His talk of listening and learning was instantly undermined by his declaration that, on Iraq, “after this election people want to move on”. Many people watching him must have shouted at their televisions: “No, we want you to move on.” If Mr Blair’s successor is to renew the Government successfully while it is in office, he or she will need time before the next election to do it.The success of the Liberal Democrats on Thursday offered Mr Blair and his successor a pointer to the direction that renewal should take. It might not be treating the verdict of the electorate with contempt, given the greater popularity of Gordon Brown, but constitutionally it would be peculiar.That said, however, the Prime Minister would benefit himself and the national interest if he were to stand down sooner rather than later. It would be reasonable to do so after the referendum on the European constitution, if that goes ahead next year, whatever the outcome. Mr Blair’s practised humility at the Downing Street microphone will convince no one unless it is followed through by his actions. The result could well be more open debate, better-quality legislation and a less secretive, centralised administration.
However, Mr Blair’s insistence that he will serve out a “full third term” sounds hollow.
We welcome the Government’s reduced majority in the House of Commons. With luck, it should re-balance power a little in favour of the legislature against the executive. The knowledge that Tony Blair will not be Prime Minister by the next election may also restore a semblance of backbone to cabinet ministers. The people have spoken, and the Prime Minister has responded in tones of suitable humility.
“I have listened and I have learned.” But we are moving beyond that now. The woman, aged 28 and only on her second day at the school, is still unable to return to work as a result of the attack, last September.A report by Britain’s second-biggest teachers’ union, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, shows the number of teachers suffering injuries at the hands of pupils rose from 45 to 104 between 2003 and 2004.It is estimated that more than 270 serious assaults are now carried out on teachers every year.. A dramatic rise in classroom violence means that teachers are now being assaulted by pupils at the rate of one a day, according to disturbing new figures obtained by The Independent on Sunday.
Statistics compiled by teachers’ leaders show that attacks have more than doubled in a year, some of them so serious that the victims required hospital treatment.The findings emerged at the end of a week in which a 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to raping a woman teacher at an inner London comprehensive as she was marking pupils’ work. Even really good schools are now excluding 45 pupils a year.”One thing is certain.
