Best Of

I hate to side with Johnson, but listening to St. Boris. I do believe he is being questioned by some idiot Labour MP with the benefit of hindsight.

School lockdowns were an imperative under the circumstances regardless of whether vulnerable children were at risk. School closures were the least worst national outcome even if some children were put in harms way.

"School lockdowns were an imperative" 🤔 Does anyone believe this ridiculous narrative anymore? 💩

They were imperative, you ignorant fool. In fact, to a great degree they had already happened because the rapid spread of the virus meant so many of pupils and staff were off ill it was impossible to function normally.

The big mistake was not locking down, it was refusing to put in place sensible measures to minimise it. We might have dodged the January full closure if we had had blended learning from October - two weeks on, one off. The government refused to allow it. We could have minimised missed learning by issuing data enabled tablets to every child. The government refused to pay for them. We could have dodged the issue with exams by running coursework units from September. The government refused to allow it because we were not going to lock down, or cancel exams, so it wasn't needed. They didn't even prepare or release extra sample papers for the innumerable additional exams we had to set (the class of 2021 had *more* exams than a normal year group, bizarrely, but we had to write the papers ourselves) as they were not going to be needed.

The fact is that anybody who worked in education knew as far back as October that there was going to be a train crash due to lack of planning and perverse and wilful denial of the seriousness of the situation by a government that was as clueless and dishonest as it was drunken and inept. I was yelling that from the rooftops on here. The unions were hammering it morning noon and night. Even local authorities were sounding the alarm. And not one person in Whitehall listened.

And I have no sympathy for Johnson or Williamson's persistent, self-serving and whiny refusal to note just how badly they messed up. That was not about hindsight, that was about having the courage and humility to admit they were not going to be able to carry out Plan A at a time an acceptable Plan B might have worked. Which because they are cowards as well as liars and scum they still refuse to do.

And there are still people out there pushing false narratives on the back of that. Frankly, I find that pretty disgusting and I suggest you look hard at a photo of RFK Jr before remembering every single thing you have said on the subject of Covid is wrong and not worth listening to.

I am baffled by the revisionism on here and elsewhere. There was at least one PB equine who posted 'Lockdown now" every 5 minutes. And then later said that there should have been no lockdowns at all.

People seem to think schools only had children in them. What of the teachers and other staff? And on the radio this morning the Childrens commisioner suggested that children were less likely to catch and spread covid. Surely this is false - the point was that their symptoms would generally be mild, although even they tens of thousands of U18's did end up in hospital.

We are supposed to be learning lessons with the enquiries but I think too many are interested in point scoring/refighting old battles. There is enough knowledge out there to write a short manual for how to handle a pandemic (hint - copy the Japanese).

The enquiry only seems bothered about pint scoring and blame apportioning. Waste of time.

Nowt wrong with scoring pints.

Biff Tannen is smashing down the East Wing of the Trump House to build his ballroom without planning consent.

https://news.sky.com/story/demolition-work-begins-on-white-house-east-wing-for-trumps-186m-ballroom-13454284

The US electorate should really have told Trump to foxtrot oscar this time last year.

The politicians should have spent 2021-3 making sure Trump couldn’t be a candidate in 2024.

Once they failed to do that result was inevitable

On the contrary, they should have all ignored him completely.

Trying to smother him with lawfare was never going to succeed and made him into a martyr.

What you're saying is that everyone except those responsible for putting Trump in office, are responsible for putting Trump in office.

No, I’m saying that trying to put him in prison for the most spurious of reasons made him more popular.

How do you feel about Comey, James and Bolton spuriously prosecuted on the instruction of Al Capone?

James was elected in a platform of getting Trump, she’s at the FO stage of FAFO

Boulton clearly has questions to answer, even the left w8ng US media says that.

Comey, probably innocent.

Yeah that’s about right.

Tish James is in big trouble, Bolton may or may not be in trouble, Comey is diffficult to pin down and probably walks.

I think you might be letting your partisanship get in the way here. I suspect Bolton is in the biggest spot of bother followed by James followed by Comey. None should be, oh and I believe Schiff or Jack Smith is next. Newsom is in at about number ten on the list. Charges are yet to made up.

Well the Democrats made the last eight or nine years about putting anyone remotely connected to Donald Trump in jail, now they appear surprised that a Trump administration is using the same tactics against them.

Personally I don’t like the US system of electing prosecutors and judges being appointed politically, the UK system works much better most of the time.

It is very wrong of the US system to prosecute criminals. How dare they?

The issue was not going after Trump for the crimes he and his associates have committed. The issue is they are now in power and determined to get back at those who have gone after them. It's the behaviour of a playground bully furious that somebody got them put in detention.

I hate to side with Johnson, but listening to St. Boris. I do believe he is being questioned by some idiot Labour MP with the benefit of hindsight.

School lockdowns were an imperative under the circumstances regardless of whether vulnerable children were at risk. School closures were the least worst national outcome even if some children were put in harms way.

"School lockdowns were an imperative" 🤔 Does anyone believe this ridiculous narrative anymore? 💩

They were imperative, you ignorant fool. In fact, to a great degree they had already happened because the rapid spread of the virus meant so many of pupils and staff were off ill it was impossible to function normally.

The big mistake was not locking down, it was refusing to put in place sensible measures to minimise it. We might have dodged the January full closure if we had had blended learning from October - two weeks on, one off. The government refused to allow it. We could have minimised missed learning by issuing data enabled tablets to every child. The government refused to pay for them. We could have dodged the issue with exams by running coursework units from September. The government refused to allow it because we were not going to lock down, or cancel exams, so it wasn't needed. They didn't even prepare or release extra sample papers for the innumerable additional exams we had to set (the class of 2021 had *more* exams than a normal year group, bizarrely, but we had to write the papers ourselves) as they were not going to be needed.

The fact is that anybody who worked in education knew as far back as October that there was going to be a train crash due to lack of planning and perverse and wilful denial of the seriousness of the situation by a government that was as clueless and dishonest as it was drunken and inept. I was yelling that from the rooftops on here. The unions were hammering it morning noon and night. Even local authorities were sounding the alarm. And not one person in Whitehall listened.

And I have no sympathy for Johnson or Williamson's persistent, self-serving and whiny refusal to note just how badly they messed up. That was not about hindsight, that was about having the courage and humility to admit they were not going to be able to carry out Plan A at a time an acceptable Plan B might have worked. Which because they are cowards as well as liars and scum they still refuse to do.

And there are still people out there pushing false narratives on the back of that. Frankly, I find that pretty disgusting and I suggest you look hard at a photo of RFK Jr before remembering every single thing you have said on the subject of Covid is wrong and not worth listening to.

I am baffled by the revisionism on here and elsewhere. There was at least one PB equine who posted 'Lockdown now" every 5 minutes. And then later said that there should have been no lockdowns at all.

People seem to think schools only had children in them. What of the teachers and other staff? And on the radio this morning the Childrens commisioner suggested that children were less likely to catch and spread covid. Surely this is false - the point was that their symptoms would generally be mild, although even they tens of thousands of U18's did end up in hospital.

We are supposed to be learning lessons with the enquiries but I think too many are interested in point scoring/refighting old battles. There is enough knowledge out there to write a short manual for how to handle a pandemic (hint - copy the Japanese).

The enquiry only seems bothered about pint scoring and blame apportioning. Waste of time.

Nowt wrong with scoring pints.

Johnson and Williamson downed more than a few at those lockdown parties.

I hate to side with Johnson, but listening to St. Boris. I do believe he is being questioned by some idiot Labour MP with the benefit of hindsight.

School lockdowns were an imperative under the circumstances regardless of whether vulnerable children were at risk. School closures were the least worst national outcome even if some children were put in harms way.

"School lockdowns were an imperative" 🤔 Does anyone believe this ridiculous narrative anymore? 💩

They were imperative, you ignorant fool. In fact, to a great degree they had already happened because the rapid spread of the virus meant so many of pupils and staff were off ill it was impossible to function normally.

The big mistake was not locking down, it was refusing to put in place sensible measures to minimise it. We might have dodged the January full closure if we had had blended learning from October - two weeks on, one off. The government refused to allow it. We could have minimised missed learning by issuing data enabled tablets to every child. The government refused to pay for them. We could have dodged the issue with exams by running coursework units from September. The government refused to allow it because we were not going to lock down, or cancel exams, so it wasn't needed. They didn't even prepare or release extra sample papers for the innumerable additional exams we had to set (the class of 2021 had *more* exams than a normal year group, bizarrely, but we had to write the papers ourselves) as they were not going to be needed.

The fact is that anybody who worked in education knew as far back as October that there was going to be a train crash due to lack of planning and perverse and wilful denial of the seriousness of the situation by a government that was as clueless and dishonest as it was drunken and inept. I was yelling that from the rooftops on here. The unions were hammering it morning noon and night. Even local authorities were sounding the alarm. And not one person in Whitehall listened.

And there are still people out there pushing false narratives on the back of that. Frankly, I find that pretty disgusting and I suggest you look hard at a photo of RFK Jr before remembering every single thing you have said on the subject of Covid is wrong and not worth listening to.

Quick tangential question - why do schools rely on sample papers/past papers so much? Drives us made at Uni as we educate students to apply principles and understanding yet they all want multiple example papers for everything.

Because the way the exam system is set up to be so prescriptive in this country, especially for essay based subjects, the most effective way - arguably the only truly effective way - to revise for public exams is to do masses of past papers.

It shouldn't be that way, but it is. As @Dura_Ace once noted, it has a tendency to kill any affection a child had for the subject stone dead, but it gets them good grades.

The most stupid school practice for subjecticide is teaching Shakespeare by having Year 10 take it in turns to read lines in a dull monotone, when they can watch world class drama performed by world class actors gratis, free and for nothing on the electric television.

Jenrick would "probably ban the burqa".

https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1980584395397582922

Jenrick and Lam so far today. Wonder who's next.

Conservatives engaged in a game of Top Trumps: Racists Edition.

Yes. It has no relevance to 95% of us, but is vice signalling to the moronic tendency. Few things could demonstrate that the Tories have learned nothing from their crushing a bare 15 months ago. They need to get onto economics quickly- the punters do not like this nasty party crap, but are prepared to give them a hearing on business and the economy- not the tax cutting agenda, but the "we are responsible" agenda. Trouble is that the number of MPs that could come up with something even worth discussing, never mind financially literate- Hunt, Mitchell- is less than the fingers on one hand.

So more posturing bullshit on immigration, race and the US culture wars and the collapse continues.

The inevitable pivot to new scapegoats after the failure of Brexit.

Biff Tannen is smashing down the East Wing of the Trump House to build his ballroom without planning consent.

https://news.sky.com/story/demolition-work-begins-on-white-house-east-wing-for-trumps-186m-ballroom-13454284

The US electorate should really have told Trump to foxtrot oscar this time last year.

The politicians should have spent 2021-3 making sure Trump couldn’t be a candidate in 2024.

Once they failed to do that result was inevitable

On the contrary, they should have all ignored him completely.

Trying to smother him with lawfare was never going to succeed and made him into a martyr.

What you're saying is that everyone except those responsible for putting Trump in office, are responsible for putting Trump in office.

No, I’m saying that trying to put him in prison for the most spurious of reasons made him more popular.

How do you feel about Comey, James and Bolton spuriously prosecuted on the instruction of Al Capone?

James was elected in a platform of getting Trump, she’s at the FO stage of FAFO

Boulton clearly has questions to answer, even the left w8ng US media says that.

Comey, probably innocent.

Yeah that’s about right.

Tish James is in big trouble, Bolton may or may not be in trouble, Comey is diffficult to pin down and probably walks.

I think you might be letting your partisanship get in the way here. I suspect Bolton is in the biggest spot of bother followed by James followed by Comey. None should be, oh and I believe Schiff or Jack Smith is next. Newsom is in at about number ten on the list. Charges are yet to made up.

Well the Democrats made the last eight or nine years about putting anyone remotely connected to Donald Trump in jail, now they appear surprised that a Trump administration is using the same tactics against them.

Personally I don’t like the US system of electing prosecutors and judges being appointed politically, the UK system works much better most of the time.

I hate to side with Johnson, but listening to St. Boris. I do believe he is being questioned by some idiot Labour MP with the benefit of hindsight.

School lockdowns were an imperative under the circumstances regardless of whether vulnerable children were at risk. School closures were the least worst national outcome even if some children were put in harms way.

"School lockdowns were an imperative" 🤔 Does anyone believe this ridiculous narrative anymore? 💩

They were imperative, you ignorant fool. In fact, to a great degree they had already happened because the rapid spread of the virus meant so many of pupils and staff were off ill it was impossible to function normally.

The big mistake was not locking down, it was refusing to put in place sensible measures to minimise it. We might have dodged the January full closure if we had had blended learning from October - two weeks on, one off. The government refused to allow it. We could have minimised missed learning by issuing data enabled tablets to every child. The government refused to pay for them. We could have dodged the issue with exams by running coursework units from September. The government refused to allow it because we were not going to lock down, or cancel exams, so it wasn't needed. They didn't even prepare or release extra sample papers for the innumerable additional exams we had to set (the class of 2021 had *more* exams than a normal year group, bizarrely, but we had to write the papers ourselves) as they were not going to be needed.

The fact is that anybody who worked in education knew as far back as October that there was going to be a train crash due to lack of planning and perverse and wilful denial of the seriousness of the situation by a government that was as clueless and dishonest as it was drunken and inept. I was yelling that from the rooftops on here. The unions were hammering it morning noon and night. Even local authorities were sounding the alarm. And not one person in Whitehall listened.

And there are still people out there pushing false narratives on the back of that. Frankly, I find that pretty disgusting and I suggest you look hard at a photo of RFK Jr before remembering every single thing you have said on the subject of Covid is wrong and not worth listening to.

Quick tangential question - why do schools rely on sample papers/past papers so much? Drives us made at Uni as we educate students to apply principles and understanding yet they all want multiple example papers for everything.

Because recent generations of educators have been more focussed on what to think, rather than how to think?

Most of your students aren’t there to learn how to think, they’re there to get a degree, a piece of paper that they’ve paid tens of thousands for, and expect their educators to facilitate the issuance of that piece of paper.

It must have changed over the last forty years. My lecturers didn't facilitate anything. You scribbled down notes on their insane ramblings and read some books to make sense of it.

The notion, certainly back in the day, that lecturers taught was laughable. Lecturing and tutoring simply punctuated their research.

Perhaps some of mine were better. But I remember being delighted when one of my tutors actually diverged from animal behaviour per se to give some explanation of good essay technique. I recently found my tattered photocopy of his A4 sheet amongst my university exam papers.

Much commoner now, I believe, and a good thing too.

I hate to side with Johnson, but listening to St. Boris. I do believe he is being questioned by some idiot Labour MP with the benefit of hindsight.

School lockdowns were an imperative under the circumstances regardless of whether vulnerable children were at risk. School closures were the least worst national outcome even if some children were put in harms way.

"School lockdowns were an imperative" 🤔 Does anyone believe this ridiculous narrative anymore? 💩

They were imperative, you ignorant fool. In fact, to a great degree they had already happened because the rapid spread of the virus meant so many of pupils and staff were off ill it was impossible to function normally.

The big mistake was not locking down, it was refusing to put in place sensible measures to minimise it. We might have dodged the January full closure if we had had blended learning from October - two weeks on, one off. The government refused to allow it. We could have minimised missed learning by issuing data enabled tablets to every child. The government refused to pay for them. We could have dodged the issue with exams by running coursework units from September. The government refused to allow it because we were not going to lock down, or cancel exams, so it wasn't needed. They didn't even prepare or release extra sample papers for the innumerable additional exams we had to set (the class of 2021 had *more* exams than a normal year group, bizarrely, but we had to write the papers ourselves) as they were not going to be needed.

The fact is that anybody who worked in education knew as far back as October that there was going to be a train crash due to lack of planning and perverse and wilful denial of the seriousness of the situation by a government that was as clueless and dishonest as it was drunken and inept. I was yelling that from the rooftops on here. The unions were hammering it morning noon and night. Even local authorities were sounding the alarm. And not one person in Whitehall listened.

And I have no sympathy for Johnson or Williamson's persistent, self-serving and whiny refusal to note just how badly they messed up. That was not about hindsight, that was about having the courage and humility to admit they were not going to be able to carry out Plan A at a time an acceptable Plan B might have worked. Which because they are cowards as well as liars and scum they still refuse to do.

And there are still people out there pushing false narratives on the back of that. Frankly, I find that pretty disgusting and I suggest you look hard at a photo of RFK Jr before remembering every single thing you have said on the subject of Covid is wrong and not worth listening to.

I am baffled by the revisionism on here and elsewhere. There was at least one PB equine who posted 'Lockdown now" every 5 minutes. And then later said that there should have been no lockdowns at all.

People seem to think schools only had children in them. What of the teachers and other staff? And on the radio this morning the Childrens commisioner suggested that children were less likely to catch and spread covid. Surely this is false - the point was that their symptoms would generally be mild, although even they tens of thousands of U18's did end up in hospital.

We are supposed to be learning lessons with the enquiries but I think too many are interested in point scoring/refighting old battles. There is enough knowledge out there to write a short manual for how to handle a pandemic (hint - copy the Japanese).

A serious enquiry would ask why there was no guidance from the centre on managing containment of the virus. We didn't have any information on isolating, or pupil movement, or cleaning at all. Or why masking was brought in and out at random intervals, and the bizarre advice that people should only wear them while eating lunch (yes, that was one piece of advice we did receive)

There might also be questions about the inconsistency in online learning and how that can be addressed. Or access to technology and how we should be looking to bridge that gap.

There should be serious questions asked about the performance of the assessment system (which is highly relevant, because one reason it collapsed in ruin was due to Gove's botched curriculum review, which Labour are set to repeat).

There should also be questions about why the Permanent Secretary was sacked for the mistakes of ministers, especially as he had done a decent job on the whole* and his successor is a total cretin who has failed spectacularly in every job she has had, this one being no exception even when she wasn't drunk at work (which she was on at least one occasion during lockdown).

I haven't seen a single question on any of these, which suggests they don't know what the real issues were.

*That's me, saying something positive about a former civil servant at the DfE. He must be practically the reincarnation of John Anderson.

Slightly edited because the advice was bizarre but not that bizarre.

I hate to side with Johnson, but listening to St. Boris. I do believe he is being questioned by some idiot Labour MP with the benefit of hindsight.

School lockdowns were an imperative under the circumstances regardless of whether vulnerable children were at risk. School closures were the least worst national outcome even if some children were put in harms way.

"School lockdowns were an imperative" 🤔 Does anyone believe this ridiculous narrative anymore? 💩

They were imperative, you ignorant fool. In fact, to a great degree they had already happened because the rapid spread of the virus meant so many of pupils and staff were off ill it was impossible to function normally.

The big mistake was not locking down, it was refusing to put in place sensible measures to minimise it. We might have dodged the January full closure if we had had blended learning from October - two weeks on, one off. The government refused to allow it. We could have minimised missed learning by issuing data enabled tablets to every child. The government refused to pay for them. We could have dodged the issue with exams by running coursework units from September. The government refused to allow it because we were not going to lock down, or cancel exams, so it wasn't needed. They didn't even prepare or release extra sample papers for the innumerable additional exams we had to set (the class of 2021 had *more* exams than a normal year group, bizarrely, but we had to write the papers ourselves) as they were not going to be needed.

The fact is that anybody who worked in education knew as far back as October that there was going to be a train crash due to lack of planning and perverse and wilful denial of the seriousness of the situation by a government that was as clueless and dishonest as it was drunken and inept. I was yelling that from the rooftops on here. The unions were hammering it morning noon and night. Even local authorities were sounding the alarm. And not one person in Whitehall listened.

And I have no sympathy for Johnson or Williamson's persistent, self-serving and whiny refusal to note just how badly they messed up. That was not about hindsight, that was about having the courage and humility to admit they were not going to be able to carry out Plan A at a time an acceptable Plan B might have worked. Which because they are cowards as well as liars and scum they still refuse to do.

And there are still people out there pushing false narratives on the back of that. Frankly, I find that pretty disgusting and I suggest you look hard at a photo of RFK Jr before remembering every single thing you have said on the subject of Covid is wrong and not worth listening to.

In Johnson's defence he did throw Acland-Hood and Sir Gavin Fireplace-Salesman under the bus.

Good.

Can we now throw him under an advancing Russian tank division please?

I hate to side with Johnson, but listening to St. Boris. I do believe he is being questioned by some idiot Labour MP with the benefit of hindsight.

School lockdowns were an imperative under the circumstances regardless of whether vulnerable children were at risk. School closures were the least worst national outcome even if some children were put in harms way.

"School lockdowns were an imperative" 🤔 Does anyone believe this ridiculous narrative anymore? 💩

They were imperative, you ignorant fool. In fact, to a great degree they had already happened because the rapid spread of the virus meant so many of pupils and staff were off ill it was impossible to function normally.

The big mistake was not locking down, it was refusing to put in place sensible measures to minimise it. We might have dodged the January full closure if we had had blended learning from October - two weeks on, one off. The government refused to allow it. We could have minimised missed learning by issuing data enabled tablets to every child. The government refused to pay for them. We could have dodged the issue with exams by running coursework units from September. The government refused to allow it because we were not going to lock down, or cancel exams, so it wasn't needed. They didn't even prepare or release extra sample papers for the innumerable additional exams we had to set (the class of 2021 had *more* exams than a normal year group, bizarrely, but we had to write the papers ourselves) as they were not going to be needed.

The fact is that anybody who worked in education knew as far back as October that there was going to be a train crash due to lack of planning and perverse and wilful denial of the seriousness of the situation by a government that was as clueless and dishonest as it was drunken and inept. I was yelling that from the rooftops on here. The unions were hammering it morning noon and night. Even local authorities were sounding the alarm. And not one person in Whitehall listened.

And there are still people out there pushing false narratives on the back of that. Frankly, I find that pretty disgusting and I suggest you look hard at a photo of RFK Jr before remembering every single thing you have said on the subject of Covid is wrong and not worth listening to.

Quick tangential question - why do schools rely on sample papers/past papers so much? Drives us made at Uni as we educate students to apply principles and understanding yet they all want multiple example papers for everything.

Because recent generations of educators have been more focussed on what to think, rather than how to think?

Most of your students aren’t there to learn how to think, they’re there to get a degree, a piece of paper that they’ve paid tens of thousands for, and expect their educators to facilitate the issuance of that piece of paper.

It must have changed over the last forty years. My lecturers didn't facilitate anything. You scribbled down notes on their insane ramblings and read some books to make sense of it.

The notion, certainly back in the day, that lecturers taught was laughable. Lecturing and tutoring simply punctuated their research.