Categories
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The Good Friday open thread
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The Good Friday open thread
Big Ben through the railings twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/st…
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
http://tinyurl.com/bsub88n
You have to work in a different way from working in offices, that's for sure, but the differences are almost all positive. And no one has their own office.
Mike, make sure you take a hat in this cold weather. We all know what happened to the last person to go on Ilkley Moor baht 'at (although I hope you don't know anyone called Mary Jane):
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at
Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane
Tha's bahn' to catch thy deeath o` cowd
Then us'll ha' to bury thee
Then t'worms'll come an` eyt thee up
Then t'ducks'll come an` eyt up t'worms
Then us'll go an` eyt up t'ducks
Then us'll all ha' etten thee
That's wheear we get us ooan back
Or that the BBC did not report:
"However, on Thursday night, the CPS indicated it was unhappy with the file it had received from the Metropolitan police and was awaiting more evidence."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/28/lebgate-file-contains-no-evidence-that-police-lied
http://hopperhome.com/HareLossColor1.jpg
BBC staff who went on strike yesterday said they were prepared to return to their desks if Nelson Mandela died, however the staff's generosity stopped there."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9960715/BBC-unions-silent-over-the-Maggie-Question.html
The wording of that BBC report is interesting, especially the 'Downing Street officers' bit. That does not exclude other officers.
Does anyone actually still believe that the police log is a genuine and honest account of what happened that evening?
Does anyone actually still believe that the police log is a genuine and honest account of what happened that evening?
Apparently the CPS is unimpressed by both the quality and quantity of the evidence presented by the police re. the Mitchell case.
Does anyone actually still believe that the police log is a genuine and honest account of what happened that evening?
Tom Newton Dunn, political editor of the Sun, is on Radio 4 Any Questions tonight, but he may not wish to comment on the case. Also on is Clare Gerada, President of the GP's so may have some interesting discussions on the Lansley reforms. she is generally a very good media performer. also David Trimble and Angela Eagle.
I can't understand why Angela Eagle is Labour's main media spokesbod - she's been all over the airwaves recently and just sounds horribly whiny and looks like a very grumpy unmade bed.
Even if she's making a valid point I find her almost impossible to listen to without getting distracted or being put off by her tone. Surely they've someone else for this job.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2013/03/thatcher-was-good-looking-and-brilliant
LAB 42%
CON 29%
UKIP 13%
LD 11%
https://twitter.com/YouGov
Also can recommend Grimm - imagine Buffy with cops.
I'm having trouble with Psych but only a few episodes into S1 and since its got as far as S5, I'll see if it gets better. I always wondered what happened to Dule Hill [Charlie from the WWing]... It's a PI version of The Mentalist.
The most respected and famous international political figure of all time versus (probably) the most despised the British Isles has known (certainly in my lifetime).
I can see the equivalence!
Thanks for all the box sets recommendations. Only problem is finding some time when one won't be interrupted by something or other.
"Some of the UK's leading historians have endorsed Education Secretary Michael Gove's new history curriculum for schools in England.
Fifteen historians, including Profs David Starkey and Niall Ferguson, wrote a letter to the Times newspaper.
The letter welcomed Mr Gove's controversial plans to have topics taught in chronological order, saying it had "long been needed".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21600298
Clare Gerada is a good media performs for the GPs, so should come over well.
No political journalist worth his or her salt would want to be kept away from covering the death of Mrs Thatcher when the day does come. It will be an era defining story.
"The most respected and famous international political figure of all time versus (probably) the most despised the British Isles has known (certainly in my lifetime)."
I think you're missing the bigger picture here. It should not be the role of journalists on a publicly funded news body to decide what news we get on the basis of their political prejudices.
RT @tehautumn: What Saturn would look like if it was at the same distance away as the moon from Earth. http://tinyurl.com/dytgkw8 < WOW
Did these "great and good" protest as the UK's international education ranking sank under grade inflation and "prizes for all"?
Thought not.
History requires facts and chronology as background, before one can have useful discussion on primary and secondary sources and the meanings of competing narratives.
He always reminds me of those parents who say they used to get a sound thrashing when they were young and look how well they turned out!
As Einstein famously remarked: ""Of course it's fking right, I checked it on Google"
If you teach history from 10,000 BC through to 2013 in chronological order from the age of 5 to 16 you end up teaching very little of any interest or importance because there is not enough time in the curriculum to do anything justice.
A much more sensible approach, which would also be chronological, would be to identify key points in history and to focus in order and in depth on those from a variety of perspectives. So, say: the Romans; then the build up and aftermath to 1066; the Wars of the Roses; the Tudors; the Civil War; enclosure, the Industrial Revolution and the birth of Empire; the Victorian era; WWs 1 and 2 on the home front and the battle field. That's eight subjects, each of which could be given a year. And even then you are missing out great swathes of the past.
It's interesting that this is despite some hardening of the Tory position in the secondaries in recent weeks. I think what's happening is that people are very gradually starting to think about the coming election and the loyalists are rallying round a little - "suppose they're not as bad as the other lot" etc. But that's not affecting the underlying situation, that Labour has nearly all the 29% who voted for Gordon plus 10ish points from left-wing Libdems, and both blocs of voters are implacably anti-Tory. There's a bit of churn - 2% of Brown voters are now Tory, 6% of 2010 Tories are now Labour - but it's very minor. UKIP reinforces the problem for the Tories but even if most of them returned it wouldn't be anywhere near enough to win.
Times tables - it's been useful over the years to know them (up to 10 anyway, not sure that knowing 11*12 is that useful), and there's a category of things like that which it's handy to know by heart, but a mistake to think that it's the main object of education, which is surely to train the mind plus basic skills rather than accumulate specific facts. I do agree with learning history chronologically (not a list of kings but a what-happened-next? approach: it's just more interesting and informative) and would be interested to see someone put the case against it - why isn't this done?
He also had a highly successful 'real-world' career before going into politics.
Those who seek to denigrate him are undoubtedly scared witless by his frightening ability and astonishing achievements - in several fields.
That's not how it would have happened. Some Telegraph hack would have asked the BBC union if they'd go back to cover Mandela's death-"yes". 'Well what about Maggie?' "pass!"
It repays listening to the wonderful Ken Robinson again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
I have no doubt that Chinese and Korean kids are stealing a march on ours. Like Serbian kids beat our kids at tennis. They are probably worked harder, bullied a bit, better motivated and not as distracted as our 'pampered' lot.
There are probably lots of reasons.
But just to throw my own anecdotal evidence into the ring. I have a little boy who's in nursery (he's three and a half) and will be starting school full time in September; in Wales, where I know education is run slightly differently. He learns the alphabet via phonics, he can count to twenty, he knows all his colours and is pretty good on shapes and it is AMAZING how adept the little ones are at using computers (and phones), much better than I am at it.
He's not a particularly bright kid, though it's obviously hard to tell at his age and his attention span is the usual for a boy, he wants to play not learn. But I've been impressed with how much they learn through repetitive play-based learning. It's seems a lot more focussed and joined-up that when I was that age.
For instance, we got given a sheet from which he needs to start learning cursive writing. I didn't do cursive writing till I was about seven or eight, but his teacher said it helps with their reading/spacing of words. He can't write his name normally yet so it does seem a bit premature! But overall it does appear that the teachers are getting stuck into them young, giving all the kids - good or bad - an advanced learning-set to help with their reading/writing/spelling.
Which must be a good thing.
But if Gove can improve things again, then great. The biggest barrier when I was at school (in an admittedly, very rough - all boys - comprehensive) was the stigma attached to bright kids. They got bullied and battered and shunned as swots. I was fairly bright and got into the top sets but I avoided all the hassle by being good at sport and hanging out with the nutters. Staying under the radar!
It's out for consultation - tell them what you would drop:
http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/h/history 04-02-13.pdf
Interesting that so many think the same-even those not interested in education. Fine post Ricardohos and well worth looking at the Ken Robinson clip again. The country has moved on and dinosaurs like Gove and his party are dying a slow death.
Whilst Gove certainly grew up in Aberdeen, he was born and adopted in Glasgow (according to his own account): the move to Aberdeen happened when he was very young and he was also educated there, having won the first of several scholarships during his academic career.
Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband would have unruly tigers to ride in that event, were it to happen before the next election.
My brother isn't one for thinking for himself and is easily influenced. So recently I asked him to show me some Union propaganda (teachers get emailed newsletters and stuff) and fair play to the teaching unions - a bit a cult - they are extremely well organising in resisting change and influencing teachers to rally against Gove.
Which begs the question. Is the cultural (and left of centre) resistance to change among the NUT worse than a right of centre politician attempting to drive change, for better or for worse?
I fear Gove will eventually be overwhelmed by the teaching fraternity. They are just too powerful.
Though perhaps that can best be left to A-level.
There is the problem that history does not get harder as it approaches the present in the same way that, say, mathematics does. In maths, you pretty much have to teach counting and adding up in what we used to call infant schools, then simple arithmetic and times tables and so on.
If history is taught chronologically, you end up with a seven-year-old's understanding of the stone age, a 14-year-old's knowledge of the Tudors, and so on (and history ends whenever the subject is dropped). We might as easily teach history in reverse chronological order, starting with the election of Mr Cameron and working backwards, so that the older children study the Romans and come away knowing more than that they wore togas.
Skin-colour does not endow sainthood, even of the feeble secular kind; neither does right-on, left-wing politics. When the old-man passes-away he will be mourned but only St Peter can allow him through the Pearly-Gates....
I hope that everyone has a good Easter and that the weather isn't too unkind to any of us. I'll be in Hull staying with my girlfriend... we take the cold weather as a given there most of the time anyway.
The political importance, and one that is not much debated, is that not only adverts but also search results and even news are also targeted. We are rapidly approaching the situation where each side really does have not just its own opinions but its own facts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/9960531/Anti-racism-group-reports-England-to-Fifa-after-fans-sang-abusive-songs-during-World-Cup-qualifier-in-San-Marino.html
Does anyone know who this FARE grouping are? Their claims seem juvenile.
As it's Easter, and given his past tweets (and a need to be redeemed), would it not be nice for Rio to stand-up and say 'Enough!'. It's football fer-gawd-sake...!
http://www.ted.com/talks/taryn_simon_photographs_secret_sites.html
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/newspaper-and-magazine-layout-disasters
There's a fairly short list of obscure pedagogical issues like this that the entire political class seems to have strong, deeply-held opinions about, but otherwise they seem to mercifully leave huge swathes of education to the people teaching it. For example, chemistry teachers don't seem to have to deal with parliamentary committees demanding that they teach acids before bases, or do all the chemicals in the order you'd find them on the periodic table. (Or maybe they do and it doesn't get reported?)
This was sound preparation for me going on to study the subject at University, where they were perfectly satisfied with my fact-based preparation.
I can't speak for educational theories. I'm restricted to only having actually done this in real life.
British trained doctors are now very good at breaking bad news, and generally much better at communication than my generation. I was examining for medical school finals last week and this was consistently true. What they were much less good at was explaining their findings in terms of anatomy and pathology, and proposing treatments. They need both skills.
The education debate also needs both. One cannot discuss the role of Mary Seacole intelligently without some background facts on the British Empire, war in Crimea and 19th century politics. Context is required for history, as biological knowledge is for medicine.
[I assume therefore, that the schools set no formal homework!]
In addition, most pupils also attend all-day Saturday classes (ie for 12 hrs or so) and most in the documentaries I have seen , also study at home on Sundays.
In classes, which can sometimes be very large, the pupils sit in neat, serried rows and the teacher teaches, whilst the pupils listen, take notes and only answer questions when asked directly: it is a very, very traditional, Victorian-style approach to education.
It is clear that ALL teachers are respected in a way that has probably not been true in British schools for 100 years - SOME British teachers certainly command a classroom in the same way - but by no means all!
It is a style of education designed to impart a large body of factual knowledge and not to inspire imagination or individuality - it is also fiercely competitive - and NOT a type of education that I, or anyone else in the West, would like to see adopted en bloc, over here.
There are no Modular exams and re-sits happen 12 months later (a fair percentage seem to retake their 18+ exam if they do not do well enough first time around: it's 'all or nothing', though - the ENTIRE suite of exams (not unlike IB) have to be resat, not just a single subject.
A typical pupil there, has 70+ hours of formal, structured, academic study each week, and does maybe another 10-20 hours of 'personal study'.
In Britain, a typical school day is 9-3, with an hour for lunch, or 25 hrs/week, to which must be added 10 hrs or so of 'personal study' - again, for a typical 16+ yo student.
With roughly 3x the numbers of hours of structured lessons each week, it is hardly surprising, therefore, that Asian/Oriental students do exceptionally well on International educational tables, which, I strongly suspect, place great emphasis on knowledge acquisition, rather than imaginative, personal interpretation.
There are also very roughly 25x as many children in such educational systems as there are in England, so you'd expect there to be a similar proportion of exceptionally high academic achievers, who will lead the next generation of scientific discoveries, innovations and applications of technology to everyday life: the Samsung v Apple rivalry for smart-phones is a case in point: the latest Samsung offering being ahead of the Apple i5, by most accounts.
History has a much bigger significance on one's self image as a nation though. And when Creationism tries to creep into science teaching - its railed against very strongly by most.
I can think of several times when a political bent was clear in my own teaching both at school and at college - there is no place for it but we have to accept that those who feel strongly will seek to influence their charges.
The way history is taught and the issues the teaching focuses on can have a significant impact on the views that children develop, which is why it is such a political hot potato. Politicians of any shade should not be allowed anywhere near it.
LOL - I recall a marvellously revealing typo when I worked for Mercury. In those olden times when firms actually printed their internal directories and sent one to each employee - HR's database listed everyone who was due for the chop as *Overhead* instead of their job title or dept - we all got a copy and many were initially rather affronted at this odd labelling.
And then they got the boot a few weeks later as part of a massive redundancy cull.
IIRC British Rail timetables also managed to replace a railway station with Ulan Bator as the terminus when a compiler got bored...
Does anyone actually still believe that the police log is a genuine and honest account of what happened that evening?
Does anyone care
A few years ago, my daughter's homework was about the blitz ... along the lines of "put yourself in their place, how would you have felt, and what would you have needed?"
It seems to her and her classmates that the obvious answer was counselling. I knew then that modern teaching had "moved on".
Personally, I'd have thought the obvious answer was better anti-aircraft guns and a bloody deep shelter, but what do I know?
As a student of history I was amazed at the level of bias or to be polite influence a lecturer had in influencing a viewpoint.
We had right wing and left wing lecturers and they clearly taught history with a very different agenda.
I know multivalent vaccines, and I know the risk of overstimulation from products that combine multiple antigens. A major international company has had to pull products from the market in Chile for exactly this reason.
he who controls the present controls the past
he who controls the past controls the future
I only took history and the classics for the minimal period necessary at school. This was largely due to the stupid system of subject selection and partly because history was taught in a fairly boring fashion.
However, since leaving school I've read a bit of history. A sound grounding in facts and figures would seem an obvious prerequisite to being to able to form a critical perspective. You can't praise or condemn Caesar if you don't understand how skilful some of his marches were, or how fortunate he was that (after Dyrrachium) Pompey succumbed to senatorial pressure to stupidly march after him.
Miss CD13 (it is Miss, right?), that depresses me [although I do not need counselling]. I'm really not into this "How did the ordinary person feel?" kind of history. Alexander the Great matters more than a Macedonian sheep farmer from 330BC. It's slightly perverse that we have a celebrity culture fixated upon often talentless types in the modern world, but when it comes to genuine heroes and geniuses and villains of yesteryear some now prefer to focus on people who achieved nothing of historical importance whatsoever. What kind of world prefers Peter Andre in the present and shuns Nikola Tesla and Aurelian when viewing the past?
That said, it's not an either/or, but in a limited space of time (ie teaching history for a year or two) the focus should be on the greats of history.
Why would anyone want to have their child treated at a place that wasn't particularly good at what it did [or potentially dangerous to its health] just because it was a few miles closer?
It's hardly Orwellian to teach British history. But then, I think you're being a tinker on purpose.
Fluffy , it appears it is a network of 40 groups throughout Europe. http://www.farenet.org/
The Centre for Policy Studies has spotted that deep within the Budget Red Book is the admission that the cashflow shortfall between public sector pensions’ contributions and pensions in payment is now forecast to double within 5 years. The pensions gap is growing to such an extent that it will soon represent a significant driver of the deficit. The 2013 Budget now forecasts a Public Sector New Borrowing Requirement of £96 billion for 2015 – the year the Coalition optimistically intended to close the deficit. At £13.6 billion, the pension cashflow shortfall will then be equivalent to 14% of the deficit.
Being a thread that has touched Mandela, does anyone know what happened to these terrorists?
http://metro.co.uk/2006/09/11/scottish-terrorists-in-water-threat-233300/
I remember when the story broke but have no idea how the criminal investigation went. It may be that the Government (and their Armed-Wing, The Met) chose not to do what the Irish State eventually did...?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jul/23/scottish-nationalist-terror-bomb-hoax-court
Government Approval rating (Net)
GB: -35
Germ: -40
Fra: -49
Swe: -33
Den: -44
Fin: -22
Nor: -31
http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/eh65gpse1v/YG-Archive_Eurotrack-March-Cyprus-EU-representatives-Easter.pdf
RT @frasernelson: A Brit is dying from cold every 7 minutes, while ministers still fret about global warming. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/elderhealth/9959856/Its-the-cold-not-global-warming-that-we-should-be-worried-about.html