Short-term exclusions, meantime, stand at 425,600.

And, says a spokesman, this shows headteachers are "nipping the problem in the bud".

Really?

Have things really reached such a low ebb that we are excluding as many as 160 children a week from our schools?

When Mr Pendle was in secondary education around 40 years ago, any pupil expelled from a local school would be the talk of the playground for days.

Disruptive behaviour, physical abuse of fellow pupils and teachers and verbal abuse – said to be the main reasons for expulsions – simply did not happen.

The Government might think the reductiion in expulsions is good news, but the truth is that the rising number of short-term exclusions shows disruptive behaviour is still an increasing problem.

And when one takes into account that almost 1,000 pupils have been permanently excluded from primary schools – some as young as four or five - it is frightening to think of what these little angels will be like when they reach adulthood.


DO councillors think they are more intelligent than the rest of us? Mr Pendle has good cause to believe they do – and here's a good reason why.

Lancashire County Council was last week asked to consider whether to hold its own elections next year in May as normal, or move them back a month to the same day as the European Parliamentary elections.

But what seemed a perfectly sensible idea was tampered by the suggestion the electorate might be confused by two polls taking place on the same day.

How, Mr Pendle wonders.

By people being colour blind and not being able to identify the differently coloured voting papers?

Or by them not being able to read the names of different candidates standing in different elections?

Perhaps the real reason is hidden in a report which suggests the county council's profile might be reduced as the media concentrates on the European poll and not that closer to home.

That, to Mr Pendle, says a lot about how councillors see themselves – and how they regard us, the people who elect them to office.

Never mind that holding two polls in a month will cost more money.

Never mind that nine out of 10 people have no idea or care who their county councillor is.

Never mind that the day after the election, the council's profile will be just the same as it was the day before.

No. Our councillors are better than us, and their profile must be maintained while we, the common people, are kept firmly in check.