Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
Just checking, is sacking a shadow minister for supporting trade unions on a picket line one of them progressive Lab policies that are going to give the SNP a real dilemma?
Just checking, is sacking a shadow minister for supporting trade unions on a picket line one of them progressive Lab policies that are going to give the SNP a real dilemma?
You mean, the Labour Party which has been whining about the supposed failure of the SNP to settle the Scotrail strikes, till the SG did in fact settle them?
I know it is a sensitive issue but do we think Liz Truss may be on the spectrum?
Eh? Captain Scarlet? Melody Angel? Surely not.
This has dislodged a nugget from the recesses of my memory, rather like one of those tonsil nut things ... a prescient Andersonian impression of Ms Truss's campaign launch.
Just checking, is sacking a shadow minister for supporting trade unions on a picket line one of them progressive Lab policies that are going to give the SNP a real dilemma?
BTW Unison have voted for strikes in some councils (I think the reporter means) in local government in Scotland. Labour and Tories wetting their underwear blaming the SNP. Which doesn't sit well with SKS's evident policy, for one thing.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
Just checking, is sacking a shadow minister for supporting trade unions on a picket line one of them progressive Lab policies that are going to give the SNP a real dilemma?
BTW Unison have voted for strikes in some councils (I think the reporter means) in local government in Scotland. Labour and Tories wetting their underwear blaming the SNP. Which doesn't sit well with SKS's evident policy, for one thing.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Can’t see it. She will try to ride it out and hope it gets better in 2023/4. Energy expert on consumer segment on The One Show was talking about pricing coming back to normal levels around early 2025.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Can’t see it. She will try to ride it out and hope it gets better in 2023/4. Energy expert on consumer segment on The One Show was talking about pricing coming back to normal levels around early 2025.
The only thing to point out is that that's still after the latest date for the next election.
If she gets a honeymoon bounce she may think about it. She would be mad to but nobody has ever got rich betting on her making the smart choice rather than the one that benefits her at this moment.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Can’t see it. She will try to ride it out and hope it gets better in 2023/4. Energy expert on consumer segment on The One Show was talking about pricing coming back to normal levels around early 2025.
The only thing to point out is that that's still after the latest date for the next election.
If she gets a honeymoon bounce she may think about it. She would be mad to but nobody has ever got rich betting on her making the smart choice rather than the one that benefits her at this moment.
But the prices would be coming down in advance of that so prices reducing in 2024 seems to be the expectation.
Jan 2025 is the latest date for the election although I doubt she’d want to wait until the last minute.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
Was thinking the other day - once the queen goes, the national anthem will be God Save the King. And utterly will be about King Charles III*. I honestly can't see people singing it with a straight face.
* Yes I know he might call himself something else. But if he does he will get laughed out of Buckingham Palace long before anyone has to worry about national anthems.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
So? The overwhelming majority of undemocratic nations are also republics. Indeed at this stage of history the overwhelming majority of nations full stop are republics, including nearly all the countries in South America and Africa, and a majority the countries in Asia, North America (three countries, one constitutional monarchy) and Europe.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
Was thinking the other day - once the queen goes, the national anthem will be God Save the King. And utterly will be about King Charles III*. I honestly can't see people singing it with a straight face.
* Yes I know he might call himself something else. But if he does he will get laughed out of Buckingham Palace long before anyone has to worry about national anthems.
'Utterly' should read 'it'. One of autocorrect 's odder fails.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
If you're looking for just the right temperature today, you probably can find it in my area. The high here should be around 33 degrees Celsius at sea level, and about 0 degrees Celsius at 14,411 feet at the summit of Mt. Rainier, about 60 miles away from Seattle. So, somewhere in between, it should be just right for you.
What about precipitation? Dry at the coast, but 60 miles away it is....
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
Was thinking the other day - once the queen goes, the national anthem will be God Save the King. And utterly will be about King Charles III*. I honestly can't see people singing it with a straight face.
* Yes I know he might call himself something else. But if he does he will get laughed out of Buckingham Palace long before anyone has to worry about national anthems.
Yep. The chap who made compiling Cub Scout Royal scrapbooks* a very embarrassing business ca. 1990, as an Akela complained to me at the time.
*One of the compulsory achievements, together with (for instance) tying reef knots, cooking a sausage on a campfire, and telling the time from a clock, for the basic merit badge, whatever it was called.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
That sounds like a misunderstanding of the Septennial Act (as amended) to me, possibly?
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
Was thinking the other day - once the queen goes, the national anthem will be God Save the King. And utterly will be about King Charles III*. I honestly can't see people singing it with a straight face.
* Yes I know he might call himself something else. But if he does he will get laughed out of Buckingham Palace long before anyone has to worry about national anthems.
Yep. The chap who made compiling Cub Scout Royal scrapbooks* a very embarrassing business ca. 1990, as an Akela complained to me at the time.
*One of the compulsory achievements, together with (for instance) tying reef knots, cooking a sausage on a campfire, and telling the time from a clock, for the basic merit badge, whatever it was called.
Really? Don't remember any of that from my suburban Manchester cub pack in the early to mid 80s. Reef knots, perhaps. Other than that it was mainly 90 minutes a week of largely enjoyable violence.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
That sounds like a misunderstanding of the Septennial Act (as amended) to me, possibly?
Wasn't there a series of Prolongation of Parliament Acts during WW2? Maybe that is what I was thinking of and conflating it with something else. It would be great fun if she could extend the life of the Parliament.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
Was thinking the other day - once the queen goes, the national anthem will be God Save the King. And utterly will be about King Charles III*. I honestly can't see people singing it with a straight face.
* Yes I know he might call himself something else. But if he does he will get laughed out of Buckingham Palace long before anyone has to worry about national anthems.
Yep. The chap who made compiling Cub Scout Royal scrapbooks* a very embarrassing business ca. 1990, as an Akela complained to me at the time.
*One of the compulsory achievements, together with (for instance) tying reef knots, cooking a sausage on a campfire, and telling the time from a clock, for the basic merit badge, whatever it was called.
Really? Don't remember any of that from my suburban Manchester cub pack in the early to mid 80s. Reef knots, perhaps. Other than that it was mainly 90 minutes a week of largely enjoyable violence.
Our group did eventually decide that the “pile up all the chairs in the middle of the hall & have the scouts try and crawl through them in the dark” activity might be just a tad on the too risky side of things. Happy days...
Truss’ strategy has to be “I came into office whilst everything was on fire and look at the situation now - look how much better it is. I did that. Give me another 5 years and we’ll be on the right track.”
I can’t see any other way she can play it.
Of course this is predicated on things actually being better. It’s not a horrendous strategy though, but I’d say May or October 2024 is an absolute necessity if you’re going to do that - you need to give yourself as much time as you possibly can.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
That sounds like a misunderstanding of the Septennial Act (as amended) to me, possibly?
Wasn't there a series of Prolongation of Parliament Acts during WW2? Maybe that is what I was thinking of and conflating it with something else. It would be great fun if she could extend the life of the Parliament.
Yes. And during WW1 too. But they were Acts. The FTPA repealed the Septennial Act in its entirety. So there is no such provision of any kind for extension AIUI.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
The overwhelming majority of dictatorships are republics too, most constitutional monarchies also have well above average gdp per capita
Middle Eastern dictatorships - monarchies. North Korea - defacto monarchy.
Absolute monarchies, not constututional monarchies though even in the Middle East Jordan, which is a constitutional monarchy, is more democratic than most of the republics.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
Was thinking the other day - once the queen goes, the national anthem will be God Save the King. And utterly will be about King Charles III*. I honestly can't see people singing it with a straight face.
* Yes I know he might call himself something else. But if he does he will get laughed out of Buckingham Palace long before anyone has to worry about national anthems.
Yep. The chap who made compiling Cub Scout Royal scrapbooks* a very embarrassing business ca. 1990, as an Akela complained to me at the time.
*One of the compulsory achievements, together with (for instance) tying reef knots, cooking a sausage on a campfire, and telling the time from a clock, for the basic merit badge, whatever it was called.
Really? Don't remember any of that from my suburban Manchester cub pack in the early to mid 80s. Reef knots, perhaps. Other than that it was mainly 90 minutes a week of largely enjoyable violence.
We had to memorise GSTQ if I recall rightly; points of a compass; and some other stuff. Maybe our pack leader was simply more focussed (late 1960s).
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
That sounds like a misunderstanding of the Septennial Act (as amended) to me, possibly?
Wasn't there a series of Prolongation of Parliament Acts during WW2? Maybe that is what I was thinking of and conflating it with something else. It would be great fun if she could extend the life of the Parliament.
Edit Prolongation!, blinkin' autocorrect!
There was, but in order to do the same thing it would need the acquiescence of the Lords (not happening) or the process would have to start early enough for the Parliament Act to come into play.
Using the Parliament Act to extend the life of a parliament would be courageous.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Can’t see it. She will try to ride it out and hope it gets better in 2023/4. Energy expert on consumer segment on The One Show was talking about pricing coming back to normal levels around early 2025.
Depends on the war ending on terms that make the West willing to drop sanctions, I'd think. Did the expert offer an alternative rationale?
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
The overwhelming majority of dictatorships are republics too, most constitutional monarchies also have well above average gdp per capita
Middle Eastern dictatorships - monarchies. North Korea - defacto monarchy.
What is the UK if not a hereditary military dictatorship by conquest?
Certainly not the case for Scotland, James VIth didn't conquer England when he became sovereign for England and Scotland, he was invited to take the post. Scotland's Parliament requested to join a Union with England. It was also the majority of Protestant Ulster which demanded the creation of NI when the Irish Free State was created.
Wales was absorbed into the English Crown by conquest but Wales is part of the Kingdom of England anyway and it was officially united with England under the Welsh heritage Henry VIIIth
Ok, I’m going to try and mount a defence of Liz Truss re the schooling.
I find it somewhat curious that the Guardian is now seeking to uphold the quality of state school education under the Thatcher government. I suspect that their issue here isn’t someone complaining that they didn’t feel their state school was able to compete in giving opportunities to their students, but who is saying it. Funny, that.
I also find it amusing that so much energy is being expended to rebut Truss’s experiences (what happened to people’s own “truth”?) which I suspect would not be the case if, say, a figure on the left had the same complaints.
A lot of what Truss says rings true in the state school system of that era: there were good and bad schools, but no matter how good the school was run or well meaning the teachers were they couldn’t compete with the private sector in terms of the opportunities and attention they could bestow on their students. I’m not suggesting that means the school was terrible (perhaps Truss could be accused of over-egging the pudding here).
The angle I think is far more damaging is the fact that she is complaining about the Thatcher era education system whilst… err… running as the heir to Thatcher. In fact there seems to be a lot about Tory governments Liz doesn’t like. She didn’t think her school was up to scratch under Thatcher, she thinks that the Tory government she’s been a member of wasn’t radical enough on the economy, and she certainly doesn’t agree with her government’s tax rises. Perhaps someone needs to ask Liz what she is doing running for leader of a Party she seems to have been at odds with for large chunks of her life?
Someone - maybe an enterprising young journalist perhaps! - should ask her whether she thinks her school would have been better staying as two separate (girl/boy) grammars and being 11+ plus selective or as a merged, expanded comp.
Richard Quest in his S Times piece says a lot of the problems were around shellshocked former grammar school teachers suddenly facing a new, wider non-11-plus intake and being totally lost and unable to maintain control.
That I can well believe. My father (now an ex-teacher) used to say that a lot of grammar (and private) schools coasted on the ability of their selective intake who could mostly teach themselves in a pinch. He believed they ought to have got far better results out of their intake, but no one was pulling them up on how poor their teaching actually was.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
That sounds like a misunderstanding of the Septennial Act (as amended) to me, possibly?
Wasn't there a series of Prolongation of Parliament Acts during WW2? Maybe that is what I was thinking of and conflating it with something else. It would be great fun if she could extend the life of the Parliament.
Yes. And during WW1 too. But they were Acts. The FTPA repealed the Septennial Act in its entirety. So there is no such provision of any kind for extension AIUI.
So potentially if Ms Truss could engineer us into the war with Russia and with a 70 plus seat majority she could keep going for years
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
That sounds like a misunderstanding of the Septennial Act (as amended) to me, possibly?
Wasn't there a series of Prolongation of Parliament Acts during WW2? Maybe that is what I was thinking of and conflating it with something else. It would be great fun if she could extend the life of the Parliament.
Yes. And during WW1 too. But they were Acts. The FTPA repealed the Septennial Act in its entirety. So there is no such provision of any kind for extension AIUI.
Nothing constitutionally against changing the law just like the way they called the 2019 GE. e.g "Notwithstanding X Act, this Parliament is extended by a maximum of up to 2 years from the date of commencement of this Act." As mentioned above though the Lords would never agree.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
That sounds like a misunderstanding of the Septennial Act (as amended) to me, possibly?
Wasn't there a series of Prolongation of Parliament Acts during WW2? Maybe that is what I was thinking of and conflating it with something else. It would be great fun if she could extend the life of the Parliament.
Yes. And during WW1 too. But they were Acts. The FTPA repealed the Septennial Act in its entirety. So there is no such provision of any kind for extension AIUI.
So potentially if Ms Truss could engineer us into the war with Russia and with a 70 plus seat majority she could keep going for years
In that scenario lack of an election would be low down the list of things we'd need to be worrying about tbh.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Can’t see it. She will try to ride it out and hope it gets better in 2023/4. Energy expert on consumer segment on The One Show was talking about pricing coming back to normal levels around early 2025.
Depends on the war ending on terms that make the West willing to drop sanctions, I'd think. Did the expert offer an alternative rationale?
No. They didn’t go into it in any depth, just gave their short and medium term forecast.
Have to say that the Starmer - Tarry - Jones spat is piss funny. As I posted the other morning the hard left have no other reason to exist other than to attack Starmer.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
The overwhelming majority of dictatorships are republics too, most constitutional monarchies also have well above average gdp per capita
Middle Eastern dictatorships - monarchies. North Korea - defacto monarchy.
Absolute monarchies, not constututional monarchies though even in the Middle East Jordan, which is a constitutional monarchy, is more democratic than most of the republics.
North Korea is a Communist republic
No, it is a hereditary monarchy:
Kim Il-Sung (1948-1997) Kim Jong-il (1997-2011) Kim Jong-un (2011-present)
Have to say that the Starmer - Tarry - Jones spat is piss funny. As I posted the other morning the hard left have no other reason to exist other than to attack Starmer.
Is Tarry hard left. Can’t say I’d heard of him until today.
Have to say that the Starmer - Tarry - Jones spat is piss funny. As I posted the other morning the hard left have no other reason to exist other than to attack Starmer.
Is Tarry hard left. Can’t say I’d heard of him until today.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
Was thinking the other day - once the queen goes, the national anthem will be God Save the King. And utterly will be about King Charles III*. I honestly can't see people singing it with a straight face.
* Yes I know he might call himself something else. But if he does he will get laughed out of Buckingham Palace long before anyone has to worry about national anthems.
Yep. The chap who made compiling Cub Scout Royal scrapbooks* a very embarrassing business ca. 1990, as an Akela complained to me at the time.
*One of the compulsory achievements, together with (for instance) tying reef knots, cooking a sausage on a campfire, and telling the time from a clock, for the basic merit badge, whatever it was called.
Really? Don't remember any of that from my suburban Manchester cub pack in the early to mid 80s. Reef knots, perhaps. Other than that it was mainly 90 minutes a week of largely enjoyable violence.
Our group did eventually decide that the “pile up all the chairs in the middle of the hall & have the scouts try and crawl through them in the dark” activity might be just a tad on the too risky side of things. Happy days...
~~~wavy lines~~~
One famous evening they managed to trigger a full incident response unit (fire engines, ambulances, mobile HQ: the whole shebang) after a local mistook a hot air balloon launched by the scouts for a crashing light aircraft.
Words were had & that activity went by the wayside too...
Ok, I’m going to try and mount a defence of Liz Truss re the schooling.
I find it somewhat curious that the Guardian is now seeking to uphold the quality of state school education under the Thatcher government. I suspect that their issue here isn’t someone complaining that they didn’t feel their state school was able to compete in giving opportunities to their students, but who is saying it. Funny, that.
I also find it amusing that so much energy is being expended to rebut Truss’s experiences (what happened to people’s own “truth”?) which I suspect would not be the case if, say, a figure on the left had the same complaints.
A lot of what Truss says rings true in the state school system of that era: there were good and bad schools, but no matter how good the school was run or well meaning the teachers were they couldn’t compete with the private sector in terms of the opportunities and attention they could bestow on their students. I’m not suggesting that means the school was terrible (perhaps Truss could be accused of over-egging the pudding here).
The angle I think is far more damaging is the fact that she is complaining about the Thatcher era education system whilst… err… running as the heir to Thatcher. In fact there seems to be a lot about Tory governments Liz doesn’t like. She didn’t think her school was up to scratch under Thatcher, she thinks that the Tory government she’s been a member of wasn’t radical enough on the economy, and she certainly doesn’t agree with her government’s tax rises. Perhaps someone needs to ask Liz what she is doing running for leader of a Party she seems to have been at odds with for large chunks of her life?
Someone - maybe an enterprising young journalist perhaps! - should ask her whether she thinks her school would have been better staying as two separate (girl/boy) grammars and being 11+ plus selective or as a merged, expanded comp.
Richard Quest in his S Times piece says a lot of the problems were around shellshocked former grammar school teachers suddenly facing a new, wider non-11-plus intake and being totally lost and unable to maintain control.
That I can well believe. My father (an ex-headmaster) used to say that a lot of grammar (and private) schools coasted on the ability of their selective intake who could mostly teach themselves in a pinch. He believed they ought to have got far better results out of their intake, but no one was pulling them up on how poor their teaching actually was.
It is not that poor for the more academic intake, it is focused on top A level and GCSE grades, Oxbridge and Russell Group entry and hence then entry to the professions and senior management and largely delivers that.
Hence of the top 100 schools by Oxbridge entry success rate, 48 are independent, 23 are grammars, 19 are sixth form colleges and just 7 are comprehensives or academies.
Francis Elliott @elliottengage · 2h Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
Any Tory leader would have to be pretty silly not to wait 12 months until the new boundaries are available, which could give the party an extra 10 seats.
You're right. So she'll go for it.
In the back of my mind I seem to recall she can run until January 2025 and then request a additional discretionary two years from the monarch. I may have made that up, but if she could go all the way to 2027- happy days...for her!
That sounds like a misunderstanding of the Septennial Act (as amended) to me, possibly?
Wasn't there a series of Prolongation of Parliament Acts during WW2? Maybe that is what I was thinking of and conflating it with something else. It would be great fun if she could extend the life of the Parliament.
Yes. And during WW1 too. But they were Acts. The FTPA repealed the Septennial Act in its entirety. So there is no such provision of any kind for extension AIUI.
So potentially if Ms Truss could engineer us into the war with Russia and with a 70 plus seat majority she could keep going for years
In that scenario lack of an election would be low down the list of things we'd need to be worrying about tbh.
Have to say that the Starmer - Tarry - Jones spat is piss funny. As I posted the other morning the hard left have no other reason to exist other than to attack Starmer.
Is Tarry hard left. Can’t say I’d heard of him until today.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
The overwhelming majority of dictatorships are republics too, most constitutional monarchies also have well above average gdp per capita
Middle Eastern dictatorships - monarchies. North Korea - defacto monarchy.
Absolute monarchies, not constututional monarchies though even in the Middle East Jordan, which is a constitutional monarchy, is more democratic than most of the republics.
North Korea is a Communist republic
No, it is a hereditary monarchy:
Kim Il-Sung (1948-1997) Kim Jong-il (1997-2011) Kim Jong-un (2011-present)
It isn't, none were crowned, none were called King and all are leaders of the Workers' Party while monarchs are not party political
Why? India is not racist just because it does not have a white PM.
Sunak has many qualities that could make him an effective PM but his race should not be a factor. It might boost UK Indian relations but his failure to win the post does not mean the UK or Tories are racist, polling showed members voting for Badenoch
Have to say that the Starmer - Tarry - Jones spat is piss funny. As I posted the other morning the hard left have no other reason to exist other than to attack Starmer.
Is Tarry hard left. Can’t say I’d heard of him until today.
Ok, I’m going to try and mount a defence of Liz Truss re the schooling.
I find it somewhat curious that the Guardian is now seeking to uphold the quality of state school education under the Thatcher government. I suspect that their issue here isn’t someone complaining that they didn’t feel their state school was able to compete in giving opportunities to their students, but who is saying it. Funny, that.
I also find it amusing that so much energy is being expended to rebut Truss’s experiences (what happened to people’s own “truth”?) which I suspect would not be the case if, say, a figure on the left had the same complaints.
A lot of what Truss says rings true in the state school system of that era: there were good and bad schools, but no matter how good the school was run or well meaning the teachers were they couldn’t compete with the private sector in terms of the opportunities and attention they could bestow on their students. I’m not suggesting that means the school was terrible (perhaps Truss could be accused of over-egging the pudding here).
The angle I think is far more damaging is the fact that she is complaining about the Thatcher era education system whilst… err… running as the heir to Thatcher. In fact there seems to be a lot about Tory governments Liz doesn’t like. She didn’t think her school was up to scratch under Thatcher, she thinks that the Tory government she’s been a member of wasn’t radical enough on the economy, and she certainly doesn’t agree with her government’s tax rises. Perhaps someone needs to ask Liz what she is doing running for leader of a Party she seems to have been at odds with for large chunks of her life?
Someone - maybe an enterprising young journalist perhaps! - should ask her whether she thinks her school would have been better staying as two separate (girl/boy) grammars and being 11+ plus selective or as a merged, expanded comp.
Richard Quest in his S Times piece says a lot of the problems were around shellshocked former grammar school teachers suddenly facing a new, wider non-11-plus intake and being totally lost and unable to maintain control.
That I can well believe. My father (an ex-headmaster) used to say that a lot of grammar (and private) schools coasted on the ability of their selective intake who could mostly teach themselves in a pinch. He believed they ought to have got far better results out of their intake, but no one was pulling them up on how poor their teaching actually was.
It is not that poor for the more academic intake, it is focused on top A level and GCSE grades, Oxbridge and Russell Group entry and hence then entry to the professions and senior management and largely delivers that.
Hence of the top 100 schools by Oxbridge entry success rate, 48 are independent, 23 are grammars, 19 are sixth form colleges and just 7 are comprehensives or academies.
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
The overwhelming majority of dictatorships are republics too, most constitutional monarchies also have well above average gdp per capita
Middle Eastern dictatorships - monarchies. North Korea - defacto monarchy.
Absolute monarchies, not constututional monarchies though even in the Middle East Jordan, which is a constitutional monarchy, is more democratic than most of the republics.
North Korea is a Communist republic
Well of course they are absolute monarchies - that's what makes them dictatorships!
Ok, I’m going to try and mount a defence of Liz Truss re the schooling.
I find it somewhat curious that the Guardian is now seeking to uphold the quality of state school education under the Thatcher government. I suspect that their issue here isn’t someone complaining that they didn’t feel their state school was able to compete in giving opportunities to their students, but who is saying it. Funny, that.
I also find it amusing that so much energy is being expended to rebut Truss’s experiences (what happened to people’s own “truth”?) which I suspect would not be the case if, say, a figure on the left had the same complaints.
A lot of what Truss says rings true in the state school system of that era: there were good and bad schools, but no matter how good the school was run or well meaning the teachers were they couldn’t compete with the private sector in terms of the opportunities and attention they could bestow on their students. I’m not suggesting that means the school was terrible (perhaps Truss could be accused of over-egging the pudding here).
The angle I think is far more damaging is the fact that she is complaining about the Thatcher era education system whilst… err… running as the heir to Thatcher. In fact there seems to be a lot about Tory governments Liz doesn’t like. She didn’t think her school was up to scratch under Thatcher, she thinks that the Tory government she’s been a member of wasn’t radical enough on the economy, and she certainly doesn’t agree with her government’s tax rises. Perhaps someone needs to ask Liz what she is doing running for leader of a Party she seems to have been at odds with for large chunks of her life?
Someone - maybe an enterprising young journalist perhaps! - should ask her whether she thinks her school would have been better staying as two separate (girl/boy) grammars and being 11+ plus selective or as a merged, expanded comp.
Richard Quest in his S Times piece says a lot of the problems were around shellshocked former grammar school teachers suddenly facing a new, wider non-11-plus intake and being totally lost and unable to maintain control.
That I can well believe. My father (an ex-headmaster) used to say that a lot of grammar (and private) schools coasted on the ability of their selective intake who could mostly teach themselves in a pinch. He believed they ought to have got far better results out of their intake, but no one was pulling them up on how poor their teaching actually was.
It is not that poor for the more academic intake, it is focused on top A level and GCSE grades, Oxbridge and Russell Group entry and hence then entry to the professions and senior management and largely delivers that.
Hence of the top 100 schools by Oxbridge entry success rate, 48 are independent, 23 are grammars, 19 are sixth form colleges and just 7 are comprehensives or academies.
Have to say that the Starmer - Tarry - Jones spat is piss funny. As I posted the other morning the hard left have no other reason to exist other than to attack Starmer.
One of labours great thinkers comes out in support of Tarry
Keir Starmer has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry.
Labour spox: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
The Elizabeth Line serves Sam Tarry's Ilford South, but NOT Wes Streeting's Ilford North!
My understanding is that it is to be renamed the Elizabeth Truss Line.
Well, the latter lady is of republican roots, I think someone mentioned on PB.
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Royalty will never be overthrown and our glorious constitutional monarchy will be there long after Truss and Starmer have disappeared into the dust
The overwhelming majority of democratic nations are republics.
The overwhelming majority of dictatorships are republics too, most constitutional monarchies also have well above average gdp per capita
Middle Eastern dictatorships - monarchies. North Korea - defacto monarchy.
Absolute monarchies, not constututional monarchies though even in the Middle East Jordan, which is a constitutional monarchy, is more democratic than most of the republics.
North Korea is a Communist republic
Well of course they are absolute monarchies - that's what makes them dictatorships!
So what, my post was about constitutional monarchies not absolute monarchies.
Though even so there are far more republics that are dictatorships than absolute monarchies in the world now
Ok, I’m going to try and mount a defence of Liz Truss re the schooling.
I find it somewhat curious that the Guardian is now seeking to uphold the quality of state school education under the Thatcher government. I suspect that their issue here isn’t someone complaining that they didn’t feel their state school was able to compete in giving opportunities to their students, but who is saying it. Funny, that.
I also find it amusing that so much energy is being expended to rebut Truss’s experiences (what happened to people’s own “truth”?) which I suspect would not be the case if, say, a figure on the left had the same complaints.
A lot of what Truss says rings true in the state school system of that era: there were good and bad schools, but no matter how good the school was run or well meaning the teachers were they couldn’t compete with the private sector in terms of the opportunities and attention they could bestow on their students. I’m not suggesting that means the school was terrible (perhaps Truss could be accused of over-egging the pudding here).
The angle I think is far more damaging is the fact that she is complaining about the Thatcher era education system whilst… err… running as the heir to Thatcher. In fact there seems to be a lot about Tory governments Liz doesn’t like. She didn’t think her school was up to scratch under Thatcher, she thinks that the Tory government she’s been a member of wasn’t radical enough on the economy, and she certainly doesn’t agree with her government’s tax rises. Perhaps someone needs to ask Liz what she is doing running for leader of a Party she seems to have been at odds with for large chunks of her life?
Someone - maybe an enterprising young journalist perhaps! - should ask her whether she thinks her school would have been better staying as two separate (girl/boy) grammars and being 11+ plus selective or as a merged, expanded comp.
Richard Quest in his S Times piece says a lot of the problems were around shellshocked former grammar school teachers suddenly facing a new, wider non-11-plus intake and being totally lost and unable to maintain control.
That I can well believe. My father (an ex-headmaster) used to say that a lot of grammar (and private) schools coasted on the ability of their selective intake who could mostly teach themselves in a pinch. He believed they ought to have got far better results out of their intake, but no one was pulling them up on how poor their teaching actually was.
It is not that poor for the more academic intake, it is focused on top A level and GCSE grades, Oxbridge and Russell Group entry and hence then entry to the professions and senior management and largely delivers that.
Hence of the top 100 schools by Oxbridge entry success rate, 48 are independent, 23 are grammars, 19 are sixth form colleges and just 7 are comprehensives or academies.
Comprehensives main target, inevitably as a result of their intake, is usually just getting most to get 5 C grade GCSEs
Er, hang on a minute. Comprehensives are not Secondary Moderns, there is no selection, so they should have a full range of abilities in their intake.
They do, but numbers getting 5 C grade GCSEs is what they tend to get measured on. So that's what they focus on. At least, that was the case last time I looked at this in any detail, probably about 15 years ago.
Ok, I’m going to try and mount a defence of Liz Truss re the schooling.
I find it somewhat curious that the Guardian is now seeking to uphold the quality of state school education under the Thatcher government. I suspect that their issue here isn’t someone complaining that they didn’t feel their state school was able to compete in giving opportunities to their students, but who is saying it. Funny, that.
I also find it amusing that so much energy is being expended to rebut Truss’s experiences (what happened to people’s own “truth”?) which I suspect would not be the case if, say, a figure on the left had the same complaints.
A lot of what Truss says rings true in the state school system of that era: there were good and bad schools, but no matter how good the school was run or well meaning the teachers were they couldn’t compete with the private sector in terms of the opportunities and attention they could bestow on their students. I’m not suggesting that means the school was terrible (perhaps Truss could be accused of over-egging the pudding here).
The angle I think is far more damaging is the fact that she is complaining about the Thatcher era education system whilst… err… running as the heir to Thatcher. In fact there seems to be a lot about Tory governments Liz doesn’t like. She didn’t think her school was up to scratch under Thatcher, she thinks that the Tory government she’s been a member of wasn’t radical enough on the economy, and she certainly doesn’t agree with her government’s tax rises. Perhaps someone needs to ask Liz what she is doing running for leader of a Party she seems to have been at odds with for large chunks of her life?
Someone - maybe an enterprising young journalist perhaps! - should ask her whether she thinks her school would have been better staying as two separate (girl/boy) grammars and being 11+ plus selective or as a merged, expanded comp.
Richard Quest in his S Times piece says a lot of the problems were around shellshocked former grammar school teachers suddenly facing a new, wider non-11-plus intake and being totally lost and unable to maintain control.
That I can well believe. My father (an ex-headmaster) used to say that a lot of grammar (and private) schools coasted on the ability of their selective intake who could mostly teach themselves in a pinch. He believed they ought to have got far better results out of their intake, but no one was pulling them up on how poor their teaching actually was.
It is not that poor for the more academic intake, it is focused on top A level and GCSE grades, Oxbridge and Russell Group entry and hence then entry to the professions and senior management and largely delivers that.
Hence of the top 100 schools by Oxbridge entry success rate, 48 are independent, 23 are grammars, 19 are sixth form colleges and just 7 are comprehensives or academies.
Comprehensives main target, inevitably as a result of their intake, is usually just getting most to get 5 C grade GCSEs
Er, hang on a minute. Comprehensives are not Secondary Moderns, there is no selection, so they should have a full range of abilities in their intake.
Most comprehensives intake would have gone to secondary moderns when education was selective UK wide, hence their main target is focused on getting most of their pupils to C grade GCSEs.
Ok, I’m going to try and mount a defence of Liz Truss re the schooling.
I find it somewhat curious that the Guardian is now seeking to uphold the quality of state school education under the Thatcher government. I suspect that their issue here isn’t someone complaining that they didn’t feel their state school was able to compete in giving opportunities to their students, but who is saying it. Funny, that.
I also find it amusing that so much energy is being expended to rebut Truss’s experiences (what happened to people’s own “truth”?) which I suspect would not be the case if, say, a figure on the left had the same complaints.
A lot of what Truss says rings true in the state school system of that era: there were good and bad schools, but no matter how good the school was run or well meaning the teachers were they couldn’t compete with the private sector in terms of the opportunities and attention they could bestow on their students. I’m not suggesting that means the school was terrible (perhaps Truss could be accused of over-egging the pudding here).
The angle I think is far more damaging is the fact that she is complaining about the Thatcher era education system whilst… err… running as the heir to Thatcher. In fact there seems to be a lot about Tory governments Liz doesn’t like. She didn’t think her school was up to scratch under Thatcher, she thinks that the Tory government she’s been a member of wasn’t radical enough on the economy, and she certainly doesn’t agree with her government’s tax rises. Perhaps someone needs to ask Liz what she is doing running for leader of a Party she seems to have been at odds with for large chunks of her life?
Someone - maybe an enterprising young journalist perhaps! - should ask her whether she thinks her school would have been better staying as two separate (girl/boy) grammars and being 11+ plus selective or as a merged, expanded comp.
Richard Quest in his S Times piece says a lot of the problems were around shellshocked former grammar school teachers suddenly facing a new, wider non-11-plus intake and being totally lost and unable to maintain control.
That I can well believe. My father (an ex-headmaster) used to say that a lot of grammar (and private) schools coasted on the ability of their selective intake who could mostly teach themselves in a pinch. He believed they ought to have got far better results out of their intake, but no one was pulling them up on how poor their teaching actually was.
It is not that poor for the more academic intake, it is focused on top A level and GCSE grades, Oxbridge and Russell Group entry and hence then entry to the professions and senior management and largely delivers that.
Hence of the top 100 schools by Oxbridge entry success rate, 48 are independent, 23 are grammars, 19 are sixth form colleges and just 7 are comprehensives or academies.
Ok, I’m going to try and mount a defence of Liz Truss re the schooling.
I find it somewhat curious that the Guardian is now seeking to uphold the quality of state school education under the Thatcher government. I suspect that their issue here isn’t someone complaining that they didn’t feel their state school was able to compete in giving opportunities to their students, but who is saying it. Funny, that.
I also find it amusing that so much energy is being expended to rebut Truss’s experiences (what happened to people’s own “truth”?) which I suspect would not be the case if, say, a figure on the left had the same complaints.
A lot of what Truss says rings true in the state school system of that era: there were good and bad schools, but no matter how good the school was run or well meaning the teachers were they couldn’t compete with the private sector in terms of the opportunities and attention they could bestow on their students. I’m not suggesting that means the school was terrible (perhaps Truss could be accused of over-egging the pudding here).
The angle I think is far more damaging is the fact that she is complaining about the Thatcher era education system whilst… err… running as the heir to Thatcher. In fact there seems to be a lot about Tory governments Liz doesn’t like. She didn’t think her school was up to scratch under Thatcher, she thinks that the Tory government she’s been a member of wasn’t radical enough on the economy, and she certainly doesn’t agree with her government’s tax rises. Perhaps someone needs to ask Liz what she is doing running for leader of a Party she seems to have been at odds with for large chunks of her life?
Someone - maybe an enterprising young journalist perhaps! - should ask her whether she thinks her school would have been better staying as two separate (girl/boy) grammars and being 11+ plus selective or as a merged, expanded comp.
Richard Quest in his S Times piece says a lot of the problems were around shellshocked former grammar school teachers suddenly facing a new, wider non-11-plus intake and being totally lost and unable to maintain control.
That I can well believe. My father (an ex-headmaster) used to say that a lot of grammar (and private) schools coasted on the ability of their selective intake who could mostly teach themselves in a pinch. He believed they ought to have got far better results out of their intake, but no one was pulling them up on how poor their teaching actually was.
It is not that poor for the more academic intake, it is focused on top A level and GCSE grades, Oxbridge and Russell Group entry and hence then entry to the professions and senior management and largely delivers that.
Hence of the top 100 schools by Oxbridge entry success rate, 48 are independent, 23 are grammars, 19 are sixth form colleges and just 7 are comprehensives or academies.
Comments
Which would save the hassle of rebranding when royalty is overthrown.
Also I hadn't realised it was her birthday yesterday.
it's always good to see a pro do his stuff.
He gets onto trump about halfway.
https://en-gb.facebook.com/GerryAndersonOfficial/videos/captain-scarlet-angel-launch/2249115988455256/
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/thousands-of-council-workers-vote-to-strike-over-insulting-pay-offer
Martin Lewis
@MartinSLewis
NEWS: It gets worse!
I've just got uodated price cap predictions from
@CornwallInsight
.
The latest spike in year-ahead wholesale price means the OCT cap prediction is now UP 78% (so £3,500/yr on typical bills) & likely up again in Jan.
Its will be desperate. Intervention needed
https://twitter.com/MartinSLewis/status/1552333029951131648
It's nowhere near close to par.
Francis Elliott
@elliottengage
·
2h
Was convinced by an old hand today that early election is underpriced especially if Truss wins. But then I see those energy bill projections..Would she really run into that?
https://twitter.com/elliottengage/status/1552343812307034114
You know what - I'm taking a nibble on that.
DYOR.
Not to lecture or anything especially as I like a drink or three but you should take it easy.
If she gets a honeymoon bounce she may think about it. She would be mad to but nobody has ever got rich betting on her making the smart choice rather than the one that benefits her at this moment.
Jan 2025 is the latest date for the election although I doubt she’d want to wait until the last minute.
I honestly can't see people singing it with a straight face.
* Yes I know he might call himself something else. But if he does he will get laughed out of Buckingham Palace long before anyone has to worry about national anthems.
Deluxe Model now has Dems as favourites (52% chance of control).
Polls Only Model now has Dems 67% chance of control.
And one reason is this poll just out:
Georgia Senate (Survey USA - A rated pollster per 538):
Warnock (Dem) 48, Walker (Rep) 39
Dems only won both Georgia Senate seats in 2020 by wafer thin margins.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/
...Rainier!
I'll get my cagoule.
*One of the compulsory achievements, together with (for instance) tying reef knots, cooking a sausage on a campfire, and telling the time from a clock, for the basic merit badge, whatever it was called.
Edit Prolongation!. Blinkin' autocorrect!
I can’t see any other way she can play it.
Of course this is predicated on things actually being better. It’s not a horrendous strategy though, but I’d say May or October 2024 is an absolute necessity if you’re going to do that - you need to give yourself as much time as you possibly can.
Not January 2025 - that will look desperate.
Maybe I'll also wrap my soul in some paper and send that to the energy company too.
But they were Acts.
The FTPA repealed the Septennial Act in its entirety. So there is no such provision of any kind for extension AIUI.
North Korea is a Communist republic
Using the Parliament Act to extend the life of a parliament would be courageous.
Wales was absorbed into the English Crown by conquest but Wales is part of the Kingdom of England anyway and it was officially united with England under the Welsh heritage Henry VIIIth
Lord Ranger, a key donor, urges party to ensure ‘watershed moment’ by making former chancellor the first British Asian prime minister" (£)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/27/uk-will-seen-racist-tories-reject-rishi-sunak-warns-donor/
Kim Il-Sung (1948-1997)
Kim Jong-il (1997-2011)
Kim Jong-un (2011-present)
Vote Rishi or you’re horrible racists…
One famous evening they managed to trigger a full incident response unit (fire engines, ambulances, mobile HQ: the whole shebang) after a local mistook a hot air balloon launched by the scouts for a crashing light aircraft.
Words were had & that activity went by the wayside too...
Testers
Yes wasted hahahaha
Hence of the top 100 schools by Oxbridge entry success rate, 48 are independent, 23 are grammars, 19 are sixth form colleges and just 7 are comprehensives or academies.
https://www.locrating.com/Blog/oxfordandcambridgeoffers.aspx
Comprehensives main target, inevitably as a result of their intake, is usually just getting most to get 5 C grade GCSEs
Man fleeing Wiltshire crash scene attacked by emus
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-62312529
Sunak has many qualities that could make him an effective PM but his race should not be a factor. It might boost UK Indian relations but his failure to win the post does not mean the UK or Tories are racist, polling showed members voting for Badenoch
And James Lovelock.
https://twitter.com/zarahsultana/status/1552332141555597313?s=21&t=dVc4VZON_v5SJ3f9a4-dPA
Though even so there are far more republics that are dictatorships than absolute monarchies in the world now
At least, that was the case last time I looked at this in any detail, probably about 15 years ago.
would be that few.