For instance, the report envisages private cars being replaced by an “automatically controlled personal taxi system, running on its own guideway network”, in which each passenger is identified by a smart card. This may appeal to the kind of person who now joins a car club. But those who view their car as an integral part of their personality – currently by far the majority – won’t be so enthusiastic.The report’s authors assume that life 50 years hence will be fundamentally different in ways that we can’t yet imagine – just as, 10 years ago, nobody could have imagined the web-dominated world we all now live in. They also remind us that behaviour, too, may be counter-intuitive. For example, it was assumed that advances in electronic communication would cut down people’s need to meet face-to-face, thus cutting down on travelling and the need for office space. In fact, the result has been quite the opposite: meeting people electronically makes us want to meet them face-to-face, increasing, not decreasing, the number of journeys people make.However, of one thing the report’s authors are certain: the future is electronic. And this leads to some unsettling thoughts.One is that this future society will be a surveillance society.

If energy efficiency and sustainability are to rely on sensors predicting our every move and want, then privacy as we know it will surely become a thing of the past.The other is that future computers had better be more reliable than they are now. If the authors of this report are correct, then in 50 years’ time a system crash will be an awesome thing indeed.motoring independent.co.uk. Pauline Viardot-Garcia was more than just the greatest diva of the 19th century. The Spanish-born mezzo-soprano transformed 19th-century opera and song, inspiring everyone from Berlioz to Brahms, and Clara Schumann to the young Faur?Yet her own compositions have been virtually forgotten since her death in 1910. An evening of words and music at the Wigmore Hall, staged by Opera Rara, is about to recapture the world of Viardot and her music. Such is the significance of Viardot that the American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will make her Wigmore Hall debut at the age of 60.
Viardot was born in 1821, the daughter of a singer and teacher, Manuel Garcia Her elder sister was the legendary soprano Maria Malibran. When the latter died aged 28, the burden of this famed family’s reputation fell on Pauline’s shoulders.The poet Alfred de Musset heard Pauline sing when she was 17 He compared her voice to “the taste of a wild fruit…

Pauline possesses the secret of great artists: before expressing something, she feels it. She does not listen to her voice, but to her heart.” He was the first of many who fell in love with this unlikely-looking woman. Pauline was no beauty, but numbered among her admirers Berlioz, Gounod and Ivan Turgenev.On the advice of her friend George Sand, Pauline married the theatre director Louis Viardot, 21 years her senior. But aged 22, touring Russia, the superstar met the 25-year-old Turgenev and accepted his offer of Russian lessons. It was the beginning of a lifelong passion against which Pauline fought with all her might.

The Defence Secretary’s talk of putting this episode in perspective is insidious. The vicious assault in southern Iraq, first brought to public attention just over a week ago, was plain wrong from whichever angle it is examined. He also insinuated disgracefully that the media is playing into the hands of terrorists by bringing such abuses to light. Instead Mr Reid chose to recommend that we be “a little slower to condemn and a lot quicker to understand”. The tone of John Reid’s speech on the British Army at King’s College London yesterday was severely misjudged.

Speaking in the wake of new revelations of abuse by British troops in Iraq, the Defence Secretary ought to have made a frank admission of the damage this episode has done to the reputation of the British Army and to have pledged to ensure that nothing similar would happen again. After his death that year she settled in Alaska.In the 2000 Paris celebrations honouring the memory and execution of Jean Moulin, on the 60th anniversary of General Charles de Gaulle’s 18 June rallying call to all the French, Marly, still of a Russian sprightliness at the age of 83, sang “Le Chant des Partisans” with an undefeated voice, accompanied by the massed choirs of the French army.James Kirkup. Claude Berri’s 1997 thriller Lucie Aubrac, meanwhile, about underground resistance in Lyons, uses “Le Chant des Partisans” as its ominous background music.Anna Marly moved with her second, Russian, husband to Argentina, and then the United States, writing an autobiography, M?ires, published in 2000. But somehow her first “Partisan” song – soon well known on both sides of the Channel as “Le Chant de la Lib?tion” – seems to have been stolen from her by time, though it was often re-recorded, notably by Germaine Sablon (1945) and Yves Montand (1955). We shall go down there where the crows never fly And the Beast can discover no passage. .”Le Chant des Partisans”, as it now was, became, in all its inaccuracy, the signature tune of the Free French Radio in London.At the same time, Marly also wrote “La Complainte d’un Partisan” with words by her friend Emmanuel d’Astier de Vig?e, a song later made internationally famous (as “The Partisan”) by Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen.

.?” This image is further expanded in her text:From one forest to another, the road follows a precipice High, high above, the crescent moon hurriedly passes. Apparently many people had a hand in the affair – none of them practising poets, but all dominated by the fixed ideas of Druon, who later claimed he was the sole author of the French text.At the time, Anna Marly mildly complained that nothing of her own original version remained except the word corbeaux (“crows” – a metaphor for Nazi bomber planes) in the phrase “Friends, do you not hear the dark flight of the crows across the plain. The English words were provided by Louba Krassine, daughter of the Russian ambassador in London, at whose house it was sung for the first time by Marly to her guitar accompaniment. In 1935, as Anna Marly, she appeared in the celebrated Parisian nightspot Sh?razade, the paradise of the European jeunesse dor?With the outbreak of war, however, she and her new husband, a Dutch aristocrat, became refugees, and in 1941, via Spain and Portugal, they made their way to London. It was the Russian word partisanski in a report of the German attack on Smolensk which inspired her to write a song based on the word’s attractive rhythm, creating a sombre, haunted elegy with the rhythm of a slow funeral march.”The March of the Partisans” has an unusual metrical form, in lines of 11 syllables with a three-syllable “cadence” at the end of each verse As “Guerilla Song”, it became a hit on BBC radio. At the age of 13 she was presented with a guitar, which she learnt to play with feeling and invention She was taught by Prokofiev By 16, she was dancing in the Ballets Russes in Paris. She and her mother and baby sister escaped to the very select Russian colony established in Menton.She showed early artistic and musical talent, and her gifts were encouraged in that kindly environment that recalls still the early novels of Vladimir Nabokov.

Her mother was a radiant Greek beauty, her father one of those Russian aristocrats murdered by the Bolsheviks. It was just what the French needed to encourage them to resist the enemy that was occupying their country.”"The March of the Partisans” became “Guerilla Song” (for the BBC) and then “The Song of the Partisans”.Anna Marly was born Anna Betoulinsky in Petrograd (St Petersburg) in 1917. One day I read about the partisans in the former Soviet Union where I was born. I was so impressed by how the Russians were defending their country against the onslaught of the German army.”She then picked up her guitar, she told The Daily Star newspaper in New York State where she then lived, and wrote “The March of the Partisans”: “I sang this song at a private party one night and everyone was just astonished and moved. In London, I was eagerly following the progress of the war by reading newspapers. Anna Betoulinsky (Anna Marly), singer, songwriter and composer: born Petrograd, Russia 30 October 1917; married 1939 Baron van Doorn (marriage dissolved), 1947 George Smiernow (died 2000); died Lazy Mountain, Alaska 15 February 2006.

This month, Straw’s staff wrote to Murray – who was sacked for blowing the whistle on human rights abuses – saying they’d “actively consider a claim for breach of confidence or Crown copyright” over his book, Murder in Samarkand.
Despite that threat, Murray’s publishers, Mainstream, tell me they “intend to proceed” with the memoir, which will hit the shelves in July.Meanwhile, Murray has used an interview with The Bookseller to launch a personal offensive against Straw, saying he has “proof that the Government has been obtaining intelligence from torture, and that Jack Straw approved it.”He’s also happy to take the matter to court, adding: “The Government is seeking to undermine freedom of speech … If they want to send me to prison, I am prepared.”The Foreign Office letter to Murray was drafted by legal advisors, who are anxious to avoid a hoo-hah similar to that inspired by the publication of Sir Christopher Meyer’s memoir DC Confidential.However, Straw’s direct involvement makes it hard for them to keep him away from any trial. With this in mind, an FO spokesman stressed that they’ve yet to decide “how to take this forward.”* Kate Moss is occasionally ridiculed for hailing from deepest Croydon, but her background turns out to be more cultured than previously thought.Her mother, Linda, is the subject of an approving press release from the Chambers Gallery, a favourite of the arty set.She has agreed to open its next exhibition, of work by the trendy young artists Peter Harrap and Natasha Kissell. According to the release, Moss (Snr) has a fine “eye” for art, and recently spent £4,000 on one of Harrap’s paintings of her daughter.”I met Linda at a private view that was organised by Jude Law’s sister, Natasha,” says Harrap.”She’s got an interest in the scene through her daughter, and they also used to live with a photographer.

It’ll be great to have her along.”News that Linda Moss has invested in a painting of her daughter, left, will scotch rumours of a falling-out between the two.Before Christmas, red-top gossips claimed – quite wrongly – that she’d failed to offer support during the supermodel’s recent personal troubles.* There is sadness for Gary Wilmott, TV host and owner of the most splendid collection of knitwear in show-business.Two weeks before its first night, Wilmott’s new musical, Personals, has been cancelled, under mysterious circumstances.Cast and crew were informed last week. No official reason was given, but the producers, Oscada, are said to blame financial difficulties.”All we can do now is to give customers their money back and move on,” says the Blackpool Grand, where Wilmott was to begin a 19-city tour. “It’s a shame, but out of our hands, I’m afraid.”Oscada weren’t returning calls yesterday, but Wilmott isn’t the only victim of the sudden cancellation.The eminent composer Grant Olding had reworked the show’s music and lyrics “Of course he’s upset,” says a chum. “Still, Joanna Riding is about to appear in a West End tribute to his work, and she’s his real priority right now.”* After yet another “inflation busting” increase in council taxes, here’s a tale of the sort you couldn’t make up.Today, Lambeth Council holds a conference at which bigwigs will discuss ways to: “encourage ethnic participation in waste and recycling”.Its official purpose is to: “consider how local (recycling) schemes can be made more inclusive and accessible.”Some reckon this beyond parody.

Stretching for 7.3 miles and climbing nearly 4,000ft, it boasts 60 corners and a surface so smooth it would flatter a racetrack You could almost call it the eighth wonder of the world. The road is cut into the Jebel Hafeet mountain, which lies on the border with Oman, about 90 minutes’ drive south-east of Dubai. It looks down upon a dusty, desert landscape that belies a nation of astonishing wealth.
For the next two days, we will explore this mountain in a Mini Cooper S Convertible. This £17,935 soft-top is ubiquitous in the UK, but it’s a novel sight in the Middle East, where big is beautiful. In the UAE, the Mini is sold only to the very young or the very old. Maybe that’s why the locals find us so amusing.The view could have been plucked from a computer game.

Three lanes of immaculate highway are carved into the limestone mountain in one, continuous squiggle. Short, rapid straights merge seamlessly with sweeping curves.On these roads, the Mini is a superb companion. BMW’s engineers did a fine job of decapitating the popular hatchback without removing its soul. The soft-top isn’t quite as good to drive – that would be expecting too much – but it’s still great fun. Little wonder that it was the UK’s best-selling convertible last year.We park and look down on a vast sweep of tarmac. The Jebel Hafeet road must have cost £50m to build, but its origins remain shrouded in mystery. You can buy a guidebook detailing the hydrogeology of the local spring, or the DNA of the resident butterflies, but information on the road itself is almost impossible to find.Desperate to know more, I seek out the manager of the Mercure hotel that opened at the top of the mountain three years ago.

Rajesh Kapoor reckons the road “was completed a dozen years ago. I think the architect was Swedish because we had a Swedish guest to stay who claimed her husband was responsible for it.” But that contradicts a claim made in a history guidebook that the road was built in 1987.Official sources suggest it was built as a honeypot for tourists, who travel from nearby cities to sample the mountain air. But with the exception of the hotel, there’s almost nothing here. The road culminates in a huge car park, but the tatty caf?s unworthy of custom.Perhaps the real, unspoken reason for the road’s existence is to be found a mile from the hotel. There, sitting on top of the mountain, is a huge palace that belonged to Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, who died on 4 January. His face also adorns a huge banner announcing the entrance to the road and it’s under his watch that it was built.

Mounted on the right, its twin, vertically stacked silencers stand out. So does a single-sided swing-arm in lightweight aluminium alloy. The striped paint job (here, red with white stripe) is simple but distinctive and the five-spoke Marchesini wheels both look and feel expensive.An upside-down, fully adjustable Showa front fork declares that this bike is built to be ridden hard. Everything about the performance confirms it; 95bhp might sound tame, but it never feels underpowered. Ducati has had a long time to get twin-cylinder, air-cooled technology right. The S2R 1000 is positively exuberant in the mid-range and won’t strain until you get to 125mph.Granted, it’s not a track-day racer.

But it is a totally practical motorcycle that makes everyday riding exhilarating and turns special roads into special moments. Ride faster than it happily carries you on anything less than an unrestricted autobahn and you might as well save the courts trouble and burn your driving licence.True, it’s a naked bike, not designed for long journeys, but of all the Monster family it is the one I would take if I had to ride 1,000 miles in a day. Its suspension adapts easily to all conventional road conditions, braking is impressive and a tank bag wouldn’t ruin the look. It is versatile enough to be an only bike.Niggles? The tiny fairing is so ineffective it might as well not be there.

More from Thomas Sutcliffe. Religious leaders, sympathetic to the affronted sensibilities of Muslims, insist that freedom of expression must be exercised “responsibly” or “sensitively” (both euphemisms for not actually exercising it at all).

Indignant MPs, furious at the hurt caused to grieving families, demand that Muslim zealots must be prevented from public “glorification” of suicide bombings. Unfortunately those of us who think liberty of expression has had a very bad time just recently don’t have a lot of choice. You can’t always choose the site of battle, and there’s no getting round the fact that those who wish to qualify and trim the principle of free speech occupy what looks very much like the high ground. And since even David Irving now admits that what he said 17 years ago was nonsense or – in his terms – “a mistake”, this might seem like the very worst place to mount any kind of rearguard action in defence of free speech. At one shoulder the anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, convinced that the entire weight of a covert Zionist world government is bearing down on a harmless scholar. At the other shoulder the racists and Nazi memorabilia enthusiasts with their fantasies of heroic opposition.

Almost in spite of themselves they matter more at the moment than at any point since the general election in 1997.

More from Steve Richards. If you want to defend David Irving’s right to talk nonsense, as I do now, you have to face the fact that you’re going to find yourself in ugly company. When looking beyond the sex and booze of recent months there are fewer dark laughs and quite a lot of reasons for the party to become deadly serious. The broader political background is an altogether different matter. Recently the Liberal Democrats have found important political space.

When I just became sicker he had me seen by a specialist in lung infections at a hospital in Tunbridge Wells.

More from Dominic Lawson. The immediate context of the Liberal Democrats’ leadership contest was an extensively reported tragi-comedy, a vivid reminder of how the third party can lapse into absurdity without trying very hard. So when my flu turned into pneumonia it never occurred to me to tell the local GP about the pigeon pooh. He therefore gave me repeated courses of antibiotics that would have knocked typical pneumonia firmly on the head.

Also next Sunday, airing on British television for the first time, is an episode of The Simpsons written by Ricky Gervais. For patriotic English people wondering what to take pride in on their patron saint’s day, the answer is on Sky One at 6.30pm. Never in the 16-year history of The Simpsons has an outsider been invited to write an episode, let alone an outsider from Reading. And Gervais has taken full advantage of the privilege, inventing a character voiced by himself who bears a striking resemblance to David Brent, his alter ego in the hit show The Office (based in Slough – a long way from The Simpsons’ Springfield). Next Sunday is St George’s Day. The government tightened up regulations on research and clinical drug trials after reporters in China accused a US-funded project of conducting research on asthma medication without the proper consent of farmers in central China in the 1990s.. Chinese and foreign experts have criticised the government for what they say is lax oversight of research, saying the push for breakthroughs is creating ethical problems.

Another picture showed Mr Li after the operation, lying with a tube in his mouth, his face puffy, and with surgical scars running from his left ear to his right ear and around his chin. Other details, including how doctors had found Mr Li and whether he had consented to the publicity he has received, were not immediately available. Photographs released by the hospital showed the extent of his injuries. His right eye was almost closed and the cheek and lip had been badly ripped. The Chinese hospital said Mr Li had been mauled by a black bear in the southern province of Yunnan two years ago. The partial face transplant comes less than five months after doctors in Amiens, France, performed the world’s first such procedure, transplanting lips, a chin and a nose on to a woman who had been attacked by a dog. China, which was the third country to have a successful manned space programme, has won praise from international scientists for its its gene research.

William Hsiao, a health economist at Harvard University who researches Chinese public health, said: “China always has a group of people who like to be on the cutting-edge of scientific development.” Over the past decade, the Chinese government has poured money into advanced scientific fields, from aerospace to biotechnology, directing grant money and pooling resources to create research centres to rival those of the West. It would underscore the nation’s growing scientific prowess while raising questions about its patchy regulation of medical experiments. The claims, once they are verified by independent experts, would make China the second country to conduct the procedure. It is predicted that the patient’s wounds can be healed within one week,” the hospital said. Li Guoxing has a new nose, cheek, upper lip and eyebrow, according to Xijing military hospital in the central city of Xi’an.
“Up to now, the patient is in good condition The operation was successful.

Father Augustinos, who heads the Mar Girgis church, said: “We are trying to calm the situation after many of our youth started protesting. It doesn’t do any good for the country to make protests.” Abdullah Osman, an official with the ruling National Democratic Party, told the Associated Press: “They went to the churches to explain that the attackers are insane and that the people should not blow things [out of proportion].” Coptic Christians account for about 10 per cent of Egypt’s population of 72 million. Hundreds of angry Copts gathered in front of the churches to protest against the attacks, and witnesses said clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims in the Sidi Bishr suburb, near Saints church. One was said to have attacked two churches; one attacked a third church; and the other was arrested during a foiled attack on a fourth church. Alexandria police earlier said they had arrested three men in the attacks. “While he was trying to enter into another church, he was arrested by police.” The statement said one of the worshippers died from his wounds. The semi-official Middle East News Agency identified the victim as Nushi Atta Girgis, 78.

“This morning a citizen attacked three worshippers inside the Mar Girgis church in al-Hadhra with a knife and then fled and went into the Saints church, where he attacked three other worshippers and again fled,” the ministry statement said. However, the government has always tried to downplay incidents that can be perceived as sectarian in nature so as not to inflame tensions between the Coptic minority and Muslim majority. The discrepancies between the reports could not be immediately explained. A knife-wielding assailant attacked worshippers at Coptic churches in the Egyptian city of Alexandria during Mass yesterday, killing one person and wounding at least five before he was arrested. The Egyptian Interior Ministry identified the attacker as Mahmoud Salah-Eddin Abdel-Raziq and said he suffered from “psychological disturbances”.
Earlier, police said three men had been arrested in four simultaneous church assaults, one of them foiled by police They said 17 people were wounded, and one later died.

The national anti-Mafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso believes it is unlikely that he will turn informer.But when Riina’s bloody challenge to Italy backfired, Uncle Bernie was around to pick up the pieces. He is also credited with planning a series of bombings on the Italian mainland. Provenzano, now known as “zu Binnu” (Uncle Bernie), took charge of the public works contracts, the network of protection money extorted from every enterprise on the island.Provenzano is said to have been involved in Riina’s idea of stopping the Italian state dead in its tracks by killing the investigating magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. He has already been sentenced to life for his crimes in absentia.But despite his brutal past, Provenzano proved to be both more astute and less psychopathically violent than other Corleone bosses like Riina. For years he was content to remain in Riina’s shadow: the boss managed the drugs trade, and prosecuted the war on the Italian state. Provenzano was put in charge of wiping them out, and is held responsible for some 300 deaths in Agrigento.

These were the Mafia wars of the 1980s and Provenzano’s sharp-shooting continued to be a vital asset. In the early Nineties a new clan war broke out between the Corleonesi and a federation of gangs that had sprung up in the south and east of the island. It was the bloody handiwork of Riina, ably abetted by Provenzano, that put the Corleonesi on top of the heap by wiping out all the competition from other towns. Perhaps it was the grin on his lips that made Liggio dismiss him as an imbecile.When Provenzano was coming up in the clan, Corleone was merely one nasty little Mafia-ridden town among many others. He was also prone to smiling a lot, like his former boss Toto Riina, now doing life in prison. “I’ve never seen him angry,” one supergrass later said of Riina, and it applied equally to Provenzano.

“You have no idea what damage you have done,” he said calmly. They were his first public words in more than 40 years.”He shoots like an angel but he has the brains of a chicken.” This was the view of Provenzano held by his first boss Luciano Liggio But Liggio could not have been more wrong Like most Mafiosi, Provenzano had little education. The shepherd, about to climb back into his battered Fiat Panda, was detained Inside the farmhouse was Bernardo Provenzano He made no attempt to flee or resist. There had been no movements in or out of the farmhouse during the weeks of surveillance. Then the hand reached out for the parcel, and the police swooped.More than 50 special policesurrounded the farmhouse. Saveria Palazzolo is the wife of the Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano, on the run for 43 years The parcel contained freshly laundered clothes. But the parcel had been tracked on its progress from the house of one Saveria Benedetta Palazzolo, the owner of a laundry in Corleone The parcel had covered two kilometres in three days.

We just don’t believe it should be used to buy influence over what is taught.”Under both the academy and “trust” school programmes, the sponsor – or partner as they are referred to in the case of “trust” schools – is allowed a majority on the school governing body and can determine the curriculum.. “We just told them the sponsor didn’t think their children were good enough for the academy.”However, he acknowledged that it would be more difficult if sponsors and the Government offered £30m to change a school which had been struggling for years.He said that the union would be arguing that the Government should instead plough money into the 300 schools in most need of help – to allow them to have new buildings, smaller class sizes and retain teaching staff.”We’re not against philanthropy,” he said.”In fact – to use the words of Bob Geldof without the expletive – ‘give us your money’. “It must be wrong that they can peddle their own prejudices and beliefs.”So far the union has run three successful campaigns with parents to persuade sponsors to back out of plans to set up academies – in Doncaster, Middlesbrough and Waltham Forest, east London.In Waltham Forest, the potential sponsor said he would only go ahead with the plan provided pupils in the existing school to be replaced by the academy were not allowed into the new one.”It was not very difficult to persuade parents to oppose that one,” said Mr Sinnott. “It must be wrong for somebody who has money that they decide they wish to use for education to be able to buy influence over the curriculum in a school,” he added. It was backed by the union’s executive.Mr Sinnott said the NUT was opposed to the idea of private sponsors being able to operate a school for £2m – as happens with the academies – and dictate what should be included in the curriculum.It would campaign against any attempt to set up a “trust” school or academy. It is strange that a Government that is promoting “parent power” wishes to deny parents the opportunity of choosing whether a change of status for their school is something they want.”The call to mount a campaign against “trust” schools and academies will be debated as an emergency motion at the NUT’s annual conference in Torquay today.

They will urge MPs to back an amendment to the Government’s legislation that will give parents the right to veto any attempt to change a school’s status by voting in a ballot.
Steve Sinnott, the NUT’s general secretary, said the move would be in line with the Education Secretary Ruth Kelly’s “parent power” initiatives – aimed at giving mothers and fathers a bigger say in the running of their children’s schools.”In the past, when schools became grant-maintained and opted out of local authority control (under the Conservatives), there was more democracy,” said Mr Sinnott “The parents were given a choice – they had a ballot That enabled people to consider the issues. Leaders of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) will seek to enlist the support of parents to block attempts to hand control of their schools over to private sponsors. Britain’s biggest teachers’ union is to step up its war against the Prime Minister’s plans to set up a network of independently run “trust” schools and academies throughout the country. The union claimed the local authority should have provided the teacher with a step-ladder.In another case, a primary school teacher in Somerset won £9,159 compensation when her employers ruled she was unfit to teach because she had lost her voice as a result of years of speaking to her pupils.In a third case, a teacher – also from Wales – won £2,500 because she injured her foot when it went through the steps on an approach to a temporary classroom.One of the biggest awards was £220,000 given to a technology teacher from Worcestershire who suffered significant respiratory problems through years of inhaling dust and fumes in woodwork lessons.In addition, the union won £250,000 for members who claimed criminal injuries compensation awards after assaults.. Teachers’ leaders have won more than £1.7m for members as a result of accidents in school or out on trips with pupils. In one case, a report to the National Union of Teachers’ annual conference revealed, a teacher in Wales won £2,500 compensation after falling off a desk in the classroom.
The teacher had been trying to pin up pupils’ work on the walls while standing on the desk.

The annual conference of the NASUWT voted yesterday for young teachers to be given better training and supportin dealing with the most difficult students.
Julian Chapman of the union’s executive revealed a dossier of intimidation towards teachers including threats such as: “I’m going to petrol bomb your car” and “My brother’s going to stab you in the face”.Ruth Williams, a teacher from Oxfordshire, said she had received little training in behaviour management and had had no support since finishing college.Chris Keates, the union’s general secretary, said that there was a “huge problem” with teachers refusing to help junior colleagues because of fear about revealing their own difficulties.”We have got to get this climate of fear out of the classroom where people feel unable to express the difficulties they are having,” she said.”Too few school feel able to admit when they have problems with indiscipline because they fear it will impact on the reputation of the school.”. Young teachers are being driven out of the profession by violent pupils and a “climate of fear” in staffrooms which stops experienced staff from admitting there are problems, a teachers’ leader has warned. [laughter] BV: And finally, Ricky, now that you’ve fulfilled the burning ambition to work on The Simpsons, what else is left? RG: I want to get all the nations of the world together, it doesn’t matter what colour or creed, and I want to sit them down and say: “Guys, The Office is still available on DVD.” ‘Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife’ is on Sky One at 6.30pm on Sunday 23 April. AJ: Yeah, there was a scene with Ricky and Julie Kavner [who plays Marge], which was longer than scenes we normally do, and slower-paced, but it got a bigger laugh … RG: I learnt that you should always chew your food and never run with scissors. BV: What did you guys learn from each other, during this project? AJ: I learnt that you should always be yourself.