Included in their plans are 18 new counties:  15 in Pennsylvania and 3 in Ohio.

If you are a licensed agent and would like to request general information on these plans, please click here to e-mail Craig and request information.  This information is for AGENT USE ONLY and it is a violation of CMS Marketing rules to distribute this information prior to October 1st, 2008.

First, I've been getting questions every day, "what do the '09 plans look like??"  For some reason, the carriers seem to be tight lipped about what they plan to do for 09.  Specifics will begin to leak out in mid-July.  All the carriers seem to be waiting for the other carriers to show their cards before they release their plans.

Here is my best guess on 2009 plans and what the carriers will do. . .

• Cigna - This one is easy because they released their plans.  If you are a licensed agent and would like to see information on the 2009 plans, please click here.
• Aetna - No other plans have been released, but I'll give my best guess.  Aetna had great 08 enrollment numbers for PFFS.  Big drivers appeared to be Western states and Large Employer group.  Aetna has a "steady as she goes" philosophy, so don't look for big changes.  Aetna is historically a network driven carrier, so PFFS was a bit of a different play.  My guess is that Aetna will look to grow in the network products, but look to maintain PFFS about level.  Aetna's management is first class, so look for them to improve in all areas operationally.  They tend to take a more conservative stance on price and benefits, so don't look for them to make radical changes.  They will continue to leverage their brand and core competencies with disease management and provider relations (read - network focused).
• Coventry - Another company which had an excellent 08 enrollment.  Some large state retiree plans helped with PFFS.  Also, had an excellent year with networked plans (HMO/PPO).  Coventry will look to expand into some new markets on the network side.  Recently, the company announced a reduction in their 2008 profit projections.  Partly, this had to do with the lag time with respect to PFFS claims from hospitals.  As such, Coventry was not fully aware of their Medical Expense Ratio (MER) on the PFFS.  This was discovered right around the time the CMS bid was due (June 2).  Coventry had done an excellent job in keep plan benefits level from 07 to 08.  On their analyst conference call, they still sounded upbeat on PFFS.  The Freedom 1 plan ($98/mo. with very low OOP) has had a nice 2 year run.  This plan, to me, seems ripe for adverse selection, so I was a bit surprised to see it hang in.  I'll be surprised (again) if this plan continues to maintain it's present form.  Although Coventry is a very disciplined company when it comes to pricing, I also believe that they understand the need not to "rock the boat" with major changes.  Look for the $0 premium plans to stay very close to 08 plan design and I'm guessing the Freedom 1 might get "re-tooled" a bit.
• Humana - First, I must admit that I have a "love/hate" relationship with Humana.  I love that they're so smart and I hate that they're so smart.  I think Humana has clearly been the big winner in the PFFS space on the heels of a brilliant PDP/Walmart marketing strategy.  They are DOMINANT in many markets.  While I believe that you can find better plan designs out there, they simply out market the competition.  Driven by a large career force, they don't face the "ups and downs" of the brokerage market.  They don't need to raise margins on their plans and they're sharp, so I don't imagine much of a benefit change.  Maybe some small tweaks on inpatient, level Dr. co-pays and slight changes around the edges.  Look for something unique in Value added benefits in 2009 as they do a great job selling the "extras".
• Today's Options - Again, I have no inside information, so this is pure opinion.  First, they had a bit of a "sophomore jinx" in 2008 following a huge enrollment in 2007.  They moved to 5 tiered rating in 2008 from versus 2 and 3 (American Progressive and Pyramid, respectively) in 2007.  This hurt.  On the flip side, they eliminated virtually all of the reduced commission counties in 2008.  They kept the benefits very consistent from 07 to 08, but, I believe, the 5 tiered rating system hurt.  This company was one of the only Medicare Supplement company smart enough to see the "writing on the wall" and move into the MA space in a big way early.  They have had some issues with their acquisition of MemberRX, but with some discipline, they can right that for 2008-9.  Excellent top management.  I'm thinking they'll modestly bump product, but look closely at their county tier structure to boost business in 2009.
• United Healthcare - The 800 pound gorilla of Medicare.  UHG had a bumpy history in the PFFS market on the broker side.  Pacificare came out of the gate extremely strong in 05 and 06.  One of the very first adoptors of PFFS, but when UHG acquired Pacificare, things slowed down.  Big benefit changes and plan withdrawals hurt them badly in 07.  They improved plans for 08, but they couldn't seem to get out of the broker's way in terms of licensing and certification issues.  Gradually, they seem to be turning the ship, so if they can continue to improve administratively, they will do well in 2009.  I'm guessing they will reduce the number of days for their inpatient hospital stay and increase the amount per day (currently the days run, basically til the MOOP is reached).  That didn't work for them in 2008, so I'd expect that to change in 2009.  If they do that, and improve some procedures, there is no reason to thing they won't be a much bigger brokerage player in 09, assuming the agents haven't given up on them by now.  They continue to do well in the Special Needs space and with no new competition coming, look for more of the same in 2009.
• Wellcare - From a benefit/pricing standpoint, one of the best values on the market.  They had a very smart stategy in 2007 with respect to converting "auto enrollee PDP members" from Original Medicare to PFFS, using their "duet" product, but caught some heat (I read some posts on this), I imagine, since this plan is a PFFS plan and not a "true" special needs plan (SNP).  Still, I though that was pretty intelligent marketing.  They had the whole FBI raid/Medicaid Fraud issue pop up in late 2007, but they came out with "out of this world" pricing and benefits, which turned what should have been a disastrous year into a very respectable enrollement for 2008.   From where I'm sitting, my best guess is that they're acquiring business in order to attract a buyer.  There have been rumors that other larger Health Insurance Companies have been interested in buying Wellcare.  These rumors peaked and drove the stock price up to $55/share in late May.  Since, the stock has plummeted down to $35 which, one would think, makes them even more attractive to potential suitors.  S&P cut their counter party credit rating on June 19th to B from B+ due to lower than expected statutory surplus and eroded earnings margin in the first quarter.  Recently, they cut their commission to zero on the Duet plan in many states.  My guess is that they, again, filed a very strong product since there's not a lot else going in their favor.  If they keep growing the way they are in the face of surplus issues, they'll either run low on surplus (and stop writing new business) or they'll be acquired. 

Craig

On the way we drove through Bascote so I could see where my Auntie Ethel used to live with Auntie Lizzie and Uncle Wal. It's a really lovely cottage, it's a shame she had to move.

Priors Marston was really pretty. We could see the windmill in Napton from the huge hill there which was wonderful because it's not every day you get to see a windmill. The village was really pretty, especially the church, St Leonard's and the graveyard. The church has some parts dating back to Norman times, it was really old and lovely. (see photos below)

From the huge hill in Priors Marston you can see on the horizon some of the taller buildings in Coventry. It was quite cloudy though so we couldn't see them at all well. We did see some lovely horses. They were very pleasant.

We walked and we walked and we walked, taking in the lovely scenery. I love the countryside.

We were going to go to the only pub in Priors Marston - The Holly Bush, for lunch. However it wasn't open. So we took a short drive to Priors Hardwick and went into the Butchers Arms pub. We looked at the menu, nearly dying at the prices. For a main course the prices ranged from £20 as the cheapest to everything above. All I wanted was a cheese sandwich. We all had a soft drink each (my dad had a shandy), there were 4 of us there. The drinks came to £9.40. We left pretty quickly and went to Southam and got some chips.

They had a good anniversary. I enjoyed the countryside and the walking and the pretty places. My brother did too. It unnerved me a little at how empty the village was. There are no shops. The houses are very well spaced and all of them are huge. I'm used to a packed together, concrete jungle with lots of discount and bargain shops and hundreds of people around. And lots of noise. The only noise there was birds singing and the distant neighing of horses.I think I do want to live in the countryside when I'm a bit older (not that I'll ever be able to afford to) but in a place that is a little bigger than Priors Marston and a little bit busier. A nice little town I think.

It is called, "My Thoughts on the Battle Between Hip Hop and Rap."

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Let me open this post by saying that to a certain extent I’m a hypocrite, because I love hip hop and I dig rap at the same time. Although I grew up predominantly listening to hip hop from artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and the Jungle Brothers, I also listened to rappers like Eazy-E and Two Live Crew.  I have love for both genres these days, but if I had to make a choice, it would be hip hop, hands down.

I’m a hip hop kid through and through, but as a DJ, I am some-what forced to play songs that appeal to the demographic I am targeting. In other words, I play rap songs when I am making mixes for people that like that stuff, but when I am listening to music for myself, I listen to hip hop more often than not. I often try to put the two together in my mixes, so as to educate my listeners, but it doesn’t always work as the two styles can sound like polar opposites. My wife, who loves rap, but dislikes hip hop, because you can’t dance to it, is always quick to let me know when I’ve put too much hip hop into a mix.

In many senses, modern rap music has pretty-much killed hip hop. Sure, there are still a few hip hop artists left, such as The Roots,  The Jedi Mind Tricks, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, but the majority of today’s urban music charts are dominated by rappers like 50 Cent, Sean  “Diddy” Combs, and the Cash Money Millionaires.

One of the reasons for this is that you don’t hear a lot of hip hop played on radio stations these days. The reason for this is that the majority of hip hop artists don’t look to make songs that have cross-over appeal. Another reason for rap’s successful emergence into the mainstream is the fact that a hip hop lyricist often requires listeners to actually think about a song’s message, which is something that doesn’t happen in rap music. Unlike hip hop fans, rap listeners tend to love easily-memorized lyrics and they become hypnotized by a particular tune’s repetitive bass line. How else does a song like Lollipop become a success?

By staying true to their lyrics, hip hop artists spit captivating urban tales and document the struggles of modern life while still managing to engage the audience and making them a part of the story. Rappers on the other hand, are typically weak lyricists and they speak of a fictitious and violent world that promotes itself through the music’s repeated ideology and redundant beats. Unfortunately, it happens to be what sells and is what the masses demand. 

This is where my hypocrisy comes into play. I will love hip hop until the day I die, but I also love a good song by Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, or Kanye West. Despite being lyrically-challenged, these artists can get to you in ways that old school hip hop can’t and I’ll be the first to admit, nine times out of ten, when you are shaking your ass, you just don’t want to hear about the world’s troubles.

This doesn’t however mean that I believe in selling out brilliant lyrics and tight rhyming for a banging beat and even though today’s rap song’s have sick rhythms that make you want to bust a move, that doesn’t mean that I forgive today’s rappers for pretty much destroying the majority of what hip hop artists built and doing it in about half the time.

We've hit Friday, and I was thinking a little about weekend music. This brought me immediately to the Dead 60s.

Unlike the other bands I've written about in this series - all of whom are still creating music and have been around a long time - the Dead 60s put out their first album only a few short years ago and have already broken up.

But their first album - Dead 60s - which someone recommended on the Joe Jackson list to which I belong, hit me right between the eyes. It is a faithful throwback to early 80s Coventry beat ska with abrupt, from the guts vocals and punk attitude.

They stuck around for one more album - Time to Take Sides - which, to me, lost a little of the attitude, but still delivered on some great alt-rock.

Check out "Riot Radio" here.

The fisheye lens on the video is kind of off-putting, but if you can avert your eyes and just check out the song, I think "Riot Radio" is a great weekend kick-off song and an excellent entry point into their first album.

Meanwhile, the video for "Ghostfaced Killer" could have come right off any Specials album. And the video is truer to the feel of the band...

Highly Sprung Performance Company and Coventry's Alpha Boys (all between 13 and 17 years-of-age) joined forces with West Midlands Police to produce this highly-charged dance short about a boy chased by a gang - with tragic consequences.

[a] First class honours
[b] Second class (upper division) honours
[c] Second class (lower division) honours
[d] Third class honours
[e] Pass degree
[f] Other award

for each of the following years:

[a] 2007
[b] 2006
[c] 2002
[d] 1997
[e] 1987

If the university did not hold the information requested for some or all of the years indicated, but did hold the requested information in respect of other years, it was asked to provide information in respect of the year(s) closest in date to that/those requested.

Where appropriate universities were asked to provide information which they held relating to precursor institutions, such as the former polytechnics.

Based on the information provided, the table below shows, as a percentage of the total awards, the awards for each class in each of the years indicated.

For each year the largest class by percentage is shown in bold

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Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.

All of the Wednesdays from before now until ages away - "These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things" (Various contributors) @ Ikon Gallery, Birmingham - Various people talk about their Favourite Things, in a DesertIslandDisks stylee. Most interesting to me looks like Catherine O' Flynn, of "What Was Lost" (amazing novel, read it if you haven't) authorship fame on the 9th of July.

Before now until Sunday the 13th of July – Vivid’s ‘Flux-Fest’ @ Various places in Birmingham - Something calling itself a festival? In Birmingham? The heck you say. It’s to honour the memory of your good ol’ Fluxus movement, anyway.

Friday the 27th of June till Sunday the 6th – Moseley Festival @ Various places in Moseley, Birmingham - Not to be confused with the Moseley Folk Festival in August. There’s a list of events here; Rich Batsford’s Music By Candlelight on Tuesday the 1st at St Mary’s Church sounds good.

Various dates between Saturday the 28th of June and Saturday the 5th – ‘Fourplay’ (new directors showcase) @ The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham - Four new directors doing four one-act plays over the course of a couple of different double bills. The Bald Prima Donna sounds like a laugh.

Tuesday the 1st till Saturday the 5th - 'Topless Mum' (Tobacco Factory Productions & Imagineer Productions) @ The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry - Careful now. I mean it. We'll have no smut here. This is a play about the actions and responsibilities of tabloid newspapers, even if they are using the poncey southern spelling of 'mom'.

Wednesday the 2nd – Pama International / The Slackers / The Pietasters / Mungo’s Hi-Fi @ The Robin 2, Bilston - The ‘Reggae For The People’ tour. The Pietasters weren’t especially reggae-ish last time I heard them (admittedly this was years ago) but they were very good.

Thursday the 3rd – Paul Heaton @ The Academy 2, Birmingham - Your man there from The Beautiful South.

Saturday the 5th – Eddy Grant @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton - Oi! He’s gonna rock down to Electric Avenue, although apparently (and disappointingly) that song is about an Electric Avenue in London rather than the one in Birmingham.

Saturday the 5th – Pentangle @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham - Apparently this is the actual proper version of Pentangle, rather than the “Jacqui McShee plus some other suckahs” version I saw a couple of years ago.

Saturday the 5th - 'Cocomad' (Cotteridge Festival) @ Cotteridge Park, Bourneville, Birmingham - With food and stalls and wood carving and some ace bands.

Monday the 7th – Duran Duran @ The NIA, Birmingham - Just don’t go on a pilgrimage to Saramoons where they used to drink, ‘cos although it’s still open it ain’t like that these days. Pointing this out seems to be a popular local meme of late.

Thursday the 10th till Sunday the 13th – ‘Taste Of Birmingham’ @ Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham - NOM NOM NOM NOM.

Friday the 11th – Lupe Fiasco @ The Academy, Birmingham - And so we kick, push, kick, push, kick, push…

Friday the 11th till Sunday the 13th – Supersonic Festival @ The Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham - Look, it’s Supersonic (hey hey hey hey). If I haven’t convinced you before now then I’m not likely to. Just go, yer nutter, it’s the best annual event out there.

Saturday the 12th - Weatheroak Charity Challenge & Pig Roast @ Wythall Park Community Centre, Wythall - Including five-aside football and "It's A Knockout" (~!).

Saturday the 12th - The Jewellery Quarter Arts & Designer Craft Festival @ all over The Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham - Bizarrely under-publicised (or at least as far as my sphere-of-noticing-things goes), but it looks interesting. There are workshops and demonstrations and things of sculpting, jewellery-making, and of course Arfs An Crarts.

Saturday the 12th – Andersens @ The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham - Cool-sounding (on the basis of their MySpace page, at least) Japanese psych-folk doings. Courtesy of The Autumn Store, who also bring you more fun ‘n’ frolics on the 22nd – have a look at their events page, whydon’tcha.

Monday the 14th – Jah Wobble @ The Glee Club, Birmingham -Dubby experimentally silly namey erstwhile PIL fella, doing what’s said to be a fusion of dub and Chinese melodies. Leslie Kong would be proud.

Wednesday the 16th – Wiley @ The Barfly, Digbeth, Birmingham - What do you do? Usually drink, usually daaaarrrrnce.

Saturday the 19th – Boxing (Sports Network) @ Aston Events Centre, Aston, Birmingham - Frizzank Wizzank defies his own self-imposed ban on promoting in Birmingham for the second time in two months. You’d almost think the Olympic boxing squad had two Brummies he wanted to sign or something. Featuring, anyway, Enzo Maccarinelli and Audley ‘Not In The Face!’ Harrison for ‘big name’ purposes and Matthew Macklin, Don Broadhurst and Thomas Costello for ‘actually getting the tickets sold’ purposes.

Tuesday the 22nd – Butthole Surfers @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton - Another “if I have to explain it, you’ll never understand” one. Not on the 6th, please note; the date has changed.

Thursday the 24th and Saturday the 26th - 'Assassins' (Through The Window Theatre) @ The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham - A comical musical about the 'fraternity of presidential assassins' - the nine men who've tried to kill a US prez.

Thursday the 24th – Boxing (First Team Promotions) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton - The latest local card with a bunch of our usual faves, including (at the time of writing) Rob Hunt, Rob Kenney, Scott Evans etc. No Dean Harrison or Lyndsey Scragg though, seemingly.

Friday the 25th – Soweto Kinch @ The Town Hall, Birmingham - Fresh from Flyover Show-esque success, that man Soweto presents this ‘Basement Fables’ show – the second part of his ‘A Day In The Life Of B19’ series.

Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th - 'Like A Fountain Troubled' (Untamed Shrew Productions) @ The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham - Of the counsellor more troubled than those she counsels, and the relationship between the two. The description on the OJS site makes it sound sort of ace and sort of crap at the same time, which is as nifty a promotional trick as many you’ll encounter.

We took a trip down to a small Coventry town which we discovered only by accident. It was a narrow street with cobbled roads perimetered by a row of 14th C to 17th C old houses. We saw a crack on one of the walls and the Ocean showed me the constituents that made up the walls of these houses; a mix of cement and straw. For most of the houses, the 2nd and 3rd storeys normally jut out into the air. This was because land was taxed then so the old English-men would build their first floor on little land but extend their 2nd and 3rd floors outwards into the air. Back then, there was also a tax on windows and so some of the houses had to board up their windows to avoid being taxed! (hypothecated tax).

Later we visited two beautiful Churches. There were restoration efforts being conducted. Soot from burning candles blackened wall-paintings depicting Jesus and his teachings. The soot had to be removed using a solvent that would dissolve the soot but not the paint itself. Both Churches in Coventry were exceptionally beautiful & grand. Having Ocean as a travel companion helps; his general knowledge is my audio guide. He is also very observant and points little details out to me.

The following pictures were taken in December 2007 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birth-place & home.

Lady Godiva se cree que vivió en los años 1040's en Coventry, Inglaterra. Estaba casada con el duque Leofric, juntos construyeron el Monasterio de Coventry.

Gracias a la admnistración de Leofric, el pueblo fue creciendo hasta convertirse en un centro importante de la region. Pero poco a poco la ambición fue apoderándose de Leofric.

Mientras tanto el espíritu humano con el que contaba Godiva, le permitió tener más contacto con la gente. Fue así como ellos fueron sintiendo más afecto y respeto por ella.

Debido a la gran sensibilidad que Lady Godiva poseía hacia los que la rodeaban, pudo percibir que los habitantes del pueblo no tenían una calidad de vida lo suficientemente digna de acuerdo al trabajo y esfuerzos que realizaban.

De acuerdo con los principios de vida por los cuales Godiva se regía y el compromiso social que sentía hacia la tierra que le habia dado todo lo que tenía, decidió hacer algo por aquella gente que siempre le había demostrado su apoyo, lealtad y afecto.

Asi que penso cuál seria la mejor forma de ayudarle a esa gente. No podía ayudarlos de manera física ni por sí sola. Y tampoco tenía facultad sobre las decisiones tributarias de la aldea.

La leyenda dice que Godiva le propuso a su esposo Leofric que si salía desnuda montando su caballo blanco por la plaza central de Coventry, él bajaría los impuestos al pueblo. Obviamente Leofric creyó que no lo haría y que era ridículo porque en esa época la mujer no tenía voz ni voto y siempre estaba al margen de cualquier situación.

Sin embargo, Godiva tomó el riesgo y cumplió con su promesa. El pueblo cuando se entero de lo que pretendía hacer, decidió apoyarla por el respeto que le tenían, asi que todos se pusieron de acuerdo para cerrar ventanas y puertas y no verla pasear desnuda por el pueblo.

Leofric tuvo que cumplir con su palabra de noble y tuvo que abolir los impuestos innecesarios y reducir otros. Leofric se dio cuenta que la mujer con la que habia vivido tantos años era capaz no sólo de amarlo a él, sino a todos los que él nunca había tomado en cuenta como personas. Se percató que así como Lady Godiva demostraba su amor respetandolo, también lo demostraba a su gente desafiándolo a él y a ella misma.

Fuente del texto: Aquí.

Era tan fácil responder esa pregunta como escuchar Don't Stop Me Now, de Queen, y tener un poco de curiosidad:

I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I'm gonna go go go
There's no stopping me

Para que luego digan que la música no es una parte importante de la cultura...

Shadow Minister for Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell said the Government should do more to encourage people to use post offces.

He said: “Unlike under the Tories, where we made sure that post offces had additional business to keep them open, Labour has starved them of business. Then they can’t make a profit. Obviously I’m particularly concerned about the two proposed closures in Sutton Coldfield, but the effects of these closures will be very serious across the whole of Birmingham.”

Dan Byles, Parliamentary candidate for North Warwickshire has added:

“When a local Post Office closes, often the last shop in the community closes too. Labour has closed 10 Post Offices a week since 1997. By the time of the next election, Gordon Brown will have closed down a third of the entire Post Office network.

“Sadly, our local Labour MP refused to sign our petition supporting local post offices, and in March he voted against a Conservative proposal in Parliament to halt further cuts to the Post Office network. He has consistently accused me of scaremongering, but now we can see that these cuts are real and they are hitting real, vulnerable people.

“The Conservatives have pledged to immediately stop the compulsory closure of profitable sub-post offices and to review new ways of bringing additional business into the network. We believe post offices are vital community assets, and we want to maintain the service. Gordon Brown seems happy to manage its decline.”

Closures published on the Birmingham Mail website
Closures published on the Coventry Telegraph website

While the RFU can spend 300k+ on Rob Andrew to do whatever it is he does including some highly dubious management on the tour to New Zealand, Coventry RFU are going to the wall.

Established in 1874, their heyday was in the 60s and 70s but in recent years they have maintained their status as an important feeder club (notably to Leicester).

Internationals such as David Duckham and Fran Cotton were Coventry men. Their international honours board is impressive. More recently players to have passed through their ranks include Richard Cockerill, Andy Goode, Danny Grewcock, Shaun Perry and other.

The club has one week to raise a £100,000 bond to stay in National Division One. Otherwise they will be relegated to the lower leagues and "effectively put out of business".

So, come on RFU. Sack Andrew, save Coventry.

Coventry Telegrapgh - Rugby Appeal I
Coventry Telegrapgh - Rugby Appeal II

My sister company Event-Pics were the event photographers for the Leamington and County Golf Club Centenary Dinner hosted at the Heritage Motor Museum in Coventry on the 21st June.  We had a great night at a fantastic venue with loads of historic cars.  Check out more at the Event-Pics blog.

The modernity project that the city and the working-class people of Coventry were a part of in the mid-twentieth century created a space for constructing a new future and possibly new identities. The Coventry Evening Telegraph recognised in 1945 that “No Government alone could make Coventry prosperous. The good life would only be possible to the extent it was lived and worked for by the ordinary men and women of Coventry.”

The redevelopment of the city in the late 1940s and 1950s was of central concern to the planners, councillors and central government as it was thought to reflect the country’s wider recovery after the war and ultimately result in a ‘Better Britain.’ The rebuilding and planning of Coventry has tended to be told through the planners, architects and local government’s perspective. The oral history gathered for this project tells a different story of the reconstruction of Coventry in the postwar period as people remember going to school, playing on the bomb sites, and moving into newly built homes to accommodate those living in slum conditions or those who had no housing at all.

The image above is the front cover of a special edition of Architectural Design dedicated to the redevelopment of the city (December 1958). By the time this special edition was published the original city architect. Donald Gibson, had left the project and Arthur Ling had taken over. The edition included an extended essay by Ling called 'Looking to the future' about his own personal views of what Coventry could expect in terms of housing and a new city centre.

The three local schools included in a list of 638 nationally are, Whitley Abbey Business & Enterprise College, Ernesford Grange Community School (A Specialist Science College) & Sidney Stringer School (Specialising in Maths and Computers). The Government announcement is linked to a drive to increase the number of academies created over the next few years. Yet Sidney Stringer is already converting to an academy, plans are in place for a rebuild of Ernesford Grange School and Whitley Abbey, which recently became the City's first Trust School, has seen real improvements culminating in a positive review from OFSTED.

Kevin, who is a School Governor at Whitley Abbey Business & Enterprise College, said: "Today's announcement shows the Labour Government is totally out of touch with work being done locally to improve the schools they are listing. This initiative shows that the Government is more interested in political grandstanding than delivering on the real issues across our education system that may hold back young people from achieving their full potential."

He added: "This type of national announcement can be counterproductive at a local level, with parents worrying about the future of their child's school and teachers about their future rather than focussing on work to improve standards. This is just another government hoop for schools to jump through."

The full list of schools can be found on the BBC website at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7444059.stm

Problem of the Day #2: I need a job

Since finishing uni, these late nights and late mornings are getting more and more frequent. I need a job so badly - i'll be moving back to Coventry soon to get one. I'm going to miss Wolverhampton though, i'm going to miss it a lot. But within a few months (hopefully) i'll be renting my own place with my best mate, and going back and forth to some temple of boredom for 8 hours every day.  Looking forward to the cash, and the whole 'New Life' thing, but it's all just to get a bit of money to do a graduate program in International Relations - it won't be a career or anything. I love international politics, it's just so interesting.

I feel really sorry for my friend inn. She had her heart set on going to the Download festival this weekend. Instead she's broken out in chicken pox and, presumably, is feeling worse and more itchy by the day. She's a great character, always seems happy - even when it's clear that she is deeply troubled - and always makes an effort. Even so, this must have come as a real kick in the pants. I would have invited her down to Wolves for the weekend for a few beers and barbeques with the guys, but I also lack immunity to chicken pox. I wouldn't really care about getting it if it weren't for the *ahem* personal complications that can arise from adult males getting it in their twenties or later.

Well, i'm off to Coventry in a few hours to chill in the City of Peace and Reconcilliation. It probably wouldn't be called that if the guy who gave the city that moniker had seen areas like Hillfields and Wood End, but still, it is a nice city. Outside of the city centre, Cov is so green and relaxing, and I just need somewhere like that right now. Wolves has been good to me, but it is nevertheless a rather grey and bland backdrop that tends to rub off on the lives of those who live here.

Just typing this has made me look forward to leaving Wolves behind, only to return for the occasional Poker night or Party with Rafe - my strange, bedreaded housemate. Roll on Coventry...

The vegetation makes this bridge-hole almost "blind". Is this not a Health & Safety issue?