Michael Merrick
@michaelmerrick.bsky.social
Northern. Catholic. Father of 7. All views my own. AMDG
Mostly on twitter: @michael_merrick - website: michaelmerrick.co.uk
Mostly on twitter: @michael_merrick - website: michaelmerrick.co.uk
I really hope the proposal to put RE in the national curriculum is not a wedge to weaken the rights of Catholic schools. We already have our own RE curriculum. This must be recognised in any proposed changes.
November 6, 2025 at 7:56 AM
I really hope the proposal to put RE in the national curriculum is not a wedge to weaken the rights of Catholic schools. We already have our own RE curriculum. This must be recognised in any proposed changes.
My curriculum take is this: the educational trads brought this curriculum refocus on themselves. They didn't take their win. Phillipson is able to push this because the question of plurality (of interest, utility, and aptitude) was not permitted to be considered.
November 6, 2025 at 7:55 AM
My curriculum take is this: the educational trads brought this curriculum refocus on themselves. They didn't take their win. Phillipson is able to push this because the question of plurality (of interest, utility, and aptitude) was not permitted to be considered.
Here's a question: should our education system be designed to serve the broad national interest, or individual interest? Where do those things contradict/overlap? Should it exist to maximise societal goals, or personal goals?
Nobody talks about education anymore. All the interesting groups talking about Britain's future and growth and renewal barely mention it. The commentators and the wider culture barely consider it. The politicians just go with the flow. As an arena of ideas, we have lost interest.
November 1, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Here's a question: should our education system be designed to serve the broad national interest, or individual interest? Where do those things contradict/overlap? Should it exist to maximise societal goals, or personal goals?
Nobody talks about education anymore. All the interesting groups talking about Britain's future and growth and renewal barely mention it. The commentators and the wider culture barely consider it. The politicians just go with the flow. As an arena of ideas, we have lost interest.
November 1, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Nobody talks about education anymore. All the interesting groups talking about Britain's future and growth and renewal barely mention it. The commentators and the wider culture barely consider it. The politicians just go with the flow. As an arena of ideas, we have lost interest.
Reposted by Michael Merrick
“Assisted dying would appear to mitigate some of those problems, curbing the pensions bill, the NHS bill and the care bill.” The New Statesman says the quiet part out loud: kill granny to save money. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
Let them die
The case for assisted dying
www.newstatesman.com
September 16, 2025 at 7:41 PM
“Assisted dying would appear to mitigate some of those problems, curbing the pensions bill, the NHS bill and the care bill.” The New Statesman says the quiet part out loud: kill granny to save money. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
Prayers with Tyler Robinson's father tonight. Finding out your son is a killer is one thing - having the courage to turn him in to the authorities in a state with the death penalty is another. This kind of sacrificial duty is the real model of manhood. His heart must be broken.
September 12, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Prayers with Tyler Robinson's father tonight. Finding out your son is a killer is one thing - having the courage to turn him in to the authorities in a state with the death penalty is another. This kind of sacrificial duty is the real model of manhood. His heart must be broken.
Will be honest finding it difficult to engage on here. What I've seen on this platform in the last 48hrs is just so dark - and widespread - I'm not sure it makes sense to persist.
September 12, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Will be honest finding it difficult to engage on here. What I've seen on this platform in the last 48hrs is just so dark - and widespread - I'm not sure it makes sense to persist.
Keep thinking about his wife and kids. They were there in the crowd. How dark the world must seem to them right now. Please do pray for them - even if you don't think it works, or don't have a religion - please just say them a quick prayer
September 11, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Keep thinking about his wife and kids. They were there in the crowd. How dark the world must seem to them right now. Please do pray for them - even if you don't think it works, or don't have a religion - please just say them a quick prayer
Reposted by Michael Merrick
Seems like a good time to ask the question again: how do we address progressive radicalisation? It is extreme, pernicious, and (as today) sometimes violent. We are not really set up for this - and yet, for the common good, it will need addressed like all other forms of radicalisation.
Surely the PhDs of the future will be asking what brought about the sheer radicalisation of the high-status classes. As in, off the charts, complete leave-of-their-senses radicalisation. It needs explanation
September 10, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Seems like a good time to ask the question again: how do we address progressive radicalisation? It is extreme, pernicious, and (as today) sometimes violent. We are not really set up for this - and yet, for the common good, it will need addressed like all other forms of radicalisation.
utter cesspit
September 10, 2025 at 9:14 PM
utter cesspit
Seems like a good time to ask the question again: how do we address progressive radicalisation? It is extreme, pernicious, and (as today) sometimes violent. We are not really set up for this - and yet, for the common good, it will need addressed like all other forms of radicalisation.
Surely the PhDs of the future will be asking what brought about the sheer radicalisation of the high-status classes. As in, off the charts, complete leave-of-their-senses radicalisation. It needs explanation
September 10, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Seems like a good time to ask the question again: how do we address progressive radicalisation? It is extreme, pernicious, and (as today) sometimes violent. We are not really set up for this - and yet, for the common good, it will need addressed like all other forms of radicalisation.
Wherein a journalist gaslights themselves about everyone else being gaslit
The British public are being gaslit about Angela Rayner, writes Stella Tsantekidou:
She's not a saint, but she is nowhere near as bad as the right-wing press would have us believe.
She's not a saint, but she is nowhere near as bad as the right-wing press would have us believe.
The British public are being gaslit about Angela Rayner
She's not a saint, but she is nowhere near as bad as the right-wing press would have us believe.
www.newstatesman.com
September 6, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Wherein a journalist gaslights themselves about everyone else being gaslit
Not convinced - escapism seems more the compelling feature, the sense of a world set apart, complete with risk. So boarding school stories always popular - Malory Towers, St Clare's, St Trinians, Worst Witch, Tom Brown - but also stories that evoke this same sense of apartness - think Percy Jackson
One reason why the books are enduringly successful IMO (my home station was thronged with diehard fans this morning as it often is in the holidays) is that children can imagine themselves in Hogwarts v easily: it is a purposefully slight school story, with magic:
Warwick Davis Comes Back To Hogwarts In HBO Original HARRY POTTER Television Series
Image Credit: Aidan Monaghan/HBO To celebrate Back to Hogwarts, the HBO Original HARRY POTTER television series today announced the return of Warwick Davis
press.wbd.com
September 1, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Not convinced - escapism seems more the compelling feature, the sense of a world set apart, complete with risk. So boarding school stories always popular - Malory Towers, St Clare's, St Trinians, Worst Witch, Tom Brown - but also stories that evoke this same sense of apartness - think Percy Jackson
Seen on the Other Place - you were mentioned but not tagged @samfr.bsky.social - comes with fame I guess
September 1, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Seen on the Other Place - you were mentioned but not tagged @samfr.bsky.social - comes with fame I guess
State of this. John 11:35.
I don't care if you want to read the Bible.
Just stop reading it to the rest of us.
Thank you... 👀
Just stop reading it to the rest of us.
Thank you... 👀
August 30, 2025 at 10:35 PM
State of this. John 11:35.
Reposted by Michael Merrick
That address from Pope Leo XIV has absolutely shredded the public/private distinction in matters of religion that has become the hallmark of polite western liberal norms. Complete and utter rejection
August 29, 2025 at 8:54 PM
That address from Pope Leo XIV has absolutely shredded the public/private distinction in matters of religion that has become the hallmark of polite western liberal norms. Complete and utter rejection
Agreed - this, decriminalising abortion up to birth, state assisted suicide, falling birth rates - it all tells the same story
August 30, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Agreed - this, decriminalising abortion up to birth, state assisted suicide, falling birth rates - it all tells the same story
Reposted by Michael Merrick
The difficulty is that all the people I know who want kids think 2 is fine. What's the benefit of the 3rd or 4th, even as a fan of big families? Is it worth having a family too big for a normal car, buying bunkbeds, etc? The answer appears to be no
August 30, 2025 at 7:37 AM
The difficulty is that all the people I know who want kids think 2 is fine. What's the benefit of the 3rd or 4th, even as a fan of big families? Is it worth having a family too big for a normal car, buying bunkbeds, etc? The answer appears to be no
We will never raise the birthrate by forever finding just one more thing to make more affordable, as if this will make the difference. It will always be cheaper not to have kids. We will raise the birthrate by realising the gift of children is a treasure worth being poorer for.
The falling birth rate is not a surprise. The cost of childcare, the insecurity of employment, the cost of housing are all factors.
My dad had 3 kids by the age of 28, I had 2 by 32, my son 1 by 35. Suspect that's fairly typical.
My dad had 3 kids by the age of 28, I had 2 by 32, my son 1 by 35. Suspect that's fairly typical.
August 30, 2025 at 7:28 AM
We will never raise the birthrate by forever finding just one more thing to make more affordable, as if this will make the difference. It will always be cheaper not to have kids. We will raise the birthrate by realising the gift of children is a treasure worth being poorer for.
That address from Pope Leo XIV has absolutely shredded the public/private distinction in matters of religion that has become the hallmark of polite western liberal norms. Complete and utter rejection
August 29, 2025 at 8:54 PM
That address from Pope Leo XIV has absolutely shredded the public/private distinction in matters of religion that has become the hallmark of polite western liberal norms. Complete and utter rejection
Surely the PhDs of the future will be asking what brought about the sheer radicalisation of the high-status classes. As in, off the charts, complete leave-of-their-senses radicalisation. It needs explanation
August 29, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Surely the PhDs of the future will be asking what brought about the sheer radicalisation of the high-status classes. As in, off the charts, complete leave-of-their-senses radicalisation. It needs explanation
Reposted by Michael Merrick
Always good when a report gets covered well in both the Times and Guardian (+ others).
Our new paper on how the rise in mental health diagnoses has pushed the SEND, health and welfare systems to breaking point.
Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Times:
www.thetimes.com/article/e4b4...
Our new paper on how the rise in mental health diagnoses has pushed the SEND, health and welfare systems to breaking point.
Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Times:
www.thetimes.com/article/e4b4...
Overdiagnosis of children overlooks that growing up is ‘messy and uneven’, says Jeremy Hunt
Former health secretary wants to see an overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities system in England
www.theguardian.com
August 28, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Always good when a report gets covered well in both the Times and Guardian (+ others).
Our new paper on how the rise in mental health diagnoses has pushed the SEND, health and welfare systems to breaking point.
Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Times:
www.thetimes.com/article/e4b4...
Our new paper on how the rise in mental health diagnoses has pushed the SEND, health and welfare systems to breaking point.
Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Times:
www.thetimes.com/article/e4b4...
What has become clear in recent months is that we could have solved homelessness overnight. We could have spent money making sure not a single person in this land had to sleep on the streets. We chose not to - for reasons, yes - but it was entirely possible and a policy choice not to do so.
August 28, 2025 at 7:43 AM
What has become clear in recent months is that we could have solved homelessness overnight. We could have spent money making sure not a single person in this land had to sleep on the streets. We chose not to - for reasons, yes - but it was entirely possible and a policy choice not to do so.
Surely the PhDs of the future will be asking what brought about the sheer radicalisation of the high-status classes. As in, off the charts, complete leave-of-their-senses radicalisation. It needs explanation
August 25, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Surely the PhDs of the future will be asking what brought about the sheer radicalisation of the high-status classes. As in, off the charts, complete leave-of-their-senses radicalisation. It needs explanation