Three weeks ago the Department for children, schools and families somewhat oxymoronically beat their chest over this last year's statistics on school exclusions. The reason I bring it up now? It turns out the government (as well as every other party) are unable to add 1+1 and make 2.

The report on child drinking shows without a doubt that truancy adds to the chance of a child starting down the path of "binge drinking". It's been reported in the past that delinquency increases with exclusion from schools. So is it any surprise when over 10% of our children are removed from school at least one week a year in any given year that some of them find the time to discover alcohol and/or drugs in that time of social exclusions.

Continuing with my theme of highlighting when I'm actually impressed with Labour, given how little it has happened in the last year, I am happy to say that I'm actually glad for once that Caroline Flint has opened her gob. Usually all that falls out of it is garbage, but when it comes to rent then buy schemes she wants to set up finally there could be something at least resembling roses flowing instead.

Unfortunately with every silver lining there must be a thunderstorm of moronic proportions. Undoing any shred of good work that she started at the beginning of the week, Jacqui Smith has gone back in to nasty mode in such a way that surely the Tory old guard must be blushing.

And while we're at it why don't we throw in the fact that the Lib Dem's have announced their own strategy to tackle youth crime, one that looks like a pantheon of saintly forgiveness compared to the now fleshed out policies of Smith.

Just a short one for the end of the working day. It seems as though there is a shortage of Physics teachers in the country. I wonder why this is exactly...hmmmm. It couldn't possibly be to do with the fact that this country keeps cutting funding to the bloody subject is it?

Maybe this is what Harriet Harman's bill will really be for, to ensure that we can avoid the looming crunch on science ability in this country by filling up physics teachers jobs with sub-par English teachers, drama students and corner shop owners!

This post is just a bit of filler while I attend the Liberal Conspiracy / Guardian event in London today, but is to highlight two stories that have some serious relevance to homosexual rights in this country. The first is regarding the Heinz advert that has been pulled by the company following 200 homophobic complaints about the innocuous contents. The second is the much more dangerous statement by Jacqui Smith that has the audacity to try and tell homosexuals to tone down their behaviour so as to not get caught by the homophobic Iranian officials.

I'm not going to write lots about this (I don't have the time as much as anything else!) but this post from Liberal Conspiracy just showcases how the Labour government have lead our police down a terrible path. The article talks about the sheer pointlessness of things like knife detectors being set up at random around the country, and how the police are seemingly actively discriminating against people by stereotype rather than being thorough. Tough on the appearance of being soft on crime is about all you can muster from this revelation.

'Well...' indulgent little police-officer smile turns into get-rid-of-this-member-of-the-public grin ‘look, we just use our judgement - say, if someone like your good self set off the buzzers, well,’ looks me up and down ‘you’re clearly not the sort of person to be carrying a knife, are you?’

Read the rest over at the Liberal Conspiracy site