospective pupils and their families. But now the schools adjudicator has ruled in favour of the Coloma Convent, saying that it can, after all, make a ranking of applications according to the evidence of commitment and practice of the Catholic faith. So we are now in the curious position of the state being more in favour of evidence of devout Catholicism than the bishops' schools diocesan commission, which had ruled this out.Liberal Democrats, whose election manifesto vowed to "ensure that all faith schools develop an inclusive admissions policy", may be distinctly unimpressed by all this, and by Nick Clegg's interest in the oversubscribed London Oratory. There are plenty of priests who are worried about the system, too, fearing that if parish activity is evidence of faith, it will be milked by those who know how to use the system. They can see what should be service to the parish – taking communion to the sick, reading at mass, helping with children's group – will be used and abuse. It's a deeply unpleasant prospect of cynicism where faith should be. The people who would lose out would be those families new to this country, often still struggling with English – the very people who make Catholic parishes today so vibrant and who need good education. That can't be right.Faith schoolsReligionCatholicismSchoolsChristianityCatherine Pepinsterguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Ken Livingstone faces calls for expulsion from Labour party Critics say Labour's London mayoral candidate breached party rules by campaigning on behalf of a non-Labour candidate during a council electionKen Livingstone today faced calls for his expulsion from the Labour party after he breached strict party rules by campaigning with a non-Labour election candidate.Livingstone, who was selected as Labour candidate for the 2012 mayoral election less than a month ago, caused consternation yesterday when he joined the campaign trail with Lutfur Rahman, an independent standing against Labour's Helal Abbas in the election to become executive mayor of Tower Hamlets council.Livingstone's actions pose a problem for the new Labour leader, Ed Miliband, who was elected the day after Livingstone secured the Labour candidature last month in a two-way contest against Oona King, former Bethnal Green and Bow MP.The Conservatives claimed Livingstone's actions were a direct challenge to Miliband's authority.Labour's rules state that "a member of the party who supports any candidate who stands against an official Labour candidate shall automatically be ineligible to be, or remain, a party member".Eight councillors have already been expelled from the Labour party for campaigning for Rahman's bid to beat Abbas, the current leader of Tower Hamlets council.Livingstone's actions infuriated Labour colleagues with one publicly calling for his immediate expulsion.Tom Harris MP said on his blog that, if Livingstone had campaigned for a rival, "he should be expelled immediately, irrespective of whatever silly excuses he tries to come up with".He added: "What I suspect will actually happen is that Ken will mount his defence and the NEC [national executive committee] will bottle it."Jim Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar and Limehouse who ran King's unsuccessful bid for the mayoral nomination, said the actions were "extremely disturbing" and should be investigated by party chiefs.Flanked by Rahman and his supporters, Livingstone said on Monday that the party had made "a big mistake" in removing him as its candidate."It took five years to put the Labour party back together after George Galloway defeated Oona King down here," the former mayor said. "All that was blown away in a moment of madness by Labour's NEC."Rahman was selected as candidate by the local Labour party but the NEC refused to rubber-stamp his selection following a document highlighting a number of allegations concerning both "the eligibility of participating voters" and Rahman's "conduct", according to a party insider.Miliband's office declined to comment on Livingstone's backing for Rahman and the party stayed tight-lipped about the prospect of disciplinary action.But on Tuesday afternoon, Livingstone issued a statement of retraction in an attempt to ward off calls for his expulsion.Livingstone said: "I am disappointed by the way the NEC handled the selection in Tower Hamlets and I am sure that under Ed Miliband's leadership things would have been handled differently. However, my position is clear: I fully support Labour candidates in all elections and I am calling for Tower Hamlets residents to use their first preference vote for our candidate, Helal Abbas. A second preference should be used for Lutfur Rahman to keep the Tories out."Greg Hands, the Tory MP for Chelsea and Fulham, said: "Ken Livingstone's blatant flouting of the Labour party rulebook is a slap in the face to Labour activists across London and a direct challenge to Ed Miliband's authority."Neil Kinnock, the former party leader, today described Livingstone's decision to back an opponent rather than the party's candidate as "ill-advised".Kinnock and a number of heavyweight Labour figures, including deputy leader Harriet Harman, have been campaigning with Abbas in the run up to the election this Thursday.The Tower Hamlets mayoral election, which was triggered by a local petition, is the first significant electoral test for Miliband as the new Labour party leader.Party insiders have wondered why Livingstone, who was defeated as mayor of London by Boris Johnson in 2008, sought to jeopardise his prospects following his double victory last month (he was also elected to Labour's ruling national executive committee).A council spokesman said the petition, which has to be signed by 5% of the local electorate, was presented by members of the Respect party.Livingstone was expelled from the Labour party in 2000 after deciding to stand as an independent against the official Labour candidate, Frank Dobson.He was brought back into the party fold in 2004 after serving one mayoral term as an independent.Ken LivingstoneLabourLondon politicsLondonHĂ©lène MulhollandDave Hillguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Ambulance driver in drink arrest An ambulance driver is arrested on suspicion of drink-driving after being involved in a crash while answering an emergency call. bbc.co.uk |
Video: Ed Miliband appeals for 'optimistic' approach to economic policy The Labour leader tells business leaders at the CBI that the coalition government risks jobs and economic growth by focusing only on reducing the public deficit guardian.co.uk |