I write this on the eve of The Birmingham Post's 150th Anniversary Gala Dinner, an event that celebrates exactly what it says on the tin.

We'll be celebrating the newspaper's history with just a little nostalgia, and perhaps a forgiveable amount of back-slapping, but moreover, the night sees the launch of the very website you are now reading.

Even as we look back and celebrate, the attention of my editorial colleagues, advertising staff and others is firmly focused on a future in which The Birmingham Post will be as vibrant a force online as it currently is in print.

The amazing hard work of everyone on the paper has resulted - I believe - in a truly historical advance for The Post. From now on, all the insight, news and analysis you have rightly come to expect from us is just a click away every minute of the day. We'll be breaking news and bringing you information on your sector of interest that you just can't get anywhere else - and even more than you can get in the newspaper.

Have a look around the site - our roster of knowlegeable and provocative bloggers will ensure The Post's reputation as a home for argument and debate live on into the digital age, and you can sign up for email alerts of your choosing. Even Post People has gone online, for heaven's sake!

As with any new project, sending one's new baby off into the world fills one with trepidation. Will it fulfill your expectiations? What are the services we don't currently have that you want to see? Tell me what you like and what you don't like.

I can't wait to hear from you.

What is it with our education system? Barely a week goes by without someone slagging it off.

Kids are not getting taught enough. Kids are taught too much or being taught in the wrong way. The qualifications system is in meltdown; our schools are perpetuating social division and behaviour is spiralling out of control.

Sometimes it seems like education in every other country is better than ours, more stable, less fraught. But is it just a case of rosy-tinted spectacles? The classic British inclination towards doing ourselves down and making things seem worse than they actually are?

Or is it the inevitable outcome of a centrally-run education system which is at the mercy of interfering and point scoring politicians?

Take a recent Cambridge University-led report into primary education. If it is to believed - or at least the way it was reported by the majority of the press is to be believed - today's youngsters are virtually subjected to systematic child abuse in the classroom.