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Bruce Kemble reviews the pressure groups' reaction to Mrs Thatcher's appointment.

Bruce Kemble reviews the progress to date of the Adult Education enquiry of the Russell Committee.

Bruce Kemble takes Ted Short's rate support grant warnings a stage further

Far too many parents are content to leave educational issues to teachers once their children have started school at the age of five. This worries everyone who realises the need for the closest co‐operation between home and school. Education is far too important to be left entirely to teachers.

Schools and churches have succeeded in driving the vast majority of us away from organized religion. The very smell of congregations, the meaningless ritual, the bi‐sexual parsons, the mindlessness of morning assemblies, the irrelevance of get‐togetherism, and the dreadful sermons have made thinking men and women think twice about churches.

Our greatest manpower problem — a shortage of at least 42 000 teachers — is nowhere near a solution. Indeed recent events are likely to aggravate rather than ease the situation.

We should be grateful to Kingsley Amis. In one sentence this year he crystallized the essential difference between ‘consensus’ politicians and backlashers, between reactionaries and reformers, in education arguments.

Parents were given a unique chance this month to prove they really care about their childrens' education. The national day organized by the Home and School Council on 10 October was widely‐publicized and well‐organized. Few parents will be able to claim they did not realise the day had been arranged. But I suspect that when the results of this country‐wide campaign to involve parents in the life of schools are examined — it will be clear that the majority were apathetic about the activities arranged for them.

I left Cambridge in 1962 without having sat‐in, stayed‐out, marched or boycotted. By 1967 the protest jargon of Berkeley, the philosophy of Marcuse, and the revolutionary antics of foreign undergraduates had spread to Britain. We were told about ‘Teach‐Ins’ and ‘Love‐Ins’, and the student world will never be the same again. With customary arrogance and optimism I am going to attempt to explain how this change occurred and to describe the thinking of students in Britain today.

The ATTI decided at their annual Conference at Torquay to back their pay claim with the threat of strike action. This is the first time in the 65 years history of the Union that such militancy has been shown. Cliff Kendall, the Union's President told the 200 delegates at Torquay: ‘We have been grossly underpaid for years.’ He claimed many technical college teachers earned less money than students studying part‐time while employed by big firms.