Thats the problem when you get a politician on the back foot. Of course anti semitism has to be eradicated as all racism does but when McDonnel says things like "I believe we should take the advice of the British Board of Deputies" you begin to worry that all his research is as suspect.
The board of Deputies had as their leader Granville Janner for almost a decade and to suggest he and they represented British Jews is just ignorance. There are more different types and mixes of British Jew than there have ever been. Which one exactly does The Board of Deputies represent? Janner like his father was a Zionist and it's largely thanks to him that disapproving of Israeli policies has now become classified as anti semitism.
I don't particularly want to attack him after he's just died but I can honestly say I've never encountered a more unpleasant person
I'm not a McDonnell cheer leader by any means. But I think it is good that he recognises that there is- or may be - a problem and that he is trying to address it. Let's see what action it leads to.
And the question of whom one should consult can be addressed by talking to a range of people within a community, including - for instance - some of the Labour MPs who have suffered some pretty vile abuse. Luciana Berger, for instance. A number of Labour MPs have shown admirable clarity on this: Chris Bryant comes to mind.
Makes me laugh when PB Tories think there is a wealth of talent to replace Dave and then list
Gove (Toxic) Morgan (Lightweight) BoJo (joke candidate) Master Strategist (Toxic) Hunt (Compete failure in current role/lightweight) Javid (Doesnt know the differenence between an Australian jolly and doing everything we can) May (The silent one)
Christ both main parties have a lack of talent!!
Don't misunderestimate Matt Hancock, my 80/1 tip for next Tory leader.
I thought your tip was Javeed?
I back them long and trade out.
Javid has to be the biggest disappointment since The Phantom Menace
Yup. I now think the next Conservative leader will be one of the ladies, but who? Theresa May is too old and too worn out for the job (she looks worse than even Hillary Clinton). One of the younger ladies then. Truss, she of the wonderful blues eyes and sardonic half-smile, has been almost as big a disappointment as Javid. Dunno, but the only one I can see with the necessary steel is Patel.
Ok, she is not perfect but she has, I think, what in previous times would have been called "bottom" and has, from a Conservative point of view, sound instincts. The next time I am passing the bookies I think I'll put a few quid on her.
I always mean to do a thread on Anna Soubry as next Tory leader.
Even one of my friends who is an ardent leaver likes her approach to politics.
The quote was she had Thatcheresque balls when she took on Nigel Farage for being such a scaremonger.
Still, if you've seen him speak and like him I bow to your greater knowledge.
There trick will be seeing if he can walk the walk, plenty of politicians are capable of spinning a good line and looking and sounding credible, only relatively few actually make a noticeable difference when in office. Blair had this is spades, sounded great, achieved almost nothing, especially considering his massive majority.
The exposure of Mossack Fonseca in Panama is a nice job by the ICIJ.
But whenever hiding money is concerned, many roads lead to London.
The chairman of Mossack Fonseca & Co (UK) Limited is Manny Cohen. Another company that works closely with MF is the Raymond Morris Group, which Cohen also chairs.
Meanwhile the Bank of England holds huge sums for foreign heads of state and their family members, using its company the Bank of England Nominees Limited.
When this referendum campaign began, and I said that the key issue was sovereignty, I remember people giving me pitying looks. No one cares about sovereignty, they said. Well, losing sovereignty is just a fancy way of talking about losing control – and I think people care passionately about it...
I spoke to one long-serving Hertfordshire GP who said she had never seen such pressure – and what can we do? Nothing. We can’t take emergency action against dumped Chinese steel, even with British industry on its knees. We can’t cut our own self-imposed energy costs. We can’t set our own language tests for practising doctors. We can’t control our borders.
Apollo was driven by a Cold War patriotic surge, not something that can be reproduced at will.
The Cold War was over by the time the US put men on the moon, but it's true that the initial push had to do with US-Soviet competition and how the US was not only behind in the space race, but seen to be behind in it, in its own home market. Which was great for NASA contractors.
Dunno about that, Mr. J.. I have been following the Sabre development for some time and it looks to be coming on very nicely. If I had serious money to invest I would be trying to get a chunk of the action.
On a side note when you say, "we should be tentatively investing in as a nation", I hope you don't mean HMG should be putting money into such projects. Not for ideological reasons but I can imagine no better way of buggering up a development project than by having civil servants meddle with it on the grounds of "protecting the taxpayers investment".
The work they've done on the air precooler is amazing, and will almost certainly have other industrial applications. But they've still got a long way to go to have a working, usable engine under the sort of conditions it is supposed to work at, yet alone a workable airframe.
But their progress so far is worthy of further investment IMO. Just as the near-perfect (ahem) chancellor has.
The UK Government is expected to confirm grant funding of £60 million for Reaction Engines to further SABRE’s development towards a ground based test engine and to investigate its applications for space access vehicles. Together with BAE Systems’ investment, this significant injection of capital will support Reaction Engines’ transition from a successful research phase into development and testing of the engine, including plans to expand its workforce of skilled engineers.
Osborne would make much better business and trade minister than chancellor, in my view. He has a real flair for it.
"... a public house, a location to which teachers invariably repair to drown their sorrows at the end of a working week"
Crumbs, when I was at school the teachers used to go to the pub at lunchtime. In fact there was a firm, but unwritten rule as to who drank where. The "Original Woodman" public house, which was right next door to the school, was used by the maths & science masters; whilst the English and history teachers went to the Castle PH further up the High Street. The other masters including the head went to the pub by the river the name of which I cannot now remember. No teachers ever went into the Raven because that was the preserve of the Sixth Form.
Gove was privately educated, as a scholarship boy. In fact, in educational terms their backgrounds are almost identical. Gove went to a private school for free, Corbyn went to first a private school, then a boarding school that didn't charge fees for day boys.
I agree with Jonathan that he is also toxic in other ways. He gives many hostages to fortune, a bit like Roy Jenkins maybe.
Gove was the adopted son of the manager of a fish factory who get a scholarship because he was clever.
Corbyn grew up in a seven bedroom manor house in Shropshire and got 2 E's because he wasn't.
I suspect the meltdown in Port Talbot will put paid to that.
he has had a bad run:
- spineless in EUref - buried his head in sand before steel crisis - bonus arrangements while a banker - jolly to Oz
can't really see him recovering from that.
None of those actually matter in reality ('spineless' means he's taken a pragmatic view on the risks, not clear what he could have done on steel, bankers who are any good get bonuses, unclear why he shouldn't go to Oz), although I agree some will hold those against him.
What does matter IMO is that he hasn't actually been very good at BIS. Where's the deregulation he's supposed to be leading across all areas of government? The fact that he doesn't seem to have achieved anything at all suggests he's not capable of driving change through in the face of bureaucratic inertia. Therefore, not a good candidate for leader.
Actually I think they all do.
For someone who wants to be a leader publishing and standing by your principles is important, folding on the first challenge is damaging. There's lots he could have done on steel - given them more orders, changed the energy regime etc. And on the personal side while you forgive him dodgy bonus arrangements and jollies, many out there won't -it's a vulnerability he now has.
Has this been posted here yet? Looks like the LD to Tory switchers who helped the Conservatives win in May are starting to switch back. Tory complacency and head-banging is going to lose the next election for them at this rate.
March 2016 Westminster VI poll from BMG Research (Online Fieldwork 24-29 March 2016):
36% (-2) – Conservatives 31% (+1) – Labour 7% (+2) – Liberal Democrats 16% (nc) – UKIP 5% (nc) – Green 7% (nc) – All other
The problem with this is that the 7% for the LDs in this poll is less than the 8% they got in the election. It looks more likely that the previous poll had the LDs too low rather than this being a genuine change.
Gove was privately educated, as a scholarship boy. In fact, in educational terms their backgrounds are almost identical. Gove went to a private school for free, Corbyn went to first a private school, then a boarding school that didn't charge fees for day boys.
I agree with Jonathan that he is also toxic in other ways. He gives many hostages to fortune, a bit like Roy Jenkins maybe.
Gove was the adopted son of the manager of a fish factory who get a scholarship because he was clever.
Corbyn grew up in a seven bedroom manor house in Shropshire and got 2 E's because he wasn't.
Is that one that you photograhed earlier?
No, there is this newfangled tool that maybe hasn't found its way over to the French Riviera yet.
Given that the Blairmore holdings links are now being splashed all over the papers I wonder if Matt will have the good grace to apologise to Hunchman for calling him a fantastist?
@JosiasJessop Once the tech gets proven to a prototype level I expect one of the big US companies (Google, Apple, Amazon etc) will step in and buy the company (Noon else has the spare £12 Bn for development)
Given that the Blairmore holdings links are now being splashed all over the papers I wonder if Matt will have the good grace to apologise to Hunchman for calling him a fantastist?
I just love the irony of Blair and More for Dave's company.
When this referendum campaign began, and I said that the key issue was sovereignty, I remember people giving me pitying looks. No one cares about sovereignty, they said. Well, losing sovereignty is just a fancy way of talking about losing control – and I think people care passionately about it...
I spoke to one long-serving Hertfordshire GP who said she had never seen such pressure – and what can we do? Nothing. We can’t take emergency action against dumped Chinese steel, even with British industry on its knees. We can’t cut our own self-imposed energy costs. We can’t set our own language tests for practising doctors. We can’t control our borders.
Not true.
Employers are perfectly within their rights to refuse to employ a doctor with poor language skills.
Though sometimes the dilemma is to appoint a poor locum or none at all. Each contains its own risks.
"... a public house, a location to which teachers invariably repair to drown their sorrows at the end of a working week"
Crumbs, when I was at school the teachers used to go to the pub at lunchtime. In fact there was a firm, but unwritten rule as to who drank where. The "Original Woodman" public house, which was right next door to the school, was used by the maths & science masters; whilst the English and history teachers went to the Castle PH further up the High Street. The other masters including the head went to the pub by the river the name of which I cannot now remember. No teachers ever went into the Raven because that was the preserve of the Sixth Form.
Always embarrassing to run into the VIth form at lunchtime. Particularly embarrassing to discipline them for drinking while holding a pint.
Nevertheless, I can top that. There is one school a few miles to the north, which shall be nameless, that had a bar in the staffroom open at lunchtimes and in the afternoons. It was joked that lessons were much improved after lunch (I can imagine)! A new head arrived and tore it out. All his staff promptly left.
All I care about is that the politician is educated - in the widest sense - and shows some signs of intelligent life, judgment and common-sense. This is rarer than one might suppose, even among the apparently highly educated.
I meet lots of very educated people in the City. And some of them are the stupidest people I've encountered.
Politics seems to me to be a bit like that.
I'm sure you're right about education being primarily parents' choice and I've never taken the "Eton boys" line. The only thing is that I think that as one grows up, one needs if one's interested in politics (maybe even if one isn't) to think about what kinds of life one hasn't experienced at all, and either do something to experience them or at least acknowledge that there's a gap. Nobody can experience everything, after all. My dad went to Winchester, but then spent a year lodging in the East End (iron bath under the kitchen table used once a week), helping to run a boys' club: he felt it was a helpful way of understanding life beyond what he'd been used to. "You used to speak funny when you came but you sound more normal now," one of the kids said.
I think Cameron makes a passable shot at that - he doesn't give the impression of being uninterested in what it's like to be educated in a Liverpool comp, and he doesn't pretend to know it all personally. Gove is bright enough to deal with everyone at an intellectual level, and doesn't give a snobbish impression, just rather an abstract one. Osborne gives the impression of cruising serenely in his comfort zone. Boris is so much about Boris that I don't think it matters where he was educated - I doubt if he's very interested in anyone else regardless of their background.
Yes - that is a very fair point. Before I started my formal training as a lawyer, I did voluntary work at the North Kensington Law Centre: criminal and housing work. It was eye opening and in many ways the best legal experience I have had because it taught me two important things: (a) your aptitude for the type of law you do is at least as important, if not more so, than your intellectual ability; and (b) how to get on with people from a very different background to mine, without patronising them or pretending to be like them. I've never consciously changed how I speak but I think people can tell if you're pretending to be less posh or whatever than you are. People respond badly IMO to people being inauthentic because it is so condescending. It was quite a challenge having to go to various B&Bs in Notting Hill/Ladbroke Grove to drag truculent 16 year olds out of bed for their court appearances but after that nothing held many fears.
It's empathy we need from our politicians not sympathy. Or, to put it more shortly, a bit of imagination.
Makes me laugh when PB Tories think there is a wealth of talent to replace Dave and then list
Gove (Toxic) Morgan (Lightweight) BoJo (joke candidate) Master Strategist (Toxic) Hunt (Compete failure in current role/lightweight) Javid (Doesnt know the differenence between an Australian jolly and doing everything we can) May (The silent one)
Christ both main parties have a lack of talent!!
Don't misunderestimate Matt Hancock, my 80/1 tip for next Tory leader.
I thought your tip was Javeed?
I back them long and trade out.
Javid has to be the biggest disappointment since The Phantom Menace
Yup. I now think the next Conservative leader will be one of the ladies, but who? Theresa May is too old and too worn out for the job (she looks worse than even Hillary Clinton). One of the younger ladies then. Truss, she of the wonderful blues eyes and sardonic half-smile, has been almost as big a disappointment as Javid. Dunno, but the only one I can see with the necessary steel is Patel.
Ok, she is not perfect but she has, I think, what in previous times would have been called "bottom" and has, from a Conservative point of view, sound instincts. The next time I am passing the bookies I think I'll put a few quid on her.
I always mean to do a thread on Anna Soubry as next Tory leader.
Even one of my friends who is an ardent leaver likes her approach to politics.
The quote was she had Thatcheresque balls when she took on Nigel Farage for being such a scaremonger.
I really can't stand her. Nothing to do with her views on the EU. I disliked her long before I ever knew what they were.
It is her sneering attitude and her habit of playing the man rather than the ball I dislike. There are more than a few Leave supporting MPs I feel the same way about.
Makes me laugh when PB Tories think there is a wealth of talent to replace Dave and then list
Gove (Toxic) Morgan (Lightweight) BoJo (joke candidate) Master Strategist (Toxic) Hunt (Compete failure in current role/lightweight) Javid (Doesnt know the differenence between an Australian jolly and doing everything we can) May (The silent one)
Christ both main parties have a lack of talent!!
Don't misunderestimate Matt Hancock, my 80/1 tip for next Tory leader.
I thought your tip was Javeed?
I back them long and trade out.
Javid has to be the biggest disappointment since The Phantom Menace
Yup. I now think the next Conservative leader will be one of the ladies, but who? Theresa May is too old and too worn out for the job (she looks worse than even Hillary Clinton). One of the younger ladies then. Truss, she of the wonderful blues eyes and sardonic half-smile, has been almost as big a disappointment as Javid. Dunno, but the only one I can see with the necessary steel is Patel.
Ok, she is not perfect but she has, I think, what in previous times would have been called "bottom" and has, from a Conservative point of view, sound instincts. The next time I am passing the bookies I think I'll put a few quid on her.
I always mean to do a thread on Anna Soubry as next Tory leader.
Even one of my friends who is an ardent leaver likes her approach to politics.
The quote was she had Thatcheresque balls when she took on Nigel Farage for being such a scaremonger.
I really can't stand her. Nothing to do with her views on the EU. I disliked her long before I ever knew what they were.
It is her sneering attitude and her habit of playing the man rather than the ball I dislike. There are more than a few Leave supporting MPs I feel the same way about.
Yup, her attitude to UK Industry borders on the Marie Antoinette.
Stronger In Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, warns: We’d lose booze cruise if voters choose Brexit: https://t.co/4AeGGNLI4i #StrongerIn
Does anybody still do that?
I was under the impression that the UK outside the EU would set its own duties, so it would perfectly acceptable for the government of the day to decide to charge no duty on certain imports. Is McLoughlin actually saying the government would be opting to put a duty on the imports that are currently duty free ?
Thats the problem when you get a politician on the back foot. Of course anti semitism has to be eradicated as all racism does but when McDonnel says things like "I believe we should take the advice of the British Board of Deputies" you begin to worry that all his research is as suspect.
The board of Deputies had as their leader Granville Janner for almost a decade and to suggest he and they represented British Jews is just ignorance. There are more different types and mixes of British Jew than there have ever been. Which one exactly does The Board of Deputies represent? Janner like his father was a Zionist and it's largely thanks to him that disapproving of Israeli policies has now become classified as anti semitism.
I don't particularly want to attack him after he's just died but I can honestly say I've never encountered a more unpleasant person
I'm not a McDonnell cheer leader by any means. But I think it is good that he recognises that there is- or may be - a problem and that he is trying to address it. Let's see what action it leads to.
And the question of whom one should consult can be addressed by talking to a range of people within a community, including - for instance - some of the Labour MPs who have suffered some pretty vile abuse. Luciana Berger, for instance. A number of Labour MPs have shown admirable clarity on this: Chris Bryant comes to mind.
We agree at last. I just hate Israel getting a free ride by trumping every criticism with "Anti Semitism" and it's very calculated and like the boy who cried wolf it gives a voice to real anti semites.
I received the rebuttal to this story within hours of it breaking. Apparently the whole thing was engineered by the Arabs to make the Israelis look bad. Once the Israelis got their PR machine into gear it was something to behold and it still makes me angry
"... a public house, a location to which teachers invariably repair to drown their sorrows at the end of a working week"
Crumbs, when I was at school the teachers used to go to the pub at lunchtime. In fact there was a firm, but unwritten rule as to who drank where. The "Original Woodman" public house, which was right next door to the school, was used by the maths & science masters; whilst the English and history teachers went to the Castle PH further up the High Street. The other masters including the head went to the pub by the river the name of which I cannot now remember. No teachers ever went into the Raven because that was the preserve of the Sixth Form.
Always embarrassing to run into the VIth form at lunchtime. Particularly embarrassing to discipline them for drinking while holding a pint.
Nevertheless, I can top that. There is one school a few miles to the north, which shall be nameless, that had a bar in the staffroom open at lunchtimes and in the afternoons. It was joked that lessons were much improved after lunch (I can imagine)! A new head arrived and tore it out. All his staff promptly left.
I did get a "cheers" from my chemistry teacher one lunchtime down the pub when I was at sixth form. No formal discipline, but my mum was unimpressed at parents evening.
Though why should MPs be allowed a lunchtime pint when other workers are not? :-)
Is it just me? I really don't give a toss about the Panama stuff.
If it's a collection of hasbeens and neverweres then it's really a case of "who cares" for me, if it spreads to involve sitting politicians, especially those on the front benches it gets a bit more noteworthy.
I suspect the meltdown in Port Talbot will put paid to that.
he has had a bad run:
- spineless in EUref - buried his head in sand before steel crisis - bonus arrangements while a banker - jolly to Oz
can't really see him recovering from that.
None of those actually matter in reality ('spineless' means he's taken a pragmatic view on the risks, not clear what he could have done on steel, bankers who are any good get bonuses, unclear why he shouldn't go to Oz), although I agree some will hold those against him.
Lots of bankers who are bloody useless get bonuses. It's almost as if they forget that a salary is what you get paid for doing your job.
The producer capture in the investment banking sector is one of the worst aspects of it. They have been behaving for too long as if investment banks were still partnerships and they are entitled to a share in the profits when the reality is that all that ceased decades ago.
Too many bankers are like those girls in the L'Oreal ads: bleating "Because we're worth it."
Looks like a false account - but still funny... Polly Toynbee @TuscanyTowers Luckily my employers @guardian are not affected by #PanamaLeaks as all our loot is stashed on the Cayman Islands #winning #socialism
Stronger In Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, warns: We’d lose booze cruise if voters choose Brexit: https://t.co/4AeGGNLI4i #StrongerIn
Does anybody still do that?
I was under the impression that the UK outside the EU would set its own duties, so it would perfectly acceptable for the government of the day to decide to charge no duty on certain imports. Is McLoughlin actually saying the government would be opting to put a duty on the imports that are currently duty free ?
Currently there is a limit if you try to bring alcohol into the UK from countries outside the EU. Obviously if we leave the EU then these will apply to any alcohol coming into the UK.
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
Got up late today did you. Did you notice that Gove has backed her all the way or is he actually fallible?
Stronger In Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, warns: We’d lose booze cruise if voters choose Brexit: https://t.co/4AeGGNLI4i #StrongerIn
Does anybody still do that?
I was under the impression that the UK outside the EU would set its own duties, so it would perfectly acceptable for the government of the day to decide to charge no duty on certain imports. Is McLoughlin actually saying the government would be opting to put a duty on the imports that are currently duty free ?
Currently there is a limit if you try to bring alcohol into the UK from countries outside the EU. Obviously if we leave the EU then these will apply to any alcohol coming into the UK.
Indeed. But those limits are set by the UK government who could chose to change them or abolish them completely. McLoughlin is blaming Leave for making the government do something it could chose not to do.
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
I see you're butting in to attack me by proxy now. Truth hurts.
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
Got up late today did you. Did you notice that Gove has backed her all the way or is he actually fallible?
Yes I know he did, because BrExit aside he is a team player. Do you really think in private he is delighted that he had all those fights with the teachers just to watch her back pedal on half of them ?
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
I see you're butting in to attack me by proxy now. Truth hurts.
When you find some, rather that your usual pointless whining, please let us know.
"... a public house, a location to which teachers invariably repair to drown their sorrows at the end of a working week"
Crumbs, when I was at school the teachers used to go to the pub at lunchtime. In fact there was a firm, but unwritten rule as to who drank where. The "Original Woodman" public house, which was right next door to the school, was used by the maths & science masters; whilst the English and history teachers went to the Castle PH further up the High Street. The other masters including the head went to the pub by the river the name of which I cannot now remember. No teachers ever went into the Raven because that was the preserve of the Sixth Form.
Always embarrassing to run into the VIth form at lunchtime. Particularly embarrassing to discipline them for drinking while holding a pint.
Nevertheless, I can top that. There is one school a few miles to the north, which shall be nameless, that had a bar in the staffroom open at lunchtimes and in the afternoons. It was joked that lessons were much improved after lunch (I can imagine)! A new head arrived and tore it out. All his staff promptly left.
I did get a "cheers" from my chemistry teacher one lunchtime down the pub when I was at sixth form. No formal discipline, but my mum was unimpressed at parents evening.
Though why should MPs be allowed a lunchtime pint when other workers are not? :-)
But it wouldn't affect their legislative capacity, would it? After all, how many times do politicians actually think before bolting through the division lobby with a whip behind them?
However, controlling a class of 30 15 year olds, or diagnosing that pain in an old lady's stomach, requires skill and alertness. This holds true even if you teach a non-subject like say, Geography
Makes me laugh when PB Tories think there is a wealth of talent to replace Dave and then list
Gove (Toxic) Morgan (Lightweight) BoJo (joke candidate) Master Strategist (Toxic) Hunt (Compete failure in current role/lightweight) Javid (Doesnt know the differenence between an Australian jolly and doing everything we can) May (The silent one)
Christ both main parties have a lack of talent!!
Don't misunderestimate Matt Hancock, my 80/1 tip for next Tory leader.
I thought your tip was Javeed?
I back them long and trade out.
Javid has to be the biggest disappointment since The Phantom Menace
Yup. I now think the next Conservative leader will be one of the ladies, but who? Theresa May is too old and too worn out for the job (she looks worse than even Hillary Clinton). One of the younger ladies then. Truss, she of the wonderful blues eyes and sardonic half-smile, has been almost as big a disappointment as Javid. Dunno, but the only one I can see with the necessary steel is Patel.
Ok, she is not perfect but she has, I think, what in previous times would have been called "bottom" and has, from a Conservative point of view, sound instincts. The next time I am passing the bookies I think I'll put a few quid on her.
I always mean to do a thread on Anna Soubry as next Tory leader.
Even one of my friends who is an ardent leaver likes her approach to politics.
The quote was she had Thatcheresque balls when she took on Nigel Farage for being such a scaremonger.
I really can't stand her. Nothing to do with her views on the EU. I disliked her long before I ever knew what they were.
It is her sneering attitude and her habit of playing the man rather than the ball I dislike. There are more than a few Leave supporting MPs I feel the same way about.
Yup, her attitude to UK Industry borders on the Marie Antoinette.
think the BF next tory leader may be a bit broken. The Mogg is currently 3.7.
Given that the Blairmore holdings links are now being splashed all over the papers I wonder if Matt will have the good grace to apologise to Hunchman for calling him a fantastist?
His remarkably precise predictions of economic collapse remain less than accurate. Combined with vague claims of paedophiles and money laundering it's a brief stroll into tin foil territory.
Makes me laugh when PB Tories think there is a wealth of talent to replace Dave and then list
Gove (Toxic) Morgan (Lightweight) BoJo (joke candidate) Master Strategist (Toxic) Hunt (Compete failure in current role/lightweight) Javid (Doesnt know the differenence between an Australian jolly and doing everything we can) May (The silent one)
Christ both main parties have a lack of talent!!
Don't misunderestimate Matt Hancock, my 80/1 tip for next Tory leader.
I thought your tip was Javeed?
I back them long and trade out.
Javid has to be the biggest disappointment since The Phantom Menace
Yup. I now think the next Conservative leader will be one of the ladies, but who? Theresa May is too old and too worn out for the job (she looks worse than even Hillary Clinton). One of the younger ladies then. Truss, she of the wonderful blues eyes and sardonic half-smile, has been almost as big a disappointment as Javid. Dunno, but the only one I can see with the necessary steel is Patel.
Ok, she is not perfect but she has, I think, what in previous times would have been called "bottom" and has, from a Conservative point of view, sound instincts. The next time I am passing the bookies I think I'll put a few quid on her.
I always mean to do a thread on Anna Soubry as next Tory leader.
Even one of my friends who is an ardent leaver likes her approach to politics.
The quote was she had Thatcheresque balls when she took on Nigel Farage for being such a scaremonger.
I really can't stand her. Nothing to do with her views on the EU. I disliked her long before I ever knew what they were.
It is her sneering attitude and her habit of playing the man rather than the ball I dislike. There are more than a few Leave supporting MPs I feel the same way about.
Yup, her attitude to UK Industry borders on the Marie Antoinette.
think the BF next tory leader may be a bit broken. The Mogg is currently 3.7.
What's his lay price though. That's the real one in an illiquid market.
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
I see you're butting in to attack me by proxy now. Truth hurts.
When you find some, rather that your usual pointless whining, please let us know.
Looks like a false account - but still funny... Polly Toynbee @TuscanyTowers Luckily my employers @guardian are not affected by #PanamaLeaks as all our loot is stashed on the Cayman Islands #winning #socialism
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
Got up late today did you. Did you notice that Gove has backed her all the way or is he actually fallible?
Yes I know he did, because BrExit aside he is a team player. Do you really think in private he is delighted that he had all those fights with the teachers just to watch her back pedal on half of them ?
Ah - of course only you can read his mind for those private thoughts. Silly me for forgetting - although you do realise you're accusing him of hypocricy
Re: Teachers and drinking off site meeting pupils. At just under 16 I was in local cinema watching an X (18) movie. When lights came up behind me was English teacher. He never said a word.
It's the most bizarre tyranny - did you see the long explanation on the Facebook story about it taking months of lurking to feel safe to comment and it being terrifying? And requiring apologies if you don't follow their micron wide tolerance?
It makes Mumsnet look like the bastion of free expression.
"On the eve of the Wisconsin primaries, top Republicans are becoming increasingly vocal about their long-held belief that Speaker Paul Ryan will wind up as the nominee, perhaps on the fourth ballot at a chaotic Cleveland convention."
Even without the pitchforks, there may be important political betting implications if any of the American presidential candidates is named, or anyone in any other event we can bet on.
Otherwise it just seems a bunch of rich people hiding wealth from the taxman or, in more volatile regions, the leaders of the next coup. But we said that about the expenses scandal and that took a few scalps. Early days.
The story which is all over Australia and Reddit is the Unaoil bribery allegations, but it does not seem to have legs here.
Is it just me or does NM look like GO in drag in this photo ?
I also did think of Ms Morgan and a drag queen. I also once wondered about Eddie Izzard and her, had they been seen in the same room? But then Eddie's heroic marathons earn a kind word from me.
From page 16 of OCR's handbook for the new History B specification, on choosing an Historic Site to study:
Centre’s [sic- let's leave it] must choose their own site and all sites must be checked by OCR. Centres must use the History Around Us Site Proposal Form to submit their chosen site, along with the centre’s choice of Component Groups 1 and 3 topics, to OCR for approval. Please remember that your chosen site must not be directly linked to other topics studied.
You can access the History Around Us Site Proposal Form through the OCR website (see also Appendix 5d). Centres must submit their History Around Us Site Proposal Form every series even if the site studied has been approved previously. Please ensure that the History Around Us Site Proposal Form is submitted to OCR before 31 January in the year of entry. OCR will verify the site to be studied and will confirm to the centres that it is appropriate and meets the specific criteria on the opposite page.
OCR consultants may contact centres requesting further information in order to be able to confirm the appropriateness of the site. Centres must wait until they have received confirmation from OCR that the chosen site is suitable before teaching the History Around Us component begins.
Now this is particularly interesting as just under a year ago at a public meeting, Martin Riley (the man who wrote this specification) and I had a major, very public falling out. He said that it was not necessary for OCR or the examiner to know anything about a site in order to mark the paper (which requires students to show how a site has changed over time, and why). I said that in these circumstances that was a stupid suggestion, and recommended that they use a proposal mechanism to get centres to submit such information. He rejected me, and kept stubbornly saying that it was not necessary as long as the pupils used the right vocabulary (I swear I am not making this up).
Now I see the examiners are to have access to this information, and they are to use it to check the answers are accurate. Thank goodness for that. This was the key thing that was making me panic about the new GCSEs and the way they were assessed (from being hijacked by quasi-Marxist organisations like the Schools History project). In a few sentences, my fears are assuaged.
I wonder whether I had any influence, or whether somebody at OFQUAL pointed out that what they were proposing was insane. I think I may have had a bearing on it, because it is interesting to note they have also redrafted the questions so they are now in something vaguely akin to the correct English. Either way, I'm very relieved to see that they saw sense at last. It's quite flattering to think I may have rescued hundreds, maybe thousands of children from having their papers marked by educated guesswork.
Is it just me or does NM look like GO in drag in this photo ?
I also did think of Ms Morgan and a drag queen. I also once wondered about Eddie Izzard and her, had they been seen in the same room? But then Eddie's heroic marathons earn a kind word from me.
Slightly more on topic, I wonder if the Academy School programme will be the Poll Tax issue for this Conservative Government and especially if large numbers of parents are removed from school governing bodies.
The Academy option is a double or possibly multi-edge sword - in exchange for getting away from local Council (or Diocesean control), the Academy comes under central Government control and gets (initially) more funding.
In the 1990s, the Grant Maintained schools enjoyed the first couple of years outside LEA control until central funding dried up and by the time the GM schools came back to the LEAs after 1997, they (or rather their buildings) were in a much worse state than if they had stayed with the LEA.
Local Authority maintenance budgets are stretched and with a huge requirement for additional places, such funds as do exist are going on building new or extending existing classrooms. That funding will still be needed whether it comes from the LEA or central Government so does Academy School funding become yet another ringefenced (sacred cow) budget area ?
Most of the Academy requests and transfers I've heard about have come from Secondary schools which have the bureaucracy (Admin staff) to be able to function as businesses as well as places of education. The little village primary won't have that so what will happen to them ? With the LEA, the village primary gets some fundinf for maintenance.
I'm also unclear as to how the applications process will work in a fully Academy set up. Will schools compete for pupils or will the Government dictate the school to which parents can send their children as part of an overall Acamdemy management process ?
It's also likely Local Authorities will offer to provide a range of services to any Academy school but will charge them commercially for the privilege so the Council will carry out the Legionella and Fire Risk inspections but the Academy will pay the same rate as any other commercial premises getting these statutory inspections from a certified inspector.
"... a public house, a location to which teachers invariably repair to drown their sorrows at the end of a working week"
Crumbs, when I was at school the teachers used to go to the pub at lunchtime. In fact there was a firm, but unwritten rule as to who drank where. The "Original Woodman" public house, which was right next door to the school, was used by the maths & science masters; whilst the English and history teachers went to the Castle PH further up the High Street. The other masters including the head went to the pub by the river the name of which I cannot now remember. No teachers ever went into the Raven because that was the preserve of the Sixth Form.
Always embarrassing to run into the VIth form at lunchtime. Particularly embarrassing to discipline them for drinking while holding a pint.
Nevertheless, I can top that. There is one school a few miles to the north, which shall be nameless, that had a bar in the staffroom open at lunchtimes and in the afternoons. It was joked that lessons were much improved after lunch (I can imagine)! A new head arrived and tore it out. All his staff promptly left.
That Head clearly had a problem with his leadership skills.
In all seriousness when I compare what my son went through in his education and my own experience I am not sure things have improved over the decades in between.
At my grammar school in Battersea we had one whole afternoon a week for sport (compulsory), one or two periods each week from the third form onwards were given over to Bridge, which was taught by the Reverend Blackburn MA (Cantab). The sixth form was even more relaxed. I can't honestly remember doing any work when I was in that. I suppose I must have done but I certainly wasn't under any pressure. School then consisted mostly of playing bridge in the VIth common room (where smoking was permitted), playing rugger or whitewater canoeing under the weirs on the Thames. We had two lots of exams, O levels at the end of the Vth form and A levels at the end of the VIth and that was it. The masters were an eccentric bunch; most of them were WW2 veterans and I don't suppose any of them had a teaching qualification. What they did have was a mastery and a passion for their subject.
My son, who is now 22, seemed to have a much harder time of it. Seemingly constant testing, exams every year. Full on pressure from the teachers to get to the "A to C level" but ignored once they thought he could pass the target grade. No sport and no intellectual development outside what was required to pass the tests. The quality of his teachers was also much lower than my own - no Oxbridge graduates who really knew and loved their subject that's for sure (though they all had a PGCE I am sure).
A university student was threatened with being thrown out of a meeting after being accused of violating “safe space” rules - by raising her hand.
Ms Wilson, 22, was subject to a “safe space complaint” over her supposedly “inappropriate hand gestures” during a student council meeting.
They're not allowed to clap at our SU meetings - it's intimidating.
Things seem to have a changed since I was a student. The weekly SU meeting was a bear pit.
I think I attended a grand total of 1 as a student. Someone brought up a point of order on some technicality or other which sent the meeting down a cul-de-sac for about an hour if i recall correctly. Can't remember anything remotely substantive being discussed. It all seemed overly technical and very very point scoring !
A university student was threatened with being thrown out of a meeting after being accused of violating “safe space” rules - by raising her hand.
Ms Wilson, 22, was subject to a “safe space complaint” over her supposedly “inappropriate hand gestures” during a student council meeting.
They're not allowed to clap at our SU meetings - it's intimidating.
Things seem to have a changed since I was a student. The weekly SU meeting was a bear pit.
I think I attended a grand total of 1 as a student. Someone brought up a point of order on some technicality or other which sent the meeting down a cul-de-sac for about an hour if i recall correctly. Can't remember anything remotely substantive being discussed. It all seemed overly technical and very very point scoring !
Stronger In Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, warns: We’d lose booze cruise if voters choose Brexit: https://t.co/4AeGGNLI4i #StrongerIn
Oh dear, more laughable nonsense from someone who should know better.
Personally I'm delighted that transport in this country is running so well that it gives the Minister concerned enough time to come up with ludicrous pro-EU press statements. We should all rejoice in this evidence of departmental efficiency.
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
Got up late today did you. Did you notice that Gove has backed her all the way or is he actually fallible?
Yes I know he did, because BrExit aside he is a team player. Do you really think in private he is delighted that he had all those fights with the teachers just to watch her back pedal on half of them ?
Ah - of course only you can read his mind for those private thoughts. Silly me for forgetting - although you do realise you're accusing him of hypocricy
I see your reading comprehension hasn't improved any... had a good liquid lunch ?
From page 16 of OCR's handbook for the new History B specification, on choosing an Historic Site to study:
Centre’s [sic- let's leave it] must choose their own site and all sites must be checked by OCR. Centres must use the History Around Us Site Proposal Form to submit their chosen site, along with the centre’s choice of Component Groups 1 and 3 topics, to OCR for approval. Please remember that your chosen site must not be directly linked to other topics studied.
You can access the History Around Us Site Proposal Form through the OCR website (see also Appendix 5d). Centres must submit their History Around Us Site Proposal Form every series even if the site studied has been approved previously. Please ensure that the History Around Us Site Proposal Form is submitted to OCR before 31 January in the year of entry. OCR will verify the site to be studied and will confirm to the centres that it is appropriate and meets the specific criteria on the opposite page.
OCR consultants may contact centres requesting further information in order to be able to confirm the appropriateness of the site. Centres must wait until they have received confirmation from OCR that the chosen site is suitable before teaching the History Around Us component begins.
Now I see the examiners are to have access to this information, and they are to use it to check the answers are accurate. Thank goodness for that. This was the key thing that was making me panic about the new GCSEs and the way they were assessed (from being hijacked by quasi-Marxist organisations like the Schools History project). In a few sentences, my fears are assuaged.
I wonder whether I had any influence, or whether somebody at OFQUAL pointed out that what they were proposing was insane. I think I may have had a bearing on it, because it is interesting to note they have also redrafted the questions so they are now in something vaguely akin to the correct English. Either way, I'm very relieved to see that they saw sense at last. It's quite flattering to think I may have rescued hundreds, maybe thousands of children from having their papers marked by educated guesswork.
I shouldn't be shocked, but I am. Is this bureaucratic bilge (the OCR bit) what passes for the overseeing of education these days? Staggering beyond belief.
Do you remember all those silly Monty Python sketches? They now seem to be documentaries There were always a few loons at university but they used to be politely ignored. Now they are being taken seriously.
Being afraid to hear contrary opinions is a sign of childhood. Treat them as the children they are. Let them sob to their hearts content as they pass resolutions to ban gravity and death, and as Monty Python had fun with, plastic hip joints.
1) The Academy option is a double or possibly multi-edge sword - in exchange for getting away from local Council (or Diocesean control), the Academy comes under central Government control and gets (initially) more funding.
2) In the 1990s, the Grant Maintained schools enjoyed the first couple of years outside LEA control until central funding dried up and by the time the GM schools came back to the LEAs after 1997, they (or rather their buildings) were in a much worse state than if they had stayed with the LEA.
3) Local Authority maintenance budgets are stretched and with a huge requirement for additional places, such funds as do exist are going on building new or extending existing classrooms. That funding will still be needed whether it comes from the LEA or central Government so does Academy School funding become yet another ringefenced (sacred cow) budget area ?
4) Most of the Academy requests and transfers I've heard about have come from Secondary schools which have the bureaucracy (Admin staff) to be able to function as businesses as well as places of education. The little village primary won't have that so what will happen to them ? With the LEA, the village primary gets some fundinf for maintenance.
Some good points there but if I may answer some of them:
1) Dioceses are setting up their own multi-academy trusts. This will apply to a large number of village schools (the CofE ones) which are maintained by the Church anyway, not the LEA.
2) My experience of GM schools was the opposite - massive investment in buildings away from the LEA, followed by an abrupt halt to desperately needed building works in 1997. Was that atypical? Partly, this was due to a corrupt and vindictive LEA getting back at a school for daring to opt-out. So it may have been just typical bureaucratic pettiness.
3) Is a very good point - indeed an unanswerable point so far as I know at present. I doubt if anyone has got that far yet. Could be a problem. If the DfES are to deal with it, could in fact be a disaster. As Jim Hacker commented when Sir Humphrey told him the DfES was needed to plan for the future, 'Do you mean that education in this country is what the Department for Education planned?'
4) See (1) above. The VA schools will hope into the welcoming arms of the CofE, others will probably hook up with a nearby secondary school.
Do you remember all those silly Monty Python sketches? They now seem to be documentaries There were always a few loons at university but they used to be politely ignored. Now they are being taken seriously.
Being afraid to hear contrary opinions is a sign of childhood. Treat them as the children they are. Let them sob to their hearts content as they pass resolutions to ban gravity and death, and as Monty Python had fun with, plastic hip joints.
Slightly more on topic, I wonder if the Academy School programme will be the Poll Tax issue for this Conservative Government and especially if large numbers of parents are removed from school governing bodies...
The whole thing is a complete clusterfuck that has about as much chance of happening as Aston Villa do of winning next year's Champions League.
A university student was threatened with being thrown out of a meeting after being accused of violating “safe space” rules - by raising her hand.
Ms Wilson, 22, was subject to a “safe space complaint” over her supposedly “inappropriate hand gestures” during a student council meeting.
When Generation Snowflake are released into the real world, there are going to be a lot of tears. And 'triggering'.
I'd rather recruit someone from Poland where they still bring people up with common sense. Therein lying part of the problem.
On the basis that "people are still people", I live in hope that the hyper-sensitive idiot fringe is a very small (but regretfully very noisy) fraction of the whole.
From page 16 of OCR's handbook for the new History B specification, on choosing an Historic Site to study:
Centre’s [sic- let's leave it] must choose their own site and all sites must be checked by OCR. Centres must use the History Around Us Site Proposal Form to submit their chosen site, along with the centre’s choice of Component Groups 1 and 3 topics, to OCR for approval. Please remember that your chosen site must not be directly linked to other topics studied.
You can access the History Around Us Site Proposal Form through the OCR website (see also Appendix 5d). Centres must submit their History Around Us Site Proposal Form every series even if the site studied has been approved previously. Please ensure that the History Around Us Site Proposal Form is submitted to OCR before 31 January in the year of entry. OCR will verify the site to be studied and will confirm to the centres that it is appropriate and meets the specific criteria on the opposite page.
OCR consultants may contact centres requesting further information in order to be able to confirm the appropriateness of the site. Centres must wait until they have received confirmation from OCR that the chosen site is suitable before teaching the History Around Us component begins.
I shouldn't be shocked, but I am. Is this bureaucratic bilge (the OCR bit) what passes for the overseeing of education these days? Staggering beyond belief.
Well, maybe a bit above average Now you understand what I do to earn that huge sum of money, an extra £80 a week, to be a Head of Department...
More seriously though, in this case it's the right thing to do. It's a very good idea to let schools chose their own sites, but it was a staggeringly bad one to try and let the examiners mark their answers without knowing anything about it.
A university student was threatened with being thrown out of a meeting after being accused of violating “safe space” rules - by raising her hand.
Ms Wilson, 22, was subject to a “safe space complaint” over her supposedly “inappropriate hand gestures” during a student council meeting.
When Generation Snowflake are released into the real world, there are going to be a lot of tears. And 'triggering'.
I'd rather recruit someone from Poland where they still bring people up with common sense. Therein lying part of the problem.
On the basis that "people are still people", I live in hope that the hyper-sensitive idiot fringe is a very small (but regretfully very noisy) fraction of the whole.
There was always an idiot idealist student fringe. Thing is, in times gone by they didn't have facebook, twitter, snapchat, etc, etc
Do you remember all those silly Monty Python sketches? They now seem to be documentaries There were always a few loons at university but they used to be politely ignored. Now they are being taken seriously.
Being afraid to hear contrary opinions is a sign of childhood. Treat them as the children they are. Let them sob to their hearts content as they pass resolutions to ban gravity and death, and as Monty Python had fun with, plastic hip joints.
I always used this one in the classroom when I was teaching on the importance of using good English in an inner-city school.
A university student was threatened with being thrown out of a meeting after being accused of violating “safe space” rules - by raising her hand.
Ms Wilson, 22, was subject to a “safe space complaint” over her supposedly “inappropriate hand gestures” during a student council meeting.
When Generation Snowflake are released into the real world, there are going to be a lot of tears. And 'triggering'.
I'd rather recruit someone from Poland where they still bring people up with common sense. Therein lying part of the problem.
On the basis that "people are still people", I live in hope that the hyper-sensitive idiot fringe is a very small (but regretfully very noisy) fraction of the whole.
There was always an idiot idealist student fringe. Thing is, in times gone by they didn't have facebook, twitter, snapchat, etc, etc
Back in the mid 90s, I inherited a team of 40 who were described to me as unmanageable. Entitled, spoilt grads who were paid a load of money and achieved bugger all. They considered their salary an attendance allowance and actually doing work required a bonus.
It took a lot of tears before bedtime to knock them into something resembling sensible/productive. They never lost their playground whining or mean-girl cliques. They'd simply never grown up and were in their mid 20s. I pale at the prospect of such creatures in today's PC world.
A university student was threatened with being thrown out of a meeting after being accused of violating “safe space” rules - by raising her hand.
Ms Wilson, 22, was subject to a “safe space complaint” over her supposedly “inappropriate hand gestures” during a student council meeting.
When Generation Snowflake are released into the real world, there are going to be a lot of tears. And 'triggering'.
I'd rather recruit someone from Poland where they still bring people up with common sense. Therein lying part of the problem.
On the basis that "people are still people", I live in hope that the hyper-sensitive idiot fringe is a very small (but regretfully very noisy) fraction of the whole.
That many be true, but in the same way that television personalities are very small and very vocal, they might have a similarly disproportionate deleterious effect on our children's education. As I have commented before my son is a has been following these news articles with considerable alarm, prone as he is to expressing himself in what could charitably be described as "forthright terms", so is planning to join the Army instead, where he is lead to believe almost anything goes so long as appropriate "sir"s are in place
I coughed with laughter when I first saw the Life of Brian and that scene - it meant nothing to the others watching it with me as Latin wasn't on their syllabus.
Do you remember all those silly Monty Python sketches? They now seem to be documentaries There were always a few loons at university but they used to be politely ignored. Now they are being taken seriously.
Being afraid to hear contrary opinions is a sign of childhood. Treat them as the children they are. Let them sob to their hearts content as they pass resolutions to ban gravity and death, and as Monty Python had fun with, plastic hip joints.
I always used this one in the classroom when I was teaching on the importance of using good English in an inner-city school.
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
Got up late today did you. Did you notice that Gove has backed her all the way or is he actually fallible?
Yes I know he did, because BrExit aside he is a team player. Do you really think in private he is delighted that he had all those fights with the teachers just to watch her back pedal on half of them ?
Ah - of course only you can read his mind for those private thoughts. Silly me for forgetting - although you do realise you're accusing him of hypocricy
I see your reading comprehension hasn't improved any... had a good liquid lunch ?
Oh dear - let's attack the man when you lose the argument. Saludo!
From the comments below, it seems that the Labourites and leaver 'Conservatives' are against her.
She must be doing something right!
Spot on - everything on here atm is viewed through the Brexit prism. Pathetic and too tedious.
Look in the mirror.
It has nothing to do with BrExit and everything to do with her being a lightweight, replacing an exceptional, although disliked by teachers, education secretary. I and others have been criticizing her on this basis since Gove left if you look back in the archives, the fact that you think it's all about BrExit says more about you than us.
Got up late today did you. Did you notice that Gove has backed her all the way or is he actually fallible?
Yes I know he did, because BrExit aside he is a team player. Do you really think in private he is delighted that he had all those fights with the teachers just to watch her back pedal on half of them ?
Ah - of course only you can read his mind for those private thoughts. Silly me for forgetting - although you do realise you're accusing him of hypocricy
I see your reading comprehension hasn't improved any... had a good liquid lunch ?
Oh dear - let's attack the man when you lose the argument. Saludo!
So that's a yes. Since you were attacking me on very similar terms only minutes before, and then have the front to talk about hypocrisy, although not quite managing to spell it.
Comments
I find this bizarre behaviour.
Even one of my friends who is an ardent leaver likes her approach to politics.
The quote was she had Thatcheresque balls when she took on Nigel Farage for being such a scaremonger.
But whenever hiding money is concerned, many roads lead to London.
The chairman of Mossack Fonseca & Co (UK) Limited is Manny Cohen. Another company that works closely with MF is the Raymond Morris Group, which Cohen also chairs.
Meanwhile the Bank of England holds huge sums for foreign heads of state and their family members, using its company the Bank of England Nominees Limited.
Crumbs, when I was at school the teachers used to go to the pub at lunchtime. In fact there was a firm, but unwritten rule as to who drank where. The "Original Woodman" public house, which was right next door to the school, was used by the maths & science masters; whilst the English and history teachers went to the Castle PH further up the High Street. The other masters including the head went to the pub by the river the name of which I cannot now remember. No teachers ever went into the Raven because that was the preserve of the Sixth Form.
For someone who wants to be a leader publishing and standing by your principles is important, folding on the first challenge is damaging. There's lots he could have done on steel - given them more orders, changed the energy regime etc. And on the personal side while you forgive him dodgy bonus arrangements and jollies, many out there won't -it's a vulnerability he now has.
Your second paragraph describes Osborne as CoE.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=jeremy+corbyn+parents&l=1
Stronger In
Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, warns: We’d lose booze cruise if voters choose Brexit: https://t.co/4AeGGNLI4i #StrongerIn
Employers are perfectly within their rights to refuse to employ a doctor with poor language skills.
Though sometimes the dilemma is to appoint a poor locum or none at all. Each contains its own risks.
Nevertheless, I can top that. There is one school a few miles to the north, which shall be nameless, that had a bar in the staffroom open at lunchtimes and in the afternoons. It was joked that lessons were much improved after lunch (I can imagine)! A new head arrived and tore it out. All his staff promptly left.
aren't we meant to be cutting back on binge drinking ?
is McLoughlin trying to destroy the NHS ?
It's empathy we need from our politicians not sympathy. Or, to put it more shortly, a bit of imagination.
Does anybody still do that?
It is her sneering attitude and her habit of playing the man rather than the ball I dislike. There are more than a few Leave supporting MPs I feel the same way about.
http://charts.stocktwits.com/production/original_52191852.png?1459613508
I received the rebuttal to this story within hours of it breaking. Apparently the whole thing was engineered by the Arabs to make the Israelis look bad. Once the Israelis got their PR machine into gear it was something to behold and it still makes me angry
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/30/newsid_4295000/4295024.stm
Though why should MPs be allowed a lunchtime pint when other workers are not? :-)
The producer capture in the investment banking sector is one of the worst aspects of it. They have been behaving for too long as if investment banks were still partnerships and they are entitled to a share in the profits when the reality is that all that ceased decades ago.
Too many bankers are like those girls in the L'Oreal ads: bleating "Because we're worth it."
Polly Toynbee @TuscanyTowers
Luckily my employers @guardian are not affected by #PanamaLeaks as all our loot is stashed on the Cayman Islands
#winning #socialism
Student Feminist Banned From Student Feminist Facebook Group for Asking Why They Keep Banning People https://t.co/lvYfSHgesX
However, controlling a class of 30 15 year olds, or diagnosing that pain in an old lady's stomach, requires skill and alertness. This holds true even if you teach a non-subject like say, Geography
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/03/student-accused-of-violating-university-safe-space-by-raising-he/
At just under 16 I was in local cinema watching an X (18) movie. When lights came up behind me was English teacher. He never said a word.
It makes Mumsnet look like the bastion of free expression.
They're not allowed to clap at our SU meetings - it's intimidating.
http://www.politico.com/playbook/2016/04/ryan-rising-why-top-rs-increasingly-see-him-as-savior-the-other-gop-fight-well-funded-push-to-get-platform-to-accommodate-gay-marriage-fec-filing-trump-has-94-staffers-hillary-765-new-phones-for-west-wing-213548
Oh what a payday that would be for me!!
Otherwise it just seems a bunch of rich people hiding wealth from the taxman or, in more volatile regions, the leaders of the next coup. But we said that about the expenses scandal and that took a few scalps. Early days.
The story which is all over Australia and Reddit is the Unaoil bribery allegations, but it does not seem to have legs here.
From page 16 of OCR's handbook for the new History B specification, on choosing an Historic Site to study:
Centre’s [sic- let's leave it] must choose their own site and all sites must
be checked by OCR. Centres must use the History
Around Us Site Proposal Form to submit their chosen
site, along with the centre’s choice of Component
Groups 1 and 3 topics, to OCR for approval. Please
remember that your chosen site must not be directly
linked to other topics studied.
You can access the History Around Us Site Proposal
Form through the OCR website (see also Appendix
5d). Centres must submit their History Around Us Site
Proposal Form every series even if the site studied
has been approved previously. Please ensure that the
History Around Us Site Proposal Form is submitted to
OCR before 31 January in the year of entry.
OCR will verify the site to be studied and will
confirm to the centres that it is appropriate and
meets the specific criteria on the opposite page.
OCR consultants may contact centres requesting
further information in order to be able to confirm the
appropriateness of the site. Centres must wait until
they have received confirmation from OCR that the
chosen site is suitable before teaching the History
Around Us component begins.
Now this is particularly interesting as just under a year ago at a public meeting, Martin Riley (the man who wrote this specification) and I had a major, very public falling out. He said that it was not necessary for OCR or the examiner to know anything about a site in order to mark the paper (which requires students to show how a site has changed over time, and why). I said that in these circumstances that was a stupid suggestion, and recommended that they use a proposal mechanism to get centres to submit such information. He rejected me, and kept stubbornly saying that it was not necessary as long as the pupils used the right vocabulary (I swear I am not making this up).
Now I see the examiners are to have access to this information, and they are to use it to check the answers are accurate. Thank goodness for that. This was the key thing that was making me panic about the new GCSEs and the way they were assessed (from being hijacked by quasi-Marxist organisations like the Schools History project). In a few sentences, my fears are assuaged.
I wonder whether I had any influence, or whether somebody at OFQUAL pointed out that what they were proposing was insane. I think I may have had a bearing on it, because it is interesting to note they have also redrafted the questions so they are now in something vaguely akin to the correct English. Either way, I'm very relieved to see that they saw sense at last. It's quite flattering to think I may have rescued hundreds, maybe thousands of children from having their papers marked by educated guesswork.
Stronger In
Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, warns: We’d lose booze cruise if voters choose Brexit: https://t.co/4AeGGNLI4i #StrongerIn'
But get duty free back for travel between European countries.
They're not allowed to clap at our SU meetings - it's intimidating.
Things seem to have a changed since I was a student. The weekly SU meeting was a bear pit.
:eyes off:
Slightly more on topic, I wonder if the Academy School programme will be the Poll Tax issue for this Conservative Government and especially if large numbers of parents are removed from school governing bodies.
The Academy option is a double or possibly multi-edge sword - in exchange for getting away from local Council (or Diocesean control), the Academy comes under central Government control and gets (initially) more funding.
In the 1990s, the Grant Maintained schools enjoyed the first couple of years outside LEA control until central funding dried up and by the time the GM schools came back to the LEAs after 1997, they (or rather their buildings) were in a much worse state than if they had stayed with the LEA.
Local Authority maintenance budgets are stretched and with a huge requirement for additional places, such funds as do exist are going on building new or extending existing classrooms. That funding will still be needed whether it comes from the LEA or central Government so does Academy School funding become yet another ringefenced (sacred cow) budget area ?
Most of the Academy requests and transfers I've heard about have come from Secondary schools which have the bureaucracy (Admin staff) to be able to function as businesses as well as places of education. The little village primary won't have that so what will happen to them ? With the LEA, the village primary gets some fundinf for maintenance.
I'm also unclear as to how the applications process will work in a fully Academy set up. Will schools compete for pupils or will the Government dictate the school to which parents can send their children as part of an overall Acamdemy management process ?
It's also likely Local Authorities will offer to provide a range of services to any Academy school but will charge them commercially for the privilege so the Council will carry out the Legionella and Fire Risk inspections but the Academy will pay the same rate as any other commercial premises getting these statutory inspections from a certified inspector.
In all seriousness when I compare what my son went through in his education and my own experience I am not sure things have improved over the decades in between.
At my grammar school in Battersea we had one whole afternoon a week for sport (compulsory), one or two periods each week from the third form onwards were given over to Bridge, which was taught by the Reverend Blackburn MA (Cantab). The sixth form was even more relaxed. I can't honestly remember doing any work when I was in that. I suppose I must have done but I certainly wasn't under any pressure. School then consisted mostly of playing bridge in the VIth common room (where smoking was permitted), playing rugger or whitewater canoeing under the weirs on the Thames. We had two lots of exams, O levels at the end of the Vth form and A levels at the end of the VIth and that was it. The masters were an eccentric bunch; most of them were WW2 veterans and I don't suppose any of them had a teaching qualification. What they did have was a mastery and a passion for their subject.
My son, who is now 22, seemed to have a much harder time of it. Seemingly constant testing, exams every year. Full on pressure from the teachers to get to the "A to C level" but ignored once they thought he could pass the target grade. No sport and no intellectual development outside what was required to pass the tests. The quality of his teachers was also much lower than my own - no Oxbridge graduates who really knew and loved their subject that's for sure (though they all had a PGCE I am sure).
I think I attended a grand total of 1 as a student. Someone brought up a point of order on some technicality or other which sent the meeting down a cul-de-sac for about an hour if i recall correctly. Can't remember anything remotely substantive being discussed. It all seemed overly technical and very very point scoring !
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@JohnSwinney
While @NicolaSturgeon is meeting #Shetland ponies I met llamas
Being afraid to hear contrary opinions is a sign of childhood. Treat them as the children they are. Let them sob to their hearts content as they pass resolutions to ban gravity and death, and as Monty Python had fun with, plastic hip joints.
It's normally sheep that vote for them.
1) Dioceses are setting up their own multi-academy trusts. This will apply to a large number of village schools (the CofE ones) which are maintained by the Church anyway, not the LEA.
2) My experience of GM schools was the opposite - massive investment in buildings away from the LEA, followed by an abrupt halt to desperately needed building works in 1997. Was that atypical? Partly, this was due to a corrupt and vindictive LEA getting back at a school for daring to opt-out. So it may have been just typical bureaucratic pettiness.
3) Is a very good point - indeed an unanswerable point so far as I know at present. I doubt if anyone has got that far yet. Could be a problem. If the DfES are to deal with it, could in fact be a disaster. As Jim Hacker commented when Sir Humphrey told him the DfES was needed to plan for the future, 'Do you mean that education in this country is what the Department for Education planned?'
4) See (1) above. The VA schools will hope into the welcoming arms of the CofE, others will probably hook up with a nearby secondary school.
More seriously though, in this case it's the right thing to do. It's a very good idea to let schools chose their own sites, but it was a staggeringly bad one to try and let the examiners mark their answers without knowing anything about it.
One of my all time favourites.
A new generation of diversity coordinators awaits us.
idiotidealist student fringe. Thing is, in times gone by they didn't have facebook, twitter, snapchat, etc, etchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDbnkYSLwI0
The last line in particular was very popular...
* and extraordinarily talented.
It took a lot of tears before bedtime to knock them into something resembling sensible/productive. They never lost their playground whining or mean-girl cliques. They'd simply never grown up and were in their mid 20s. I pale at the prospect of such creatures in today's PC world.