Downing Street Says » Ruth Kelly

Asked if the Prime Minister was relaxed that his Education Secretary sought "spiritual support" from Opus Dei, the PMOS repeated the Education Secretary’s words, which were that she had her private religious beliefs and she was entitled to them, like anyone else. Therefore, what was important was her role as a Cabinet Minister, and as Education Minister in particular, and what yesterday showed was that she was very focussed on delivering that task.

27 Comments »

I would like Mrs Kelly to know that in the Stoke on Trent district of Fegg Hayes, James Brindley primary school [for 5 – 11 year old children] are being taught the BEATLES in their history lesson!

I don’t know what is going on, but this continually dumbing down of the school curriculum is absolutely disgusting.

My 10 year old thinks the BEATLES is history – can you imagine that? Not anything we have achieved over 50 years apparently.

He knows nothing of the Holocaust, nothing of any significance apparently. As a parent, I am very very distressed about this. It seems to me that we are teaching our children to be ashamed of our history – why?

As a mother of young children yourself, I wonder if you think this is acceptable. I cannot afford to send him to private school – if I could I would.

Please will you look into this disgusting state of affairs?

One more comment, at this school, they do not teach the traditional Christmas hymns. It’s all ‘happy clappy’ nonsense and nothing whatsoever to do with the birth of Christ. I was under the impression that we are still a Christian country – am I wrong?

Finally, congratulations on your appointment. Perhaps now, with your experience of young children, and your commitment to God, we will have a decent standard of education in this country. Please help the children who appear to know more about Islam and Hinduism than their own culture. I do teach my child about our religion, but so many parents cannot be bothered. Therefore Mrs Kelly it is up to you to do something about this.

Thank you
Comment by yvonne sanderson — 28 Jan 2005 on 9:12 am | Link
Good points well made, Yvonne. However, as this government has consistently proved, I fear your pleas will (or have!) fallen on deaf ears. I remember many times over the last few years, when presented with similar criticisms from various quarters, Tony Bliar simply shrugging off the criticism by referring to statistics of recent exam results. Percentages of straight ‘A’s increasing, blah blah.

You see, the problem is this. Government education policy is NOT designed to maintain & increase the educational standards in our schools. It is designed purely and simply to make the government look good, firstly in the eyes of other countries – because the only way into the history books is by being perceived as a good egg by all, and secondly to the portion of our own electorate who are thick enough to believe the bullshit the government trots out by way of statistics.

It’s obvious to all who take an interest in such matters that the basic teaching curriculum has been dumbed down gradually and continually for years; and the government is now reaping the rewards in the form of statistics that say standards have risen. This is borne out by the rising percentages of straight A passes and so on – no-one can argue with those figures. The REASONS behind them are of course open to debate, but the actual figures don’t lie. And this is what the whole idea of modern government is all about; it’s NOT to govern at all, but to secure ones own position and the positions of ones friends and cronies, and to tinker with the system to safeguard the status quo for the priveleged.

I’m sure many will say I’m a cynic – and I am! – but look at other statisticsin the same light. Crime; just the other day figures were published showing violent crime has gone up. Even if the source of these statistics was the one the government would normally use, they have so many alternative sources of stats, and infinite ways of manipulating them, that they will ALWAYS (as in this instance) find another set of figures showing how the original figures were in fact wrong and that in actual fact things ARE improving. Unemployment; immigrants; public transport; etc etc and so on. This government, since 1997, has spent more than any other government in history on presentation and PR; read distortion and propoganda, quite literally. What was Alistair Campbells job in relation to the infamous "dodgy dossier", if not to present it in the best possible light for the governments purposes to the country?

And being, if nothing else, good students of human nature, governments in general know also (because otherwise why would they do it?) that the use of statistics in this way is very devisive. They know that Joe Public will argue with his mates about which statistics are obvious distortions of the truth, and which aren’t. It’s all about perception. Divide & conquer; confuse & rule. Look at some of the other recent threads, such as MPs expenses & travel costs and so on; more use of facts and figures and manipulations thereof. Iraqi casualties and how they are compiled. The list is endless; and although all these statistics are the result of this easily corruptible target-based government system, they all have one thing in common – we, the electorate, will never know the real truth! We will only ever know what the government want us to know – because otherwise they’d be out of a job.
Comment by PapaLazzzaru — 28 Jan 2005 on 2:51 pm | Link
That should be "divisive", not "devisive"…!
Comment by PapaLazzzaru — 28 Jan 2005 on 2:53 pm | Link
Why is Ruth Kelly entitled to her private religious beliefs?

She, as the Education Secretary, is responsible for the religious education of all UK school children. She has not yet made any public statement about this, seems to be avoiding the issue, and is being very tight-lipped about the whole thing. Surely it’s only proper that people are interested in her religous views? It’s not as if her religous beliefs haven’t influenced her political actions, she’s given exemption by the whips from supporting certain aspects of Government policy (stem cell research, gay rights).
Comment by square peg — 28 Jan 2005 on 3:41 pm | Link
Yvonne,

"One more comment, at this school, they do not teach the traditional Christmas hymns. It’s all ‘happy clappy’ nonsense and nothing whatsoever to do with the birth of Christ. I was under the impression that we are still a Christian country – am I wrong?"

Yes. I accept that in some polls the majority of people will say they are Christians when asked. But the majority of people are certainly not Christians in the (rather important) sense of believing in God, believing that Jesus was the son of God, believing that Jesus rose from the dead, and believing in other critical aspects of the Christian faith. Even if we were a Christian country, I still can see why that means the religion should be taught in schools.

"I do teach my child about our religion, but so many parents cannot be bothered. Therefore Mrs Kelly it is up to you to do something about this."

Why should it be the job of the State to teach other parent’s children about your religion? Good for you for teaching your child religion, but I can’t see why the government should use public money to do the same thing. If other parents cannot be bothered teaching their children religion, surely we should respect that choice? We all respect people’s choice to teach their children religion, why can’t we respect people’s choice not to teach their children relgion?

P.S. I’m not in favour of ‘happy clappy’ nonsense either, so at least we agree on something!
Comment by square peg — 28 Jan 2005 on 4:20 pm | Link
Having returned home from a loooong week of teaching, I would like to add my comment from the point of view of a professional teacher. The main thrust of the RE curriculum is the importance of developing a set of moral codices designed to help a child know and value a shared sense of right from wrong. Therefore, a practising Christian child is taught that her/his beliefs are as important to daily life as are those of a Jewish or Muslim child. The point is that neither one nor the other should be held up as an exclusive path to ultimate wisdom. That sort of religious fundamentalism leads only to narrow-minded, bigoted ghetto existence. Therefore, the religious beliefs of a politician are not the issue; rather, that said politician is in position to safeguard and uphold the framework within which we learn about each other… peacefully! That’s the real challenge here, I feel.
(I hate happyclapping too – but I enjoy high Mass in Latin as much as I do the Muslim Call To Prayer).
Comment by bigbadteacher — 28 Jan 2005 on 7:35 pm | Link
Here is another professional teacher’s comment:
Having read the first few submissions on this subject (and ignoring the ‘joker’ who added all the obscenities I can currently see above), I would like to ask Yvonne Sanderson et al why they think they (a) have an exclusive call on the teaching matter of the nation’s schools, and (b) how they can be so sure they actually have their facts right – especially as Ms. Sanderson appears to be basing her expectations on the schools of several decades ago. If I want this kind of self-righteous indignation, I will read the ‘Daily Mail’ – not that I think I’ll bother. Is she aware, for instance, that there is a serious debate about when ‘current affairs’ become ‘history’? It is not as straightforward as she seems to think. I do not think that we are teaching pupils to be ashamed of our history, but perhaps to view it in a less narrow, biggotted way than hitherto.

On religion, bigbadteacher is correct; R.E. in my school teaches ABOUT religion, and the nature of the ‘big’ questions that all religions attempt to address. Religious EDUCATION is not religion – do that bit yourself! If you worked in a school with a large multi-faith catchment (not that I do) could you still justify the exclusive teaching of traditional Christianity that you seem to want?

As for the political comments, I will leave mostly alone, because it is certainly difficult to know much about the ‘inside’ of the political agenda. All I will say is that in the last couple of years, I have seen a considerable number of teachers’ assistants arrive to help with the more demanding pupils, and I have had a considerable amount of administrative burden removed (although when your already working at 150%, a 10% reduction doesn’t show that much…)

Finally dumbing down: I am satisfied that my own subject (Geography) is as rigorous as it always was – and a lot more relevant to the current world. The better results are at least partly explained by the fact that exam boards are now required to publish so much more information that teaching students to pass is no longer a guessing game. I must admit that I do have some reservations here, though.

What would make educating children a lot more successful would be if more parents stopped seeing education as just another consumer durable, and took their responsibilites as seriously as they do their ‘rights’. They should get on with parenting properly, so that they can prepare their offspring to function successfully within a school community. They could give their children a lead by feeding them decent food to calm their behaviour, encouraging them to respect others and to be honestly accountable for their own actions. For all the progress that schools have made in recent years, we are seeing a rapid decline in pupils’ behaviour; this is often not the schools’ fault – by the time they reach us, it is too late. We end up mopping up for too many inadequate or irresponsible parents as it is. Blaming the schools only encourages the pupils to do the same thing.
Comment by Ian Stock — 4 Apr 2005 on 6:42 pm | Link
Two appalling errors – I blame the keyboard! ‘Your’ should be ‘you’re’ and ‘biggotted’ should read ‘bigoted’. Apologies – and I claim to uphold the virtues of traditional good spelling, grammar etc!
Comment by Ian Stock — 4 Apr 2005 on 7:57 pm | Link
I am about to start teacher training, and am reserching the publics views on teachers and their roles and I came across this website.I have a strong active faith and believe that that has shaped and moulded me into the person I am today, moral values and all. I believe that it is a lack of correct teaching about the Christian faith that is a major problem in schools. The R.E syllabus claims that if a person is ‘good’ they will go to Heaven, if they are ‘bad’ hell. It teaches Jesus as a ‘good’ man who died, but speaks nothing of his return. We are still seen as a Christian nation, if this is so why is it so wrong to say prayers in schools, or sing Christian hymns. If we were to travel to Iran we would be expected to comply with their customs and beliefs by wearing the correct clothing. There is a decline in young peoples behaviour which is linked to the abandoning of Christian teachings in schools,I believe that my own upbringing both at home and in school plays a huge part in my values and moral standards today. I agree with Ian Stock, parents do have a huge responsibility to their childrens education, both academic and religious, but schools should not shirk that responsibility either.
Comment by Rhianne Jones — 18 Apr 2005 on 10:37 pm | Link
We are a class of year 11 students at Deincourt School. We find the english Literature ‘Anthology’ has been made extreamly hard to pass. Since this year you have not allowed us to take our anthology books with our notes into the emam. We find this will serously affect our grade as finding poetic devices without out notes will waste at least 15 minutes of the 1 hour exam. The whole of our year and many other year 11 students around the country have found the same problem. We dont think that is is fair that we are used as the ‘guinea pigs’ as next year you will put the rule back due to the number of peole who fail. GCSE exams are hard enough wittout problems like this for us.
Comment by Emily Hart — 29 Apr 2005 on 9:29 am | Link
Established 1981
London School of Islamics
An Educational Trust
63 Margery Park Road London E7 9LD
Email: info@londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
Tel/Fax: 0208 555 2733 / 07817 112 667

Open Letter to Language Supremo

English alone is not enough. The mastery of at least two languages as well as the mother tongue is essential to secure the future of British society. The European Commission is also actively encouraging member\x92s states to promote the early teaching of languages. Learning languages is not just about being able to speak, it is about respect and knowledge of different cultures as well.

The British Government for reluctant Brits to learn foreign languages right from age seven has appointed language Supremo. He will make sure that each and every child from the age of seven will have the chance to learn a foreign language. Nearly three-quarters of the British public think everyone should speak a foreign language, but only one third actually does.

The first wave of Muslim immigrants arrived with two or three languages including English but their British born educated children could only speak English in local accents. Muslim children need to learn Standard English. Muslim children from the Indian sub-continent should be taught Arabic and Urdu languages right from age five. It will make them read and understand the Holy Quran, Islamic literature and poetry. They will not find themselves cut off from their cultural roots. It will be easy for them to have reasonable conversations with their parents and elders. They will not be a laughing stock while visiting their homeland for speaking English in local accents.

There is a great demand for individuals affluent in English and Urdu by educational institutions, British Foreign Service, armed forces, TV Channels, Radio Stations, service industries and film industry. Since DFEE and state schools have failed to teach community languages, therefore, British Muslim youth as well as other Asians could not become language teachers, unable to work for Asian TVs, film industry and Radio Stations. It is difficult to find a writer or a poet or a singer of Urdu language

In my opinion, English, Arabic and Urdu languages should be taught side by side from an early age of five to Muslim children. Muslim teachers from abroad may be recruited because local teachers are in scarcity and difficult to find. They are in a better position to assist class teachers in the teaching of National Curriculum. Infact, they will prove to be a bridge between the two cultures. It will pave a way for respect and better understanding between the Muslim community and the host community which is at its bottom for the time being. I hope Language Supremo will look carefully to my proposals.
Iftikhar Ahmad
Comment by Iftikhar — 5 May 2005 on 5:30 pm | Link
Established 1981
London School of Islamics
An Educational Trust
63 Margery Park Road London E7 9LD
Email: info@londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
Tel/Fax: 0208 555 2733 / 07817 112

An Open Letter to OFSTED
There are over half a million Muslim children in British schools where bilingualism and Islamic Identity is totally neglected. In History lessons, a Muslim contribution to European learning and culture is never mentioned. British education system has failed to meet the needs and demands of the Muslim parents. Mr. Bell wrongly expressed concern about the number of Muslim schools failing to prepare their pupils as good citizens. OFSTED never criticized state schools for the mis-education and de-education of the Muslim children. According to the educational theory, there should be a positive co-relation between school and home; otherwise the education of the children would suffer. Learning a second language is the \x93alphabet of the 21st century.\x94 People who lose their language lose their identity. The language a person speaks is part of his/her identity and culture. So learning languages means opposing racism, xenophobia and intolerance. The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) Annual Report 2003/2004 provides that education system in most European States and United Kingdom is to fail migrants and minorities.

Muslim schools can play a vibrant part in British society. Parents have no choice in educating their children. There is a choice in health; the government is prepared to pay private providers to treat NHS parents. Why not do the same in education? Muslims feel that British society at large is hostile to their way of life. In this atmosphere, there is a growing demand for Muslim schools. Feversham state funded Muslim school now leads in academic progress in only four years. It is a faith based school, underpinned by an Islamic ethos, which influences the quality of teaching and learning. Role models are important to motivate pupils to pursue their dreams. Such schools aid integration. Better exam results mean better jobs and a more integrated society. Majority of Muslim parents balk at the secular treatment of matters such as materialism, spirituality, sex, drugs and the treatment of other people and the environment. What would be wrong with having a state school with a Muslim ethos in areas where Muslim is in great majority. One can\x92t leave religious identity at the school gate. Lord Bertand Russell regards Western education as being intellectually harmful and makes a man stupid. Islamophobia is the consequence of the ignorance, the misinformation and the fears which result from it.

Teacher is a role model. Bilingual Muslim children need bilingual Muslim teachers. OFSTED is not suitable to inspect and passed its judgments on Muslim children and Muslim schools. Bilingual Muslim educationists should be employed for the inspection of the Muslim schools who should not only be well versed in English, Arabic or Urdu but also in Sciences and humanities subjects.
Iftikhar Ahmad
Comment by Iftikhar — 5 May 2005 on 5:32 pm | Link
could some one please tell me what the education Secretary email address is new to computing and unable to findit many many thanks mary
Comment by mary brown — 22 May 2005 on 6:13 pm | Link
Dear Mrs Kelly,
I live in a small community in Birkenhead Merseyside, called Beechwood Estate. It is a lovely estate friendly a proper community we have four schools in our area but only one of them which my son goes to is a Catholic school. We were recently informed that this school could close as soon as September 2006, and all proposals put forward by LEA is for schools to merge together and NO options for St Pauls school to stay open which i think is unfair as the nearest catholic school to us is between one and a half to two miles away and could you imagine walking 3-4 year olds that distance, and the bus service is none exsistant, or turn up when they want to. The school run a breakfast club from 7.30am and after school clubs till about 5pm the teachers work hard and are excellent at the positions all their jobs are in danger, my son has learing difficulties and so has a lot of othere children. The chilren know the teachers well and with it being a close school the teachers know all the pupils. Hopefuly you understand our desperation with having children yourself how would you feel if it was your childs school under threat to close it down, all i am asking is if you could give your support to help our school from closing down if you could please send me a letter or email i would be very greatful for your opinion.
Comment by wendy griffiths — 13 Jun 2005 on 7:40 pm | Link
I am deeply concerned about Ruth Kelly’s involvement with Opus Dei. She is entitled to her private beliefs but not to have beliefs that will dictate how her job is done (as opus Dei requires). That should be carried out according to government policy and a democratic mandate.
Furthermore I am worried about the increasing involvement of religion in education (eg; faith schools). Some people cling to the idea this is a christian counrty. Its not. Its just a country, and it has a mix of ideologies and there should be no favoured religion . My view, and the one I aim to pass on to my daughter is that religion is irrational and I hope to tell her about the many conflicting beliefs people hold and the histories of those beliefs and the damage they have caused.
I do not object to religion being taught in schools as a general topic nor do I care if the odd christmas tune is sung. However as an example of my objection, that time particular of year is originally the festival of the solstice and that of yule , which the christians usurped. It was not the time of christs birth at all and I believe schools should teach the truth of it not the doctrine.
Comment by Alex — 15 Jun 2005 on 11:12 am | Link
Hi,

Don’t usually post on these kind of boards, but just couldn’t believe that anybody would take issue to Ruth Kelly’s personal spiritual beliefs. Is there anyone here who wouldn’t consider it unfair if they experienced discrimination based on their own spiritual beliefs when doing a job that they were fully qualified to do and had gained through merit?

Also, very surprised that the Beatles shouldn’t be considered history. I would love to know more about the popular music of ages gone by. Who were the ‘Beatles’ of Roman civilisation – and why? I wish that historians of the times were less influenced by the human tendency to ‘enjoy’ hearing about tradgedy. There’s nothing wrong with learning about the Beatles, there’s nothing wrong with learning about the Holocaust – there is something to be learnt from both.

As an afterthought, would we consider it wrong for our children to learn about the life and times of Beethoven? I wonder if parents forty or fifty years on would have considered it appropriate to learn about him in history? In our reactionary way, perhaps not.
Comment by soul — 11 Sep 2005 on 12:55 pm | Link
an earlier comment asked why does their child not get taught about the holocaust! the reason could be that Ruth kelly is a member of OPus Deiu, an extreme Christian organisation, highlighted in the book "the DaVinci code". As such jewish history and beliefs and suffering would be insignificant to such an extreme christian person.
this militant christian organisation is as bad as any other extreme religious organisation and as such, i believe ruth kelly to be unfit to be in parliament as would an extremist of Islam or of Judeaism
Comment by sean barry — 7 Feb 2006 on 4:49 pm | Link
Hi
I am a student of Bolton Community College.Me and my friends just wanted to tell you that please don’t cut down the staff from Bolton College. As you know that educatoin is our basic need. So its my personal request to you that think about it.We are very much concern about the policy of education.I hope that you will think about it!
Comment by Anum — 2 Mar 2006 on 12:16 pm | Link
Would you allow a muslim fundamentalist to be the Education Secretary? If no, then why would you allow Ruth Kelly to be the Education secretary? She is a prominant member of OPus Deiu, a christian fundamentalist group. Opus Deiu requires their members to spread their belief through the members daily job and make people belief in what they belief in.

Ruth Kelly is the Education Secretary of this country. She works for us so she should represent our views and interests, not the views of a fundamentalist group.
Comment by ali — 5 May 2006 on 2:43 am | Link
For example, OPus Deiu is against using contraception during sex. Their members have a duty to tell people not to wear contraception. Thats what Ruth Kelly believes in and is required to do by being a member of Opus Deiu. So how can she tell a teacher to tell a young pupil in class that using contraception is a good thing????

Also, this country is not a christian country. Open your eyes and look around.
Religion education should teach children about different beliefs of different people. I think thats a good thing because in this country we live with people with different faiths so we should try to understand them. It is only then we would not be prejudice towards others.

Theres nothing wrong with learning about Beatles in a history lesson. Beatles were a very famous and influential band. I would want my child to know that.

By the way, Christmas day is the birth of Christ.
Comment by ali — 5 May 2006 on 3:03 am | Link
By the way, Christmas day is NOT the birth of Christ.
Comment by ali — 5 May 2006 on 3:06 am | Link
I wouldn’t worry, Ali, the rest of the government are Freemasons anyway, so they’ve all taken vows to organisations other than the one the general public know about. If you don’t already know I’d suggest you go read up about the Illuminati; ignore any obvious bullshit about shape-shifting aliens and concentrate on the Freemasonry and money angles, it explains the world we live in very clearly. Start here and have fun. 🙂

http://www.the7thfire.com/new_world_order/final_warning/final_warning_table_of_contents.htm
Comment by SmokeNMirrors — 5 May 2006 on 3:12 pm | Link
Er…just found this site by accident…why is everyone getting screwed up about a myth? Any myth, take your pick. Christmas day isn’t Jesus’ birthday?! Gosh. Shock. Horror. Gasp.
"This country is not a Christian country".? AGREED. Hasn’t been for decades. Minimal percentage of the adult population attends church regularly and yet – AND YET – schools are still legally obliged to hold a daily "act of worship" which is predominantly christian in nature.

Abolish faith schools of ALL denominations. Leave schools to develop academic ability and leave religion to parents and families.
Ta. Thanks. I’ll now shut up.
Comment by Bob Jay — 14 Jun 2006 on 10:53 pm | Link
Copy of Letter to Daily Mail concerning your lead article in todays paper on the Catholic stance on anti discrimination and homosexuality.

Dear Sirs

The irony of your article is that it is precisely the influence of so-called religion, and the catholic church
it particular, that has engineered the "morals " of this and other countries to create the bigotry and
intolerance from which we so desparately need to be liberated, The pure teachings of all the masters
including Jesus spoke of God as Love and the essence of these teachings, the commandments, says nothing about sexuality …except perhaps not to covert thy neighbours ass? The rest is the much translated ramblings of various people who have inevitably inserted their own agendas as a quasi-political tool keep the population under control according to their "laws" ie "it is written" ( what to not eat , what to do with mestruating women etc) which in an uneducated and ignorant world had, and scarily still has , great power. Bigotry and hypocrisy have always gone hand in hand with religion ……..ultimately it was the Church that crucified Jesus. He would no doubt suffer the same fate today as he would still expose and threaten the political power that the Church has accumulated over centuries.

Concernng homosexuality, it is as natural for homosexuals to be homosexual as it is for heterosexuals to be heterosexual and acceptance of each other is paramount to equality. The undiscussed reality of sexuality is that actually it is not so black and white as "gay and straight " and but shades of grey and "bi-sexual" is probably most peoples make up. Personal preference, honesty and happiness is surely paramount over "morals". Historically surely we have endured enough religiously engineered "morals" to have the wisdom to finally shake free of them …..inquisitons, reformations, the klu klux klan and inumerable other witch hunts. It was not so long ago the church taught that blacks were the spawn of the devil.

Come on let’s grow, be brave and create a genuinely free society and break free of the fetters of all religion that teach bigotry and hatred. Religions are becoming increasingly polarised , extreme and dangerous to the detrement of peace of this planet. Historically they have been the cause of most of the war and unrest worldwide. There is a huge body of people who simply want nothing to do with organised religion and yet are continually caught up in its net of political influence.

Another unexplored afterthougth is that perhaps if "straight" men abandoned the "straight" stereotype conditioning and stopped being so paranoid about sex with other men then that might go some way to reducing the testosterone fuelled aggression that seems to cause conflict in the first place? Make love not war etc?

yours

Ian Johns
Comment by ian johns — 28 Nov 2006 on 4:33 pm | Link
Forget al this religious Hoo-Ha – what about this for blatant Propaganda aimed directly at a generation of schoolchildren: I was horrified to learn that the Environment Minster Mr. D Milliband is planning to send copies of the controversial (and unproven) video "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore to ALL 3,800 Secondary Schools in the UK as part of an EnvironmentaL information pack!! I just cannot beleive this, as many will remember the stupid Gaffes that befell Mr Gore when he was a presidential candidate, both in 1987, and 1999, and he still comes out with them (it is reported that he once said that he started The Internet)!! The gripe is that it will NOT be balanced and include the Channel 4 documentary "The Great Global Warming Hoax". Even if you did not see the documentary, you MUST be puzzled by the fact that NO CURRENT so-called "paper" on Global Warming actually mentions the fact that CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) is a NATURALY OCCURRING component of the air we breath, AND ITS CONCENTRATION IS BETWEEN 350 and 500 PPM. What is PPM? PARTS PER MILLION. So, in 1 cubic metre (that is a cube containing 1,000,000 cubic centimeters), you would expect to find between 350 and 500 cubic centimeters of CO2!!.This is equivalent to a percentage of 0.035 to 0.049 in air, depending on whether you are in a rural area, or near the sea (the sea emits CO2 depending upon its temperature), or an industrial area. NOTE THE LEADING ZEROES!! This is ONE TWO THOUSANDS OF THE VOLUME. The amount of CO2 in a Cubic Meter would fit into a PINT MUG (even at the higher concentrations noted in free air) !! The Global Warming Band-Wagon and govenment backed inertia of mis-inmformation machine would have you beleive that putting a cup-full of hot water into a cold bath will end up giving you warm water!! Come on, lets se the REAL Figures, not this rubbish we keep seeing turfed out time after time, with the long-term evidence of 19,000 ice cores conveniently missed out, because they are an "inconvenient truth" about previous solar cycles that would go against their theories. Remember, the IPCC papers are NOT backed by 2,500 scientists, there are only 30 in the CORE PEER GROUP (and THIER funding, together with the other 2,000 odd "Hangers-on" is dependent upon the upholding of myths that MAN is the cause of this so-called Global Warming). The increased solar activity cycles are ignored because it does not "fit" in the time-lines, and messes up thier theories. They state that the sea temperature would rise of it WAS solar activity, and the rise is out of phase. Again, they do NOT publish the basic fact that the specific heat of WATER is very high, and higher than some metals in fact (4.867 joules per CC). With the vast volume and depth of the oceans, this explains the lag, but again, it is conveniently ignored. Let have some REAL SCIENCE AND DEBATE HERE,and NOT dish out dodgy vidoes to our kids in school. Let them make their OWN minds up, after giving them the FACTS.
Comment by TD — 28 May 2007 on 11:22 pm | Link
P.S. – sorry about the typo: the specific heat for water should have read: 4.186 Joules per CC (same as a gram for water), NOT 4.87 Joules.
Comment by TD — 28 May 2007 on 11:28 pm | Link
OOPS: In my annoyance about the Environment Minister sending a USA sourced video to schools (the contents of which is controversial and unproven, misses out important facts and does not present a balanced view), I posted a rather un-PC first line. Religious Education in schools is obviously important to many parents, hence this post. Sorry about that, I just wanted to draw people’s attention to the probability that this could be viewed as propaganda being introduced (however well meaning), into schools. Note that Mr. D Milliband was Minister of State for Schools in 2002, and Mrs. R Kelly worked at MAFF (now part of DEFRA) prior to their current appointments, hence the current probable cooperation and agreement over this information pack.
Comment by TD — 29 May 2007 on 6:40 am | Link

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» Monday, January 24, 2005

Ruth Kelly

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