FT Alphaville. Fears made flesh: only STEM teaching grants spared CSR scythe. Government funding for higher education is to be cut by 40 per cent over four years, suggesting that public funding for teaching in the arts, humanities and social sciences may come to an end.
The Comprehensive Spending Review unveiled today includes a reduction in the higher education budget of £2.9 billion – from £7.1 billion to £4.2 billion – by 2014-15. The Treasury says in a statement that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which oversees higher education, will “continue to fund teaching for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects”. However, no mention is made of other subjects. The announcement suggests that the government is following the funding model set out in the Browne Review, which recommends that there should be a minimum £700 million annual budget only for teaching “priority subjects”, such as STEM.
Mr Osborne made an oblique reference to a huge cut in teaching funding in his CSR statement to the House of Commons.
Antisemitism. Lutfur Rahman: undeclared donations, criminal offences? The selection of Lutfur Rahman as Labour candidate for mayor of Tower Hamlets is proving controversial A complaint has been made to the Labour Party alleging massive irregularities, multiple breaches of party rules and at least one possible criminal offence in the selection of the fundamentalist-linked politician, Lutfur Rahman, as Labour’s candidate for directly-elected mayor of Tower Hamlets.
As we reported earlier this month, Mr Rahman has personally signed up entire families as sham “paper” members of the Labour Party to act as his personal “vote bank.” We found and filmed a number of these members, some of whom told us that they do not even support the party. Some of these members say that Mr Rahman also paid their subscriptions. Further sham addresses have been identified. It has also emerged that a number – potentially dozens – of those who voted in the selection contest do not in fact live in Tower Hamlets and were thus not eligible to vote. Question Time faces bias charge after audiences 'hostile' towards Government cuts. By Gerri Peev Updated: 11:22 GMT, 23 October 2010 The BBC has again been accused of political bias by ensuring Question Time has audiences ‘hostile’ to government cuts.
This week’s show was broadcast from the Labour stronghold of Middlesbrough, where 43 per cent of the workforce is employed in the public sector. Many viewers were shocked at how much hostility was heaped on Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, during the show. Under fire: The BBC has been accused of political bias by ensuring Question Time, with host David Dimbleby, had 'hostile' audiences to the Government cuts Next week the debate will be held in the Tory-free zone of Glasgow, while the following week it is due in Sheffield, where fury has raged since the election that an £80million government loan for a local steel plant, Sheffield Forgemasters, was cancelled by the Coalition. One observer told the Mail that he was shocked at the level of hostility towards the government.
Economics. World. Crime & justice. Misc articles.