Frank's Westminster Blog

THE Children’s Commissioner for England has released a report on school exclusions. I have written to David Armstrong, Wirral’s Chief Officer, to ask how Birkenhead schools fare. Governments insist that schools ensure that an increasing number of pupils leave with minimum school leaving requirements. Michael Gove tells heads to crack down on disruptive pupils. But schools get a bad mark for excluding the troublemakers. So what do schools do? According to this...

A highlight for me last Friday was the meeting in Oxton on how to deal with the owners of dogs who foul our pavements. This little summit was called by Matthew Patrick who heads the Labour Action team in the area. The widespread publicity for our meeting had already galvanised the Council into action. There will be a doubling of the numbers of the officers on dog patrols.   The meeting asked me to follow up on four issues. Does the local authority already have the power to fine dog...