Reforming the Parliamentary Commissioner

For the most part reforms in administrative procedures in England are not produced by rational argument. So the fact that a Committee of Justice has enumerated the deficiencies in the Parliamentary Commissioner legislation gives one no great confidence that the deficiencies will be remedied. Nevertheless the Committee chaired by David Widdicombe QC has performed a useful service by setting out the obvious flaws in the British Ombudsman machinery. * They can be summed up under five headings.     

A Veteran's View of Science Education Today

Science education in our schools is fundamentally the same today as it was fifty years ago and the scientific method has not really changed. Good science teaching is defined as the never‐ending search for evidence, for objective data, which leads to truth, and the search for truth should be at the heart of education in all subjects at all levels, and teacher training should address this objective view point. Science in our schools is watered down with derivatives such as environmental education. Steps should be taken to increase the level of science content knowledge in schools and science teacher education. Additionally, the rules of the open market should be invoked to give science teachers the latitude to offer their services as other providers of professional services do, and receive compensation greater than they would as regular full‐time teachers. These issues are discussed with implications for policy.     

How the Short Course Was Created

The question of where the capital is to be situated has not yet been resolved. [The towns of] Kaluga, Kaliningrad, and Podol'sk have been suggested, however. Moscow is considered the least felicitous alternative. Still, there is more than enough time to deal with this question, since the republic does not exist yet. But the foundation for its establishment has already been laid. On May 26, at a meeting of the Small Soviet [executive committee] of the Moscow Oblast Soviet, Lev Kozlovich, chairman of the standing committee on housing, utilities, and roads, urban planning, transport, and communications, raised for discussion the question of "the expedience of creating a Republic of Muscovy" within the territory of Moscow Oblast. As stated, the proposal was motivated by the desire to abolish a glaring injustice—the inequality of rights among the subjects of the federation, Russia's autonomous republics and regions.