DHinrio

There are better critiques of the Wyse-Bradbury paper, such as questions about their selection of papers for their meta-analysis and the degree of attention they pay to orthographic mapping.

I don't believe Wyse has ever advocated for WLL, or at least I can't find any evidence he has. Nick Gibb and Tom Bennett made that allegation about his 2022 research review on synthetic phonics, but to be frank I think that's an inaccurate charge, at least on the basis of that publication.

I don't think the Welsh Government has backed any particular model, as you've noted they've tended to adopt a laissez-faire approach that results in teachers using cueing and other methods that are ineffective at teaching reading.

And my point wasn't that this was an off-the-shelf proposal, it was to rebut the suggestion that all balanced literacy is just WLL in disguise. Wyse and Hacking themselves don't suggest that this is anything other than a proposal for further development and piloting.

Look, it's fine to disagree with the principle, but saying there is no empirical data behind a model that cites a large number of robust empirical studies in support of its proposals is a bit wide of the mark.

Nobody had even heard of Katie Lam outside of Westminster until about two weeks ago.

Literally all it takes to be considered "brilliant" and a "rising star" on the right of British politics now is just a willingness to say something slightly more racist than all of your competitors

A tweet that says: Just got Reform to commit to a serious crackdown on Motability as part of their reforms to PIP. Lee Anderson says he’d be keen to see anyone with a Motability car forced to drive a ‘blue three wheeler’

This from X is a striking example of what I argue in today’s column. Reform and the Tories are out here gleefully saying disabled people on Motability should be forced to drive a 3-wheeler, like a scarlet letter. The stigma is not an accident - it’s the design.

THE ANDREW FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE

I think he did in one of today's polls, possibly SoCal?

I get the urge to dunk; I really do. But I genuinely think she's quite frightened by this, and tbh I can understand why a Jewish person would be frightened by America's leading conservative thinktank defending a Holocaust-denying neo-Nazi.

Heritage Foundation president stands by Tucker Carlson after host platforms antisemitism - Jewish Telegraphic Agency Kevin Roberts also said Nick Fuentes, whom Carlson hosted, should not be canceled.

Fallout from the Fuentes interview:

www.jta.org/2025/10/30/u...

No-one is actually rebutting what I'm writing though, you're just getting angry and accusing me of hating poor people because I think we should increase one of the most progressive forms of taxation to better fund public services.

I can justify it with reference to the fact that bond yields are significantly higher than they were in the 2010s, that long time cost pressures on public spending are resolutely trending upwards and that trying to expand public expenditure on the basis of only taxing the very rich is unsustainable.

Yes, that's definitely a big part of it too.

Anyway, I agree that synthetic phonics should be at the core of early reading instruction and that the Welsh government should do that. I'm just offering a little pushback against an opposite tendency that I think leans too far the other way.

I think we agree more than comes across here, but I would caution that there are multiple ways of doing balanced literacy and not all are Whole Language Learning in disguise:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Ok. Not sure what that adds to the discussion, but nevermind.

This is why, barring some tremendous change in approach, I think the PLP should move quickly to jettison Starmer after next May's polls.

I don't think we can completely write off the polls at this point. Next year's elections will see both Labour and the Conservatives take a hammering and at a certain point electoral setbacks tend to become self-reinforcing.

And by left-Farage I mean someone who is very skilful at proposing simplistic, appealing solutions to complex problems, in a way that enables a lot of people to feel validated.

His relative lack of baggage and strong charisma definitely distinguish him from Corbyn, even if he is basically left-Farage.

Northwest Airlines Flight 327 - Wikipedia

Let's not forget that she played a major role in spreading a racist moral panic about some Syrians:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwe...

Sorry, but someone whose take on Roswell is "it was a secret Soviet project involving mutant dwarfs created by Joseph Mengele on Stalin's orders" is not a serious author.

I agree it's an unsettling time, but it's a terrible book with a ludicrous central scenario, some truly awful writing and is written by someone who has peddled unhinged conspiracy theories in other works.

Kat Abugazeh’s campaign has crossed a threshold where the risk she’s taking is significant enough and the actions admirable enough I sorta am past caring if it’s a publicity stunt/brand building exercise or not, it’s still brave and worthy of respect.

It is hyperbole to suggest that the average working household is struggling to afford it.

The Home Office can't unilaterally cancel the pensions of people formerly employed by the police, that would be grossly illegal.

Jesus wept, you're thick.

My concern, as Timothy Shanahan, one of the leading American experts on reading - and an advocate of phonics - once outlined eloquently, is that we risk turning '(synthetic) phonics first' into '(synthetic) phonics only':

www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/what-do...

To clarify, I think synthetic is the best basic method, but that it's not heresy to augment a synthetic phonics approach with other phonics methods where useful, which is what the systematic approach implies.