January 27th, 2012

Salford has voted in favour of adopting a directly elected Mayor and will go to the Polls on May 3rd to elect their first such representative. This is very good news and reflects locally that people in Salford want greater accountability from their Council.

January 23rd, 2012

Very pleased to report that last week saw our first Conservative Policy Forum Council meeting, which was chaired by Oliver Letwin MP. Lots of very high quality policy debate going on in the Party and what is really pleasing are the number of CPF groups which are actively participating across the country. This weekend will see the return of the CPF Winter School. Whilst I am unable to attend due to work commitments I am sure those that do make it will have a fantastic weekend of policy debate!

January 13th, 2012

The Government has today announced that it will be easier for Head Teachers to sack poorly performing teachers (from September). Previously it took three terms of employment - it will now drop to just one term before such actions can legally be taken. I see the NUT has come out strongly against this proposal. I personally think this is very welcome news - it cannot be right when a Head Teacher and Senior Management Team (SMT) know that a teacher is not doing a good job that they are allowed to stay in post for three terms before any action can be taken. Clearly, no SMT team would take such decisions lightly given the seriousness of these situations. But putting the quality of teaching first for all our children must be the right thing to do.