There are around 24,450 schools in England. If we assume an average governing body size of 12 members, that's the schools system depending on the good will and freely-given time of around 290,000 volunteers. I think they get nowhere near the amount of consideration they should There was a time, not too long ago, when governance was a much more gentle affair - it was often people with an emotional attachment to a school, perhaps historic connections with it, who wanted to see it do well, and wanted to give some of their time to help it

Lots of takes about Vance focusing on his Catholicism, rather than his class. Important, but wrong way round I think - I'd suggest he found his way to Church precisely because of his upbringing and realising the answers the world gives - political, philosophical - were incomplete Two sides to that, the intellectual tradition of the Church yes, but also I would guess something cultural/spiritual too - the Church is a place for the outcast, those outside polite society, it's full of saints of the same, a hugely resonant factor from certain vantage points

Ok Twitter - I’m going to write something here now that I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing up until recently and which I might end up regretting. It’s personal and going to make me feel vulnerable and might invite ridicule - please be charitable. So, to be blunt: I feel really lonely. I don’t mean I’m alone. I have a wonderful wife and wonderful children and come across lots of wonderful people in my work. I am not in any way isolated. But as a bloke with all the appearances of doing ok, a lot of the time I feel lonely

It is interesting there is a growing reaction, in light of new transgender guidance, against keeping things secret from parents and assuming children can make decisions of such magnitude on their own - because for years, we did precisely this under the euphemism 'sexual health' In that context, we were very comfortable with children being given 'protection', being referred to SH clinics, going through with termination processes - and parents not being involved. We said it was ok because of Gillick competence and, hey, it's the current year

I am a geriatric millenial, so grew up late 80s/90s. Forever reading on here how much the country has changed, which nearly always reverts to a discussion on immigration. What gets left out is the subtle and important ways other things in society have changed too. Some examples: 1) Everyone knew someone who had fought in the War. It didn't really feel like history yet, it was something you could (sometimes) talk about to people who were there. Nobody was in any doubt the war was a triumph, and a tragedy.