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A fascinating piece on the evolution of girl gangs which ties in with some of the stuff I point out in Yob Nationhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/14/do1403.xml‘

Spoke at length on two radio interviews today: BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Scotland. The Ulster interview asked for my comments on the Tories’ new proposals to stop the parents of excluded children appealing against a headteacher’s decision to exclude them. I said it was all a bit of a sound bite and that…

Finished reading Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Tender is the Night’ and was struck by the author’s deep psychological insight, his ability to scrutinise the tiniest reactions of people when they are confronted or challenged, his uncanny, enlightened cynicism that sees multiple causes behind every gesture, every flick of the eye, every glance. The scene where Dick Diver…

A depressing survey that shows violence in the classroom is on the increase: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3564297.ece http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/onethird-of-teachers-threatened-796778.html‘

Great article for English Language A Level students on how the brain controls accents here.’

Appeared on Richard Bacon’s show, arguing that too many students were going to university, studying non-courses’. Too many courses are not serious: Outdoor Adventure With Philosophy, Ghost-Hunting, Surfing Studies. The guest arguing the other point of view, said that students should be able to study whatever they want. I argued there was limited money in…

Appeared yesterday on BBC Breakfast talking about the new government advertising campaign to recruit teachers. I complained on the Beeb’s very red sofa that the government didn’t tell the truth, that it gave false hopes and that it sold the lie that teachers are paid like people in the corporate world. The campaign highlights all…

The Sunday Times ran a good analysis of the crime stats in this interesting comment piece. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article3382270.ece?openComment=true‘

The Sunday Times ran a good analysis of the crime statistics in this interesting comment piece. The same edition ran an illuminating interview with a former gang member.

Our local corner shop has finally had an Asbo slapped on the local youths in our area to stop them intimidating and harrassing them, after years of abuse and violence. The local residents rose up and named and shamed the miscreants in court. All seems peaceful now at the shop: there are no youths smoking…

Appeared on Newsnight talking about yob culture with Ken Jones, a top policeman, Rob Williams from the Children’s Commission, and a leading magistrate.

Going through a major Thomas Hardy phase, as if teaching ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’ wasn’t enough. I felt his novella, ‘Two In A Tower’ is a marvellous achievement. It’s about a poor, young, pretty astronomer who falls in love with an unhappily married lady of the manor. The pair secretly marry, only to have…

Loved reading Balzac’s most famous novel in Paris, walking the streets, observing the lemony sunlight on polished stone, and living the life of Raustignac, the poor student, who seeks the high life in the ballrooms and salons of 19th Century Paris. The novel is a real pot-boiler, full of melodrama, wronged fathers, conniving daughters and…

Back at the Beeb on Sunday morning talking about new research which shows girls are just as badly behaved as boys, but just in subtler, trickier ways. I described how boys have thrown missiles, stuck ripped cans on my chair, fought and hurled abuse at me, while girls have caused probably more trouble by lying,…

Made a brief appearance as a named guest on London Talking, with Konnie Huq, Nick Ferrarri, Vanessa Feltz and a rep from the NSPCC. The discussion was on whether it was right to smack children or not. Nick Ferrarri and some other ill-informed guests defended smacking, which in my view is tantamount to defending violence…

Read another ridiculous Ian McEwan novel, the denouement of which is laugh out loud funny. A poor unfortunate chap’s premature ejaculation on his wedding night in the 1960s leads to the break-up of his marriage and the effective demolition of his life. McEwan’s tone is serious, earnest, studied, descriptive, but he failed to convince me…

Psychologist Oliver James has written a big, fat book about why too many of us are suffering from affluenza’ — a virus of the over privileged who want more and yet more. Apparently, the Western world contains some of the unhappiest people as well as the wealthiest because our ‘selfish capitalism’ has created a culture…