1. The National Centre for Social Research (NCSR) here in the UK https://natcen.ac.uk/ has now been tracking our social and political attitudes for forty years. In their latest annual report they say that “one clear theme emerges. On many social issues, such as sexual relations or whether women with young children should go out to work, there has been a long-run secular change trend towards a more liberal climate of opinion. In what might be thought a near-revolution in the country’s cultural outlook and social norms, Britain has increasingly come to believe that what people do in the bedroom, what kinds of family they live in, and how they combine family life and paid work should be up to them. The job of government is to respect and facilitate the decisions they make rather than try and take those decision for them”.

Here’s the NCSR blog post on their new report https://natcen.ac.uk/different-britain-40-years-changing-social-attitudes

2. Here’s a good, comprehensive post on what exactly Assessment for Learning is on the Macmillan blog from a NILE colleague, Jason Skeet https://www.macmillanenglish.com/blog-resources/article/advancing-learning-what-is-assessment-for-learning-and-why-is-it-important

3. You can choose whether to read or to listen to this one from The Economist, The vital art of talking to strangers https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/07/10/the-vital-art-of-talking-to-strangers

4. Helen Lewis’s blog is called The Bluestocking. Here’s her latest post, What Does Keir Starmer Believe? https://helenlewis.substack.com/p/bluestocking-special-what-does-keir

How many of my readers outside the UK have no idea at all who Keir Starmer is, I wonder? And if you haven’t heard of him (yet?), maybe this post is not for you.

5. And, finally, everything you need to know about this year’s Booker Prize shortlist https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-booker-prize-2023-shortlist

Click on the links near the top of the page for more information on the individual books shortlisted.