Best Of

Goodwin doubling down on his race baiting dishonesty.

In more than 2,000 schools in England today a majority of children no longer speak English as their main language. My critics might not think that tells us something important about what is happening to our country. But I do. And I will not change my view
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ/status/2037792677266162089

He has become the country's leading stand up philosophers.

https://youtu.be/tl4VD8uvgec?si=-zeqAGOvHiABpLhw

Incidentally I wonder whether he has checked to remove private international schools from that list?

https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/app/uploads/2017/05/EALachievementStrand-1.pdf appears to be the primary source of this.

The study states that they included "maintained, mainstream schools"

Included, or only included?

From page 25

"We used the School Level Database (SLD) from the ASC January 2013 to examine the
variation in the proportion of EAL students at the school level. We selected all maintained,
mainstream schools in England. Additionally we eliminated 32 very small maintained schools
(10 or fewer students on roll). The resulting population contained 20,033 schools."

Ok, thanks. So they don't know the difference between maintained schools and academies. That's a rocky start in terms of their credibility.

From a quick googling around, there were a couple of thousand academies in 2013.

Edit : the report is from 2015 and doesn't seem to have an axe to grind over immigration. More about identifying areas where support is required.

Further Edit: they say - "Almost a quarter of all schools (22.1%) have less than 1% EAL, and over half (54%) have less than 5% of student with EAL. However at the other extreme 1,681 schools (8.4%) have a majority of students with EAL. This does not support headlines such as that in the Daily Telegraph (31/01/14) that "English is no longer the first language for the majority of pupils at one in nine schools"

Right, so it's not the survey, it's Goodwin misusing it by presenting out of date material. I withdraw my slur on their credibility.

I think it entirely possible that if a study found 1681 schools were found to have a majority on non-english speakers in 2013, that in 2026 the number is higher.

Given that we have had lots of immigration in the last 13 year, probably inevitable. If you import lots of furriners, then you'll get lots of people talkiin' the furrin.

So we just need to make sure we put enough resources into getting them up to speed in English. Which, according to the report has a direct, definite and completely unsurprising effect on educational attainment.

Edit: Goodwin is still Badfail, of course.

It's possible but far from certain. Given the way schools have been continuously reorganised over the years it is, for example, possible that there are more EAL pupils but they have been concentrated in rather fewer schools as they are removed from academies and concentrated in the remaining LEA schools.

Also, it should be noted that 'EAL' can hide a multitude of sins. I once taught an Iranian-born girl who spoke English as her fourth language (after Farsi, Arabic and French). Her spoken English was totally unaccented and her vocabulary was nearly as good as mine (she was 14 at the time). If we have more EAL speakers but they are able to speak the language as well as she could, that's rather different from somebody whose English is as bad as Donald Trump's.

Wouldn't she be assessed as Fluent? Or is this another metric that has been completely fucked up - because "we always measure the ability to speak English by the level of phlogiston in the air" ?

She was fluent, but still considered EAL for statistical purposes.

Ah. Another triumph of process.

"Speaking English" for officialdom is not actually related to your ability to speak English?

No. It’s Goodwin who has abused the official term, not a fault of officialdom. The system doesn’t say EAL means you can’t speak English.

To be fair, Goodwin did not say they can't speak English though, did he?

Though others may have inferred that from his comment, it was not actually claimed.

That's the way these shit stirrers act, claim something defensible, then let others infer there is more to it, when there is not.

He does say they don’t speak English as their main language, and that’s similar to but not what EAL assesses.

For example, imagine a Ukrainian family come over to the UK. The dad speaks Russian and the mum speaks surzhyk, although they're both making an effor to learn formal Ukrainian given the politics and are getting better at English. The child has grown up speaking Russian, but now goes to an English language school. He's learnt English rapidly and speaks it (or types it on social media) with his friends. After a few years, you get a common scenario where the parents speak Russian to the child, but the child answers in English. English is the child's main language, his Russian is clumsy and he can't spell it well, but he counts as "EAL".

Goodwin doubling down on his race baiting dishonesty.

In more than 2,000 schools in England today a majority of children no longer speak English as their main language. My critics might not think that tells us something important about what is happening to our country. But I do. And I will not change my view
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ/status/2037792677266162089

He has become the country's leading stand up philosophers.

https://youtu.be/tl4VD8uvgec?si=-zeqAGOvHiABpLhw

Incidentally I wonder whether he has checked to remove private international schools from that list?

https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/app/uploads/2017/05/EALachievementStrand-1.pdf appears to be the primary source of this.

The study states that they included "maintained, mainstream schools"

Included, or only included?

From page 25

"We used the School Level Database (SLD) from the ASC January 2013 to examine the
variation in the proportion of EAL students at the school level. We selected all maintained,
mainstream schools in England. Additionally we eliminated 32 very small maintained schools
(10 or fewer students on roll). The resulting population contained 20,033 schools."

Ok, thanks. So they don't know the difference between maintained schools and academies. That's a rocky start in terms of their credibility.

From a quick googling around, there were a couple of thousand academies in 2013.

Edit : the report is from 2015 and doesn't seem to have an axe to grind over immigration. More about identifying areas where support is required.

Further Edit: they say - "Almost a quarter of all schools (22.1%) have less than 1% EAL, and over half (54%) have less than 5% of student with EAL. However at the other extreme 1,681 schools (8.4%) have a majority of students with EAL. This does not support headlines such as that in the Daily Telegraph (31/01/14) that "English is no longer the first language for the majority of pupils at one in nine schools"

Right, so it's not the survey, it's Goodwin misusing it by presenting out of date material. I withdraw my slur on their credibility.

I think it entirely possible that if a study found 1681 schools were found to have a majority on non-english speakers in 2013, that in 2026 the number is higher.

Given that we have had lots of immigration in the last 13 year, probably inevitable. If you import lots of furriners, then you'll get lots of people talkiin' the furrin.

So we just need to make sure we put enough resources into getting them up to speed in English. Which, according to the report has a direct, definite and completely unsurprising effect on educational attainment.

Edit: Goodwin is still Badfail, of course.

My brother moved to Amsterdam when he was 22 and with his Dutch wife had two children. They are and were completely bi-lingual and there was no cuter sight than watching a six and four year old speaking in two languages and doing all the interpreting for two sets of grandparents.

That miserable man Goodwin really does miss out on the fun things in life

When I was a kid, a school friend had a Lebanese dad and a Chinese mum. His baby sister spoke Levantine Arabic, Mandarin and English, but hadn’t yet worked out that everyone else in the world can’t speak all three. She’d start a sentence in one language and complete it in another.

My lad was born in Germany and went to Kindergarten there, where he obviously spoke German, but we spoke English at home. For a little while, he thought that children spoke German and adults spoke English, and confused the hell out of his little English-speaking cousins when they were together.

.

A good BBC write up on the Iran war: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y969pnxgvo

“Trump is waging war based on instinct and it isn't working”

The first few paragraphs talk about plans, planning etc.

The BBC are sanewashing again. Trump didn't have a plan. It was just 'bomb because we can' and assume the Iranians would surrender and install Trump as the new Supreme leader. It really didn't go further than that.

The US continue NOT to have a plan. Are they going to launch a ground invasion? If so, where? What's the aim, what's the objective?

Well without a ground invasion it is unlikely to be able to remove the Iranian regime

How do you envisage a ground invasion removing the Iranian regime?

Well US and Israeli troops enter Tehran and literally remove the regime and Revolutionary Guard

What level of forces are required for that, and how many are in theatre?

10,000 US troops and marines are now in the region with more on the way. Israel would also send troops

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/us-iran-ground-operations-marines-middle-east-escalation-trump-b1276873.html

2.7 million US military served in Vietnam between 1955 - 1975 and 58,279 died

They kept South Vietnam free of the Communists. The mistake was withdrawing them

You are a fool and/or deeply ignorant of the history.

I am not, the Democrat Congress pulled funding for the war forcing Ford to withdraw troops, had the US troops stayed Saigon would never have fallen to the Vietcong

Nixon started withdrawing troops in 69; signed a ceasefire in73, and withdrew all US troops that year.
Basically in response to the impossibility of winning, the massive unpopularity and unaffordability of the war, and the collapse of morale in the US army.

You have no knowledge of the history.

On the other hand, the North Vietnamese ground offensive that ended the war was predicated on the withdrawal of military support.

Many South Vietnamese units fought until they ran out of ammunition.

The war killed maybe a tenth of the entire Vietnamese population; it came close to bankrupting the US, and ended at least one presidency.

U.S. efforts only increased the number of VC in the South. They recruited as many as they killed.

And an attempt to conquer and hold Tehran, to change the regime, would be 20 times worse. It's much bigger, it's all mountains, it has a large sophisticated army, they don't live in huts

Even Trump isn't that mad. One hopes

Apparently what's more likely is him trying to 'do a number' on Kharg Island.

Of all his countless defects it's his out-of-his-depthness that is probably the most concerning right now.

.

A good BBC write up on the Iran war: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y969pnxgvo

“Trump is waging war based on instinct and it isn't working”

The first few paragraphs talk about plans, planning etc.

The BBC are sanewashing again. Trump didn't have a plan. It was just 'bomb because we can' and assume the Iranians would surrender and install Trump as the new Supreme leader. It really didn't go further than that.

The US continue NOT to have a plan. Are they going to launch a ground invasion? If so, where? What's the aim, what's the objective?

Well without a ground invasion it is unlikely to be able to remove the Iranian regime

How do you envisage a ground invasion removing the Iranian regime?

Well US and Israeli troops enter Tehran and literally remove the regime and Revolutionary Guard

What level of forces are required for that, and how many are in theatre?

10,000 US troops and marines are now in the region with more on the way. Israel would also send troops

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/us-iran-ground-operations-marines-middle-east-escalation-trump-b1276873.html

2.7 million US military served in Vietnam between 1955 - 1975 and 58,279 died

They kept South Vietnam free of the Communists. The mistake was withdrawing them

You are a fool and/or deeply ignorant of the history.

I am not, the Democrat Congress pulled funding for the war forcing Ford to withdraw troops, had the US troops stayed Saigon would never have fallen to the Vietcong

Nixon started withdrawing troops in 69; signed a ceasefire in73, and withdrew all US troops that year.
Basically in response to the impossibility of winning, the massive unpopularity and unaffordability of the war, and the collapse of morale in the US army.

You have no knowledge of the history.

On the other hand, the North Vietnamese ground offensive that ended the war was predicated on the withdrawal of military support.

Many South Vietnamese units fought until they ran out of ammunition.

The war killed maybe a tenth of the entire Vietnamese population; it came close to bankrupting the US, and ended at least one presidency.

U.S. efforts only increased the number of VC in the South. They recruited as many as they killed.

And an attempt to conquer and hold Tehran, to change the regime, would be 20 times worse. It's much bigger, it's all mountains, it has a large sophisticated army, they don't live in huts

Even Trump isn't that mad. One hopes

Apparently what's more likely is him trying to 'do a number' on Kharg Island.

Of all his countless defects it's his out-of-his-depthness that is probably the most concerning right now.

Actually, I think seizing Kharg Island makes sense IF you have decided to escalate. It's risky but it's an obvious pressure point, from what I've read. America can then strangle Iranian oil exports and also get a base for actions on the mainland. Unfortunately, to my amateur mind, it only makes sense if Trump is prepared to go all in: to combine this with extreme bombing of Iran, pulverising them into surrender. And yes, nukes, maybe

It's slid into a 'wouldn't have started from here' situation with only bad options. I'm hoping that in a revolutionary reversal of the norm he surprises on the upside with a hard-headed calculation (uninfluenced by Netanyahu) of what's in the US national interest - which means an agreement to withdraw in exchange for a reopening of the Strait and something suitably doveish sounding on Iran's nuclear aspirations. Then back to observe and contain.

The problem with Kharg Island afaics is that it is only 25km off the coast, so entirely within range of artillery and fibre-optic FPV drones.

The USA sent Ukrainians offering help and advice packing (shades of the pre-Second Happy Time in 1942), and said they had nothing to learn, and now they may have lessons 2 through 43 coming to Kharg Island.

Vance says he’s ‘obsessed’ with UFO files, calls aliens ‘demons’

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5806206-vance-obsessed-ufo-mystery/

Weird guy, leaning into the whole 'JD is weird' thing.

The "demons" thing is interesting - not the language I would expect from a newly minted born-again Traditionalist Right Wing Roman Catholic, who takes it upon himself to assert that the Pope and all the Bishops are just wrong.

Zeal of the convert. Or as the meme puts it,

Every lifelong Catholic I've ever met is like "I think we're supposed to give this food to poor people" and every adult convert is like "the Archon of Constantinople's epistle on the Pentacostine rites of the eucharist clearly states women shouldn't have driver's licenses."

Goodwin doubling down on his race baiting dishonesty.

In more than 2,000 schools in England today a majority of children no longer speak English as their main language. My critics might not think that tells us something important about what is happening to our country. But I do. And I will not change my view
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ/status/2037792677266162089

He has become the country's leading stand up philosophers.

https://youtu.be/tl4VD8uvgec?si=-zeqAGOvHiABpLhw

Incidentally I wonder whether he has checked to remove private international schools from that list?

https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/app/uploads/2017/05/EALachievementStrand-1.pdf appears to be the primary source of this.

The study states that they included "maintained, mainstream schools"

Included, or only included?

From page 25

"We used the School Level Database (SLD) from the ASC January 2013 to examine the
variation in the proportion of EAL students at the school level. We selected all maintained,
mainstream schools in England. Additionally we eliminated 32 very small maintained schools
(10 or fewer students on roll). The resulting population contained 20,033 schools."

Ok, thanks. So they don't know the difference between maintained schools and academies. That's a rocky start in terms of their credibility.

From a quick googling around, there were a couple of thousand academies in 2013.

Edit : the report is from 2015 and doesn't seem to have an axe to grind over immigration. More about identifying areas where support is required.

Further Edit: they say - "Almost a quarter of all schools (22.1%) have less than 1% EAL, and over half (54%) have less than 5% of student with EAL. However at the other extreme 1,681 schools (8.4%) have a majority of students with EAL. This does not support headlines such as that in the Daily Telegraph (31/01/14) that "English is no longer the first language for the majority of pupils at one in nine schools"

Right, so it's not the survey, it's Goodwin misusing it by presenting out of date material. I withdraw my slur on their credibility.

Goodwin doubling down on his race baiting dishonesty.

In more than 2,000 schools in England today a majority of children no longer speak English as their main language. My critics might not think that tells us something important about what is happening to our country. But I do. And I will not change my view
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ/status/2037792677266162089

He has become the country's leading stand up philosophers.

https://youtu.be/tl4VD8uvgec?si=-zeqAGOvHiABpLhw

Incidentally I wonder whether he has checked to remove private international schools from that list?

https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/app/uploads/2017/05/EALachievementStrand-1.pdf appears to be the primary source of this.

The study states that they included "maintained, mainstream schools"

Included, or only included?

From page 25

"We used the School Level Database (SLD) from the ASC January 2013 to examine the
variation in the proportion of EAL students at the school level. We selected all maintained,
mainstream schools in England. Additionally we eliminated 32 very small maintained schools
(10 or fewer students on roll). The resulting population contained 20,033 schools."

Ok, thanks. So they don't know the difference between maintained schools and academies. That's a rocky start in terms of their credibility.

@Brixian59's assertion that Verstappen is the 'Greatest Of All Time second only to Senna' (?) has got me thinking. Who is the F1 GOAT?

I'd plump for Fangio: five world championships for four different manufacturers and he didn't start until he was in his late 30s.

It's impossible to define

My top 5 after watching since 1965

Senna
Verstappen
Schumacher
K Rosberg
R Petersen

The first 3 on speed and results

Rosberg on pure one lap speed, Frank Williams summed him up, no engine could ever match Kekes right foot

Ronnie P on pure emotion. An unfulfilled talent sadly taken


Next 2

James Hunt
John Surtees

No room for Hamilton? He's got to be in anyone's top 5 surely?

Fangio; Clark; Senna; Schumacher; Hamilton.
Possibly Verstappen if he doesn't rage quit this year.

No particular order.

Prost Le Prof was up there.

And on names (very important):

Vittorio Brambilla
Emerson Fittipaldi
Clay Regazzoni

All conjuring up the days when the spectators were almost on track and the petrol swilled around in the pit lane.

Rega was nuts. Even after he became paraplegic he was racing touring cars with hand controls.