Trump still has some way to go to match Hoover though, who presided over the Dow losing almost 90% between 1929-32 - although to be fair, Hoover didn't personally kick things off in the say Trump has.
An interesting time for people’s S&S portfolios, I think, with new ISA year starting on Sunday as well! Where does this bottom out is the big q.
Lots of possible answers to this but in a political context, what separates a Six Nations Rugby match from an Arsenal home game or a Sabrina Carpenter concert?
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
Surely you can’t be seriously complaining about an Easter thing having a religious theme - sort of the whole point of Easter and the therefore the holiday.
I just find it a bit weird having religion at all in a school. I know it was a feature of my primary schooling in the 80s, but it seemed an incongruous going-through-the-motions-which-no-one-seriously-believed-in even then - mildly embarrassing for both staff and children*. I'd have thought we'd have moved beyond that by now. Leave religion to the religious and keep schools secular.
And there is such a large proportion of the school which is of a religion other than Christianity - it seems odd to get them to participate in an assembly setting out in however primary-schoolish a way the basic tenets of a religion of which they are not part.
*The more so, to our ten year-old-brains, when a substitute teacher came in who clearly believed all this - I remember her getting very agitated after a lack of attention to a prayer that we were begrudging God five minutes of our time, a complaint which drew as much blank incomprehension from the children as it did from the headteacher whom she needlessly drew into the whole palaver.
Against that, the C of E primary schools I'm familiar with which taught a Christian ethos - as opposed to faith - did so pretty effectively.
That's fair enough Nigel. And I don't mind the existence of CoE schools, and actually my understanding is where they have a monopoly - which is much of rural England - they don't exploit that by ramping up the religious aspect and the CoEness is kept pretty light touch. But I'd quite like the option to send my kids to a secular school, and they aren't really allowed to exist. They all still have this background religiosity. It baffles me, because my understanding is that we secularists are in the majority. But as I said to HYUFD, I'm close to one end of the spectrum of secularists in my discomfort with religion - most people care less than I do and many just want to see a primary school like their own primary school experience.
(I'm still, 40 years later, angry about the inadequacy of my own primary school - which was no more than averagely crappy by the standards of its day. I didn't have an unhappy time there, but even at aged 10 I could tell the teachers were no great brains, and I resented that. But few hold this specific grudge.)
Even now secularists aren't in the majority even here.
Yet only 37% of state primary schools are now faith schools, 63% secular and just 19% of state secondary schools in the UK are faith schools, 81% secular. So if anything we have too few religious and faith schools not too many
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
I'd just quite like religion not to be presented as fact. Singing a hymn, or praying, is to my mind implicitly presenting religion as fact. I have no real objection to kids learning about Christian stuff like the Easter story - but I'd like them to be given the context that many/most people don't believe it to be the literal truth.
The New York Times estimated last month that no state's workforce would be hit harder by tariffs than Wisconsin's, with the overwhelming majority of the impact falling on those who voted for Trump. https://x.com/DanRShafer/status/1907875521595142649
It's a shame the 2026 Senate map for the Democrats is such an uphill challenge. But the tariffs ought to guarantee a majority in the House.
And the Wisconsin state government should swing decisively to the Democrats.
Lots of possible answers to this but in a political context, what separates a Six Nations Rugby match from an Arsenal home game or a Sabrina Carpenter concert?
For the Arsenal home game is it Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, City of Westminster and Camden?
The New York Times estimated last month that no state's workforce would be hit harder by tariffs than Wisconsin's, with the overwhelming majority of the impact falling on those who voted for Trump. https://x.com/DanRShafer/status/1907875521595142649
It's a shame the 2026 Senate map for the Democrats is such an uphill challenge. But the tariffs ought to guarantee a majority in the House.
And the Wisconsin state government should swing decisively to the Democrats.
Given the number of emergencies Trump has already found, including for introduction of tariffs, there may well be emergencies that make elections impossible (according to the Emperor, at least).
this price point will likely change now that Trump has tariffed cotton imports.
If only there was a way of growing cotton in the US using very cheap labour...
Ouch.
I’ve discovered from discussions on social media, that Americans who believe that slavery was a kind of finishing school for Africans, are not outliers.
MAGA is the spiritual descendant of the Lost Cause mythos. It’s all built on lies. Trump voters have been led to believe a huge, alternative narrative: slavery was fine, leftists are undermining the country, tariffs will stop other countries stealing from the US, etc. What will it take to break through all that?
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
Religious parents also have to fund non faith state schools via their taxes
Yes, but the point of schools is (should be?) to educate. You can do that, including on religion, while offering both sides of an argument where there are contested facts.
This comes down, largely, I guess to our intertwining of church and state. If there's a state church then there is logic to state schools promoting that church. So perhaps it's that more fundamental fact that I should wish to change.
Ideally, there shouldn't be a state church but the extent to which it's been interwoven into law and the state over the centuries makes it difficult to unpick. That said, you could probably remove most of the main intersections fairly easily. Church schools would be one of them.
Lots of possible answers to this but in a political context, what separates a Six Nations Rugby match from an Arsenal home game or a Sabrina Carpenter concert?
Trump still has some way to go to match Hoover though, who presided over the Dow losing almost 90% between 1929-32 - although to be fair, Hoover didn't personally kick things off in the say Trump has.
There's no way he's gonna be beaten by a loser like Hoover.
this price point will likely change now that Trump has tariffed cotton imports.
If only there was a way of growing cotton in the US using very cheap labour...
Ouch.
I’ve discovered from discussions on social media, that Americans who believe that slavery was a kind of finishing school for Africans, are not outliers.
MAGA is the spiritual descendant of the Lost Cause mythos. It’s all built on lies. Trump voters have been led to believe a huge, alternative narrative: slavery was fine, leftists are undermining the country, tariffs will stop other countries stealing from the US, etc. What will it take to break through all that?
Probably, the only thing that really changes attitudes is a completely crushing military defeat, followed by seeing your political leaders tried and hanged as criminals. Otherwise, the defeated leaders get romanticised.
Had I been around in the 1940's, I'd probably have agreed with Churchill that about a thousand Nazi leaders should be summarily shot, and that would satisfy the need for vengeance. But, actually, the trials (however flawed) were very valuable.
Lots of possible answers to this but in a political context, what separates a Six Nations Rugby match from an Arsenal home game or a Sabrina Carpenter concert?
Alpine's Jack Doohan suffered a high-speed crash as Friday practice at the Japanese Grand Prix was punctuated by four red-flag stoppages.
The Australian was uninjured in the crash, which was caused because Doohan failed to shut the DRS overtaking aid, which meant the car had less grip than he expected as he entered the 160mph first corner.
Team principal Oliver Oakes said it had been a "misjudgement" and "something to learn from".
So far all the chat has been about tariffs, and the stock market. 1 and 4 aren't getting much attention yet.
The last 24hrs of the Trump admin:
1. Republicans announced they’re adding $5.8T to the deficit 2. Announcing largest tariffs since Smoot-Hawley & largest tax increase in generations 3. Trillions lost on the stock market 4. Now a conspiracy theorist is guiding national security https://x.com/Blake_Allen13/status/1907813692630061563
The firing of the NSC staffers hasn't been particularly widely analysed, but it seems to be the MAGAfication of the agency.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 1h It was one thing when Trump was seen to be targeting illegal migrants, benefit scroungers and the woke Left. Now he's targeting the wealth of corporate America. And corporate America isn't going to sit on its hands.
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
Religious parents also have to fund non faith state schools via their taxes
Yes, but the point of schools is (should be?) to educate. You can do that, including on religion, while offering both sides of an argument where there are contested facts.
This comes down, largely, I guess to our intertwining of church and state. If there's a state church then there is logic to state schools promoting that church. So perhaps it's that more fundamental fact that I should wish to change.
Ideally, there shouldn't be a state church but the extent to which it's been interwoven into law and the state over the centuries makes it difficult to unpick. That said, you could probably remove most of the main intersections fairly easily. Church schools would be one of them.
Ideals remove contexts. States and nations are the accumulations of history and contingency. Burke is a better guide than any ideal. Our own - speaking here of England - is one in which the history of religion saturates our landscape, language, culture, politics, attitudes to power and history. Christianity remains the largest identifiable organisation on our planet. Ethical monotheism much larger still. Both a liberal and tolerant state church and liberal and tolerant state schools fit into that history perfectly well, and as well or better than secularism however fashionable.
Trump still has some way to go to match Hoover though, who presided over the Dow losing almost 90% between 1929-32 - although to be fair, Hoover didn't personally kick things off in the say Trump has.
There's no way he's gonna be beaten by a loser like Hoover.
My thought on the polls - those with big Reform leads will be reflected in the local election results. The others reflect the broad national picture. Possibly!😀
My thought on the polls - those with big Reform leads will be reflected in the local election results. The others reflect the broad national picture. Possibly!😀
Broadly, I think that Electoral Calculus is correct, in its local election forecasts.
Lots of possible answers to this but in a political context, what separates a Six Nations Rugby match from an Arsenal home game or a Sabrina Carpenter concert?
Nation status if a suitable politico is attending it can be for that, not for pleasure. Watching England play rugby (or any of the home nations) as PM is a duty, watching Arsenal or going to Sabrina is pleasure.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
Religious parents also have to fund non faith state schools via their taxes
Yes, but the point of schools is (should be?) to educate. You can do that, including on religion, while offering both sides of an argument where there are contested facts.
This comes down, largely, I guess to our intertwining of church and state. If there's a state church then there is logic to state schools promoting that church. So perhaps it's that more fundamental fact that I should wish to change.
Ideally, there shouldn't be a state church but the extent to which it's been interwoven into law and the state over the centuries makes it difficult to unpick. That said, you could probably remove most of the main intersections fairly easily. Church schools would be one of them.
The process of unpicking the relationship has already been proven by disestablishment in Ireland and Wales - the political controversies surrounding them were centred on whether, not how they should be done.
All remaining tithes have long since been redeemed, so the repeating the process for England ought to be easier still!
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
Surely you can’t be seriously complaining about an Easter thing having a religious theme - sort of the whole point of Easter and the therefore the holiday.
I just find it a bit weird having religion at all in a school. I know it was a feature of my primary schooling in the 80s, but it seemed an incongruous going-through-the-motions-which-no-one-seriously-believed-in even then - mildly embarrassing for both staff and children*. I'd have thought we'd have moved beyond that by now. Leave religion to the religious and keep schools secular.
And there is such a large proportion of the school which is of a religion other than Christianity - it seems odd to get them to participate in an assembly setting out in however primary-schoolish a way the basic tenets of a religion of which they are not part.
*The more so, to our ten year-old-brains, when a substitute teacher came in who clearly believed all this - I remember her getting very agitated after a lack of attention to a prayer that we were begrudging God five minutes of our time, a complaint which drew as much blank incomprehension from the children as it did from the headteacher whom she needlessly drew into the whole palaver.
Against that, the C of E primary schools I'm familiar with which taught a Christian ethos - as opposed to faith - did so pretty effectively.
That's fair enough Nigel. And I don't mind the existence of CoE schools, and actually my understanding is where they have a monopoly - which is much of rural England - they don't exploit that by ramping up the religious aspect and the CoEness is kept pretty light touch. But I'd quite like the option to send my kids to a secular school, and they aren't really allowed to exist. They all still have this background religiosity. It baffles me, because my understanding is that we secularists are in the majority. But as I said to HYUFD, I'm close to one end of the spectrum of secularists in my discomfort with religion - most people care less than I do and many just want to see a primary school like their own primary school experience.
(I'm still, 40 years later, angry about the inadequacy of my own primary school - which was no more than averagely crappy by the standards of its day. I didn't have an unhappy time there, but even at aged 10 I could tell the teachers were no great brains, and I resented that. But few hold this specific grudge.)
Even now secularists aren't in the majority even here.
Yet only 37% of state primary schools are now faith schools, 63% secular and just 19% of state secondary schools in the UK are faith schools, 81% secular. So if anything we have too few religious and faith schools not too many
Well, of those 56%, I'd imagine a large number are nominally 'Christian' (or indeed Muslim or Jew) but for practical purposes secular. And my point is that for practical purposes there are almost no secular primary schools. My daughters' school nominally has no religion - like most in Trafford - but includes collective religious worship with hymns, prayers etc.
I honestly don't have a handle on how secular or not my daughters' nominally secular secondary schools are. I know one of them made a big fuss about Ramadan - there are a lot of Muslims at the school - but I expect that was largely the cultural rather than religious aspect.
An odd aspect of secondary education around here (this may or may not be widespread) is that there are a lot of Catholic secondary schools - which are not just nominally Catholic but take their religion pretty seriously (I remember the shock the first time as a youth I played rugby against one, and they had monks and pictures of Jesus and things, and the realisation of 'good grief, these people really BELIEVE'), but almost no C of E secondary schools. Odd that only one flavour of Christianity should be provided for. Equally odd is that in southern Greater Manchester, almost all the sixth form colleges are nominally Catholic (though in practice their Catholicism is very slight). If you want to do A Levels and your school does not have a sixth form - and many do not - you have a choice of Loreto (Hulme), Xaverian (Rusholme) or Aquinas (Stockport) sixth form colleges (together with a small number of more vocationally-oriented colleges).
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
Religious parents also have to fund non faith state schools via their taxes
And those of us without offspring have to shell out for the education of children in all state schools.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
That's not strictly true
He told voters that betraying allies would ensure their leadership position in the world.
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
Religious parents also have to fund non faith state schools via their taxes
Yes, but the point of schools is (should be?) to educate. You can do that, including on religion, while offering both sides of an argument where there are contested facts.
This comes down, largely, I guess to our intertwining of church and state. If there's a state church then there is logic to state schools promoting that church. So perhaps it's that more fundamental fact that I should wish to change.
Ideally, there shouldn't be a state church but the extent to which it's been interwoven into law and the state over the centuries makes it difficult to unpick. That said, you could probably remove most of the main intersections fairly easily. Church schools would be one of them.
I am not a parent but I find it curious that those who seem to be parents would like to remove an educational option that other parents go to such lengths to get their children into.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
If he was a Russian agent, what would he have done differently.........
FWIW I still think Trump acting this way simply because he is thick and believes a country can be run like a comedy crime syndicate is more likely than the Russian agent idea but still
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
Religious parents also have to fund non faith state schools via their taxes
And those of us without offspring have to shell out for the education of children in all state schools.
And those of us that paid for our children's education help to provide the tax payers of tomorrow to pay other people's pensions whilst also paying for other people's children through our taxes. On top of all that we are vilified by grifters like Rachel Expense Account Reeves, Angela Two Council House Sales Rayner, and Sir Kier Toolmakerson. But the three of them are hypocritical tw*ts so I don't care.
Sometimes, if you ever really need it, you get a reminder that the US is largely a crazily different country to us.
I was listening in the small hours to a world service programme about a teenager in Ohio who was shot twice at school and survived - all quite a remarkable story in itself how it played out.
What was more than eye-opening was the unbelievable religious fervour of the town and people involved.
Everything was “praying. The school nurse - a former combat medic - praying to Jesus whilst helping the boy. The boy, praying for the shooter, everyone praying non stop.
The ladies who had a prayer room above a shop apparently saved him by praying.
The whole town prevented the shotgun pellets from giving him infection in his heart and lungs by praying - forget the skilled doctors - praying.
If it had been a story from, say an Islamic country, we would likely mock and raise eyebrows but this was like something out of 1600s Salem or Cromwell’s England - everyone sodding praying and genuinely believing that everything worked out ok because they all prayed.
Loons. No wonder you get Trumpism when there is a huge swathe of the country who are so credulous and backwards.
Several times over the years I've seen examples from the US where there's been a fire but a bible or cross survives, this is seen as miraculous even where actual people have died in the fire.
More recently way too many people have said that God spared Trump's life in the assassination attempt, they don't seem to address the fact that God apparently didn't care too much for the fireman who was killed.
It's plainly nuts, and as you say if it was another religion we'd be considerably more condemnatory.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 1h It was one thing when Trump was seen to be targeting illegal migrants, benefit scroungers and the woke Left. Now he's targeting the wealth of corporate America. And corporate America isn't going to sit on its hands.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
If he was a Russian agent, what would he have done differently.........
FWIW I still think Trump acting this way simply because he is thick and believes a country can be run like a comedy crime syndicate is more likely than the Russian agent idea but still
I think he probably volunteered to be a Russian agent but was turned down. He has applied every year since, but each time they ask him to complete another task to prove he is worthy.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
If he was a Russian agent, what would he have done differently.........
FWIW I still think Trump acting this way simply because he is thick and believes a country can be run like a comedy crime syndicate is more likely than the Russian agent idea but still
Here is the basic problem - you can't negotiate with morons. The "tariff" which China imposes on the US is not a tariff. China cannot get the US tariff on China dropped by dropping its own tariff on the US because it doesn't exist as described.
Now that China has reciprocated I find it hard to believe that the EU and other leading economies will be able to hold back the need to do the same. It will be America against the world and in that there can only be one loser - America.
The challenge for the EU and other leading economies is that whilst they want free trade, they also want to restrain the potential flood of discounted goods from Asia which could utterly swamp their own economies.
This is why the notAmerica deal is viable. Either we end up with tariffs on everyone and a global economic depression, or notAmerica works out arrangements to trade freely enough to keep prices down, but not freely enough to swamp the smaller ones.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
If he was a Russian agent, what would he have done differently.........
FWIW I still think Trump acting this way simply because he is thick and believes a country can be run like a comedy crime syndicate is more likely than the Russian agent idea but still
You can be an asset and not an actual agent.
Exactly. Too many people think that when people talk about a connection to Russia that it implies Trump must have pledged fealty to Putin. It is more likely that he is manipulated — overtly (blackmail, threats, etc.) or more subtlety with flattery — it's even possible that he's effectively doubled and think's Putin is doing what he wants but it's really the other way around.
One thing is certain though, Trump is way too stupid to be allowed to negotiate with Putin without a lot of serious diplomats alongside him to keep him in check, the chances of him coming out ahead on his own are close to nil.
We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
If he was a Russian agent, what would he have done differently.........
FWIW I still think Trump acting this way simply because he is thick and believes a country can be run like a comedy crime syndicate is more likely than the Russian agent idea but still
Rep. Jeff Van Drew on the Dow being down another 900 points this morning: "You gotta give the administration a little bit of room here. A few months ... it's just the beginning."
For all the talk about the powerful pro-Trump media ecosystem, the share of Americans who have heard negative business news coverage of the government has exploded.
Evidently even the podcast bros can’t distract Americans from the realities of the stock market.
Lots of possible answers to this but in a political context, what separates a Six Nations Rugby match from an Arsenal home game or a Sabrina Carpenter concert?
For the Arsenal home game is it Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, City of Westminster and Camden?
As far as I can see, the answer is that Senior Ministers need their own corporate box for security reasons at football matches (Starmer) & pop concerts (Reeves), but not at the Rugby (Rayner). The DPM & her boyfriend appeared to be in with the civvies at Cardiff for Wales vs England.
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
Religious parents also have to fund non faith state schools via their taxes
Yes, but the point of schools is (should be?) to educate. You can do that, including on religion, while offering both sides of an argument where there are contested facts.
This comes down, largely, I guess to our intertwining of church and state. If there's a state church then there is logic to state schools promoting that church. So perhaps it's that more fundamental fact that I should wish to change.
Ideally, there shouldn't be a state church but the extent to which it's been interwoven into law and the state over the centuries makes it difficult to unpick. That said, you could probably remove most of the main intersections fairly easily. Church schools would be one of them.
Ideals remove contexts. States and nations are the accumulations of history and contingency. Burke is a better guide than any ideal. Our own - speaking here of England - is one in which the history of religion saturates our landscape, language, culture, politics, attitudes to power and history. Christianity remains the largest identifiable organisation on our planet. Ethical monotheism much larger still. Both a liberal and tolerant state church and liberal and tolerant state schools fit into that history perfectly well, and as well or better than secularism however fashionable.
Very interesting discussion. Looking at it from within school: my school (without giving so much away that it becomes obvious which school I work at) has an explicitly Christian ethos but a religiously diverse student body. We celebrate this, in part by very carefully navigating the 'sacred' moments in assemblies and services ("I am going to pray now, you can join me, convene with your own God and/or sit quietly and reflect.") To me this is a good balance that reinforces our cultural Christianity without excluding those of other faiths and atheists.
We are struggling a bit with behaviour at the moment, and one of the responses is to play up the Christianity a bit to attempt to create a more cohesive ethos. To my mind this is a basic error; given our student body, encouraging students to eg sing hymns together is more likely to exclude than include.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew on the Dow being down another 900 points this morning: "You gotta give the administration a little bit of room here. A few months ... it's just the beginning."
Breaking: Russell Brand has been charged with the following offences:
One count of rape One count of indecent assault One count of oral rape Two counts of sexual assault
Met says the charges relate to the following alleged incidents:
- 1999, woman raped in Bournemouth area - 2001, woman indecently assaulted in Westminster, London - 2004, woman orally raped and sexually assaulted in Westminster - 2004-5, woman sexually assaulted in Westminster
Still waiting for a 3-way tie. Have we ever had one in the past?
I seem to remember one during the 2010 election campaign.
No, Labour always lagged in that campaign.
As far as I'm aware, there's only ever been a single three-way tie: an ICM on 24-26 Sept 2003, which had Con / Lab / LD all on 31%.
In 2019 You Gov had a tie between Labour & Tory on May 17th, then one between Brexit Party and the Lib Dems on June 1st. They were on behalf of different clients, but should that make a difference?
Breaking: Russell Brand has been charged with the following offences:
One count of rape One count of indecent assault One count of oral rape Two counts of sexual assault
Met says the charges relate to the following alleged incidents:
- 1999, woman raped in Bournemouth area - 2001, woman indecently assaulted in Westminster, London - 2004, woman orally raped and sexually assaulted in Westminster - 2004-5, woman sexually assaulted in Westminster
Trump only has the power to introduce these tariffs because the Hose Speaker has played various games to count the whole session as one day. There are still moves afoot for the powers to be removed from him. A defining moment...
Breaking: Russell Brand has been charged with the following offences:
One count of rape One count of indecent assault One count of oral rape Two counts of sexual assault
Met says the charges relate to the following alleged incidents:
- 1999, woman raped in Bournemouth area - 2001, woman indecently assaulted in Westminster, London - 2004, woman orally raped and sexually assaulted in Westminster - 2004-5, woman sexually assaulted in Westminster
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading Chuck Schumer by double digits in a new head-to-head poll of the 2028 New York primary. The survey by the liberal firm Data for Progress, first shared with POLITICO, found that 55 percent of Democratic likely voters said they supported or leaned toward supporting Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), while 36 percent backed or leaned toward backing Sen. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Nine percent were undecided.
Breaking: Russell Brand has been charged with the following offences:
One count of rape One count of indecent assault One count of oral rape Two counts of sexual assault
Met says the charges relate to the following alleged incidents:
- 1999, woman raped in Bournemouth area - 2001, woman indecently assaulted in Westminster, London - 2004, woman orally raped and sexually assaulted in Westminster - 2004-5, woman sexually assaulted in Westminster
Sometimes, if you ever really need it, you get a reminder that the US is largely a crazily different country to us.
I was listening in the small hours to a world service programme about a teenager in Ohio who was shot twice at school and survived - all quite a remarkable story in itself how it played out.
What was more than eye-opening was the unbelievable religious fervour of the town and people involved.
Everything was “praying. The school nurse - a former combat medic - praying to Jesus whilst helping the boy. The boy, praying for the shooter, everyone praying non stop.
The ladies who had a prayer room above a shop apparently saved him by praying.
The whole town prevented the shotgun pellets from giving him infection in his heart and lungs by praying - forget the skilled doctors - praying.
If it had been a story from, say an Islamic country, we would likely mock and raise eyebrows but this was like something out of 1600s Salem or Cromwell’s England - everyone sodding praying and genuinely believing that everything worked out ok because they all prayed.
Loons. No wonder you get Trumpism when there is a huge swathe of the country who are so credulous and backwards.
Several times over the years I've seen examples from the US where there's been a fire but a bible or cross survives, this is seen as miraculous even where actual people have died in the fire.
More recently way too many people have said that God spared Trump's life in the assassination attempt, they don't seem to address the fact that God apparently didn't care too much for the fireman who was killed.
It's plainly nuts, and as you say if it was another religion we'd be considerably more condemnatory.
No it is not nuts, genuine Christians believe Jesus can save. The fact you wish to condemn such beliefs says so much about the uber liberal secular cancel culture of faith we have had in recent years in the UK
Off thread - I've just been to my youngest's Easter assembly. I will favour you all with a few thoughts:
Again, a religious theme for Easter. I am mildly uncomfortable with this: I would imagine the large proportion of the school with a non-Christian heritage (I've mentioned before: from about 2% English-as-a-foreign-language 5 or 6 years ago, we are now at about 40%, with the bulk being Asian - along with of course a lot of Asians born here who speak English perfectly well but do not have a Christian heritage) are also rather uncomfortable with it. It's not like the Christmas story - which is part of our culture almost aside from the religious element - it's the actual stating-that-Jesus-came-back-to-life bit. Feels a bit uncomfortable getting Muslims and Hindus doing that. Also, it's rather harder to deliver the Easter story than the Christmas story in a primary school setting: a birth in difficult circumstances is believable and relatable; a man getting tortured to death is not relatable and a man coming back from the dead is not believable. Anyway, it was - because this is how primary school assemblies go - a retelling of the Christian Easter story, from the point of view of the trees which provided the wood for the manger, a fishing boat, and the cross, together with some twee and unnecessarily drawn out songs and one surprisingly jaunty and enjoyable one. Of its sort, it was actually quite good, though unfortunately the child who delivered the moral at the end delivered it so quietly that it was lost (possibly that we can all overcome disappointments and succeed in our dreams despite setbacks?). Happy to report my rather unfocused daughter delivered her couple of lines as Mary quite capably, before, unfortunately, going to sit behind the fat girl* behind whom she was lost from sight thereafter. Though enjoyably, for a primary school performance, the star of the show was tree #2, who with a few words and actions and a confident manner managed to be the centre of attention and managed somehow to knowingly catch the eye of everyone in the audience.
So: uncomfortably religious, not really primary-school=appropriate, trite, some tedious songs with too many choruses - and yet from the efforts of kids and staff, actually rather charming. Realised with a jolt coming out that there's only a couple of these left, and the long kids-at-primary-school stage of my life, which has lasted almost a quarter of a lifetime, is - well the end of it is almost in sight. Feeling a little wistful about that.
*the fat girl has all the hallmarks of one in my day who would have been socially shunned. I'm happy to report that this is not the case and she is as included in whatever it is 10 year old girls do as the rest of them and that they judge her purely by her personality. Also happy to report that she is surprisingly brilliant on stage. I hope this keeps up for her at secondary school.
So I assume you would also ban Ramadan, Eid, Hannukah and Diwali themed assemblies too in non faith state schools?
Yes, I would. I am at least equally uncomfortable with these. (Well, 'ban' is a strong word. I don't know how I'd enforce it. But still.) I think religion is a perfectly reasonable pasttime for those who choose it. I also think it's a reasonably subject of study for those who choose it - my daughters at senior school both did RS in years 7-9, and it is taught a lot more interestingly than it was in my day - it is more like philosophy, whereas ours was just checkbox learning of 'this is what Jews do on a Saturday'. But I don't think it's something we should be presenting as truth or celebrating. The sectionalisation of our society isn't really anything to celebrate.
Some logic there but you won't win many votes by banning Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hannukah celebrations in non faith schools
Maybe not. I suspect I am close to one end of the spectrum with my uncomfortablity with religion. I'm not furiously opposed to religion in its place, but I don't want it creeping into my place!
I share some of your discomfort. My children go to a CofE school due to few options locally; against stereotypes of CofE, there's quite a lot of religion, taught as fact. Goes with the territory (church school) but I'm not best pleased that my taxes fund this indoctrination in state schools, specifically my children's! They do also cover and celebrate/mark at least Eid and Diwali etc and they learn about other religions (I'd be fascinated to see how this is done "Muslims believe... And they're WRONG!"? ). I'm in favour of schools teaching religion - as in what the major faiths and their beliefs and histories are - it encourages tolerance and understanding of others and an understanding of the world and history, but I'd like there to be the space in such teaching for acknowledgement that these are not uncontested truths.
Religious parents also have to fund non faith state schools via their taxes
Yes, but the point of schools is (should be?) to educate. You can do that, including on religion, while offering both sides of an argument where there are contested facts.
This comes down, largely, I guess to our intertwining of church and state. If there's a state church then there is logic to state schools promoting that church. So perhaps it's that more fundamental fact that I should wish to change.
Ideally, there shouldn't be a state church but the extent to which it's been interwoven into law and the state over the centuries makes it difficult to unpick. That said, you could probably remove most of the main intersections fairly easily. Church schools would be one of them.
Ideals remove contexts. States and nations are the accumulations of history and contingency. Burke is a better guide than any ideal. Our own - speaking here of England - is one in which the history of religion saturates our landscape, language, culture, politics, attitudes to power and history. Christianity remains the largest identifiable organisation on our planet. Ethical monotheism much larger still. Both a liberal and tolerant state church and liberal and tolerant state schools fit into that history perfectly well, and as well or better than secularism however fashionable.
Very interesting discussion. Looking at it from within school: my school (without giving so much away that it becomes obvious which school I work at) has an explicitly Christian ethos but a religiously diverse student body. We celebrate this, in part by very carefully navigating the 'sacred' moments in assemblies and services ("I am going to pray now, you can join me, convene with your own God and/or sit quietly and reflect.") To me this is a good balance that reinforces our cultural Christianity without excluding those of other faiths and atheists.
We are struggling a bit with behaviour at the moment, and one of the responses is to play up the Christianity a bit to attempt to create a more cohesive ethos. To my mind this is a basic error; given our student body, encouraging students to eg sing hymns together is more likely to exclude than include.
Perhaps a focus on the old "If you sin you will face eternal damnation" angle might get the buggers to behave?
(((Dan Hodges))) '@DPJHodges · 1h It was one thing when Trump was seen to be targeting illegal migrants, benefit scroungers and the woke Left. Now he's targeting the wealth of corporate America. And corporate America isn't going to sit on its hands.'
Trump wasn't elected by corporate America, he was elected by white working class voters in the rustbelt mainly who hate globalisation and what their manufacturing jobs back
Still waiting for a 3-way tie. Have we ever had one in the past?
I seem to remember one during the 2010 election campaign.
No, Labour always lagged in that campaign.
As far as I'm aware, there's only ever been a single three-way tie: an ICM on 24-26 Sept 2003, which had Con / Lab / LD all on 31%.
In 2019 You Gov had a tie between Labour & Tory on May 17th, then one between Brexit Party and the Lib Dems on June 1st. They were on behalf of different clients, but should that make a difference?
Rep. Jeff Van Drew on the Dow being down another 900 points this morning: "You gotta give the administration a little bit of room here. A few months ... it's just the beginning."
So what happens next? Does Trump plough on in the face of disastrous economic news, as Erdoğan did for years? Or does he U-turn while pretending he hasn't ("We've shown the world who's boss and now we have much better deals")? I'll guess the latter, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Burning the house to cook steak. 🥩 The amazing thing is that he thinks it is a win & so is his base.
Golfing now to enjoy his win of crashing equities to boost bonds or to lower bond yields.
Of course they buy this narrative. They don’t own anything. So you can’t lose if you don’t own anything or have anything of meaning to protect. Better to burn it all down so everyone is equally disillusioned.
Wait a minute. Stalin did it. Make Russia Great Again.
Sometimes, if you ever really need it, you get a reminder that the US is largely a crazily different country to us.
I was listening in the small hours to a world service programme about a teenager in Ohio who was shot twice at school and survived - all quite a remarkable story in itself how it played out.
What was more than eye-opening was the unbelievable religious fervour of the town and people involved.
Everything was “praying. The school nurse - a former combat medic - praying to Jesus whilst helping the boy. The boy, praying for the shooter, everyone praying non stop.
The ladies who had a prayer room above a shop apparently saved him by praying.
The whole town prevented the shotgun pellets from giving him infection in his heart and lungs by praying - forget the skilled doctors - praying.
If it had been a story from, say an Islamic country, we would likely mock and raise eyebrows but this was like something out of 1600s Salem or Cromwell’s England - everyone sodding praying and genuinely believing that everything worked out ok because they all prayed.
Loons. No wonder you get Trumpism when there is a huge swathe of the country who are so credulous and backwards.
Several times over the years I've seen examples from the US where there's been a fire but a bible or cross survives, this is seen as miraculous even where actual people have died in the fire.
More recently way too many people have said that God spared Trump's life in the assassination attempt, they don't seem to address the fact that God apparently didn't care too much for the fireman who was killed.
It's plainly nuts, and as you say if it was another religion we'd be considerably more condemnatory.
No it is not nuts, genuine Christians believe Jesus can save. The fact you wish to condemn such beliefs says so much about the uber liberal secular cancel culture of faith we have had in recent years in the UK
Is the uber liberal secular cancel culture of faith when you can use an app to deliver an atheist to your door by taxi?
Comments
https://x.com/DanRShafer/status/1907875521595142649
It's a shame the 2026 Senate map for the Democrats is such an uphill challenge.
But the tariffs ought to guarantee a majority in the House.
And the Wisconsin state government should swing decisively to the Democrats.
Trump can do 95%. I just know he has it in him.
Had I been around in the 1940's, I'd probably have agreed with Churchill that about a thousand Nazi leaders should be summarily shot, and that would satisfy the need for vengeance. But, actually, the trials (however flawed) were very valuable.
Alpine's Jack Doohan suffered a high-speed crash as Friday practice at the Japanese Grand Prix was punctuated by four red-flag stoppages.
The Australian was uninjured in the crash, which was caused because Doohan failed to shut the DRS overtaking aid, which meant the car had less grip than he expected as he entered the 160mph first corner.
Team principal Oliver Oakes said it had been a "misjudgement" and "something to learn from".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/cj0zrre33evo
1 and 4 aren't getting much attention yet.
The last 24hrs of the Trump admin:
1. Republicans announced they’re adding $5.8T to the deficit
2. Announcing largest tariffs since Smoot-Hawley & largest tax increase in generations
3. Trillions lost on the stock market
4. Now a conspiracy theorist is guiding national security
https://x.com/Blake_Allen13/status/1907813692630061563
The firing of the NSC staffers hasn't been particularly widely analysed, but it seems to be the MAGAfication of the agency.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
·
1h
It was one thing when Trump was seen to be targeting illegal migrants, benefit scroungers and the woke Left. Now he's targeting the wealth of corporate America. And corporate America isn't going to sit on its hands.
https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/1908107169972560293
Kind of.
He did this with the enthusiastic support of the entire Republican party and conservative movement.
He did it with the support of a plurality of American voters.
He did not hide his intentions. He campaigned on them. He made them the central thrust of his election. He told Americans that he would betray our allies and give up our leadership position in the world.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-american-age-is-over
All remaining tithes have long since been redeemed, so the repeating the process for England ought to be easier still!
By comparison, UKIP never controlled more than one authority (Planet Thanet), which was second-tier.
And my point is that for practical purposes there are almost no secular primary schools. My daughters' school nominally has no religion - like most in Trafford - but includes collective religious worship with hymns, prayers etc.
I honestly don't have a handle on how secular or not my daughters' nominally secular secondary schools are. I know one of them made a big fuss about Ramadan - there are a lot of Muslims at the school - but I expect that was largely the cultural rather than religious aspect.
An odd aspect of secondary education around here (this may or may not be widespread) is that there are a lot of Catholic secondary schools - which are not just nominally Catholic but take their religion pretty seriously (I remember the shock the first time as a youth I played rugby against one, and they had monks and pictures of Jesus and things, and the realisation of 'good grief, these people really BELIEVE'), but almost no C of E secondary schools. Odd that only one flavour of Christianity should be provided for.
Equally odd is that in southern Greater Manchester, almost all the sixth form colleges are nominally Catholic (though in practice their Catholicism is very slight). If you want to do A Levels and your school does not have a sixth form - and many do not - you have a choice of Loreto (Hulme), Xaverian (Rusholme) or Aquinas (Stockport) sixth form colleges (together with a small number of more vocationally-oriented colleges).
He told voters that betraying allies would ensure their leadership position in the world.
https://x.com/jasonfurman/status/1908129683096355308
With a large side order of stock market volatility.
Good afternoon, everybody.
*BRACE*
FWIW I still think Trump acting this way simply because he is thick and believes a country can be run like a comedy crime syndicate is more likely than the Russian agent idea but still
More recently way too many people have said that God spared Trump's life in the assassination attempt, they don't seem to address the fact that God apparently didn't care too much for the fireman who was killed.
It's plainly nuts, and as you say if it was another religion we'd be considerably more condemnatory.
@GoodwinMJ
WOW. Huge lead for Reform
Reform 28%
Labour 22%
Tories 20%
Source: FindOutNow"
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1908094173044982229
Now that China has reciprocated I find it hard to believe that the EU and other leading economies will be able to hold back the need to do the same. It will be America against the world and in that there can only be one loser - America.
The challenge for the EU and other leading economies is that whilst they want free trade, they also want to restrain the potential flood of discounted goods from Asia which could utterly swamp their own economies.
This is why the notAmerica deal is viable. Either we end up with tariffs on everyone and a global economic depression, or notAmerica works out arrangements to trade freely enough to keep prices down, but not freely enough to swamp the smaller ones.
An economic OPEC if you like...
One thing is certain though, Trump is way too stupid to be allowed to negotiate with Putin without a lot of serious diplomats alongside him to keep him in check, the chances of him coming out ahead on his own are close to nil.
As far as I'm aware, there's only ever been a single three-way tie: an ICM on 24-26 Sept 2003, which had Con / Lab / LD all on 31%.
as Fox Business pleads with Trump to back off his self-destructive tariffs, Trump posts that "MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE"
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3llyh7gopf22k
LOL.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew on the Dow being down another 900 points this morning: "You gotta give the administration a little bit of room here. A few months ... it's just the beginning."
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3llyhmy3kig22
OK, let's see what the American public think of that...
@jburnmurdoch.ft.com
A quick thread of charts showing how Trump’s economic agenda is going so far:
1) US consumers are reacting very very negatively.
These are the worst ratings for any US government’s economic policy since records began.
https://bsky.app/profile/jburnmurdoch.ft.com/post/3llyhgaecsc2b
8) And this one is important.
For all the talk about the powerful pro-Trump media ecosystem, the share of Americans who have heard negative business news coverage of the government has exploded.
Evidently even the podcast bros can’t distract Americans from the realities of the stock market.
https://bsky.app/profile/jburnmurdoch.ft.com/post/3llyhgfjxlc2b
We are struggling a bit with behaviour at the moment, and one of the responses is to play up the Christianity a bit to attempt to create a more cohesive ethos. To my mind this is a basic error; given our student body, encouraging students to eg sing hymns together is more likely to exclude than include.
Ref 24.4
Lab 24.3
Con 23.1
Next logical polling step, Reform getting a lead that does not rely on the FON/Goodwin contribution.
I got it from an Albania cab driver.
Breaking: Russell Brand has been charged with the following offences:
One count of rape
One count of indecent assault
One count of oral rape
Two counts of sexual assault
Met says the charges relate to the following alleged incidents:
- 1999, woman raped in Bournemouth area
- 2001, woman indecently assaulted in Westminster, London
- 2004, woman orally raped and sexually assaulted in Westminster
- 2004-5, woman sexually assaulted in Westminster
https://x.com/lizziedearden/status/1908143027802996871
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2019_United_Kingdom_general_election
4) Well over half of Americans expect the economy to deteriorate over the next year, again the highest figure ever recorded.
https://bsky.app/profile/jburnmurdoch.ft.com/post/3llyhgcrki22b
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading Chuck Schumer by double digits in a new head-to-head poll of the 2028 New York primary.
The survey by the liberal firm Data for Progress, first shared with POLITICO, found that 55 percent of Democratic likely voters said they supported or leaned toward supporting Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), while 36 percent backed or leaned toward backing Sen. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Nine percent were undecided.
https://x.com/KFILE/status/1908120098172248511
When he's lost the Devon vote...
We're doomed. The sooner the AI Robot war exterminates humanity, the better.
The war already started...
One term PM who loses his massive majority to Farage? Lucky? Hmm....
(((Dan Hodges)))
'@DPJHodges
·
1h
It was one thing when Trump was seen to be targeting illegal migrants, benefit scroungers and the woke Left. Now he's targeting the wealth of corporate America. And corporate America isn't going to sit on its hands.'
https://x.com/DPJHodges/status/1908107169972560293
Trump wasn't elected by corporate America, he was elected by white working class voters in the rustbelt mainly who hate globalisation and what their manufacturing jobs back
Your 401k just became a 201k. And the fucking moron who did that to you is golfing the rest of the weekend in Miami. Let that sink in.
https://x.com/RepSwalwell/status/1907960318778638479
The polls being on behalf of different clients shouldn't have made a difference though.
Are Americans about to stop eating ice cream?
@lancelachlan
MAGA farmers are furious over China’s new 34% tariffs - some say they could go bankrupt as their exports are no longer competitive.
https://x.com/lancelachlan/status/1908143281612918993
https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1908143516233998760
@Trinhnomics
Burning the house to cook steak. 🥩 The amazing thing is that he thinks it is a win & so is his base.
Golfing now to enjoy his win of crashing equities to boost bonds or to lower bond yields.
Of course they buy this narrative. They don’t own anything. So you can’t lose if you don’t own anything or have anything of meaning to protect. Better to burn it all down so everyone is equally disillusioned.
Wait a minute. Stalin did it. Make Russia Great Again.
https://x.com/Trinhnomics/status/1908150665928753546