For A-Level results day, I traded comments with local socialist (Lib Dem branch), Neil Harrison, about the year-on-year increase in Tractor Production exam grades. Head over there to read in full, but pay particular attention to this gem in the comments:

"Unless we socially engineer massive change within the system, it is difficult to know how to crack it. The Irish used to allocate university places by lottery (to some extent - fuzzy on the details). We can't tell students which universities they should go to in order to have a better social mix. I do think that killing or changing the [personal] statements section of the application would probably help."

Suffice to say I'm also rather sceptical that similar year-on-year increases in the GCSE results imply that either student performance or teaching methods have dramatically increased in the last twenty years. But I thought I ought to have a look at some examples of exam papers before I comment further.

A quick Google search leads me to a free service from Edexcel, offering a selection of past question papers and mark schemes for their General Qualifications for download - both Alternative Ordinary Level (O-Level) and GCSE - in a variety of subjects. The web-page doesn't ask for a password, but only a five digit centre number. The copyright statement places constraints on how schools and colleges can use them for internal purposes, but doesn't mention the general public. Now I'm not totally sure whether this is supposed to be a public service, but I think it's legitimate to download a paper or two to get a feel for the standard of examinations.

I'm having a quick look at the Maths paper at both O-Level and GCSE to see what I can make of it.

Or then again I might have a go at "Leisure & Tourism", which is only available at GCSE.

A quick moan about SocITM. It feels like every other time I go to the Bristol Council web-site I get this wretched pop-up:

I've answered the damn questionnaire once (and it's very long). Unfortunately there is no "Enough Already" option to make it go away permanently.

Anyhow, apparently I contributed to an online discussion on Climate Change at AskBristol, but I'm damned if I can remember what I said. I received the attached today:

Dear Colleague

You may recall that a few months ago you contributed to an online discussion on Climate Change via the AskBristol website (Bristol City Council). The site had a dedicated space to support the work of the Climate Change Select Committee. The site is available here: http://www.bristol-climatechange.public-i.tv/site/

As part of the evaluation of the site we are asking all those who contributed to the on line discussion a few questions and would be grateful if you would spend a few moments answering the following questions:

1. Would you describe yourself as democratically active?
2. What other community or democratic activities do you take part in?
3. What was your primary purpose in using the site?
4. Has it been a useful resource to achieve this purpose?
5. Which parts of the site did you find particularly useful (or not useful!)?
6. Have you any suggestions for improving the site?
7. Do you think this would be a useful resource for other topics areas?

Please provide your answers as a reply to this email. All your answers will be treated in confidence and you will not be identified in any reporting.

For your information the report from the Climate Change Select Committee is available here: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/item/committeecontent/?ref=sc&code=sc019&year=2008&month=05&day=06&hour=14&minute=00

Please get in touch if you have any questions.
Best wishes
Mike

Michael Brewin
Consultation and e-Participation Officer
Corporate Consultation Team
Corporate Communications
Bristol City Council
Telephone: (0117) 922 4644
Fax: (0117) 922 2948

Other Consultations

Dog Wardens

If you've got the time and inclination, you can respond to a number of current consultations, including a customer satisfaction survey about the Dog Warden service. (I didn't know there was a Dog warden service).

Rape & Sexual Assault Strategy

The consultation has just finished on Bristol's Strategy to tackle Rape & Sexual Assault 2008-11 (why are these strategies always "tackling"?). The aim of the strategy:

• Raise awareness of sexual violence and the harm it causes.
• Take action to challenge social acceptance of sexual violence.
• Champion the challenging of harmful myths, stereotypes and pervasive representations of women or men that can contribute to a culture that is accepting of sexual violence.
• Prevent and reduce the harm caused by sexual violence.
• Develop a range of flexible and effective services which meet the needs of the victims of sexual violence.
• Bring more offenders to justice.

I look at these and struggle to think of anywhere in our society where there exists "social acceptance of sexual violence". Is this really a problem that wouldn't be better solved by putting more effort into street patrolling and locking up rapists? (See Exhibit 'A' below)

I'm usually pretty dismissive of the template Equalities Impact Assessment attached to all council documents, but this one contains some interesting points:

Women from BME communities

It can be more difficult for Black and Minority Ethnic women from some communities to
report rape or sexual assault for fear of bringing dishonour on themselves and/or their
family, or because they fear it will reflect badly on their community. There can also be
distrust of the police and fears of unfair or discriminatory police practice. Women who
fear deportation are unlikely to report to the Police. At the same time, Black and Minority
Ethnic women need to have the same rights to support, advocacy and counselling as
white majority women, and specialist services may need to be offered within the overall
provision. This would include ensuring that workers reflect the diverse BME groups in
Bristol and are culturally competent as well as providing translation services.

This would seem to be the area where some further investigation is needed; to resolve this distrust of the Police and the ridiculous contention that sexual assault implies dishonour to a family.

There is also a companion document which attempts to answer a previous criticism I have made - why there are both Rape Crisis Centres and Sexual Assault Referral Centres - which seems to boil down to "because we do". There's a lot of talk about joined-up thinking in government, but it often seems that policy is more driven by the maintenance of personal fiefdoms and "me-too" interventions rather than spending the money where it can achieve the most effect.

Here are the rest of the consultations:

(Via the MOD)

It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of Signaller Wayne Bland, from 16 Signal Regiment, in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday 11 August 2008.

At around 1600hrs local time, Signaller Bland was providing top-cover whilst travelling in a convoy of vehicles undertaking a route familiarisation patrol in Kabul, when the vehicles were attacked by a suicide bomber. The attacker rammed his vehicle into the patrol and detonated an explosive device, which wounded Signaller Bland and two further soldiers from 16 Signal Regiment.

All were treated at a military hospital but sadly, Signaller Bland died as a result of his wounds.

Signaller Wayne Bland

Signaller Wayne Bland, 21, was a passionate football player and fan, supporting Leeds, where he lived and had grown up. He was single and had no children. His family have issued the following statement:

"Wayne was a much-loved son, grandson, brother and uncle who served his country with distinction and sadly paid the ultimate price. He was our true hero."

See also:

• 2nd Lt. (Sig to me) Jonathan Bracho-Cooke
• Sgt Barry Keen

I don't watch a great deal of television, but I caught the end of this story on BBC Points West.

Jakob Seviour saved his mother's life by calling 999 when she had a fit and now he is being put forward for a national award.

Aged 4! Well done, lad! I don't know what national award he's up for, but I think he's earned it. (Click picture for video)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7568697.stm

I'm testing out a new Blog comments system, through integration with Disqus.

Drupal (the CMS of this blog) has a module to make the integration very elegant, courtesy of Rob Loach. This should simplify thinks for all you heathens out there using Wordpress.