@PaulBrandITV: Interestingly Burnham promises to champion north because it's being 'drowned out by Scotland' - a common feeling in NE/Yorks as well as NW
One's a country, the other's a region or regions within a country, tough titty. Still, if you had to pick a strong-voiced, principled champion to fight against the drowning out...
According to you. Don't see Scotland competing in Rio. Kingdom perhaps but not a country.
The United Kingdom is competing as Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Olympics. It seems to exclude the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Nay, nay and thrice nay my good sir. It is competing as Team GB. That encompasses GB & NI, the Crown dependencies and all British Overseas Territories that lack an organized federation.
The branding of our Olympic team as Team GB clearly anticipates the loss of NI to Ireland, the loss of the Channel Islands to France and the loss of our overseas territories to global warming and the sea.
However, it does not anticipate Scottish independence.
McDonnell definitely wears a better suit than Corbyn and is less likely to be stuck answering a question more difficult than "why are you so wonderful" but the idea that his credibility is being undermined is a bit of stretch.
Of course, if it were true it would simply put him in the same category as the rest of the shadow cabinet.
The silence from the sane wing of the party is deafening. Have they really decided that they are so out of step with the membto find a different party? It's sad.
I think that PB contributors tend to misread Labour MPs and what makes them tick, and it leads to serial betting mistakes, as well as the bafflement that you describe. I've got a piece in mind to submit to Mike on this which I hope will be useful, if I can get past the various immediate translation and seminar preparation stuff that has piled up when I was on holiday.
Briefly, though, most Labour MPs don't especially disagree with the direction of the Corbyn agenda; they are simply doubtful if he can win. They act when they think that action will produce a better chance of winning (as they thought the no-conidence letter seemed to), but neither the Smith candidacy nor splitting into a sub-SDP looks likely to produce that nor fronting a failed rebellion, so they don't see any point in championing any of these.
As for the Labour membership more widely, PB is still dominated by supporters of the "what counts most is winning" school of thought, which is a minority view in Labour. The "first you have to work out what you stand for" school is currently dominant, and unless that's understood, people will keep making the wrong bets.
Re your last para (and no obligation on you to do this, of course, as I realize you're a busy man etc) I would be interested in your take on the thread I wrote at the weekend. It is my own (and probably from your perspective, entirely wrong-headed) attempt to work out how one might start constructing a left of centre perspective in today's world.
Nick evidently doesn't tear himself away from his translation enough these days.
No idea about the good folk of Broxtowe, but in vox pop after vox pop after R5 phone-in and the rest, the majority of 50-70yr-old lifelong Lab voters absolutely know what they want. They want a sensible centre-left party which will win power and oppose the Tories. Such people are the ones who lived through the 18 years of Cons rule, via Michael Foot, and are desperate not to do it again.
Those are the people that Nick's elegantly theoretical musings on "what the Labour Party is for" are letting down.
The goverment has a fetish for Asian education and Singapore in particular. In my experience, it ain't all its cracked up to be (in Japan, don't know about Singapore)
You are having a laugh. Check the world education rankings
1 China 2 Singapore 3 Hong Kong 4 Taiwan 5 South Korea 6 Macau, China 7 Japan
26 United Kingdom
Nope, can't see why the government thinks asian educations works at all, not the slightest idea on that one.
Average IQs are notably higher in East Asia. So this is, in part, simply a reflection of the basic human potential.
IQ is the ability to do IQ tests
No, it's not. IQ tests are the basis of SAT tests, which almost no one complains about, and which govern admissions into the American university system: the best in the world.
Yes, but IQ test scores are not some genetic marker. You can train to do well at IQ tests and be crap at everything else.
The goverment has a fetish for Asian education and Singapore in particular. In my experience, it ain't all its cracked up to be (in Japan, don't know about Singapore)
You are having a laugh. Check the world education rankings
1 China 2 Singapore 3 Hong Kong 4 Taiwan 5 South Korea 6 Macau, China 7 Japan
26 United Kingdom
Nope, can't see why the government thinks asian educations works at all, not the slightest idea on that one.
Average IQs are notably higher in East Asia. So this is, in part, simply a reflection of the basic human potential.
IQ is the ability to do IQ tests
No, it's not. IQ tests are the basis of SAT tests, which almost no one complains about, and which govern admissions into the American university system: the best in the world.
They most definitely are complained about, although can't be sure if you are being cheeky...
Comments
However, it does not anticipate Scottish independence.
No idea about the good folk of Broxtowe, but in vox pop after vox pop after R5 phone-in and the rest, the majority of 50-70yr-old lifelong Lab voters absolutely know what they want. They want a sensible centre-left party which will win power and oppose the Tories. Such people are the ones who lived through the 18 years of Cons rule, via Michael Foot, and are desperate not to do it again.
Those are the people that Nick's elegantly theoretical musings on "what the Labour Party is for" are letting down.