Labour's Current Shadow Cabinet going by WIki entries. Family background generally derived from parental occupation or school listed on Wiki. Feel free to correct any errors and/or fill in the Unknowns. (ignoring the Peers in cabinet)
H
So out of 25 Labour MPs in their cabinet, at least 15 are from well off backgrounds, 5 uncertain and 5 Working Class (although I'm not convinced about the Eagle twins, in fact any of them other than Murray are open to question).
Of the 25, there are 10 from posh London/Home Counties backgrounds of which 6 are parachuted into Northern Seats, one into a safe Midlands Seat and one into a safe Welsh Seat albeit he was born in Wales but brought up in the Home Counties.
This does not look like the profile you would excpect of a Labour Party.
Liz Kendalls mum was a school teacher, her dad left school at 16, before working for the Bank of England and taking occupational qualifications. She went to a non selective school .
Andy Burnham's father was a telephone engineer and his mum a receptionist, he went to a Catholic Comprehensive.
Etc etc
Only in La- La land of the SNP are those "posh backgrounds". Perhaps having a job at all makes you posh in Dairs world...
My mum was a school teacher; my father left school at 17 with only a couple of O levels.
What conclusions would you like to draw about me?
Did you go to a non selective state school?
There is a world of difference between being brought up on an Estate and being brought up on an estate!
A non-academically selective foundation school
Social class is an interesting cocktail. School and Parents being important, and of course money. To a certain extent it is also self assessed.
I come from solid middle class stock on both sides. The shadow cabinet in large part do too, as indeed do most of the Conservative bench.
Dair's conception that these are "posh" backgrounds is rather perverse, unless you consider the UK to be majority posh. It is rather curious that the MP that the SNP have chosen as their target is the oldest and most working class Labour MP. It shows their character.
The definition of poshness is simple. It's nothing to do with background or education: it's whether you hold, or attend, four or more dinner parties a month. Soiree's earn double points.
;-)
Oh dear! It seems that I am in the relegation zone.
Though I am going to the WI BBQ tonight. Does that count as posh?
It only shows that you're so desperate to be posh that you'd attend anything. ;-)
6 over n multiplied by 5 over n-1 = 30 over n2 - n [which must also be 90 because 30/90 is a third, the chance of two orange sweets in a row]. Therefore n2 - n - 90 = 0?
I do have a Maths A-level [which a mildly comical grade]. I've said before that Maths was massively variable as a A-level. Decision, which I never did, was reportedly super easy. Statistics was ok and had lots of formulae included with the exams. Mechanics was similar to A-level physics, and Pure was trickiest of all. Six modules were put together for an A-level, when I did it (one Stats, two Mechanics and three Pure, I think).
Edited extra bit: with* not which.
Math was fine till the 2nd year of my degree at which point I found it somewhat tricky. Quantum mechanics was rough.
I enjoy a challenge Though and doing maths seemed like one after my year 9 teacher thought I wasn't any good!
Labour's Current Shadow Cabinet going by WIki entries. Family background generally derived from parental occupation or school listed on Wiki. Feel free to correct any errors and/or fill in the Unknowns. (ignoring the Peers in cabinet)
H
So out of 25 Labour MPs in their cabinet, at least 15 are from well off backgrounds, 5 uncertain and 5 Working Class (although I'm not convinced about the Eagle twins, in fact any of them other than Murray are open to question).
Of the 25, there are 10 from posh London/Home Counties backgrounds of which 6 are parachuted into Northern Seats, one into a safe Midlands Seat and one into a safe Welsh Seat albeit he was born in Wales but brought up in the Home Counties.
This does not look like the profile you would excpect of a Labour Party.
Liz Kendalls mum was a school teacher, her dad left school at 16, before working for the Bank of England and taking occupational qualifications. She went to a non selective school .
Andy Burnham's father was a telephone engineer and his mum a receptionist, he went to a Catholic Comprehensive.
Etc etc
Only in La- La land of the SNP are those "posh backgrounds". Perhaps having a job at all makes you posh in Dairs world...
My mum was a school teacher; my father left school at 17 with only a couple of O levels.
What conclusions would you like to draw about me?
Did you go to a non selective state school?
There is a world of difference between being brought up on an Estate and being brought up on an estate!
A non-academically selective foundation school
Social class is an interesting cocktail. School and Parents being important, and of course money. To a certain extent it is also self assessed.
I come from solid middle class stock on both sides. The shadow cabinet in large part do too, as indeed do most of the Conservative bench.
Dair's conception that these are "posh" backgrounds is rather perverse, unless you consider the UK to be majority posh. It is rather curious that the MP that the SNP have chosen as their target is the oldest and most working class Labour MP. It shows their character.
snip
;-)
Funny thing with dinner parties - people have them at tea time rather than dinner time.
Funny thing with dinner parties - people have them at tea time rather than dinner time.
I've got a book about Regency England that goes into the way lunch time (or luncheon) dinner time, supper and tea time have all evolved and changed places. Some of the change was due to increased artificial lighting.
For what it is worth as a fairly recent convert to the SNP and as someone who has been cautious about another early referendum there now must be one in the manifesto next year and held as quickly as possible.
Reasons can be summed up it two signs 1) Osborne and austerity 2) attitude of contributors to this site. It is time to part hopefully as friends but part none the less.
You should have a referendum because of PB Tories? Are you having a laugh? LOL
But, but, but PB Tories are wise & representative & farseeing & influential & have their hands firmly round the throat of the zeitgeist. Or so you keep telling each other.
Funny thing is though, if you're casting back for a good prediction of the 2015 GE, then the PB Tories were pretty much bang on, when everyone else (including me, you, and all the pollsters) was completely wrong.
Indeed the more rightwing and partisan the PB Tory (e.g. audreyanne, widow of this parish) the more likely it is that they called the GE correctly.
We have to accept the bizarre fact that the PB Tories might just have a collective wisdom about English politics equivalent to the Nats understanding of Scotland.
Was Audreyanne a particularly right wing Tory? She was a Cameroonian pom pom girl as I remember it.
She was spot on on the Tories wiping out the LDs in the SouthWest. She was widely mocked for predicting 20+ gains.
While Labour stood still against the Tories in England and Wales despite a campaign of extraordinary ineptitude. Even an average campaign by an average leader should see significant progress.
I don't see either 'working class' or 'posh' as pejorative: I've known too many nice and nasty people in both categories to realise it's meaningless nonsense.
The fact that the list (you still have not said if you produced it) mentions it shows that you think it is of import.
I just found your list rather oddly broken. In fact, ridiculously broken.
Agreed. The whole British obsession with class is just weird and not reflected in any of the half dozen countries I've lived in. Most countries have attitudes about wealth, not all healthy - admiring, envious, resentful, whatever - and i think we have a more level-headed view of that than many countries. But I've never met anyone outside Britain who cared where you went to school or what your parents did for a living. The way you talk affects attitudes a bit, but more because they give a hint about where you come from and people have regional prejudices - "people from Bern are slow-thinking", etc - unless your accent is really thick and hard to understand.
American politicians do give a nod to "middle class" concerns (which is their equivalent of working-class/strivers), but it's not especially important what politicians' background was, except in the trivial sense of being related to someone famous (Bushes, Clintons, etc.).
I thought only women with thin arms held posh dinner parties.
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
Local schools isn't fair. I didn't talk about them until we had the little 'un, but in the last year its become a frequent topic of conversation. Mainly with both of us asking how the f school year numbering works now.
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
For what it is worth as a fairly recent convert to the SNP and as someone who has been cautious about another early referendum there now must be one in the manifesto next year and held as quickly as possible.
Reasons can be summed up it two signs 1) Osborne and austerity 2) attitude of contributors to this site. It is time to part hopefully as friends but part none the less.
You should have a referendum because of PB Tories? Are you having a laugh? LOL
But, but, but PB Tories are wise & representative & farseeing & influential & have their hands firmly round the throat of the zeitgeist. Or so you keep telling each other.
You seem to be obsessed with the PB Tories - piqued because they called the referendum result right? and in many cases the election?
If you utilise whatever reading abilities you possess, you'll discern I was responding to someone who used the term.
My first year Chemistry/Chemical Engineering paper on Basic Thermodynamics is being sat today. The main thing that has struck me is the over-reliance on past papers. We allow the students to see back three years, so back to 2012. When a completely different person set the exam.
I've tried to set mocks (no-one turns up as there is no credit for it) and problem sheets that go a bit deeper into the subject ("ah, but its so hard"). Still I get emails "sir, in the 2012 paper, Q2, b, ii, they asked this, will this be in the exam?"
Thanks for that - can you describe what sort of school/college is your base?
It is something like 90 % state school and 50-60 % BAME.
That is interesting - do you find that the parents are aspirational for their children or are there too many single parent families where the lone parent is too busy to get involved/be interested/unable to help children with their homework.?
FWIW, I think the problems typically come from how they are trained to think and approach exams in secondary school.
*As they're typically given a formula sheet previously, they have no sense of the physicality of an equation - if I change one variable, what do I expect to happen to others?
*This then goes on into being unable to work out what the question is actually asking - what information have I been given? What do I need to use to manipulate this into a workable answer?
*As they're trained on passing past papers, anything slightly off that track in terms of wording or notation absolutely stuns them or panics them.
Looking at the GCSE question, I think the jump from verbal logic to symbolic notation killed them. The question is remarkably easy, if you take a step back and think about what it is actually asking.
I always thought A Level results are a means to an end - whatever you're offered to go to college/uni, you'll attempt to reach. Or not in my case...
I had an unconditional offer and amazed I got any at all! To say that I spent the 3 months before my A Levels partying is an understatement. Trying to justify my gadfly behaviour after the event was cold comfort when telling my Mum my results...
Miss Plato, I fully deserved the rubbish Maths grade, but the low (C) one I got for Religious Studies pissed me off. I was graded something stupid like D and E for two first year exams, and resat them [because the grades were utter bollocks] and got a B and C [I think]. I got similarly low grades in the second year, but because I'd left school I couldn't really resit them.
Funny thing with dinner parties - people have them at tea time rather than dinner time.
I've got a book about Regency England that goes into the way lunch time (or luncheon) dinner time, supper and tea time have all evolved and changed places. Some of the change was due to increased artificial lighting.
I thought only women with thin arms held posh dinner parties.
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
Local schools isn't fair. I didn't talk about them until we had the little 'un, but in the last year its become a frequent topic of conversation. Mainly with both of us asking how the f school year numbering works now.
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
I thought only women with thin arms held posh dinner parties.
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
Local schools isn't fair. I didn't talk about them until we had the little 'un, but in the last year its become a frequent topic of conversation. Mainly with both of us asking how the f school year numbering works now.
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
I thought only women with thin arms held posh dinner parties.
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
Local schools isn't fair. I didn't talk about them until we had the little 'un, but in the last year its become a frequent topic of conversation. Mainly with both of us asking how the f school year numbering works now.
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
And when every stage is a Key Stage, the word Key becomes meaningless.
My first year Chemistry/Chemical Engineering paper on Basic Thermodynamics is being sat today. The main thing that has struck me is the over-reliance on past papers. We allow the students to see back three years, so back to 2012. When a completely different person set the exam.
I've tried to set mocks (no-one turns up as there is no credit for it) and problem sheets that go a bit deeper into the subject ("ah, but its so hard"). Still I get emails "sir, in the 2012 paper, Q2, b, ii, they asked this, will this be in the exam?"
Thanks for that - can you describe what sort of school/college is your base?
It is something like 90 % state school and 50-60 % BAME.
That is interesting - do you find that the parents are aspirational for their children or are there too many single parent families where the lone parent is too busy to get involved/be interested/unable to help children with their homework.?
FWIW, I think the problems typically come from how they are trained to think and approach exams in secondary school.
*As they're typically given a formula sheet previously, they have no sense of the physicality of an equation - if I change one variable, what do I expect to happen to others?
*This then goes on into being unable to work out what the question is actually asking - what information have I been given? What do I need to use to manipulate this into a workable answer?
*As they're trained on passing past papers, anything slightly off that track in terms of wording or notation absolutely stuns them or panics them.
Looking at the GCSE question, I think the jump from verbal logic to symbolic notation killed them. The question is remarkably easy, if you take a step back and think about what it is actually asking.
I used to love fried or grilled Spam as a child - was not rationed - never knew what was in it though!
It looks like being a dry weekend in the south, so for the first time for ages am taking the weekend off and will be without computer and smartphone.
My sons and I are going on a weekend ancestor hunt - starting in Bristol and ending up near Illminster and am being treated to a country house hotel in the Quantocks. They must want something as they have not done that for years!
Funny thing with dinner parties - people have them at tea time rather than dinner time.
I've got a book about Regency England that goes into the way lunch time (or luncheon) dinner time, supper and tea time have all evolved and changed places. Some of the change was due to increased artificial lighting.
Upper Sixth? Our school had Fifth form, Divisions, then Sixth. ;-)
I can't remember why lower sixth was called Divisions. Does anybody know?
(We also had Michealmas, Lent and Summer terms)
Michealmass is at the end of September. It is an important date, as it is the end of the blackberrying season. The devil spits on them at that point. Apparently.
Upper Sixth - We got to cast off the old school blazer and wear a suit instead – free run of the common room was pretty cool to. - twas simple times back then to be sure.
Upper Sixth? Our school had Fifth form, Divisions, then Sixth. ;-)
I can't remember why lower sixth was called Divisions. Does anybody know?
(We also had Michealmas, Lent and Summer terms)
The bizarre numbering of the English school system is quite hard to grasp, especially as it doesn't even seem to be consistent. Two sixth years is weird, Reception instead of first year is weird, especially as those places with it then call second year first year. And of course not all education authorities follow the same model. That's before you even consider all the weirdness about going to a different school after S4 to finish school or Junior Schools and Middle Schools and all that nonsense.
I thought only women with thin arms held posh dinner parties.
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
Local schools isn't fair. I didn't talk about them until we had the little 'un, but in the last year its become a frequent topic of conversation. Mainly with both of us asking how the f school year numbering works now.
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
Well quite. I worked in one place that had 53 strategic goals. I fell about laughing and was given a very stony look by those who'd created this behemoth.
I thought only women with thin arms held posh dinner parties.
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
Local schools isn't fair. I didn't talk about them until we had the little 'un, but in the last year its become a frequent topic of conversation. Mainly with both of us asking how the f school year numbering works now.
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
And when every stage is a Key Stage, the word Key becomes meaningless.
On the education system - I think one of the biggest issues under New Labour, that I experienced was poor teaching. Throughout the entirety of my education, particularly in Maths, the idea of actually taking time to explain something seem almost a foreign concept to many teachers. They were actually obsessed with simply expecting you to randomly figure out something, even from quite young ages such as 5. Even when you didn't understand something, and hadn't a clue where to start. I saw an awful lot of people develop severe confidence issues with subjects, and this was never really resolved. I'd say this is quite a large reason why many in our system don't do well.
For what it is worth as a fairly recent convert to the SNP and as someone who has been cautious about another early referendum there now must be one in the manifesto next year and held as quickly as possible.
Reasons can be summed up it two signs 1) Osborne and austerity 2) attitude of contributors to this site. It is time to part hopefully as friends but part none the less.
You should have a referendum because of PB Tories? Are you having a laugh? LOL
But, but, but PB Tories are wise & representative & farseeing & influential & have their hands firmly round the throat of the zeitgeist. Or so you keep telling each other.
You seem to be obsessed with the PB Tories - piqued because they called the referendum result right? and in many cases the election?
If you utilise whatever reading abilities you possess, you'll discern I was responding to someone who used the term.
PB Reactionaries is my new favourite.
You were going on and on about it yesterday as well. Just like a Scots version of Tim and with a few buckets of his charm thrown in as well. I guess it's slowly dawning on you that the election was lost and your influence is now minimal. Osborne forcing your hand is the icing on the cake for this PB Tory. If it sends the Scots off to independence, which sadly I actually doubt, so much the better. It'll be fun to hear the squeals from up north when it all goes pear-shaped.
On the education system - I think one of the biggest issues under New Labour, that I experienced was poor teaching. Throughout the entirety of my education, particularly in Maths, the idea of actually taking time to explain something seem almost a foreign concept to many teachers. They were actually obsessed, from the age of 5 or so of simply expecting you to randomly figure out something. Even when you didn't understand something, and hadn't a clue where to start. I saw an awful lot of people develop severe confidence issues with subjects, and this was never really resolved. I'd say this is quite a large reason why many in our system don't do well.
Probably the real reason was that the teachers did not understand the subject themselves. For instance are proofs still demonstrated in geometry?
I loved Spam as a kid and treated myself to a tin of it covered with salad cream. I tried some Spam/salad cream a few years ago in a moment of nostalgia and it was revolting. Salty, slimy, and I ended up washing off the dressing and gave it to the cats. I think they drank a pint of water afterwards!
I used to love fried or grilled Spam as a child - was not rationed - never knew what was in it though!
It looks like being a dry weekend in the south, so for the first time for ages am taking the weekend off and will be without computer and smartphone.
My sons and I are going on a weekend ancestor hunt - starting in Bristol and ending up near Illminster and am being treated to a country house hotel in the Quantocks. They must want something as they have not done that for years!
Funny thing with dinner parties - people have them at tea time rather than dinner time.
I've got a book about Regency England that goes into the way lunch time (or luncheon) dinner time, supper and tea time have all evolved and changed places. Some of the change was due to increased artificial lighting.
Upper Sixth - We got to cast off the old school blazer and wear a suit instead – free run of the common room was pretty cool to. - twas simple times back then to be sure.
On the education system - I think one of the biggest issues under New Labour, that I experienced was poor teaching. Throughout the entirety of my education, particularly in Maths, the idea of actually taking time to explain something seem almost a foreign concept to many teachers. They were actually obsessed, from the age of 5 or so of simply expecting you to randomly figure out something. Even when you didn't understand something, and hadn't a clue where to start. I saw an awful lot of people develop severe confidence issues with subjects, and this was never really resolved. I'd say this is quite a large reason why many in our system don't do well.
Probably the real reason was that the teachers did not understand the subject themselves. For instance are proofs still demonstrated in geometry?
On proofs, they are in still taught in geometry.
I think teacher training really needs to be improved.
Since there seems to be some confusion as to what it means to be posh, here is my handy questionnaire for judging. This version only applies to English males. For English females, the same questions can be used by applying them to the lady's husband or, if unmarried, to her father:
1) Did you attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
2) Did your father attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
3) Do you own your own dinner jacket (3 points)?
4) Can you tie a proper bow-tie, not one of those clip-on jobs (10 points)?
5) Do you have tickets for Glyndebourne this season (2 points), or for Grange Opera (10 points)?
6) Do you have a proper wine cellar (5 points)?
7) Does your wine cellar contain clarets of the 2000, 1990, 1982 vintage, or any vintage earlier than 1982? (3 points, 10 points for 1945)
8) Have you ever been invited to a friend's pheasant shoot (5 points) or grouse shoot (10 points)? 50 points if you were the one doing the inviting.
Guide to scoring:
0: Have you considered trying the 'Am I a chav?' questionnaire? 1 to 10: No, you're certainly not posh. 11 to 30: You move in posh circles, but further investigation is required to figure out if you're really posh, or an interloper 30 to 50: You're definitely posh Over 50: Is that you, Dave?
On the education system - I think one of the biggest issues under New Labour, that I experienced was poor teaching. Throughout the entirety of my education, particularly in Maths, the idea of actually taking time to explain something seem almost a foreign concept to many teachers. They were actually obsessed with simply expecting you to randomly figure out something, even from quite young ages such as 5. Even when you didn't understand something, and hadn't a clue where to start. I saw an awful lot of people develop severe confidence issues with subjects, and this was never really resolved. I'd say this is quite a large reason why many in our system don't do well.
Well quite. I worked in one place that had 53 strategic goals. I fell about laughing and was given a very stony look by those who'd created this behemoth.
I thought only women with thin arms held posh dinner parties.
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
Local schools isn't fair. I didn't talk about them until we had the little 'un, but in the last year its become a frequent topic of conversation. Mainly with both of us asking how the f school year numbering works now.
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
And when every stage is a Key Stage, the word Key becomes meaningless.
I always had the same problem with KPIs. ( Key Performance Indicators )
I had to explain if you have 100 KPIs the K is meaningless.
Talking of grotesque bourgeois vulgarity, I'm just off to pick up a brand new car on Park Lane. The restyled Mini John Cooper Works. I believe mine might be one of the first delivered anywhere in the world.
Talking of grotesque bourgeois vulgarity, I'm just off to pick up a brand new car on Park Lane. The restyled Mini John Cooper Works. I believe mine might be one of the first delivered anywhere in the world.
The new Minis are really bad - Issigonis will be spinning in his grave. I mean, they're a good car - there are few bad cars on the market at the moment - but they're not mini or Mini.
Re the supposed flaw in the hiatus in global warming. The claim itself looks to be flawed. Its by NOAA and refers to sea surface temps. As ever it relies on adjustments, in this case to buoy sea surface temps compared with ship water intake temps. The latter is not designed for scientific use and adjusting buoy temps upward to match would seem questionable. This is not the only example. The NOAA data is just one of several which show the hiatus, different sources give different periods, NASAs satellite atmosphere temps as opposed to sea temps give about 18 years.
Our sixth form prefects was responsible for school discipline in the lunch hour - especially if it was wet and so the school playing fields were out of bounds.
Other benefits, as head boy, had my own study and the permission to approach the head girl in our sister school (both schools were single sex) to arrange mixed hockey on the beach at weekends/after school. This later developed into mixed tennis and badminton. Somehow the girls were not that keen on cross-country running!
Upper Sixth - We got to cast off the old school blazer and wear a suit instead – free run of the common room was pretty cool to. - twas simple times back then to be sure.
On the education system - I think one of the biggest issues under New Labour, that I experienced was poor teaching. Throughout the entirety of my education, particularly in Maths, the idea of actually taking time to explain something seem almost a foreign concept to many teachers. They were actually obsessed with simply expecting you to randomly figure out something, even from quite young ages such as 5. Even when you didn't understand something, and hadn't a clue where to start. I saw an awful lot of people develop severe confidence issues with subjects, and this was never really resolved. I'd say this is quite a large reason why many in our system don't do well.
Agreed. It's the system that's the blame. There are too many coming out of the education system with issues, for it all to be down to the kids. Weaknesses with English and Maths are not identified at an early enough age. These weaknesses grow throughout a person's time in education, until it's too late.
I managed to solve it after dredging my mind for knowledge last used 30 years ago with no great difficulty. If such knowledge wasn't on the curriculum, I'd have sympathy with the children being tested (though I would want to know why it wasn't).
Why was that supposed to be difficult? n^2-n-90=0 n^2-n=90 so n is obviously 10
with 6 orange sweets, and 4 others, the probability of an orange sweet first is 6/10 and an orange sweet again second time is 5/9. multiply together to give 30/90, or 1/3.
You have it the wrong way round. Of course you can "prove" the final equation. The issue is getting there.
Use: n = (6+y) p(O1) = 6/(6+y) p(O2) = 5/(5+y)
And you get: 90 = 30 + 11 (n-6) + (n-6)^2
and you simplify and you therefore prove the final equation.
Talking of grotesque bourgeois vulgarity, I'm just off to pick up a brand new car on Park Lane. The restyled Mini John Cooper Works. I believe mine might be one of the first delivered anywhere in the world.
I'd be more impressed if it was a John Cooper Clarke restyled Mini....
Since there seems to be some confusion as to what it means to be posh, here is my handy questionnaire for judging. This version only applies to English males. For English females, the same questions can be used by applying them to the lady's husband or, if unmarried, to her father:
1) Did you attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
2) Did your father attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
3) Do you own your own dinner jacket (3 points)?
4) Can you tie a proper bow-tie, not one of those clip-on jobs (10 points)?
5) Do you have tickets for Glyndebourne this season (2 points), or for Grange Opera (10 points)?
6) Do you have a proper wine cellar (5 points).
7) Does your wine cellar contain clarets of the 2000, 1990, 1982 vintage, or any vintage earlier than 1982? (3 points, 10 points for 1945)
8) Have you ever been invited to a friend's pheasant shoot (5 points) or grouse shoot (10 points). 50 points if you were the one doing the inviting.
Guide to scoring:
0: Have you considered trying the 'Am I a chav?' questionnaire? 1 to 10: No, you're certainly not posh. 11 to 30: You move in posh circles, but further investigation is required to figure out if you're really posh, or an interloper 30 to 50: You're definitely posh Over 50: Is that you, Dave?
Talking of grotesque bourgeois vulgarity, I'm just off to pick up a brand new car on Park Lane. The restyled Mini John Cooper Works. I believe mine might be one of the first delivered anywhere in the world.
Does that run on petrol? How dreadfully twentieth century.
Since there seems to be some confusion as to what it means to be posh, here is my handy questionnaire for judging. This version only applies to English males. For English females, the same questions can be used by applying them to the lady's husband or, if unmarried, to her father:
1) Did you attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
2) Did your father attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
3) Do you own your own dinner jacket (3 points)?
4) Can you tie a proper bow-tie, not one of those clip-on jobs (10 points)?
5) Do you have tickets for Glyndebourne this season (2 points), or for Grange Opera (10 points)?
6) Do you have a proper wine cellar (5 points)?
7) Does your wine cellar contain clarets of the 2000, 1990, 1982 vintage, or any vintage earlier than 1982? (3 points, 10 points for 1945)
8) Have you ever been invited to a friend's pheasant shoot (5 points) or grouse shoot (10 points)? 50 points if you were the one doing the inviting.
Guide to scoring:
0: Have you considered trying the 'Am I a chav?' questionnaire? 1 to 10: No, you're certainly not posh. 11 to 30: You move in posh circles, but further investigation is required to figure out if you're really posh, or an interloper 30 to 50: You're definitely posh Over 50: Is that you, Dave?
Danish update for punters: latest poll puts Thorning (centre-left) 1.5% and 3 seats ahead. She is still 6/5 against on Betfair. DYO but it looks like value to me (and I've put a tenner on) as the momentum so far is entirely in her favour.
I managed to solve it after dredging my mind for knowledge last used 30 years ago with no great difficulty. If such knowledge wasn't on the curriculum, I'd have sympathy with the children being tested (though I would want to know why it wasn't).
Why was that supposed to be difficult? n^2-n-90=0 n^2-n=90 so n is obviously 10
with 6 orange sweets, and 4 others, the probability of an orange sweet first is 6/10 and an orange sweet again second time is 5/9. multiply together to give 30/90, or 1/3.
You have it the wrong way round. Of course you can "prove" the final equation. The issue is getting there.
Use: n = (6+y) p(O1) = 6/(6+y) p(O2) = 5/(5+y)
And you get: 90 = 30 + 11 (n-6) + (n-6)^2
and you simplify and you therefore prove the final equation.
Yeah, I got it the wrong way around - as is usual when trying to say something is easy! It's a bit like when correcting someone's grammar results in messing up your own
Well quite. I worked in one place that had 53 strategic goals. I fell about laughing and was given a very stony look by those who'd created this behemoth.
I thought only women with thin arms held posh dinner parties.
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
Local schools isn't fair. I didn't talk about them until we had the little 'un, but in the last year its become a frequent topic of conversation. Mainly with both of us asking how the f school year numbering works now.
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
And when every stage is a Key Stage, the word Key becomes meaningless.
I always had the same problem with KPIs. ( Key Performance Indicators )
I had to explain if you have 100 KPIs the K is meaningless.
But it keeps the control freaks happy.
Agree - have had the same experience with KPIs with a client - when they got past 300 - had to ask what was the point - proved to be quite a problem because it kept a few people employed in the HO who were favoured by the CEO. Just too much senseless form - filling.
Since there seems to be some confusion as to what it means to be posh, here is my handy questionnaire for judging. This version only applies to English males. For English females, the same questions can be used by applying them to the lady's husband or, if unmarried, to her father:
(snip)
18 for me as well. If only because of the shooting.
Since there seems to be some confusion as to what it means to be posh, here is my handy questionnaire for judging. This version only applies to English males. For English females, the same questions can be used by applying them to the lady's husband or, if unmarried, to her father:
1) Did you attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
2) Did your father attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
3) Do you own your own dinner jacket (3 points)?
4) Can you tie a proper bow-tie, not one of those clip-on jobs (10 points)?
5) Do you have tickets for Glyndebourne this season (2 points), or for Grange Opera (10 points)?
6) Do you have a proper wine cellar (5 points)?
7) Does your wine cellar contain clarets of the 2000, 1990, 1982 vintage, or any vintage earlier than 1982? (3 points, 10 points for 1945)
8) Have you ever been invited to a friend's pheasant shoot (5 points) or grouse shoot (10 points)? 50 points if you were the one doing the inviting.
Guide to scoring:
0: Have you considered trying the 'Am I a chav?' questionnaire? 1 to 10: No, you're certainly not posh. 11 to 30: You move in posh circles, but further investigation is required to figure out if you're really posh, or an interloper 30 to 50: You're definitely posh Over 50: Is that you, Dave?
Talking of grotesque bourgeois vulgarity, I'm just off to pick up a brand new car on Park Lane. The restyled Mini John Cooper Works. I believe mine might be one of the first delivered anywhere in the world.
Labour's Current Shadow Cabinet going by WIki entries. Family background generally derived from parental occupation or school listed on Wiki. Feel free to correct any errors and/or fill in the Unknowns. (ignoring the Peers in cabinet)
H
So out of 25 Labour MPs in their cabinet, at least 15 are from well off backgrounds, 5 uncertain and 5 Working Class (although I'm not convinced about the Eagle twins, in fact any of them other than Murray are open to question).
Of the 25, there are 10 from posh London/Home Counties backgrounds of which 6 are parachuted into Northern Seats, one into a safe Midlands Seat and one into a safe Welsh Seat albeit he was born in Wales but brought up in the Home Counties.
This does not look like the profile you would excpect of a Labour Party.
Liz Kendalls mum was a school teacher, her dad left school at 16, before working for the Bank of England and taking occupational qualifications. She went to a non selective school .
Andy Burnham's father was a telephone engineer and his mum a receptionist, he went to a Catholic Comprehensive.
Etc etc
Only in La- La land of the SNP are those "posh backgrounds". Perhaps having a job at all makes you posh in Dairs world...
My mum was a school teacher; my father left school at 17 with only a couple of O levels.
What conclusions would you like to draw about me?
Did you go to a non selective state school?
There is a world of difference between being brought up on an Estate and being brought up on an estate!
A non-academically selective foundation school
I come from solid middle class stock on both sides. The shadow cabinet in large part do too, as indeed do most of the Conservative bench.
Dair's conception that these are "posh" backgrounds is rather perverse, unless you consider the UK to be majority posh. It is rather curious that the MP that the SNP have chosen as their target is the oldest and most working class Labour MP. It shows their character.
The definition of poshness is simple. It's nothing to do with background or education: it's whether you hold, or attend, four or more dinner parties a month. Soiree's earn double points.
;-)
Funny thing with dinner parties - people have them at tea time rather than dinner time.
Dinner is the principle meal of the day, which often but not exclusively is usually at teA time. Dinner time is not a fixed time, imo.
I managed to solve it after dredging my mind for knowledge last used 30 years ago with no great difficulty. If such knowledge wasn't on the curriculum, I'd have sympathy with the children being tested (though I would want to know why it wasn't).
Why was that supposed to be difficult? n^2-n-90=0 n^2-n=90 so n is obviously 10
with 6 orange sweets, and 4 others, the probability of an orange sweet first is 6/10 and an orange sweet again second time is 5/9. multiply together to give 30/90, or 1/3.
You have it the wrong way round. Of course you can "prove" the final equation. The issue is getting there.
Use: n = (6+y) p(O1) = 6/(6+y) p(O2) = 5/(5+y)
And you get: 90 = 30 + 11 (n-6) + (n-6)^2
and you simplify and you therefore prove the final equation.
Yeah, I got it the wrong way around - as is usual when trying to say something is easy! It's a bit like when correcting someone's grammar results in messing up your own
My normal trick in those circumstances is to put the answer that is the direct opposite from the correct one/one I meant...
Talking of grotesque bourgeois vulgarity, I'm just off to pick up a brand new car on Park Lane. The restyled Mini John Cooper Works. I believe mine might be one of the first delivered anywhere in the world.
Mr. Eye, but how are we to tell if there is a cat in the box?
Mr. Nabavi, those things are unimportant. What matters is that a man knows the difference between Agathocles, son of Lysimachus, and Agathocles, the Syracusan tyrant. And that Hannibal is clearly superior to Caesar.
I managed to solve it after dredging my mind for knowledge last used 30 years ago with no great difficulty. If such knowledge wasn't on the curriculum, I'd have sympathy with the children being tested (though I would want to know why it wasn't).
Why was that supposed to be difficult? n^2-n-90=0 n^2-n=90 so n is obviously 10
with 6 orange sweets, and 4 others, the probability of an orange sweet first is 6/10 and an orange sweet again second time is 5/9. multiply together to give 30/90, or 1/3.
You have it the wrong way round. Of course you can "prove" the final equation. The issue is getting there.
Use: n = (6+y) p(O1) = 6/(6+y) p(O2) = 5/(5+y)
And you get: 90 = 30 + 11 (n-6) + (n-6)^2
and you simplify and you therefore prove the final equation.
Isn't this an unnecessary overcomplication? You don't need y at all.
n = total number of sweets 6 sweets are orange.
Chance of first sweet being orange = 6/n Chance of second sweet being orange = 5/(n-1) Chance of both being orange = 1/3 (given in question)
Therefore: 6/n x 5/(n-1) = 1/3
Simplifying: 30/(n^2-n) = 1/3 90 = n^2 - n n^2 - n - 90 = 0
Haven't done any formal maths for decades, by the way, and even then didn't take it beyond age 16. So it's entirely possible I'm missing something obvious. Or that the students complaining are. Open to correction either way.
Only scored 18 on the Nabavi poshness scale though...
Talking of grotesque bourgeois vulgarity, I'm just off to pick up a brand new car on Park Lane. The restyled Mini John Cooper Works. I believe mine might be one of the first delivered anywhere in the world.
That car screams 'Hairdresser'.
Harsh. Surely the issue with a "Mini" these days is that they are only marginally smaller than a Range Rover...
No fraternising was allowed between our two schools - despite sharing a 500yrd long drive. The Heads even fixed for us to have different holidays and start/end of the day/buses. They didn't allow games lessons to be held at the same times either...
I was banned from the Library for ogling at boys playing rugby when in the 4th Year. And much disapproved of for going out with a boy from the Lower Sixth Senior Prefects. They got to wear blazers with yellow piping. It was very fetching.
Our sixth form prefects was responsible for school discipline in the lunch hour - especially if it was wet and so the school playing fields were out of bounds.
Other benefits, as head boy, had my own study and the permission to approach the head girl in our sister school (both schools were single sex) to arrange mixed hockey on the beach at weekends/after school. This later developed into mixed tennis and badminton. Somehow the girls were not that keen on cross-country running!
Upper Sixth - We got to cast off the old school blazer and wear a suit instead – free run of the common room was pretty cool to. - twas simple times back then to be sure.
Have you ever laid bricks (5 pts for yes, 10 pts if you've done decorative pieces)
Have you ever driven a JCB or agricultural machinery (5 pts for yes, 10 pts if professionally)
Have you ever driven a white van (5 pts for yes, 10 pts if for a delivery job)
Does it take you five days to remove grease and dirt from under your nails before a special occasion? (10 pts)
Have you ever picked up the Economist, the Times, the Guardian, or the FT? (-10 pts)
Do you think page 3 is a laugh? (10 pts)
Does your job require skill but has low pay (5 pts, 10 pts if job is safety-critical)
Do you go to the pub every Friday night with your mates (5 pts, 10 pts if more than three nights a week, -10 pts if you describe them as 'friends' rather than 'mates').
Mr. Eye, but how are we to tell if there is a cat in the box?
Mr. Nabavi, those things are unimportant. What matters is that a man knows the difference between Agathocles, son of Lysimachus, and Agathocles, the Syracusan tyrant. And that Hannibal is clearly superior to Caesar.
I always liked the idea of a gentleman being someone who put everyone else at ease and made no one else feel uncomfortable.
I managed to solve it after dredging my mind for knowledge last used 30 years ago with no great difficulty. If such knowledge wasn't on the curriculum, I'd have sympathy with the children being tested (though I would want to know why it wasn't).
Why was that supposed to be difficult? n^2-n-90=0 n^2-n=90 so n is obviously 10
with 6 orange sweets, and 4 others, the probability of an orange sweet first is 6/10 and an orange sweet again second time is 5/9. multiply together to give 30/90, or 1/3.
You have it the wrong way round. Of course you can "prove" the final equation. The issue is getting there.
Use: n = (6+y) p(O1) = 6/(6+y) p(O2) = 5/(5+y)
And you get: 90 = 30 + 11 (n-6) + (n-6)^2
and you simplify and you therefore prove the final equation.
Isn't this an unnecessary overcomplication? You don't need y at all.
n = total number of sweets 6 sweets are orange.
Chance of first sweet being orange = 6/n Chance of second sweet being orange = 5/(n-1) Chance of both being orange = 1/3 (given in question)
Therefore: 6/n x 5/(n-1) = 1/3
Simplifying: 30/(n^2-n) = 1/3 90 = n^2 - n n^2 - n - 90 = 0
Haven't done any formal maths for decades, by the way, and even then didn't take it beyond age 16. So it's entirely possible I'm missing something obvious. Or that the students complaining are. Open to correction either way.
You are right of course, I just put y in there because I was setting up the problem for myself and I like to put as much info in front of me in as many ways before I start!!
Also, like @Sandpit my ego was keen to respond quickly!!
Talking of grotesque bourgeois vulgarity, I'm just off to pick up a brand new car on Park Lane. The restyled Mini John Cooper Works. I believe mine might be one of the first delivered anywhere in the world.
The new Minis are really bad - Issigonis will be spinning in his grave. I mean, they're a good car - there are few bad cars on the market at the moment - but they're not mini or Mini.
Hardly a fair or rational comparison. Given the way all cars have evolved in size and safety since 1959, the latest mini is a pretty fair successor. The latest VW Polo is bigger than the original Golf. The new generations of Mini are great cars. But for the need to transport all sorts of things animate and inanimate, I would love the latest one. The big problem with modern cars is their spare wheel or mostly the lack of. Only when your wife and grand daughter are stranded at night waiting for the AAs surprising inability to transport them home after losing a tyre off the rim will you appreciate the value of a full spare.
Our sixth form prefects was responsible for school discipline in the lunch hour - especially if it was wet and so the school playing fields were out of bounds.
Other benefits, as head boy, had my own study and the permission to approach the head girl in our sister school (both schools were single sex) to arrange mixed hockey on the beach at weekends/after school. This later developed into mixed tennis and badminton. Somehow the girls were not that keen on cross-country running!
Upper Sixth - We got to cast off the old school blazer and wear a suit instead – free run of the common room was pretty cool to. - twas simple times back then to be sure.
Comments
I say, NewCastle.
I enjoy a challenge Though and doing maths seemed like one after my year 9 teacher thought I wasn't any good!
We've been in the Indy2 campaign since September last year.Last time was bore your tits off for 3 years, Indy2 will be at least a decade.
You can never escape hot Indy action on PB :-)
I've never been to one - or invited to one. Or talked about house prices and local schools. I must live in a parallel universe
While Labour stood still against the Tories in England and Wales despite a campaign of extraordinary ineptitude. Even an average campaign by an average leader should see significant progress.
American politicians do give a nod to "middle class" concerns (which is their equivalent of working-class/strivers), but it's not especially important what politicians' background was, except in the trivial sense of being related to someone famous (Bushes, Clintons, etc.).
When I was a kid I was five or thirteen, and in the appropriate year. Now it's all 'year five' or 'year thirteen' rubbish. ;-)
PB Reactionaries is my new favourite.
Most recent UK surveys show In will win, even in England.
*As they're typically given a formula sheet previously, they have no sense of the physicality of an equation - if I change one variable, what do I expect to happen to others?
*This then goes on into being unable to work out what the question is actually asking - what information have I been given? What do I need to use to manipulate this into a workable answer?
*As they're trained on passing past papers, anything slightly off that track in terms of wording or notation absolutely stuns them or panics them.
Looking at the GCSE question, I think the jump from verbal logic to symbolic notation killed them. The question is remarkably easy, if you take a step back and think about what it is actually asking.
I had an unconditional offer and amazed I got any at all! To say that I spent the 3 months before my A Levels partying is an understatement. Trying to justify my gadfly behaviour after the event was cold comfort when telling my Mum my results...
John Gribbin is always good value explaining difficult concepts and you can always re-read them.
In fact, I always have to.
I teach that as well.
Oh, the wonders I have to cut out.
I can't remember why lower sixth was called Divisions. Does anybody know?
(We also had Michealmas, Lent and Summer terms)
I'm in the Imperial system here of 3rd Form et al.
KS1 = 5-7
KS2 = 7-11
KS3 = 11-14
KS4 = 14-16 (GCSE)
KS5 = 16-18 (A Level)
She'd regularly cite some absurd question like
It looks like being a dry weekend in the south, so for the first time for ages am taking the weekend off and will be without computer and smartphone.
My sons and I are going on a weekend ancestor hunt - starting in Bristol and ending up near Illminster and am being treated to a country house hotel in the Quantocks. They must want something as they have not done that for years!
Though I do have a piece on Quebec in the pipeline.
Have completed the data analysis part just need to do the write up.
Answer: it's impossible to dig half a hole.
For instance are proofs still demonstrated in geometry?
The only thing we learned during Lower Sixth was how to endure arse-licking chitchat by 12yrs olds keen to have a Big Friend.
I think teacher training really needs to be improved.
1) Did you attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
2) Did your father attend a public school? If yes, 5 points, 10 points for Eton or Harrow.
3) Do you own your own dinner jacket (3 points)?
4) Can you tie a proper bow-tie, not one of those clip-on jobs (10 points)?
5) Do you have tickets for Glyndebourne this season (2 points), or for Grange Opera (10 points)?
6) Do you have a proper wine cellar (5 points)?
7) Does your wine cellar contain clarets of the 2000, 1990, 1982 vintage, or any vintage earlier than 1982? (3 points, 10 points for 1945)
8) Have you ever been invited to a friend's pheasant shoot (5 points) or grouse shoot (10 points)? 50 points if you were the one doing the inviting.
Guide to scoring:
0: Have you considered trying the 'Am I a chav?' questionnaire?
1 to 10: No, you're certainly not posh.
11 to 30: You move in posh circles, but further investigation is required to figure out if you're really posh, or an interloper
30 to 50: You're definitely posh
Over 50: Is that you, Dave?
(The Nabavi score is 18)
You can't copy someone's homework when it comes to reading or writing.
I had to explain if you have 100 KPIs the K is meaningless.
But it keeps the control freaks happy.
http://www.britishfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/The-EU-referendum-and-public-trust_Survation-for-British-Future-2015.pdf
The claim itself looks to be flawed. Its by NOAA and refers to sea surface temps. As ever it relies on adjustments, in this case to buoy sea surface temps compared with ship water intake temps. The latter is not designed for scientific use and adjusting buoy temps upward to match would seem questionable. This is not the only example. The NOAA data is just one of several which show the hiatus, different sources give different periods, NASAs satellite atmosphere temps as opposed to sea temps give about 18 years.
Other benefits, as head boy, had my own study and the permission to approach the head girl in our sister school (both schools were single sex) to arrange mixed hockey on the beach at weekends/after school. This later developed into mixed tennis and badminton. Somehow the girls were not that keen on cross-country running!
Use:
n = (6+y)
p(O1) = 6/(6+y)
p(O2) = 5/(5+y)
And you get:
90 = 30 + 11 (n-6) + (n-6)^2
and you simplify and you therefore prove the final equation.
Passed 1, 3, 4 and 8
It's a bit like when correcting someone's grammar results in messing up your own
9) Do you speak Traditional BBC RP?
10) Is your vocabulary substantially larger than most of those you meet outside your own circle?
11) Does your Christian Name [deliberate] start with T such as Timothy, Tarquin, Toby or Tristram?
I can tie bow ties and had a substantial collection of silk ones/all colours in the 80s. Really. Now that's surely a fashion crime today.
The EU Referendum Is Coming - You Should Be Making Your Mind Up
Featuring Farage, Cameron, Merkel and Sturgeon as Bucks Fizz
http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/7517386?utm_hp_ref=tw
chuckle.
Mr. Nabavi, those things are unimportant. What matters is that a man knows the difference between Agathocles, son of Lysimachus, and Agathocles, the Syracusan tyrant. And that Hannibal is clearly superior to Caesar.
n = total number of sweets
6 sweets are orange.
Chance of first sweet being orange = 6/n
Chance of second sweet being orange = 5/(n-1)
Chance of both being orange = 1/3 (given in question)
Therefore:
6/n x 5/(n-1) = 1/3
Simplifying:
30/(n^2-n) = 1/3
90 = n^2 - n
n^2 - n - 90 = 0
Haven't done any formal maths for decades, by the way, and even then didn't take it beyond age 16. So it's entirely possible I'm missing something obvious. Or that the students complaining are. Open to correction either way.
Only scored 18 on the Nabavi poshness scale though...
I'm not a fan of fox hunting as I feel it is very unfair/unBritish and a few fox hunting friends were willing to educate me.
I was banned from the Library for ogling at boys playing rugby when in the 4th Year. And much disapproved of for going out with a boy from the Lower Sixth Senior Prefects. They got to wear blazers with yellow piping. It was very fetching.
Have you ever laid bricks (5 pts for yes, 10 pts if you've done decorative pieces)
Have you ever driven a JCB or agricultural machinery (5 pts for yes, 10 pts if professionally)
Have you ever driven a white van (5 pts for yes, 10 pts if for a delivery job)
Does it take you five days to remove grease and dirt from under your nails before a special occasion? (10 pts)
Have you ever picked up the Economist, the Times, the Guardian, or the FT? (-10 pts)
Do you think page 3 is a laugh? (10 pts)
Does your job require skill but has low pay (5 pts, 10 pts if job is safety-critical)
Do you go to the pub every Friday night with your mates (5 pts, 10 pts if more than three nights a week, -10 pts if you describe them as 'friends' rather than 'mates').
Also, like @Sandpit my ego was keen to respond quickly!!
We had a sixth form bar and an armoury. Which I always thought was an amusing combination, even if the buildings were thankfully quite far apart!
The girls were frequently better at downing shots, and taking shots, than the boys. ;-)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/jun/04/steve-bell-on-george-osbornes-public-spending-cuts-plan-cartoon-bell