OPINION: Gove sinks to a new low with Bible plan

Education Secretary, Michael Gove, is much-pilloried by the teaching profession and the general public. On occasions, I've thought this rather harsh, but he deserves every bit of grief he will, I hope, receive over his latest plan.

Gove wants to give a single copy of a special edition of the King James' Version of the Bible to each school. Each copy will cost the Department for Education £10, and so the total cost is going to be about £200,000 (apparently, according to The Guardian, the DfE reckon the total cost will be £375,000)! In a time of austerity and budget constraints that seems a bizarrely large amount of money to spend.

After all, haven't all school libraries already got a copy of each of the main religions' holy books? Even if they don't, I'm sure they have the Internet and can access, for free, umpteen different translations of the Bible.

Yes, the KJV is/was a very important book and it is rightfully regarded as a significant part of British history, but, for one thing, the 400th anniversary, the apparent inspiration for the distribution, is this year, 2011. Are the Bibles ready to go? Budget-approved? Waiting to be sent? How much will the distribution, alone, cost on top of the £10 per copy?!

Then there's the issue of the Bible itself. Any right-thinking person knows very little of it has any historical or factual basis. Many of the best stories, including most of the Jesus-myth, are, we'll be generous, borrowed from earlier religions. None of the headlining stories have any basis in history, archaeology, geography, science or fact. Why on earth is the Bible being donated to schools, remember just one copy per school, rather than, say something by Darwin or Dawkins?

One copy will, I predict, sit on a bookshelf in the Headteacher's office, gathering dust for most of the year. The only time a pupil is ever likely to see or use the special Bible is if they use it for readings at the Christmas carol service.

At a time when education is struggling, when schools are scrambling about for money surely there's more important things to spend the £375k on? Should the government, via the DfE, be giving free publicity for one of the biggest, wealthiest organisations in the country.... the Church?

I hope lots of schools simply return the copies to Gove. Or flog them on E-Bay and use the money for something useful, worthwhile and educational.

Mr. Gove, as Secretary of State for Education, your job is to facilitate education and guide and assist schools, keeping an eye on budgets and improving the learning if every child in the land. It is not to help the church manipulate and brainwash a new generation of "believers" and it is not to waste money on pointless baubles that have more to do with you trying to achieve immortality than worthwhile education.

NEWS: Bank launches new £50 note

Every few years the Bank of England updates its bank notes. Today it's the turn of the £50.

Now, if you're like me, you rarely ever see a £50 bank note - and the only mention of them is signs in large number of shops saying theywon't accept them.

The current (soon to be phased out) £50 has certainly had it's problems. It's been way too easy to forge and, of course, the criminal underworld has latched onto that.

The new note has upped the security game with plenty of new things to prevent, or at least limit, counterfeiting.

One of the most interesting thigs about bank notes is, of course, who appears on them. It's a mix of the great and the good.

Here's the current roll call:

£5 - Elizabeth Fry - philanthropist who campaigned for better prison conditions

£10 - Charles Darwin - naturalist who proposed the Theory of Evolution

£20 - Adam Smith - economist

£50 - Matthew Boulton & James Watt - developers of the steam engine

Of course, the old £50 remains in circulation for a while. That has a picture of John Houblon! The first Governor of the Bank of England.