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Ed Dorrell

@Ed_Dorrell

Ed Dorrell is a director at Public First

<p>Once computers have achieved consciousness, they will come for us mere flesh and blood mortals </p>
Voices

How scared are British people about the rise of AI?

<p>This is a bone fide electoral issue </p>
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Young people’s mental health services are in crisis

<p>We, as a country, are becoming socially more open </p>
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What football fans say when you ask them if they’re ‘woke’

<p>The government will know that public support for teacher strikes is holding up</p>
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Why we are set to be stuck in a grim cycle of teacher strikes

<p>Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman (Caroline Graham/Pre-school Learn/PA)</p>
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Revealed – what parents really think of Ofsted

<p>‘He’s no longer Jolly Boris from the telly’ </p>
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Johnson is a reminder of traumas past – the public want him to go away

<p>Labour will focus hard, I expect, on selling a much greater vision</p>
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Here’s how Labour can still win on childcare

<p>Please God, never again </p>
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We’re still living with the aftermath of home education

<p>The problem of absenteeism in our schools is a huge one – and getting bigger</p>
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‘Benefit cuts for absent kids’ – are we back in the Victorian era?

<p>The question is: could (and should) Labour do something about this? </p>
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Who are the ‘stars’ of Keir Starmer’s cabinet?

<p>Whether he is conscious of it or not, the informal trappings of power are beginning to move towards Starmer</p>
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Keir Starmer must not become complacent about a Labour victory

<p>Parents are, in short, predisposed to believe teachers when they explain how stressful their job is</p>
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Parents could be the deciding factor in the teachers’ strikes

<p>There is a growing belief that there is something morally bankrupt at the heart of the police workforce </p>
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Why it’s crime, not cost of living, that will decide the next election

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Why it’s crime, not cost of living, that will decide the next election

<p>There is a growing belief that there is something morally bankrupt at the heart of the police workforce </p>
<p>A significant proportion of those teachers who have walked out will be using the time to catch up on work</p>
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The irony of teachers strikes? Many won’t really be striking at all

<p>It isn’t just new lies that the internet perpetuates – it’s hideous old tropes, too</p>
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Andrew Tate isn’t the only form of hate schools are tackling

<p>Sunak is a prime minister shorn of his slides and his graphs. And he’s beginning to look rather exposed as a result</p>
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Rishi Sunak is Britain’s first LinkedIn prime minister

<p>The teacher unions can win this dispute – but only if they are very, very careful</p>
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Striking teachers have the public’s support – but for how long?

<p>The teacher unions can win this dispute – but only if they are very, very careful</p>
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Striking teachers have the public’s support – but for how long?

<p>And while, of course, school staff will help those students in crisis who are in their care, this is not, to coin a phrase, what they are paid for</p>
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We surveyed 1,000 teachers – and what we found may shock you

<p>During the 2024 general election, there will be 14 million parent-voters in England alone</p>
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Take note Labour: this is what parents really want from schools

<p>Town centre degradation is only one part of a wider malaise</p>
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This could help decide the next general election

<p>There are five areas of public life where the Conservatives need to urgently change their tune</p>
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Five reasons why nobody under 60 likes the Tories

<p>It is schools and teachers who have to pick up the pieces</p>
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Want to know what’s really going on in schools?

<p>Reeves’s presentational skills might be a little more accomplished than Brown’s, but there are still many parallels between the two</p>
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The killer line from the Budget belonged to Rachel Reeves

<p>My great grandfather’s story would have been extraordinary but for it being one of thousands of similar tales of other brave young men from the same period</p>
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Wearing a poppy isn’t political – it’s personal

<p>It is the modernising wing of the Conservatives – what’s left of the Cameroons – who most admire him and his reforming zeal</p>
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Michael Gove has been set his ‘mission impossible’

<p>Reeves’s presentational skills might be a little more accomplished than Brown’s, but there are still many parallels between the two</p>
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The killer line from the Budget belonged to Rachel Reeves

<p>My great grandfather’s story would have been extraordinary but for it being one of thousands of similar tales of other brave young men from the same period</p>
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Wearing a poppy isn’t political – it’s personal

<p>It is the modernising wing of the Conservatives – what’s left of the Cameroons – who most admire him and his reforming zeal</p>
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Michael Gove has been set his ‘mission impossible’

<p>The new PM has clearly set himself the mission of being both serious and boring</p>
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It’s Starmer vs Sunak in the battle of the boring – but who will win?

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It’s Starmer vs Sunak in the battle of the boring – but who will win?

<p>The new PM has clearly set himself the mission of being both serious and boring</p>
<p>As a seasoned observer of such things, I am in no doubt that the anger being channelled by these unions is righteous</p>
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Teachers need to win hearts and minds if they choose strike action

<p>Labour strategists would do well to remember that there really is no one like him</p>
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Labour should not assume all voters are still cross with Boris

<p>The political language that has followed from this Truss/Kwarteng pitch is also really odd</p>
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What red wall voters really think of Liz Truss’s ‘grow the pie’ plan

<p>Let’s hope Phillipson is given both time and support</p>
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Labour is bucking the trend with its plans for childcare

<p>Let’s hope Phillipson is given both time and support</p>
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Labour is bucking the trend with its plans for childcare

<p>For a generation of Labour politicians, s*** just got very, very real</p>
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I was at the Labour conference – the shift in mood was palpable

<p>In these incredibly challenging times for the country, the leader of the opposition has a difficult presentational path to navigate</p>
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Conference delegates and voters want different things from Starmer

<p>At best, the country feels discombobulated, at worst it feels febrile</p>
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This country is experiencing a crisis in national morale like no other

<p>The cost of living crisis must seem an insurmountable problem for prospective students </p>
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Liz Truss can protect poorer students – but will she?

<p>In truth, Truss wasn’t even as well known as that extra who has run a stall in Albert Square for 40 years without saying a word</p>
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Liz Truss’ biggest weakness is her lack of authenticity

<p>The consequences in the corridors and classrooms will be hard to ignore </p>
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This is how the energy price cap will affect British schools

<p>Those in poorer areas are more likely to have been punished educationally by the decision to shut schools during lockdown</p>
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This year’s A-level results reveal deep inequalities across the UK

<p>People are worried about being able to put clothes on their back – and that Christmas might be unaffordable</p>
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Liz Truss is blind to the scale of the crisis we’re facing

<p>And yet the Conservative leadership candidates are essentially avoiding promising to do anything.</p>
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This is who people really want as the next prime minister

<p>Starmer would do well to think about the way Johnson’s personality was perceived and how that helped catapult him to such meteoric heights</p>
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The lessons Keir Starmer could learn from Boris Johnson’s success

<p>On Monday, as Johnson’s government unravelled, the Department of Education quietly published results of the 2022 Sats</p>
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Boris Johnson left another toxic legacy behind for our children

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Boris Johnson left another toxic legacy behind for our children

<p>On Monday, as Johnson’s government unravelled, the Department of Education quietly published results of the 2022 Sats</p>
<p>The atmosphere at fringe meetings was febrile: the conference was just a few short days after the no confidence vote</p>
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I spent 24 hours with northern Tory MPs – here’s what I learnt

<p>Setting aside Brexit and immigration, most people are actually very, very moderate on most issues</p>
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This is what the voters of Tiverton think of the rail strikes

<p>Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer faces an investigation (Peter Byrne/PA)</p>
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Keir Starmer has an ace up his sleeve – and he’s ready to play it

<p>There’s an awful lot riding on Starmer and Nandy really upping their game</p>
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Levelling up was protecting the north of England – what now?

<p>There’s an awful lot riding on Starmer and Nandy really upping their game</p>
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Levelling up was protecting the north of England – what now?

<p>As it turns out, I don’t think I need a coronation to make me feel patriotic</p>
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Hold on – at the age of 44, am I finally a republican?

<p>Blair was able to ride that wave optimism as it crashed over the dying fag end of a Tory administration</p>
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Why Keir Starmer is finding it hard to be comfortably ahead of Johnson

<p>The prime minister would do well to remember what happened five years ago</p>
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School cuts hurt Theresa May – they will damage Boris Johnson too

<p>Where were the imaginative solutions to the crisis of childcare provision</p>
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What is Boris Johnson’s government doing for my kids? I have no idea

<p>‘Boring’ could prove to be Starmer’s friend, but only if his team gets the plan right and sells it well</p>
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People do a strange thing when you talk about Keir Starmer

<p>The young people we spoke to also expressed a sense of helplessness</p>
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What’s worrying young people the most? Hint: it’s not exams

<p>Setting an arbitrary target really isn’t going to help anyone on its own</p>
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Tony Blair is wrong – again – on education, education, education

<p>In the run-up to the end of term, many schools were sending whole year groups home, while others were “tripling up” classes in dining halls</p>
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Teachers are at breaking point – they need a recovery plan, too

<p>The conversation, which included a revolving cast of local characters, quite quickly came around to local politics</p>
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Here’s what I learnt about levelling up from drinkers in Middlesbrough

<p>The fees for nurseries and other settings are eye-watering</p>
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Sunak didn’t mention childcare once in his spring statement – why not?

<p>What will our stretched school system do?</p>
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will change British schools forever too

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will change British schools forever too

<p>What will our stretched school system do?</p>
<p>Just under four in 10 of primary schools in England are academies or free schools</p>
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Ministers to convert all schools to academies – what will Labour do?

<p>New schools minister Robin Walker </p>
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This man is changing kids’ views of what it means to be British

<p>Students starting university courses in 2023/24 will have to start paying back their loans once they earn more than £25,000</p>
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How do we thank young people after Covid? Tougher student loans

<p>Starmer has a great opportunity to land the first Labour victory for nearly two decades</p>
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Red Wall voters are finally taking Keir Starmer seriously

<p>Starmer has a great opportunity to land the first Labour victory for nearly two decades</p>
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Red Wall voters are finally taking Keir Starmer seriously

<p>Cities, and city-life, are embedded in many people’s DNA</p>
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One thing could end our love affair with cities – and it’s not Covid

<p>Michael Gove, secretary of state for levelling up</p>
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The key to levelling up? Focus on the small stuff

<p>‘Educational catch-up is a social justice issue – the government cannot be allowed to let it drift away’ </p>
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Educational catch-up is the Tories’ forgotten policy

<p>Voters now say Johnson is ‘slippery’ and that ‘you can’t trust him as far as you can throw him’ </p>
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Southern, middle-class Tories are fed up with Boris Johnson

<p>There are 250,000 support staff in England’s schools, a number that rises to 450,000 if you include teaching assistants</p>
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Let’s hear it for support staff – the heroes who keep schools going

<p>‘The threat of system failure in education is every bit as real as it is in the NHS’ </p>
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The school system is once again on the verge of falling over

<p>Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was killed aged six by his father and stepmother in June 2020</p>
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How many children like Arthur Labinjo-Hughes are out there?

<p>‘Michael Gove, of the famously wide-ranging education reforms’</p>
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What voters actually want levelling up to achieve is pretty simple

<p>Marcus Wareing (left), Gregg Wallace and Monica Galetti, hosts of ‘MasterChef: The Professionals’ </p>
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Boris Johnson could learn a lot from MasterChef

<p>‘Since Brexit cut off the flow of cheap labour that filled the UK’s enormous skills gap there has been a pressing need to channel more British teenagers into further education colleges’ </p>
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All Red Wall voters want is apprenticeships – but they are in decline

<p>The Geoffrey Cox scandal has made normal people look again at Labour. </p>
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A ‘one rule for us’ narrative is as damaging as sleaze for the Tories

<p>‘How we fund universities and how we fund young people to go to them is one of the most reliably emotive issues in British politics’ </p>
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Cutting tuition fees may not be the best way to help students

<p>‘Schools and teachers to be given the training, funding and staffing (ideally in the form of counsellors) to help their students’ </p>
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The postcode lottery over youth mental health services is a disgrace

<p>‘It was only in the spring that Boris Johnson told his newly appointed catch up tsar that there was essentially no limit to his commitment to fix lost learning’ </p>
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The Budget mustn’t ignore how Covid has marred children’s life chances

<p>Teesside ‘red wall’ non-graduates seemingly support their higher education institution</p>
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Universities make valuable contributions to ‘left behind’ communities

<p>‘Given a choice between going for a pint with Keir Starmer or Boris Johnson, Johnson wins pretty much every time’ </p>
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Labour needs to understand why those outside London voted for Johnson

<p>‘It was only in the spring that Boris Johnson told his newly appointed catch up tsar that there was essentially no limit to his commitment to fix lost learning’ </p>
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The Budget mustn’t ignore how Covid has marred children’s life chances

<p>Teesside ‘red wall’ non-graduates seemingly support their higher education institution</p>
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Universities make valuable contributions to ‘left behind’ communities

<p>‘Given a choice between going for a pint with Keir Starmer or Boris Johnson, Johnson wins pretty much every time’ </p>
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Labour needs to understand why those outside London voted for Johnson

<p>Private schools like Eton get tax breaks because they hold charitable status </p>
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Keir Starmer is making a mistake by attacking private schools

<p>‘Nick Gibb was the rarest of rare things: he had a genuinely transformative career’ </p>
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Foreign secretaries come and go, but there was only one Nick Gibb

<p>‘Educationally flawed’ tests should be abolished, says union</p>
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Boris Johnson found money for other causes, so why not schools?

<p>Students receive A-Level exam results at Taunton School in Somerset</p>
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Is the rise of Stem at university Dominic Cummings’ final victory?

<p>Protesters throw the statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour</p>
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People don’t want heated rows about ‘decolonising’ the curriculum

<p>‘Schools are, at their core, finely balanced systems’</p>
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Without the summer holidays our schools system might have collapsed

<p>Primary schools are at the centre of the community</p>
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Parents listen to teachers not politicians on Covid safety

<p>‘Opposition to housebuilding softens markedly if people can be convinced that it won’t be hundreds of badly built red boxes scarring the landscape’</p>
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Planning reforms are not as unpopular with voters as you might think

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