It isn't. Rishi and HY say so. We can comfortably ignore the dead and the dying and the healthcare professionals struggling under siege conditions. No Crisis, just the winter, shut up you leftwingers.
Nicola seems to have fucked up her nhs a great deal more than Rishi, despite 11 years in the job and far fewer serious concerns than he has. Too busy legislating for lesbians with penises to be let loose in women's refuges nae doot.
There has been a winter crisis in the NHS every year of my adult life, even going back to when New Labour were in government and no matter how many billions were thrown at it and even when inflation was far lower than now
Yep. That's quite literally you saying no crisis. Because the same as any winter is routine, not crisis.
Except it isn't the same as every winter. And you either know it and think we're stupid, or you're deluded.
I remember that Friday in 1997. EVERYONE was buzzing. And they will be again when you and your lot are destroyed by the electorate in punishment for your sneering disdain.
Because its true no matter how much leftwingers like you...
It isn't. Rishi and HY say so. We can comfortably ignore the dead and the dying and the healthcare professionals struggling under siege conditions. No Crisis, just the winter, shut up you leftwingers.
No just the usual left-wing whinge exploiting the NHS for their political ends.
Refusing to reform, so it stays the most statist and bureaucratic healthcare system in the developed world
If that's the answer wtf have the Tories been doing for the past 12 and a half years?
The Tories have been failing to reform the NHS, while gradually spending more we cant afford, vs Labour fail to reform the NHS while spending a lot more than we can afford.
The core problem in all of this is that there is a maximum amount that can be raised from taxation. Other developed countries therefore fund a big chunk of their healthcare with private contributions. But it's politically verboten to do that in the UK, so the exchequer has to cover all the health budget plus every other public cause and there's not enough money to go round.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
That article really ticks every box in the Remainer bingo. I have yet to meet a single person who voted for Brexit for "imperial fantasies", so I am sceptical that a lefty journalist that rarely ventures beyond the M25 without an international flight has met them.
You can find people whose minds are set in about 1945 and the days of Imperial level prestige, and get a good laugh out of it, but it's not as easy as people think.
Most people are actually fine with the idea of the UK being a middling power. They may not wish to be subsumed, but that is a different matter even if people think it is a groundless fear.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
I agree with this. However GCSE has become seriously more rigorous over the past few years. Not only could I not help my youngest, but I couldn't even remember having done a lot of it.
I thought it was the wrong choice, but it was the UK's choice to be outside of Schengen and outside the custom's union and outside the single market.
Although there were a few silly people who thought the whole EU would collapse in response to Britain's exit, I don't think they thought this would be so that the UK could build a mini-EU out of the rubble. That diagram is exactly what Farage was aiming for.
I did Maths at Uni. My Dad did Maths at Uni. My daughter is doing Maths at Uni. I come from a Maths family.
If you haven't taught non-specialists enough Maths by age 16 another two years ain't going to do you any good. Where Maths teaching is going wrong is in primary school, where the one Maths whizz in every class makes everyone else feel like they are bad at Maths and they pretty much learn the lesson that it's not for them. Not helped by the fact that the one Maths whizz in the class is probably already better at Maths than their primary school teacher before the age of nine.
You have to isolate the Maths whizz from the rest of the class, so that the normal people can learn Maths just with other normal people, and the Maths whizz can learn that there's Maths that is hard enough to make them struggle before they reach the age of 18.
Absolutely. The same problem we’ve had in school sport since the beginning of time, with the same solutions needed.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
Since 2010 the NHS has steadily reduced acute bed capacity, by about 25%.
Who has been in government over that period?
So far as I can see, the Tories' only role where the NHS is concerned during their tenure has been to ask how much to make out the cheque for.
If you're saying that they should have taken the opportunity to reform the organisation beyond all recognition, I couldn't agree more, but that seems contrary to your previously stated views on the topic.
I would also be interested to know whether you support or condemn the BMA's 2008 vote to restrict the numbers of new doctors and ban new medical schools.
It isn't. Rishi and HY say so. We can comfortably ignore the dead and the dying and the healthcare professionals struggling under siege conditions. No Crisis, just the winter, shut up you leftwingers.
No just the usual left-wing whinge exploiting the NHS for their political ends.
Refusing to reform, so it stays the most statist and bureaucratic healthcare system in the developed world
We have had constant reform over the 30 years of my professional career, under both Conservative and Labour governments.
It's almost as if reforms haven't worked, whether by Hunt, Lansley, Hewitt, Milburn or Ken Clarke.
There has been a winter crisis in the NHS every year of my adult life, even going back to when New Labour were in government and no matter how many billions were thrown at it and even when inflation was far lower than now
Yep. That's quite literally you saying no crisis. Because the same as any winter is routine, not crisis.
Except it isn't the same as every winter. And you either know it and think we're stupid, or you're deluded.
I remember that Friday in 1997. EVERYONE was buzzing. And they will be again when you and your lot are destroyed by the electorate in punishment for your sneering disdain.
Because its true no matter how much leftwingers like you...
You are a leftwinger because you voted REMAIN!
What rubbish? On that basis George Galloway and Tony Benn would have been rightwingers as they wanted to leave the EU
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
Sounds like the politics of a child, believing the only stumbling block to any issue is lack of willpower, and that anything raised as an obstacle is not 'real', just an excuse.
You do need willpower to get through even very good ideas, you need effort even if your idea is good and has support, but if a solution sounds too easy to be correct, it probably is - it's possible, but rare, for it to be so simple.
I did Maths at Uni. My Dad did Maths at Uni. My daughter is doing Maths at Uni. I come from a Maths family.
If you haven't taught non-specialists enough Maths by age 16 another two years ain't going to do you any good. Where Maths teaching is going wrong is in primary school, where the one Maths whizz in every class makes everyone else feel like they are bad at Maths and they pretty much learn the lesson that it's not for them. Not helped by the fact that the one Maths whizz in the class is probably already better at Maths than their primary school teacher before the age of nine.
You have to isolate the Maths whizz from the rest of the class, so that the normal people can learn Maths just with other normal people, and the Maths whizz can learn that there's Maths that is hard enough to make them struggle before they reach the age of 18.
Don't like to blow my own trumpet but I was pretty good at maths at the age of 11. I then spent the next 3 years at a secondary school which didn't stream children according to their maths ability. I'm not sure that was the best way of organising things.
It isn't. Rishi and HY say so. We can comfortably ignore the dead and the dying and the healthcare professionals struggling under siege conditions. No Crisis, just the winter, shut up you leftwingers.
No just the usual left-wing whinge exploiting the NHS for their political ends.
Refusing to reform, so it stays the most statist and bureaucratic healthcare system in the developed world
We have had constant reform over the 30 years of my professional career, under both Conservative and Labour governments.
It's almost as if reforms haven't worked, whether by Hunt, Lansley, Hewitt, Milburn or Ken Clarke.
The real reforms we need ie social insurance and far more taking out private health insurance neither party not even the Tories will touch
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
Few of Rishi's additional Maths students at ages 16-18 will be doing A-level Maths. They will be doing some sort of remedial "this is all the Maths you should have learnt in your last eleven years of school, but didn't the first time round" course, or, possibly worse, something called "Maths skills for the modern world".
There has been a winter crisis in the NHS every year of my adult life, even going back to when New Labour were in government and no matter how many billions were thrown at it and even when inflation was far lower than now
Yep. That's quite literally you saying no crisis. Because the same as any winter is routine, not crisis.
Except it isn't the same as every winter. And you either know it and think we're stupid, or you're deluded.
I remember that Friday in 1997. EVERYONE was buzzing. And they will be again when you and your lot are destroyed by the electorate in punishment for your sneering disdain.
Because its true no matter how much leftwingers like you...
You are a leftwinger because you voted REMAIN!
What rubbish? On that basis George Galloway and Tony Benn would have been rightwingers as they voted Leave
Many people would say such a thing infact. And you've deployed the same logic many many times, such as declaring the Supreme Court all Remainers on the basis you didn't like the prorogation decision, even the ones who had sided with the government on other high profile Brexit cases.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
I can see where it's coming from.
A lot of people are excluded from well-paid jobs by low levels of maths prowess. Medium term, more maths leads to more prosperity.
And it is a beautiful, creative way to look at the world. Any subject that not only has imaginary numbers but makes use of them is doing something right.
But it is a crass intervention on a day of omnicrisis in our key services. And we can barely staff the maths teaching that happens in schools right now.
And even if everyone studies maths to 18, not everyone is going to get a numerate job, no matter how profitable it would be. I don't like the "Tories are offering the public double maths" jibe, as if it's a bad thing. But Labour have a point.
I did Maths at Uni. My Dad did Maths at Uni. My daughter is doing Maths at Uni. I come from a Maths family.
If you haven't taught non-specialists enough Maths by age 16 another two years ain't going to do you any good. Where Maths teaching is going wrong is in primary school, where the one Maths whizz in every class makes everyone else feel like they are bad at Maths and they pretty much learn the lesson that it's not for them. Not helped by the fact that the one Maths whizz in the class is probably already better at Maths than their primary school teacher before the age of nine.
You have to isolate the Maths whizz from the rest of the class, so that the normal people can learn Maths just with other normal people, and the Maths whizz can learn that there's Maths that is hard enough to make them struggle before they reach the age of 18.
Don't like to blow my own trumpet but I was pretty good at maths at the age of 11. I then spent the next 3 years at a secondary school which didn't stream children according to their maths ability. I'm not sure that was the best way of organising things.
You'll be reassured to know that that simply doesn't happen these days in my experience. A continuing issue with education is the general public assuming schools are as they were decades ago in their youth.
It isn't. Rishi and HY say so. We can comfortably ignore the dead and the dying and the healthcare professionals struggling under siege conditions. No Crisis, just the winter, shut up you leftwingers.
No just the usual left-wing whinge exploiting the NHS for their political ends.
Refusing to reform, so it stays the most statist and bureaucratic healthcare system in the developed world
If that's the answer wtf have the Tories been doing for the past 12 and a half years?
The Tories have been failing to reform the NHS, while gradually spending more we cant afford, vs Labour fail to reform the NHS while spending a lot more than we can afford.
The core problem in all of this is that there is a maximum amount that can be raised from taxation. Other developed countries therefore fund a big chunk of their healthcare with private contributions. But it's politically verboten to do that in the UK, so the exchequer has to cover all the health budget plus every other public cause and there's not enough money to go round.
There's not a whole lot of difference between a tax and compulsory insurance.
I did Maths at Uni. My Dad did Maths at Uni. My daughter is doing Maths at Uni. I come from a Maths family.
If you haven't taught non-specialists enough Maths by age 16 another two years ain't going to do you any good. Where Maths teaching is going wrong is in primary school, where the one Maths whizz in every class makes everyone else feel like they are bad at Maths and they pretty much learn the lesson that it's not for them. Not helped by the fact that the one Maths whizz in the class is probably already better at Maths than their primary school teacher before the age of nine.
You have to isolate the Maths whizz from the rest of the class, so that the normal people can learn Maths just with other normal people, and the Maths whizz can learn that there's Maths that is hard enough to make them struggle before they reach the age of 18.
Don't like to blow my own trumpet but I was pretty good at maths at the age of 11. I then spent the next 3 years at a secondary school which didn't stream children according to their maths ability. I'm not sure that was the best way of organising things.
I'm staggered there was no maths streaming at your secondary school: that's pretty much the only subject that is universally streamed.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
Since 2010 the NHS has steadily reduced acute bed capacity, by about 25%.
Who has been in government over that period?
So far as I can see, the Tories' only role where the NHS is concerned during their tenure has been to ask how much to make out the cheque for.
If you're saying that they should have taken the opportunity to reform the organisation beyond all recognition, I couldn't agree more, but that seems contrary to your previously stated views on the topic.
I would also be interested to know whether you support or condemn the BMA's 2008 vote to restrict the numbers of new doctors and ban new medical schools.
On the contrary I have consistently advocated expanding medical schools, improving staff retention, and consider the BMA spineless government lackeys. The BMA incidentally has no say over licensing medical schools and their numbers. That is a role of the GMC, which is a government appointed quango.
As for reform, I have consistently advocated reform, and think my header on it a few years ago has aged rather well:
What will do it for the Tories is that faced with a widescale massive crisis which is affecting so many people, all they can offer is sneering.
They just don't care about people.
No. They are clueless, directionless, defeatist and bewildered. They know they are headed for a terrible loss, they have abandoned any real discipline, they have no ideas left, and they are waiting for the electoral hangman
It isn't. Rishi and HY say so. We can comfortably ignore the dead and the dying and the healthcare professionals struggling under siege conditions. No Crisis, just the winter, shut up you leftwingers.
No just the usual left-wing whinge exploiting the NHS for their political ends.
Refusing to reform, so it stays the most statist and bureaucratic healthcare system in the developed world
If that's the answer wtf have the Tories been doing for the past 12 and a half years?
The Tories have been failing to reform the NHS, while gradually spending more we cant afford, vs Labour fail to reform the NHS while spending a lot more than we can afford.
The core problem in all of this is that there is a maximum amount that can be raised from taxation. Other developed countries therefore fund a big chunk of their healthcare with private contributions. But it's politically verboten to do that in the UK, so the exchequer has to cover all the health budget plus every other public cause and there's not enough money to go round.
There's not a whole lot of difference between a tax and compulsory insurance.
The difference seems to be that richer people get to pay more for a better level of service for themselves, instead of sharing the burden of paying for a decent level of service for everyone.
It isn't. Rishi and HY say so. We can comfortably ignore the dead and the dying and the healthcare professionals struggling under siege conditions. No Crisis, just the winter, shut up you leftwingers.
No just the usual left-wing whinge exploiting the NHS for their political ends.
Refusing to reform, so it stays the most statist and bureaucratic healthcare system in the developed world
If that's the answer wtf have the Tories been doing for the past 12 and a half years?
The Tories have been failing to reform the NHS, while gradually spending more we cant afford, vs Labour fail to reform the NHS while spending a lot more than we can afford.
The core problem in all of this is that there is a maximum amount that can be raised from taxation. Other developed countries therefore fund a big chunk of their healthcare with private contributions. But it's politically verboten to do that in the UK, so the exchequer has to cover all the health budget plus every other public cause and there's not enough money to go round.
There's not a whole lot of difference between a tax and compulsory insurance.
Indeed we have a compulsory scheme that is rather like a tax, known as National Insurance.
EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump declined to say if he's sticking by his endorsement of Kevin McCarthy for speaker tonight, telling me in a brief phone interview he's had calls all day asking for support, and "We'll see what happens. We'll see how it all works out."
When I asked directly if he was sticking by McCarthy, who did not clinch the gavel today after three floor votes, Mr. Trump told me "we'll see what happens," and ended our conversation.
What will do it for the Tories is that faced with a widescale massive crisis which is affecting so many people, all they can offer is sneering.
They just don't care about people.
No. They are clueless, directionless, defeatist and bewildered. They know they are headed for a terrible loss, they have abandoned any real discipline, they have no ideas left, and they are waiting for the electoral hangman
Hence: maths!
Maths. (Well at least mental arithmetic), is a vital component of a lucrative darts career.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
Few of Rishi's additional Maths students at ages 16-18 will be doing A-level Maths. They will be doing some sort of remedial "this is all the Maths you should have learnt in your last eleven years of school, but didn't the first time round" course, or, possibly worse, something called "Maths skills for the modern world".
If you don't already have GCSE grade 4 in maths (and/or) English, you can't do a full post-16 course unless you do some sort of retake.
The compulsion is pretty soul-destroying all round.
BBC reporting that, yes, the big Sunak speech tomorrow is to be on Maths.
Couldn't he perhaps simply trial the extra maths lessons on Truss and Kwarteng for a couple of years first, and then focus on getting the country working again instead?
I did Maths at Uni. My Dad did Maths at Uni. My daughter is doing Maths at Uni. I come from a Maths family.
If you haven't taught non-specialists enough Maths by age 16 another two years ain't going to do you any good. Where Maths teaching is going wrong is in primary school, where the one Maths whizz in every class makes everyone else feel like they are bad at Maths and they pretty much learn the lesson that it's not for them. Not helped by the fact that the one Maths whizz in the class is probably already better at Maths than their primary school teacher before the age of nine.
You have to isolate the Maths whizz from the rest of the class, so that the normal people can learn Maths just with other normal people, and the Maths whizz can learn that there's Maths that is hard enough to make them struggle before they reach the age of 18.
Absolutely. The same problem we’ve had in school sport since the beginning of time, with the same solutions needed.
Yeah. I was going to add that you should get the Maths kids to play sport together too, so that they would learn that they aren't all useless at sport.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
Few of Rishi's additional Maths students at ages 16-18 will be doing A-level Maths. They will be doing some sort of remedial "this is all the Maths you should have learnt in your last eleven years of school, but didn't the first time round" course, or, possibly worse, something called "Maths skills for the modern world".
I did Maths at A level, and got a B in the early Eighties, but this is a daft scheme thought up by a spreadsheet nerd who thinks the problem with the country is that not enough people are like him.
GCSE maths at grade 4 or above was 75% this year, equivalent to A to C in the old system. That is more than enough for most occupations. Can the other 25% be brought up to scratch by an additional 2 years?
Maybe Sunak is right about Maths? Who knows. But I can't believe this is the central idea he should be promoting.
About half the country hates maths. They will not like the policy, good or bad. Those who can already do maths are unlikely to be impressed with his handling of the pay disputes.
What will do it for the Tories is that faced with a widescale massive crisis which is affecting so many people, all they can offer is sneering.
They just don't care about people.
No. They are clueless, directionless, defeatist and bewildered. They know they are headed for a terrible loss, they have abandoned any real discipline, they have no ideas left, and they are waiting for the electoral hangman
Hence: maths!
To carry on the Darts Chat they are Gerwyn Price. Gobby former champion, love themselves far too much, does things that make them really unpopular and get everyone booing. Then pose on ear defenders saying 'I don't care what you think or say, I can't hear you'. Then lose.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Maybe Sunak is right about Maths? Who knows. But I can't believe this is the central idea he should be promoting.
If anyone is seriously concerned about Maths it needs to be at Primary or pre-primary level. Opening a string of Sure Start centres might help.
Definitely so. If we want kids to do better then feed and teach them well from an early age, and support parents to spend time with them rather than work every hour trying to keep their heads above water.
What will do it for the Tories is that faced with a widescale massive crisis which is affecting so many people, all they can offer is sneering.
They just don't care about people.
No. They are clueless, directionless, defeatist and bewildered. They know they are headed for a terrible loss, they have abandoned any real discipline, they have no ideas left, and they are waiting for the electoral hangman
Hence: maths!
To carry on the Darts Chat they are Gerwyn Price. Gobby former champion, love themselves far too much, does things that make them really unpopular and get everyone booing. Then pose on ear defenders saying 'I don't care what you think or say, I can't hear you'. Then lose.
Seems the super duper way to get more and more to disengage with education. My ex-wife failed Maths CSE. She's now a University psychotherapy lecturer. She wouldn't be if she'd had to study Maths post 16.
Maybe Sunak is right about Maths? Who knows. But I can't believe this is the central idea he should be promoting.
If anyone is seriously concerned about Maths it needs to be at Primary or pre-primary level. Opening a string of Sure Start centres might help.
Definitely so. If we want kids to do better then feed and teach them well from an early age, and support parents to spend time with them rather than work every hour trying to keep their heads above water.
Or alternatively from the Epping Tories try and be born in the right family and then hope to inherit.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
Since 2010 the NHS has steadily reduced acute bed capacity, by about 25%.
Who has been in government over that period?
So far as I can see, the Tories' only role where the NHS is concerned during their tenure has been to ask how much to make out the cheque for.
If you're saying that they should have taken the opportunity to reform the organisation beyond all recognition, I couldn't agree more, but that seems contrary to your previously stated views on the topic.
I would also be interested to know whether you support or condemn the BMA's 2008 vote to restrict the numbers of new doctors and ban new medical schools.
On the contrary I have consistently advocated expanding medical schools, improving staff retention, and consider the BMA spineless government lackeys. The BMA incidentally has no say over licensing medical schools and their numbers. That is a role of the GMC, which is a government appointed quango.
As for reform, I have consistently advocated reform, and think my header on it a few years ago has aged rather well:
Given that their vote has become Government policy even to this day, surely it is the Government who are spineless BMA lackeys, not the other way around?
Thanks for your thread, which I read with interest. I am not sure I read it as a call for radical reform, but it was a very good forecast of the current issues.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
Few of Rishi's additional Maths students at ages 16-18 will be doing A-level Maths. They will be doing some sort of remedial "this is all the Maths you should have learnt in your last eleven years of school, but didn't the first time round" course, or, possibly worse, something called "Maths skills for the modern world".
If you don't already have GCSE grade 4 in maths (and/or) English, you can't do a full post-16 course unless you do some sort of retake.
The compulsion is pretty soul-destroying all round.
We could reintroduce imperial weights, measures, and currency. That would improve everybody's maths skills vastly.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
Few of Rishi's additional Maths students at ages 16-18 will be doing A-level Maths. They will be doing some sort of remedial "this is all the Maths you should have learnt in your last eleven years of school, but didn't the first time round" course, or, possibly worse, something called "Maths skills for the modern world".
If you don't already have GCSE grade 4 in maths (and/or) English, you can't do a full post-16 course unless you do some sort of retake.
The compulsion is pretty soul-destroying all round.
We could reintroduce imperial weights, measures, and currency. That would improve everybody's maths skills vastly.
It might have done, in the past, but now it would basically end up speeding up the demise of cash, as all the people who could just about cope with decimal cash, would give up and let the computers handle it all if faced with a more complicated system.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Are you saying that with a straight face?
Wasn't Lansley the last one to try anything?
It was crap. And had to be rowed back on. Why hasn't the simple obvious answer been pursued by the Tory Party? Because they are utterly unfit for government. Occam's razor.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
Few of Rishi's additional Maths students at ages 16-18 will be doing A-level Maths. They will be doing some sort of remedial "this is all the Maths you should have learnt in your last eleven years of school, but didn't the first time round" course, or, possibly worse, something called "Maths skills for the modern world".
If you don't already have GCSE grade 4 in maths (and/or) English, you can't do a full post-16 course unless you do some sort of retake.
The compulsion is pretty soul-destroying all round.
We could reintroduce imperial weights, measures, and currency. That would improve everybody's maths skills vastly.
It might have done, in the past, but now it would basically end up speeding up the demise of cash, as all the people who could just about cope with decimal cash, would give up and let the computers handle it all if faced with a more complicated system.
I know - and that would include me!
Also nobody would be able to teach it to kids. It is true however that previous generations were much better mathematicians in large part due to that system.
I haven't been paid this week. Apparently because the umbrella company has cash flow difficulties. That doesn't really help with my Council Tax bill due. Here's a suggestion. Why don't employers pay employees? Radical Socialist I know.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Are you saying that with a straight face?
Wasn't Lansley the last one to try anything?
No, since then CCGs have been merged and merged again, combined with Social Care into Health and Social Care boards. Public Health England has been heavily reorganised. For the last 3 years we have also had direct Command and Control directed centrally from the DoH, and Centralised procurement.
The number of GP practices have reduced massively to less than 5 000 and increased in size, with the biggest including several hundred doctors. Private companies can bid to provide GP services. Elective surgery has been opened up to the private sector in many straight forward areas. New Junior doctors contracts and rota systems have been imposed, and final salary pensions schemes closed to new entrants.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Are you saying that with a straight face?
Wasn't Lansley the last one to try anything?
No, since then CCGs have been merged and merged again, combined with Social Care into Health and Social Care boards. Public Health England has been heavily reorganised. For the last 3 years we have also had direct Command and Control directed centrally from the DoH, and Centralised procurement.
The number of GP practices have reduced massively to less than 5 000 and increased in size, with the biggest including several hundred doctors. Private companies can bid to provide GP services. Elective surgery has been opened up to the private sector in many straight forward areas. New Junior doctors contracts and rota systems have been imposed, and final salary pensions schemes closed to new entrants.
And that is just the last 10 years.
Don't forget you have also had to integrate 40 new hospitals into the system.
Seems the super duper way to get more and more to disengage with education. My ex-wife failed Maths CSE. She's now a University psychotherapy lecturer. She wouldn't be if she'd had to study Maths post 16.
You think that post says something about maths, whereas it actually says something about her or her university. You cannot understand any of the literature on psychotherapy if O level maths is beyond you.
I did Maths at Uni. My Dad did Maths at Uni. My daughter is doing Maths at Uni. I come from a Maths family.
If you haven't taught non-specialists enough Maths by age 16 another two years ain't going to do you any good. Where Maths teaching is going wrong is in primary school, where the one Maths whizz in every class makes everyone else feel like they are bad at Maths and they pretty much learn the lesson that it's not for them. Not helped by the fact that the one Maths whizz in the class is probably already better at Maths than their primary school teacher before the age of nine.
You have to isolate the Maths whizz from the rest of the class, so that the normal people can learn Maths just with other normal people, and the Maths whizz can learn that there's Maths that is hard enough to make them struggle before they reach the age of 18.
Another problem used to be that school maths (arithmetic plus equations plus geometry) used to be (perhaps still is?) a very different thing from university maths (theorems and proofs). I was good at school maths, so studied it at uni, and found to my dismay that I was entirely unprepared. I got a PhD in it in the end, but only by dogged persistence.
I think that an understanding of statistics - not a range of tests but simply understanding figures and spotting distortions and false assumptions - is genuine useful in everything from shopping to budgeting to reading LibDem barcharts. I'm not convinced that being able to solve quadratic equations does much for anyone unless they plan to do it professionally.
Seems the super duper way to get more and more to disengage with education. My ex-wife failed Maths CSE. She's now a University psychotherapy lecturer. She wouldn't be if she'd had to study Maths post 16.
You think that post says something about maths, whereas it actually says something about her or her university. You cannot understand any of the literature on psychotherapy if O level maths is beyond you.
I did Maths at Uni. My Dad did Maths at Uni. My daughter is doing Maths at Uni. I come from a Maths family.
If you haven't taught non-specialists enough Maths by age 16 another two years ain't going to do you any good. Where Maths teaching is going wrong is in primary school, where the one Maths whizz in every class makes everyone else feel like they are bad at Maths and they pretty much learn the lesson that it's not for them. Not helped by the fact that the one Maths whizz in the class is probably already better at Maths than their primary school teacher before the age of nine.
You have to isolate the Maths whizz from the rest of the class, so that the normal people can learn Maths just with other normal people, and the Maths whizz can learn that there's Maths that is hard enough to make them struggle before they reach the age of 18.
Another problem used to be that school maths (arithmetic plus equations plus geometry) used to be (perhaps still is?) a very different thing from university maths (theorems and proofs). I was good at school maths, so studied it at uni, and found to my dismay that I was entirely unprepared. I got a PhD in it in the end, but only by dogged persistence.
I think that an understanding of statistics - not a range of tests but simply understanding figures and spotting distortions and false assumptions - is genuine useful in everything from shopping to budgeting to reading LibDem barcharts. I'm not convinced that being able to solve quadratic equations does much for anyone unless they plan to do it professionally.
Thinking Fast and Slow should be required reading for all.
I haven't been paid this week. Apparently because the umbrella company has cash flow difficulties. That doesn't really help with my Council Tax bill due. Here's a suggestion. Why don't employers pay employees? Radical Socialist I know.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Are you saying that with a straight face?
Wasn't Lansley the last one to try anything?
It was crap. And had to be rowed back on. Why hasn't the simple obvious answer been pursued by the Tory Party? Because they are utterly unfit for government. Occam's razor.
Occams razor does not mean what you think it means.
I haven't been paid this week. Apparently because the umbrella company has cash flow difficulties. That doesn't really help with my Council Tax bill due. Here's a suggestion. Why don't employers pay employees? Radical Socialist I know.
Oh, that doesn't sound good. I hope it's all resolved well quickly.
The British people hate academic knowledge, except if it's about old things and buildings and that. This isn't France. Bad political call.
The French are more into philosophy and literature than Maths. It is the likes of Singapore and China and Japan he is trying to copy.
Though English, foreign languages and IT are equally as important to learn for today's workplace
Point is: if it were history or Shakespeare until 18, that would be the germ of a good idea politically. You can see Gove and Cummings trying that one. Maths and most other hard subjects are coded as being for ugly people and ethnic minorities.
Seems the super duper way to get more and more to disengage with education. My ex-wife failed Maths CSE. She's now a University psychotherapy lecturer. She wouldn't be if she'd had to study Maths post 16.
You think that post says something about maths, whereas it actually says something about her or her university. You cannot understand any of the literature on psychotherapy if O level maths is beyond you.
Thanks for your input. That helps.
Well sorry if it doesn't, but how can you usefully write about psychotherapy without reference to quantity? This works in this % of cases?
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Are you saying that with a straight face?
Wasn't Lansley the last one to try anything?
It was crap. And had to be rowed back on. Why hasn't the simple obvious answer been pursued by the Tory Party? Because they are utterly unfit for government. Occam's razor.
Occams razor does not mean what you think it means.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
Few of Rishi's additional Maths students at ages 16-18 will be doing A-level Maths. They will be doing some sort of remedial "this is all the Maths you should have learnt in your last eleven years of school, but didn't the first time round" course, or, possibly worse, something called "Maths skills for the modern world".
If you don't already have GCSE grade 4 in maths (and/or) English, you can't do a full post-16 course unless you do some sort of retake.
The compulsion is pretty soul-destroying all round.
We could reintroduce imperial weights, measures, and currency. That would improve everybody's maths skills vastly.
It might have done, in the past, but now it would basically end up speeding up the demise of cash, as all the people who could just about cope with decimal cash, would give up and let the computers handle it all if faced with a more complicated system.
I know - and that would include me!
Also nobody would be able to teach it to kids. It is true however that previous generations were much better mathematicians in large part due to that system.
Not really. I am just old enough to have done pocket money transactions in £sd and it really doesn't make much odds. Unless you have switched to a 10 hour day, you are making much the same non decimal calculations about time as we did about money.
The British people hate academic knowledge, except if it's about old things and buildings and that. This isn't France. Bad political call.
The French are more into philosophy and literature than Maths. It is the likes of Singapore and China and Japan he is trying to copy.
Though English, foreign languages and IT are equally as important to learn for today's workplace
Top culturing. Next you'll be saying them Frenchies love an onion and a stripey Breton shirt next.
Pascal, Fermat, Descartes, your boys took a hell of a beating.
Fourier, Poincare, Laplace...
Poisson, Galois, Condorcet - Condorcet! - to think that a poster to PB.com could be ignorant of the contribution of the Marquis de Condorcet to electoral mathematics. Sacré bleu!
Seems the super duper way to get more and more to disengage with education. My ex-wife failed Maths CSE. She's now a University psychotherapy lecturer. She wouldn't be if she'd had to study Maths post 16.
You think that post says something about maths, whereas it actually says something about her or her university. You cannot understand any of the literature on psychotherapy if O level maths is beyond you.
She's writing the literature on psychotherapy. It doesn't seem to be impeding her much.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
She’s stating, in a header on page one of a supposed broadsheet, that “anyone” could fix the NHS better than its managers.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
I am no fan of the Kwarteng budget, but given that it was never implemented, it can hardly be chalked up as a failure or a success of any approach.
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
Are you saying that with a straight face?
Wasn't Lansley the last one to try anything?
It was crap. And had to be rowed back on. Why hasn't the simple obvious answer been pursued by the Tory Party? Because they are utterly unfit for government. Occam's razor.
Occams razor does not mean what you think it means.
Oh but it does. What do you take it to mean?
That entities should not be posited, beyond what is necessary. Not seeing any superfluous entities here,
I did Maths at Uni. My Dad did Maths at Uni. My daughter is doing Maths at Uni. I come from a Maths family.
If you haven't taught non-specialists enough Maths by age 16 another two years ain't going to do you any good. Where Maths teaching is going wrong is in primary school, where the one Maths whizz in every class makes everyone else feel like they are bad at Maths and they pretty much learn the lesson that it's not for them. Not helped by the fact that the one Maths whizz in the class is probably already better at Maths than their primary school teacher before the age of nine.
You have to isolate the Maths whizz from the rest of the class, so that the normal people can learn Maths just with other normal people, and the Maths whizz can learn that there's Maths that is hard enough to make them struggle before they reach the age of 18.
Another problem used to be that school maths (arithmetic plus equations plus geometry) used to be (perhaps still is?) a very different thing from university maths (theorems and proofs). I was good at school maths, so studied it at uni, and found to my dismay that I was entirely unprepared. I got a PhD in it in the end, but only by dogged persistence.
I think that an understanding of statistics - not a range of tests but simply understanding figures and spotting distortions and false assumptions - is genuine useful in everything from shopping to budgeting to reading LibDem barcharts. I'm not convinced that being able to solve quadratic equations does much for anyone unless they plan to do it professionally.
Actually this is a rare good idea by Sunak. In my experience almost any student can get to a decent level of maths ability, with the right help.
Unfortunately there is no chance he will commit the money required to train and employ the large number of specialist maths teachers needed to significantly improve our students' maths skills.
Hmm, not sure that this maths until 18 drive is what the country needs right now. Feels more than a bit out of touch with reality.
And having don a level maths, I'm also not sure what people will get out of it. Surely we need to concentrate on ensuring all kids get a passing grade at GCSE level and raising GCSE standards so they aren't stupidly easy to pass.
Few of Rishi's additional Maths students at ages 16-18 will be doing A-level Maths. They will be doing some sort of remedial "this is all the Maths you should have learnt in your last eleven years of school, but didn't the first time round" course, or, possibly worse, something called "Maths skills for the modern world".
If you don't already have GCSE grade 4 in maths (and/or) English, you can't do a full post-16 course unless you do some sort of retake.
The compulsion is pretty soul-destroying all round.
We could reintroduce imperial weights, measures, and currency. That would improve everybody's maths skills vastly.
British Imperial or American Imperial? Or some mixture of the two?
Christ this show must be really shit if even the Guardian are saying the crowbarring of social justice political messaging into the storylines is too much...
The British people hate academic knowledge, except if it's about old things and buildings and that. This isn't France. Bad political call.
The French are more into philosophy and literature than Maths. It is the likes of Singapore and China and Japan he is trying to copy.
Though English, foreign languages and IT are equally as important to learn for today's workplace
Point is: if it were history or Shakespeare until 18, that would be the germ of a good idea politically. You can see Gove and Cummings trying that one. Maths and most other hard subjects are coded as being for ugly people and ethnic minorities.
Which is something that needs to change. The best maths I learned/practiced at university was how various supply and demand curves could change shape, position and intersection under different effects. It changed the way I interpreted things from being categorical to being gradients.
The British people hate academic knowledge, except if it's about old things and buildings and that. This isn't France. Bad political call.
The French are more into philosophy and literature than Maths. It is the likes of Singapore and China and Japan he is trying to copy.
Though English, foreign languages and IT are equally as important to learn for today's workplace
Top culturing. Next you'll be saying them Frenchies love an onion and a stripey Breton shirt next.
Pascal, Fermat, Descartes, your boys took a hell of a beating.
Fourier, Poincare, Laplace...
Not a lot of people know this, but Fourier was the inspiration for superman due to his fast transformation.
Not a lot of people know this, but the Fast Fourier Transform (crucial to so many modern applications) that was discovered by James Cooley and John Tukey in the 60s as part of a project to measure nuclear bomb testing by the Russians, was actually a rediscovery, Gauss had come up with the same idea around 1800, but binned it as not being very useful for what he wanted and only recorded in a minor publication after his death by somebody collating a record of all his ideas he didn't do anything with.
Seems the super duper way to get more and more to disengage with education. My ex-wife failed Maths CSE. She's now a University psychotherapy lecturer. She wouldn't be if she'd had to study Maths post 16.
You think that post says something about maths, whereas it actually says something about her or her university. You cannot understand any of the literature on psychotherapy if O level maths is beyond you.
She's writing the literature on psychotherapy. It doesn't seem to be impeding her much.
Literature without any falsifiability presumably, if she can't interpret statistical evidence on what works and what doesn't.
For a lot - a majority, probably - of people, maths is boring; at school it is an abstract chore, and frankly 90% of what’s taught to GCSE is irrelevant in the lives of 90% of people*.
But you could say the same, or similar, for many other subjects. So why not study music to age 18? Or art? Or D&T? Or biology?
There’s a weird and unnecessary fetishisation of maths as *the* gold standard subject. It’s important, of course. But not compulsory-to-age-18 important.
*Which, despite the Bilboesque phrasing is still not a negligible amount of relevance! But I learnt way more about statistics (easily one of the most useful everyday branches of maths) in my *archaeology* degree than I ever did pre-16 in my maths lessons.
For a lot - a majority, probably - of people, maths is boring; at school it is an abstract chore, and frankly 90% of what’s taught to GCSE is irrelevant in the lives of 90% of people*.
But you could say the same, or similar, for many other subjects. So why not study music to age 18? Or art? Or D&T? Or biology?
There’s a weird and unnecessary fetishisation of maths as *the* gold standard subject. It’s important, of course. But not compulsory-to-age-18 important.
*Which, despite the Bilboesque phrasing is still not a negligible amount of relevance! But I learnt way more about statistics (easily one of the most useful everyday branches of maths) in my *archaeology* degree than I ever did pre-16 in my maths lessons.
It would be better if they taught simple set theory to 10 year olds in my opinion. Far more interesting than the maths you actually learn at school. And not difficult to learn.
For a lot - a majority, probably - of people, maths is boring; at school it is an abstract chore, and frankly 90% of what’s taught to GCSE is irrelevant in the lives of 90% of people*.
But you could say the same, or similar, for many other subjects. So why not study music to age 18? Or art? Or D&T? Or biology?
There’s a weird and unnecessary fetishisation of maths as *the* gold standard subject. It’s important, of course. But not compulsory-to-age-18 important.
*Which, despite the Bilboesque phrasing is still not a negligible amount of relevance! But I learnt way more about statistics (easily one of the most useful everyday branches of maths) in my *archaeology* degree than I ever did pre-16 in my maths lessons.
Because maths teaches you to think in a logical, rigorous way. Biology does that somewhat, but is a lot more about memorization than chemistry or physics. Design and technology could be valuable. Art is a fluffy subject that is already oversubscribed.
The fact that GCSE maths has been watered down over the decades isn't good reason for not doing as much maths.
For a lot - a majority, probably - of people, maths is boring; at school it is an abstract chore, and frankly 90% of what’s taught to GCSE is irrelevant in the lives of 90% of people*.
But you could say the same, or similar, for many other subjects. So why not study music to age 18? Or art? Or D&T? Or biology?
There’s a weird and unnecessary fetishisation of maths as *the* gold standard subject. It’s important, of course. But not compulsory-to-age-18 important.
*Which, despite the Bilboesque phrasing is still not a negligible amount of relevance! But I learnt way more about statistics (easily one of the most useful everyday branches of maths) in my *archaeology* degree than I ever did pre-16 in my maths lessons.
Because maths teaches you to think in a logical, rigorous way. Biology does that somewhat, but is a lot more about memorization than chemistry or physics. Design and technology could be valuable. Art is a fluffy subject that is already oversubscribed.
The fact that GCSE maths has been watered down over the decades isn't good reason for not doing as much maths.
I think it's really important that they neglect teaching probability in schools. Otherwise, where would we get our edge?
"In recent days, I have heard the following stories from people whom I trust to tell the truth—and furthermore, with some documentary evidence in support. A distinguished professor with an international reputation has tried to obtain an appointment on her mother’s behalf with her general practitioner—or rather, with the group practice at which she is registered, since no particular doctor takes responsibility for her care. The mother was widowed not long ago, her husband having been for 40 years a general practitioner in the area; his patients loved him so much that, when he died, many attended his funeral, though he had retired 20 years earlier.
The mother, 82, had suffered a stroke, following another serious illness that had left residual effects. She now had a problem that needed a face-to-face consultation with a doctor to resolve, but the practice refused to grant an appointment until the patient first filled out an online form. The doctors would then review the form to decide whether the patient deserved an audience (a better term than “consultation,” in the circumstances).
In the modern world, not to use the Internet, as this old woman did not, is almost a criminal offense: at any rate, it deprives one de facto of many rights. At least she could have her daughter fill out the form for her, though it was so complex that it took more than half an hour to complete, and—by ukase of the practice—it could not be submitted during the weekend or outside of working hours, and only on the day it was filled out. The true purpose of the ukase, I surmise (though it came with the usual unctuous bureaucratic genuflections to efficiency and the best possible patient care), was to let the supplicant—again, a better term, in the circumstances, than “patient”—know just who was boss.
The form allowed for various choices in describing one’s medical problem. But such a net is of necessity coarse mesh and cannot catch all diagnostic fish. Not to worry: the electronic form issued instructions as to what to do if none of the choices covered the case in hand. The first step was to consult a pharmacist. The second was to go to the National Health Service Self-Help helpline. The third was to contact the medical practice to seek further advice on how to fill out the form. The seventh circle of hell was nothing, compared with this."
In short, the GLP is a busted flush, and it’s all downhill from now on. Jolyon will of course continue to use other people’s money to pursue his many grievances against the “vast swathes of civil society comprised of Potemkin ‘regulatory’ infrastructure whose true purpose is to tell a false tale of a functioning modern state”.
The charming Allison Pearson in the latest bout of howhardcanitbeism, I see. The affliction that led us to hold all the cards after Brexit.
You don't think it's legitimate to question why an organisation that employs getting on for as many people in the UK as Macdonald's employs worldwide, and whose funding has been ring-fenced since the horse-drawn cab, can't organise their fucking selves to increase bed capacity?
Since 2010 the NHS has steadily reduced acute bed capacity, by about 25%.
Who has been in government over that period?
So far as I can see, the Tories' only role where the NHS is concerned during their tenure has been to ask how much to make out the cheque for.
If you're saying that they should have taken the opportunity to reform the organisation beyond all recognition, I couldn't agree more, but that seems contrary to your previously stated views on the topic.
I would also be interested to know whether you support or condemn the BMA's 2008 vote to restrict the numbers of new doctors and ban new medical schools.
On the contrary I have consistently advocated expanding medical schools, improving staff retention, and consider the BMA spineless government lackeys. The BMA incidentally has no say over licensing medical schools and their numbers. That is a role of the GMC, which is a government appointed quango.
As for reform, I have consistently advocated reform, and think my header on it a few years ago has aged rather well:
Comments
I am working night and day to change that, and quickly.
In a speech tomorrow I will set out my priorities for the year ahead. https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1610403256844402698/photo/1
If it's fucking maths lessons and not solving the NHS crisis he's fucked...
The core problem in all of this is that there is a maximum amount that can be raised from taxation. Other developed countries therefore fund a big chunk of their healthcare with private contributions. But it's politically verboten to do that in the UK, so the exchequer has to cover all the health budget plus every other public cause and there's not enough money to go round.
She’s not asking a question. She’s making a supremely confident statement of fact about an entire profession based on zero knowledge. She’s a controversialist newspaper columnist doing what controversialist columnists do.
The worrying thing is that kind of simplistic how hard can it be approach to issues seems to have affected some of our lawmakers too. Hence the fingers crossed and touch wood approach to the Brexit negotiations among other things. Hence, indeed, the Kwarteng mini budget.
Most people are actually fine with the idea of the UK being a middling power. They may not wish to be subsumed, but that is a different matter even if people think it is a groundless fear.
Not only could I not help my youngest, but I couldn't even remember having done a lot of it.
Although there were a few silly people who thought the whole EU would collapse in response to Britain's exit, I don't think they thought this would be so that the UK could build a mini-EU out of the rubble. That diagram is exactly what Farage was aiming for.
If you're saying that they should have taken the opportunity to reform the organisation beyond all recognition, I couldn't agree more, but that seems contrary to your previously stated views on the topic.
I would also be interested to know whether you support or condemn the BMA's 2008 vote to restrict the numbers of new doctors and ban new medical schools.
It's almost as if reforms haven't worked, whether by Hunt, Lansley, Hewitt, Milburn or Ken Clarke.
You do need willpower to get through even very good ideas, you need effort even if your idea is good and has support, but if a solution sounds too easy to be correct, it probably is - it's possible, but rare, for it to be so simple.
They just don't care about people.
A lot of people are excluded from well-paid jobs by low levels of maths prowess. Medium term, more maths leads to more prosperity.
And it is a beautiful, creative way to look at the world. Any subject that not only has imaginary numbers but makes use of them is doing something right.
But it is a crass intervention on a day of omnicrisis in our key services. And we can barely staff the maths teaching that happens in schools right now.
And even if everyone studies maths to 18, not everyone is going to get a numerate job, no matter how profitable it would be. I don't like the "Tories are offering the public double maths" jibe, as if it's a bad thing. But Labour have a point.
A continuing issue with education is the general public assuming schools are as they were decades ago in their youth.
As for reform, I have consistently advocated reform, and think my header on it a few years ago has aged rather well:
https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2018/07/01/three-score-and-ten-has-the-nhs-reached-the-end-of-its-natural-life/
Hence: maths!
When I asked directly if he was sticking by McCarthy, who did not clinch the gavel today after three floor votes, Mr. Trump told me "we'll see what happens," and ended our conversation.
https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1610408754721218561
I also wouldn't call TMay and Spreadsheet Phil 'fingers crossed and touch wood' politicians, but it was their failure to prepare properly for a no deal scenario that resulted in the stillbirth of both May and Boris's negotiating positions.
I see Person's hyperbolic headline as crass, but rightly placing the responsibility for this crisis firmly back in the hands of the organisation that is presiding over it, instead of trying to pin the blame on successive Governments who have largely stayed out of NHS management and stuck to chucking money at it, or indeed to events like Brexit, when the facts state that EU employment within the NHS has grown since Brexit.
The compulsion is pretty soul-destroying all round.
Opening a string of Sure Start centres might help.
GCSE maths at grade 4 or above was 75% this year, equivalent to A to C in the old system. That is more than enough for most occupations. Can the other 25% be brought up to scratch by an additional 2 years?
My ex-wife failed Maths CSE.
She's now a University psychotherapy lecturer. She wouldn't be if she'd had to study Maths post 16.
Thanks for your thread, which I read with interest. I am not sure I read it as a call for radical reform, but it was a very good forecast of the current issues.
Can he manage to be so out of touch that the country realises that Truss was the better option in the contest last summer?
Folk realise their income and expenses just don't add up
Because they are utterly unfit for government.
Occam's razor.
Also nobody would be able to teach it to kids. It is true however that previous generations were much better mathematicians in large part due to that system.
That doesn't really help with my Council Tax bill due.
Here's a suggestion. Why don't employers pay employees?
Radical Socialist I know.
The number of GP practices have reduced massively to less than 5 000 and increased in size, with the biggest including several hundred doctors. Private companies can bid to provide GP services. Elective surgery has been opened up to the private sector in many straight forward areas. New Junior doctors contracts and rota systems have been imposed, and final salary pensions schemes closed to new entrants.
And that is just the last 10 years.
I think that an understanding of statistics - not a range of tests but simply understanding figures and spotting distortions and false assumptions - is genuine useful in everything from shopping to budgeting to reading LibDem barcharts. I'm not convinced that being able to solve quadratic equations does much for anyone unless they plan to do it professionally.
Though English, foreign languages and IT are equally as important to learn for today's workplace
Unfortunately there is no chance he will commit the money required to train and employ the large number of specialist maths teachers needed to significantly improve our students' maths skills.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/03/waterloo-road-review-a-lesson-in-how-not-to-revive-a-tv-show
But you could say the same, or similar, for many other subjects. So why not study music to age 18? Or art? Or D&T? Or biology?
There’s a weird and unnecessary fetishisation of maths as *the* gold standard subject. It’s important, of course. But not compulsory-to-age-18 important.
*Which, despite the Bilboesque phrasing is still not a negligible amount of relevance! But I learnt way more about statistics (easily one of the most useful everyday branches of maths) in my *archaeology* degree than I ever did pre-16 in my maths lessons.
The fact that GCSE maths has been watered down over the decades isn't good reason for not doing as much maths.
"In recent days, I have heard the following stories from people whom I trust to tell the truth—and furthermore, with some documentary evidence in support. A distinguished professor with an international reputation has tried to obtain an appointment on her mother’s behalf with her general practitioner—or rather, with the group practice at which she is registered, since no particular doctor takes responsibility for her care. The mother was widowed not long ago, her husband having been for 40 years a general practitioner in the area; his patients loved him so much that, when he died, many attended his funeral, though he had retired 20 years earlier.
The mother, 82, had suffered a stroke, following another serious illness that had left residual effects. She now had a problem that needed a face-to-face consultation with a doctor to resolve, but the practice refused to grant an appointment until the patient first filled out an online form. The doctors would then review the form to decide whether the patient deserved an audience (a better term than “consultation,” in the circumstances).
In the modern world, not to use the Internet, as this old woman did not, is almost a criminal offense: at any rate, it deprives one de facto of many rights. At least she could have her daughter fill out the form for her, though it was so complex that it took more than half an hour to complete, and—by ukase of the practice—it could not be submitted during the weekend or outside of working hours, and only on the day it was filled out. The true purpose of the ukase, I surmise (though it came with the usual unctuous bureaucratic genuflections to efficiency and the best possible patient care), was to let the supplicant—again, a better term, in the circumstances, than “patient”—know just who was boss.
The form allowed for various choices in describing one’s medical problem. But such a net is of necessity coarse mesh and cannot catch all diagnostic fish. Not to worry: the electronic form issued instructions as to what to do if none of the choices covered the case in hand. The first step was to consult a pharmacist. The second was to go to the National Health Service Self-Help helpline. The third was to contact the medical practice to seek further advice on how to fill out the form. The seventh circle of hell was nothing, compared with this."
The rest of the article can be read here:
https://www.city-journal.org/reign-of-the-administrators-britains-bureaucracy
https://labourpainsblog.com/2023/01/03/good-law-project-not-lookin-like-a-true-survivor/
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1610416059940495363