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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Memo to Sir Keir Starmer: Unless LAB can start winning MPs in Scotland again the chances of you becoming PM are slim

Your first big electoral test looks set to be the Scottish Assembly elections next year in a part of the UK where for decades your party was totally dominant. Recovering some of the ground lost there to the SNP might be an indicator that a general election victory could be in reach.

Read the full story here

MarqueeMark

Not sure the Scots are for listening to Keith Stormer.

TheGreenMachine

MarqueeMark said:

Not sure the Scots are for listening to Keith Stormer.

Do you think the SNP can achieve the clean sweep next time?

Nigelb

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

OldKingCole

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

His remark that 'we've got enough problems with South Korea!' was the one which I noted.

Endillion

Taking the headline at face value for a second, he already knows this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-51514530
On a list of things Labour leaders can be "radical" about, "federalism" sounds one of the least painful.

Foxy

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

I saw Parasite the other day. Brilliant movie and great acting, rightly winner.

Not surprised Donald cites Gone With the Wind as the sort of film that should win.

Sandpit

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

StuartDickson

TheGreenMachine said:

StuartDickson said:

Swedish police announce that they have solved the 1986 murder of prime minister Olof Palme (Social Democrat) in Stockholm.

34 years! What is the record for solving old criminal mysteries?

At least they got him, Sweden doesn't seem like the kind of place where they would murder politicians.

Er... yes it is. Violence, threat and harassment of politicians is extremely common in Sweden. There was a high profile case of a councillor resigning due to being physically assaulted in her own home just this week (this phenomenon is not just in big cities, she represented a village, Älvkarleby; which incidentally played at key role in Swedish trade union history).

Here are the ten murdered politicians listed at Wikipedia. I suspect that the list is far from complete:

Jon Bengtsson
Zaida Catalán (murdered in Africa, not at home)
Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson
Axel von Fersen
Hans Åkesson
Anna Lindh (most recent high-profile murder)
Nils Bosson
Olof Palme
Hjalmar von Sydow
Tord Bonde

https://sv.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategori:Mördade_svenska_politiker

The most notable omission is Dag Hammarskjöld, General-Secretary of the United Nations, who was almost certainly killed intentionally.

AlastairMeeks

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

DavidL

The problem that Labour has in Scotland is that they have never worked out how to take on the SNP. In Scotland they kept their base docile for decades on the simple mantra of keep the Tories out, even in seats where the Tories were touch and go about losing their deposit.

Focusing on another leftish party as the enemy has proved intellectually just too difficult. Why should someone who is centre left vote Labour instead of SNP. If its centralist, statist bureaucratic, higher tax and economically doomed policies with various freebies thrown in that you want the SNP give you everything you need, probably more. The other difficulty of moving away from KTTO is that you actually need to have some ideas, another intellectual Everest that SLAB have found insuperable.

Through most of my adult life Labour were the party of the Scottish establishment. Their placemen were everywhere, if you wanted to get on in public life you towed the line and signed up to every piece of nonsense that was in vogue. The SNP are now acquiring similar dominance and without these placemen who at least knew something about how society actually works Labour looks totally bereft.

I am not sure that I see a way back. Recent equivocation has even lost them the title of the defenders of the Union. They have absolutely nothing to offer.

DavidL

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

Alistair

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

DavidL

Alistair said:

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

He's quite good at this campaign stuff, isn't he? Government is more difficult, unfortunately.

CarlottaVance

That's one way to deal with fewer University places for Scots.....have fewer of them pass Highers.....

https://twitter.com/heraldscotland/status/1230733892350595072?s=20

Morris_Dancer

Good morning, everyone.

Mr. L, quite. It turns out creating political divisions creates political divisions (it's why those advocating breaking England up into little regional assemblies are so wrong). Embedding political dividing lines because Labour thought it'd have obedient Celtic fiefdoms forever only to find themselves on the wrong side and 40 odd MPs down is the constitutional equivalent of 'not a shot fired' in Afghanistan.

MarqueeMark

DavidL said:

The problem that Labour has in Scotland is that they have never worked out how to take on the SNP. In Scotland they kept their base docile for decades on the simple mantra of keep the Tories out, even in seats where the Tories were touch and go about losing their deposit.

Focusing on another leftish party as the enemy has proved intellectually just too difficult. Why should someone who is centre left vote Labour instead of SNP. If its centralist, statist bureaucratic, higher tax and economically doomed policies with various freebies thrown in that you want the SNP give you everything you need, probably more. The other difficulty of moving away from KTTO is that you actually need to have some ideas, another intellectual Everest that SLAB have found insuperable.

Through most of my adult life Labour were the party of the Scottish establishment. Their placemen were everywhere, if you wanted to get on in public life you towed the line and signed up to every piece of nonsense that was in vogue. The SNP are now acquiring similar dominance and without these placemen who at least knew something about how society actually works Labour looks totally bereft.

I am not sure that I see a way back. Recent equivocation has even lost them the title of the defenders of the Union. They have absolutely nothing to offer.

Ironically, the way back MIGHT be Boris's insistence there will be no new referendum on independence. Obviously, the SNP want to keep that grievance, right, left and centre of Scottish politics. But what if the voters start to say "It's not happening. So how about we look at your record of governance instead."

There's some grisly stuff in there for any governent to have to defend.....

Trouble is - how does Mr North London, Keith Stormer, whip up the Tartan Stormer-troopers?

ydoethur

Alistair said:

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

Contrary to his recent lurid claims that he was the sole reason the vote was lost, it was a pretty minor part. He was running a ‘think tank’ called the New Frontiers Foundation at the time, and he loaned some members of staff (including himself) to the campaign to advise on advertising. In fact, it’s very difficult to find anything John Elliot said about him at any point. And then his ‘think tank’ went bankrupt because it had no money coming in.

The irony is most of the slogans he put forward there (such as the claim a North East Assembly would lead to more politicians) were lies as well.

CarlottaVance

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

Nigelb

Re Pritti Patel...

Downing St says no formal complaint has been made.

Yesterday Derek Penman, head of the civil service union, said there was no formal process for officials to make complaints against ministers...

Sandpit

ydoethur said:

Alistair said:

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

Contrary to his recent lurid claims that he was the sole reason the vote was lost, it was a pretty minor part. He was running a ‘think tank’ called the New Frontiers Foundation at the time, and he loaned some members of staff (including himself) to the campaign to advise on advertising. In fact, it’s very difficult to find anything John Elliot said about him at any point. And then his ‘think tank’ went bankrupt because it had no money coming in.

The irony is most of the slogans he put forward there (such as the claim a North East Assembly would lead to more politicians) were lies as well.

Wasn’t the key problem with the regional assemblies (apart from the obvious that they break up England), that most of their powers were to be devolved up from local government, rather than devolved down from central government?

DavidL

MarqueeMark said:

DavidL said:

The problem that Labour has in Scotland is that they have never worked out how to take on the SNP. In Scotland they kept their base docile for decades on the simple mantra of keep the Tories out, even in seats where the Tories were touch and go about losing their deposit.

Focusing on another leftish party as the enemy has proved intellectually just too difficult. Why should someone who is centre left vote Labour instead of SNP. If its centralist, statist bureaucratic, higher tax and economically doomed policies with various freebies thrown in that you want the SNP give you everything you need, probably more. The other difficulty of moving away from KTTO is that you actually need to have some ideas, another intellectual Everest that SLAB have found insuperable.

Through most of my adult life Labour were the party of the Scottish establishment. Their placemen were everywhere, if you wanted to get on in public life you towed the line and signed up to every piece of nonsense that was in vogue. The SNP are now acquiring similar dominance and without these placemen who at least knew something about how society actually works Labour looks totally bereft.

I am not sure that I see a way back. Recent equivocation has even lost them the title of the defenders of the Union. They have absolutely nothing to offer.

Ironically, the way back MIGHT be Boris's insistence there will be no new referendum on independence. Obviously, the SNP want to keep that grievance, right, left and centre of Scottish politics. But what if the voters start to say "It's not happening. So how about we look at your record of governance instead."

There's some grisly stuff in there for any governent to have to defend.....

Trouble is - how does Mr North London, Keith Stormer, whip up the Tartan Stormer-troopers?

The SNP's performance in government has fallen from ordinary to dismal in recent years but the problem is how does Labour exploit that? Do they argue that Police Scotland should be broken up again when they supported its creation? Do they accept that the resistance to early year assessment is one of the reasons for the desperate state of Scottish education, the Curriculum for Excellence being another? In most cases you will find that getting a wedge between the SNP policy and the policies of the previous Labour administration is pretty much impossible.

DecrepiterJohnL

DavidL said:

Alistair said:

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

He's quite good at this campaign stuff, isn't he? Government is more difficult, unfortunately.

Funny thing about Dominic Cummings: he writes 25,000 word blog posts about the advantages of decentralised complex systems with feedback-based emergent properties, like the immune system; in practice, he centralises power to Number 10 (where he lives).

TGOHF666

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

ydoethur

Sandpit said:

ydoethur said:

Alistair said:

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

Contrary to his recent lurid claims that he was the sole reason the vote was lost, it was a pretty minor part. He was running a ‘think tank’ called the New Frontiers Foundation at the time, and he loaned some members of staff (including himself) to the campaign to advise on advertising. In fact, it’s very difficult to find anything John Elliot said about him at any point. And then his ‘think tank’ went bankrupt because it had no money coming in.

The irony is most of the slogans he put forward there (such as the claim a North East Assembly would lead to more politicians) were lies as well.

Wasn’t the key problem with the regional assemblies (apart from the obvious that they break up England), that most of their powers were to be devolved up from local government, rather than devolved down from central government?

It was one of them. But I think given how badly conceived they were, it’s simplistic to say that was the ‘key’ problem. Other issues included;

1) A lack of geographical realism. For example, Carlisle was to be in the same assembly as Manchester, but separated from Newcastle.

2) A lack of actual power. Not unreasonably, the question was asked as to why Scots were able to make their own laws but the English were somehow too thick to.

3) A major concomitant reorganisation of local government, which is always dangerous for politicians however necessary it may be. The lessons of Heath’s unpopularity for reorganising every county were not learned (and, as Labour and then the Coalition pressed on with further incoherent and incompetent reorganisation of local government, clearly still haven’t been).

4) A lack of will for them. They were not something anyone had clamoured for, unlike in Scotland or Wales, so the question had to be asked, why were they being brought in?

5) Unanswered questions over expense, management, and powers.

So really, it was never going to be an easy sell. The margin against was something of a surprise, but the result was never really in doubt.

IanB2

The Genie was somewhat cruel to the LibDems, telling them that one day they’d have four times as many seats in Scotland as Labour.

DavidL

DecrepiterJohnL said:

DavidL said:

Alistair said:

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

He's quite good at this campaign stuff, isn't he? Government is more difficult, unfortunately.

Funny thing about Dominic Cummings: he writes 25,000 word blog posts about the advantages of decentralised complex systems with feedback-based emergent properties, like the immune system; in practice, he centralises power to Number 10 (where he lives).

So he is human after all!

Nigelb

One of Gove/Cummings’ mistakes finally sees the light of day after a two year FOI battle:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/john-lewis-salesman-lied-his-way-to-1m-job-running-schools-ptvwlwbgq

DecrepiterJohnL

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

American politics suggests the reverse is true, as billionaires hoodwink the poor into voting for tax cuts for the rich.

Sandpit

Bernie Sanders in from 2.14 to 2.06 overnight. Is today the day he goes odds-on for the nomination?
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/politics/event/28009878/market?marketId=1.128161111

Casino_Royale

Sandpit said:

Bernie Sanders in from 2.14 to 2.06 overnight. Is today the day he goes odds-on for the nomination?
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/politics/event/28009878/market?marketId=1.128161111

If he does he’s an even better value lay.

old_labour

What is this Scottish Assembly?

YBarddCwsc

I'd have thought the Welsh Assembly was an equally awkward first test.

Losing Wales for the first time would be disastrous, setting into stone the idea of long term decline of the Labour Party.

First Scotland, then the The Red Wall, then Wales.

As Labour have only a majority at the moment thanks to the dimmest LibDem in Wales, they will certainly lose their majority, and possibly not even be the largest party.

At at time when FF and FG no longer routinely win in Ireland, it is high time the winds of change blow through Wales.

CarlottaVance

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

The report is also silent on the numbers of students studying particular subjects - like Gaelic for example - and foreign languages. They've also possibly included some critique from page 39 onwards "Official Sensitive" - that they may not have intended to publish - well, if you will slip things out at 20.00 on a Thursday night...

https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/research-and-analysis/2020/02/exam-results-analysis-2019/documents/exam-results-analysis-2019/exam-results-analysis-2019/govscot:document/2019+exam+results+analysis.pdf

Nigelb

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

A Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works - almost certainly hideously misconceived.

tlg86

ydoethur said:

Sandpit said:

ydoethur said:

Alistair said:

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

Contrary to his recent lurid claims that he was the sole reason the vote was lost, it was a pretty minor part. He was running a ‘think tank’ called the New Frontiers Foundation at the time, and he loaned some members of staff (including himself) to the campaign to advise on advertising. In fact, it’s very difficult to find anything John Elliot said about him at any point. And then his ‘think tank’ went bankrupt because it had no money coming in.

The irony is most of the slogans he put forward there (such as the claim a North East Assembly would lead to more politicians) were lies as well.

Wasn’t the key problem with the regional assemblies (apart from the obvious that they break up England), that most of their powers were to be devolved up from local government, rather than devolved down from central government?

It was one of them. But I think given how badly conceived they were, it’s simplistic to say that was the ‘key’ problem. Other issues included;

1) A lack of geographical realism. For example, Carlisle was to be in the same assembly as Manchester, but separated from Newcastle.

2) A lack of actual power. Not unreasonably, the question was asked as to why Scots were able to make their own laws but the English were somehow too thick to.

3) A major concomitant reorganisation of local government, which is always dangerous for politicians however necessary it may be. The lessons of Heath’s unpopularity for reorganising every county were not learned (and, as Labour and then the Coalition pressed on with further incoherent and incompetent reorganisation of local government, clearly still haven’t been).

4) A lack of will for them. They were not something anyone had clamoured for, unlike in Scotland or Wales, so the question had to be asked, why were they being brought in?

5) Unanswered questions over expense, management, and powers.

So really, it was never going to be an easy sell. The margin against was something of a surprise, but the result was never really in doubt.

To be fair to New Labour, at least they ditched the plans rather than the coalition who brought in metro mayors anyway.

DavidL

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

Big_G_NorthWales

It is not just Scotland labour has to worry about if last nights local from Middlesborough is to go by

Coulby Newham (Middlesbrough) result:

CON: 49.0% (-0.1)
LAB: 19.9% (-31.0)
LDEM: 18.4% (+18.4)
IND: 6.4% (+6.4)
IND: 6.3% (+6.3)

Conservative HOLD.

Chgs. w/ 2019

ydoethur

YBarddCwsc said:

I'd have thought the Welsh Assembly was an equally awkward first test.

Losing Wales for the first time would be disastrous, setting into stone the idea of long term decline of the Labour Party.

First Scotland, then the The Red Wall, then Wales.

As Labour have only a majority at the moment thanks to the dimmest LibDem in Wales, they will certainly lose their majority, and possibly not even be the largest party.

At at time when FF and FG no longer routinely win in Ireland, it is high time the winds of change blow through Wales.

I have a thread header on that tipping the Tories as value for most seats, which I must get round to finishing. Is there a market up on this yet, does anyone know?

ydoethur

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

Welcome to the Kafkaesque world of modern education.

In England it’s practically identical - largely thanks to Cummings’, Gove’s and Spielmann’s botched reforms.

DavidL

ydoethur said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

Welcome to the Kafkaesque world of modern education.

In England it’s practically identical - largely thanks to Cummings’, Gove’s and Spielmann’s botched reforms.

I was very conscious as I was writing that it was similar to your critiques of where England is at.

kle4

Surely Starmer will get a honeymoon period of some description? So many tough challenges ahead but without groundbreaking results I'd expect hed get signs of improvement.

Jonathan

Big_G_NorthWales said:

It is not just Scotland labour has to worry about if last nights local from Middlesborough is to go by

Coulby Newham (Middlesbrough) result:

CON: 49.0% (-0.1)
LAB: 19.9% (-31.0)
LDEM: 18.4% (+18.4)
IND: 6.4% (+6.4)
IND: 6.3% (+6.3)

Conservative HOLD.

Chgs. w/ 2019

On the one hand Labour are in a dire position. To become Labour leader now is a thankless task, with a small chance of success.

And yet, the country desperately needs a strong opposition and a potential alternative government, so there is an opportunity to be grasped.

Big_G_NorthWales

Jonathan said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

It is not just Scotland labour has to worry about if last nights local from Middlesborough is to go by

Coulby Newham (Middlesbrough) result:

CON: 49.0% (-0.1)
LAB: 19.9% (-31.0)
LDEM: 18.4% (+18.4)
IND: 6.4% (+6.4)
IND: 6.3% (+6.3)

Conservative HOLD.

Chgs. w/ 2019

On the one hand Labour are in a dire position. To become Labour leader now is a thankless task, with a small chance of success.

And yet, the country desperately needs a strong opposition and a potential alternative government, so there is an opportunity to be grasped.

I agree but are labour able to 'move on' and achieve that goal

Jonathan

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Jonathan said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

It is not just Scotland labour has to worry about if last nights local from Middlesborough is to go by

Coulby Newham (Middlesbrough) result:

CON: 49.0% (-0.1)
LAB: 19.9% (-31.0)
LDEM: 18.4% (+18.4)
IND: 6.4% (+6.4)
IND: 6.3% (+6.3)

Conservative HOLD.

Chgs. w/ 2019

On the one hand Labour are in a dire position. To become Labour leader now is a thankless task, with a small chance of success.

And yet, the country desperately needs a strong opposition and a potential alternative government, so there is an opportunity to be grasped.

I agree but are labour able to 'move on' and achieve that goal

They have to. There is no one else.

kle4

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Casino_Royale

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

Past papers are a gift.

I’ve gamed so many exams that way.

Sandpit

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Jonathan said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

It is not just Scotland labour has to worry about if last nights local from Middlesborough is to go by

Coulby Newham (Middlesbrough) result:

CON: 49.0% (-0.1)
LAB: 19.9% (-31.0)
LDEM: 18.4% (+18.4)
IND: 6.4% (+6.4)
IND: 6.3% (+6.3)

Conservative HOLD.

Chgs. w/ 2019

On the one hand Labour are in a dire position. To become Labour leader now is a thankless task, with a small chance of success.

And yet, the country desperately needs a strong opposition and a potential alternative government, so there is an opportunity to be grasped.

I agree but are labour able to 'move on' and achieve that goal

That first requires them to understand that ‘moving on’ is necessary.

kle4

Jonathan said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Jonathan said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

It is not just Scotland labour has to worry about if last nights local from Middlesborough is to go by

Coulby Newham (Middlesbrough) result:

CON: 49.0% (-0.1)
LAB: 19.9% (-31.0)
LDEM: 18.4% (+18.4)
IND: 6.4% (+6.4)
IND: 6.3% (+6.3)

Conservative HOLD.

Chgs. w/ 2019

On the one hand Labour are in a dire position. To become Labour leader now is a thankless task, with a small chance of success.

And yet, the country desperately needs a strong opposition and a potential alternative government, so there is an opportunity to be grasped.

I agree but are labour able to 'move on' and achieve that goal

They have to. There is no one else.

Hence why they think they can just carry on as is, just in a different voice and say its different. They're right, but it'll be a slower route back than being proactive .

Foxy

Nigelb said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

A Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works - almost certainly hideously misconceived.

I expect so.

Though sometimes things travel the other direction too. Im Sang-soo's 2010 film The Housemaid is nearly as good as Parasite, though less comedy and more steamy, and based on a 1960s French film.

South Korea has moved from an emerging economy of cheap manufactures, to an increasingly sophisticated cultural power. They have major demographic problems coming, but who doesn't? The more that I see of the place the more interesting it gets.

When North Korea collapses reunification will take decades, but the additional population and economic growth will see Korea take a much larger role on the world stage.

CarlottaVance

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.

I suggest you read the report before they redact the "Official - Sensitive" part.

MattW

Thanks for the header, Mike.

Meanwhile, some self-publicity from Jason Zadrozny. Ashfield being high quality, we have swan islands not duck islands.

https://twitter.com/ADCAshfield/status/1230501717717999617

Fysics_Teacher

Nigelb said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

A Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works - almost certainly hideously misconceived.

Western remakes can be great: The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars, and For a Fistful of Dollars spring to mind.

Going the other way Ran? Or does that not count as a remake?

CarlottaVance

Thread:

https://twitter.com/SamuelMarcLowe/status/1230575598638182401?s=20

SouthamObserver

Support for Starmer among CLPs in Scotland was overwhelming. If he becomes leader, my guess is that there will be a key role for Ian Murray in his team.

SouthamObserver

Big_G_NorthWales said:

Jonathan said:

Big_G_NorthWales said:

It is not just Scotland labour has to worry about if last nights local from Middlesborough is to go by

Coulby Newham (Middlesbrough) result:

CON: 49.0% (-0.1)
LAB: 19.9% (-31.0)
LDEM: 18.4% (+18.4)
IND: 6.4% (+6.4)
IND: 6.3% (+6.3)

Conservative HOLD.

Chgs. w/ 2019

On the one hand Labour are in a dire position. To become Labour leader now is a thankless task, with a small chance of success.

And yet, the country desperately needs a strong opposition and a potential alternative government, so there is an opportunity to be grasped.

I agree but are labour able to 'move on' and achieve that goal

We’ll see, but there are straws in the wind. Candidate selections for the London Assembly will be officially announced today. The rumour is that the Momentum slate lost every single constituency vote.

CarlottaVance

Foxy said:

Nigelb said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

A Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works - almost certainly hideously misconceived.

South Korea has moved from an emerging economy of cheap manufactures, to an increasingly sophisticated cultural power.

In South East Asia it has supplanted Japan (bit of history there) and America as the aspirational country from pop to fashion to technology...

Sandpit

DavidL said:

ydoethur said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

Welcome to the Kafkaesque world of modern education.

In England it’s practically identical - largely thanks to Cummings’, Gove’s and Spielmann’s botched reforms.

I was very conscious as I was writing that it was similar to your critiques of where England is at.

The major difference being that England is rising in the PISA rankings, and Scotland is falling.
https://inews.co.uk/news/education/pisa-test-results-2019-rankings-england-education-england-scores-maths-1330524

Foxy

kle4 said:

Surely Starmer will get a honeymoon period of some description? So many tough challenges ahead but without groundbreaking results I'd expect hed get signs of improvement.

I think there will be a significant post Corbyn bounce for Starmer or Nandy, flatlining if RLB gets it.

Starmer needs to rebuild the front bench, and keep the more sane end of hard Left on board to achieve unity. Only then can he really work on developing fresh policies, and worth noting that many of Labours policies already poll strongly.

Voters value freshness, Johnson managed to largely create that illusion by campaigning against the government he had been part of. Labour potentially can pull the same trick.

Probably the best thing for Labour south of the border is for the SNP to lose Sindyref2, and reconcile themselves to supporting Labour in Westminster, and ruling in Holyrood. I think it more likely though that Sindyref2 will go for independence.

Fysics_Teacher

kle4 said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Magic words (a phrase I may start using in my lessons) are an issue in Physics and other sciences as well. The big difference is that many of them don’t really have synonyms: if you are talking about the rate of doing work then you have to use the word “power”.
Getting a top grade means being able to cope with a question that starts with the word “explain” without waffling. Most of my pupils find that their biggest challenge.

Nigelb

DavidL said:

ydoethur said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

Welcome to the Kafkaesque world of modern education.

In England it’s practically identical - largely thanks to Cummings’, Gove’s and Spielmann’s botched reforms.

I was very conscious as I was writing that it was similar to your critiques of where England is at.

Except that one can hardly blame the 'educational establishment' for the English 'reforms'...

LostPassword

kle4 said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Magic word answers should be marked down. Questions like: "Explain x, without using the terms y and z" would demonstrate understanding more effectively.

Alistair

DavidL said:

Alistair said:

Sandpit said:

So, Mr Blair, how did your asymmetric devolution experiment turn out, two decades down the line?

Dom Cummings was part of the campaign team that was against the northern England assemblies.

He's quite good at this campaign stuff, isn't he? Government is more difficult, unfortunately.

He's quite good at picking the opposite side of a really unpopular policy.

He also boasts of being part of Business for Sterling from 1999-2001.

DavidL

Sandpit said:

DavidL said:

ydoethur said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

Welcome to the Kafkaesque world of modern education.

In England it’s practically identical - largely thanks to Cummings’, Gove’s and Spielmann’s botched reforms.

I was very conscious as I was writing that it was similar to your critiques of where England is at.

The major difference being that England is rising in the PISA rankings, and Scotland is falling.
https://inews.co.uk/news/education/pisa-test-results-2019-rankings-england-education-england-scores-maths-1330524

Yes and whilst previously Scotland ranked ahead of England with Pisa it is now behind.

CarlottaVance

https://twitter.com/MrMcEnaney/status/1230764449209835522?s=20

ydoethur

Sandpit said:

The major difference being that England is rising in the PISA rankings, and Scotland is falling.
https://inews.co.uk/news/education/pisa-test-results-2019-rankings-england-education-england-scores-maths-1330524

That’s not necessarily an indicator of current performance. Those rankings are likely as the result of policy changes ten years ago under Labour, because we don’t get meaningful data on changes until a whole cohort has been through a system.

Indeed, one of the problems with education is that since the 1980s there has been such constant change it’s difficult to identify the impact of any one event on the achievement of children. But that, in itself, is almost certainly damaging their education.

Nigelb

Fysics_Teacher said:

Nigelb said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

A Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works - almost certainly hideously misconceived.

Western remakes can be great: The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars, and For a Fistful of Dollars spring to mind.

Going the other way Ran? Or does that not count as a remake?

I wouldn't argue with that.
But almost all recent Hollywood remakes have been utterly tone deaf to the cultural nuance of the originals, seeking to force them into an American cultural mould, rather than creatively engaging with what made the original interesting.

Alistair

The narrowing of the breadth of the Scottish secondary education system started in the late nineties under Labour with the introduction of the confused "Higher Still" system

DavidL

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.

I suggest you read the report before they redact the "Official - Sensitive" part.

I've read it. The first part is just embarrassing, relentlessly upbeat and positive. The comments on the individual subjects in the second half show a much greater degree of realism.

CarlottaVance

Perspective:
https://twitter.com/DavidHerdson/status/1230774104824909829?s=20

Fysics_Teacher

Nigelb said:

Fysics_Teacher said:

Nigelb said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

A Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works - almost certainly hideously misconceived.

Western remakes can be great: The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars, and For a Fistful of Dollars spring to mind.

Going the other way Ran? Or does that not count as a remake?

I wouldn't argue with that.
But almost all recent Hollywood remakes have been utterly tone deaf to the cultural nuance of the originals, seeking to force them into an American cultural mould, rather than creatively engaging with what made the original interesting.

Certainly more recent efforts such as “The Italian Job” and “The Ladykillers” have not been a good advert.

DavidL

kle4 said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Yes that is ridiculous and what I am talking about. I fully take @Fysics_Teacher's point that in science there are certain technical words that don't have accurate synonyms but in English or economics?

MattW

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

Election Slogan?

Probably not - mentions the other party.

Foxy

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.

I suggest you read the report before they redact the "Official - Sensitive" part.

I've read it. The first part is just embarrassing, relentlessly upbeat and positive. The comments on the individual subjects in the second half show a much greater degree of realism.

As a matter of interest, is there much interest in Scotland in switching to the IB, or even A levels?

Though at Fox jrs old school the IB proved unpopular, as harder to get the scores required for Uni entry.

Fysics_Teacher

LostPassword said:

kle4 said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Magic word answers should be marked down. Questions like: "Explain x, without using the terms y and z" would demonstrate understanding more effectively.

Explain moments without using the words “force” or “distance”. (2 marks)

kinabalu

ydoethur said:

That’s not necessarily an indicator of current performance. Those rankings are likely as the result of policy changes ten years ago under Labour, because we don’t get meaningful data on changes until a whole cohort has been through a system.

Indeed, one of the problems with education is that since the 1980s there has been such constant change it’s difficult to identify the impact of any one event on the achievement of children. But that, in itself, is almost certainly damaging their education.

Exactly. Find the best way other than banning to get rid of private schools and then stop the meddling. Let cooks cook. Let cobblers cobble. Let tinkers tinker. Let teachers teach.

ydoethur

MattW said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

Election Slogan?

Probably not - mentions the other party.

Besides, Blair used something similar (‘because Britain deserves better’) so Labour will never use it.

Fysics_Teacher

DavidL said:

kle4 said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Yes that is ridiculous and what I am talking about. I fully take @Fysics_Teacher's point that in science there are certain technical words that don't have accurate synonyms but in English or economics?

Public goods?

Fysics_Teacher

DavidL said:

kle4 said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Yes that is ridiculous and what I am talking about. I fully take @Fysics_Teacher's point that in science there are certain technical words that don't have accurate synonyms but in English or economics?

Or even the word synonym itself?

Philip_Thompson

Foxy said:

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.

I suggest you read the report before they redact the "Official - Sensitive" part.

I've read it. The first part is just embarrassing, relentlessly upbeat and positive. The comments on the individual subjects in the second half show a much greater degree of realism.

As a matter of interest, is there much interest in Scotland in switching to the IB, or even A levels?

Though at Fox jrs old school the IB proved unpopular, as harder to get the scores required for Uni entry.

I did the IB when I was young. It was challenging and rigorous, just what an education system should be.

MarqueeMark

ydoethur said:

MattW said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

Election Slogan?

Probably not - mentions the other party.

Besides, Blair used something similar (‘because Britain deserves better’) so Labour will never use it.

"Britain deserves better" was the LibDem's slogan in 2019.

And so it proved.

ydoethur

kinabalu said:

ydoethur said:

That’s not necessarily an indicator of current performance. Those rankings are likely as the result of policy changes ten years ago under Labour, because we don’t get meaningful data on changes until a whole cohort has been through a system.

Indeed, one of the problems with education is that since the 1980s there has been such constant change it’s difficult to identify the impact of any one event on the achievement of children. But that, in itself, is almost certainly damaging their education.

Exactly. Find the best way other than banning to get rid of private schools and then stop the meddling. Let cooks cook. Let cobblers cobble. Let tinkers tinker. Let teachers teach.

The best way would be to massively reduce class sizes in the state sector. That would mean there was no point in paying for a private education, as that’s its selling point.

The odds of this happening are zero, of course.

MarqueeMark

Fysics_Teacher said:

LostPassword said:

kle4 said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Magic word answers should be marked down. Questions like: "Explain x, without using the terms y and z" would demonstrate understanding more effectively.

Explain moments without using the words “force” or “distance”. (2 marks)

When senior people forget things.

ydoethur

MarqueeMark said:

ydoethur said:

MattW said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

Election Slogan?

Probably not - mentions the other party.

Besides, Blair used something similar (‘because Britain deserves better’) so Labour will never use it.

"Britain deserves better" was the LibDem's slogan in 2019.

And so it proved.

Yes, but they’re not embarrassed by the Blair years. Quite the reverse. They opposed Iraq and tuition fees (until 2010) and supported all the popular stuff .

Sandpit

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/MrMcEnaney/status/1230764449209835522?s=20

Whoops!

Fysics_Teacher

I realise I am being contrarian over “magic” words. The reason they are used is surely that exam boards are finding it harder to persuade experienced teacher to mark their exams and so the mark schemes have to be as clear-cut as possible to allow non-specialists to do it with minimal supervision.

Foxy

ydoethur said:

Sandpit said:

The major difference being that England is rising in the PISA rankings, and Scotland is falling.
https://inews.co.uk/news/education/pisa-test-results-2019-rankings-england-education-england-scores-maths-1330524

That’s not necessarily an indicator of current performance. Those rankings are likely as the result of policy changes ten years ago under Labour, because we don’t get meaningful data on changes until a whole cohort has been through a system.

Indeed, one of the problems with education is that since the 1980s there has been such constant change it’s difficult to identify the impact of any one event on the achievement of children. But that, in itself, is almost certainly damaging their education.

Aren't a lot of the PISA improvements in England relative to Scotland demographic in origin? We know that immigrant derived populations outperform on most school measures, and these are much greater share of England pupils relative to Scotland and Wales.

In other terms, are we not looking at underperformance of white populations, independent of educational policy, just masked by the white population being a lower share in England?

I am beginning to sound like tim...

Philip_Thompson

Fysics_Teacher said:

I realise I am being contrarian over “magic” words. The reason they are used is surely that exam boards are finding it harder to persuade experienced teacher to mark their exams and so the mark schemes have to be as clear-cut as possible to allow non-specialists to do it with minimal supervision.

So you're suggesting the exams are being graded by people who don't know what they're talking about?

That doesn't sound like a solution to me . . .

Sandpit

Fysics_Teacher said:

LostPassword said:

kle4 said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.
There are ongoing problems with changes to the curriculum in several subjects such as computing. Well resourced teachers in private schools seem uncertain exactly what is being looked for and the constant changes make the use of past papers problematic. It seems likely in many state schools pupils will be presented with things they have not covered.

The marking schedules are astonishingly prescriptive and available online. This takes teaching to the test to a whole new level. It also means that there are a lot of "magic" words that have to be used with a substantively similar answer not getting the marks. Some subjects, notably biology, seem to think that their task is to increase the complexity of their subject by asking poorly framed and ambiguous questions rather than actually asking for a more detailed understanding of the subject.

Curriculum choice is another major issue with subjects like economics being largely unavailable in the state sector. The switch to N5 has resulted, in general, with a significant reduction in the number of subjects sat in most state schools from 7 to 5, resulting in a reduced number of options for Higher. One of the glories of the Scottish system used to be the breadth of learning compared with the English A level system. That is being lost.

I could go on all morning but obviously this is not of great interest to most readers of the site. In my opinion the main criticism of the SNP is that they have allowed the educational establishment to run riot with very little in the way of accountability or objective assessment. It's typical. Their focus is always on the prize of independence, not on the day to day running of government.

I despise magic word answers, you get it with 'management' courses a lot. 'You didnt mention x in your answer as required' 'i covered the point. do you know what a synonym is?' 'Doesnt matter' is the thrust of many a conversation.

Magic word answers should be marked down. Questions like: "Explain x, without using the terms y and z" would demonstrate understanding more effectively.

Explain moments without using the words “force” or “distance”. (2 marks)

A fat kid sits nearer the middle of a balanced seesaw?

Charles

MattW said:

Thanks for the header, Mike.

Meanwhile, some self-publicity from Jason Zadrozny. Ashfield being high quality, we have swan islands not duck islands.

https://twitter.com/ADCAshfield/status/1230501717717999617

When you posted that I hoped he might have tipped over or something...

ydoethur

Fysics_Teacher said:

I realise I am being contrarian over “magic” words. The reason they are used is surely that exam boards are finding it harder to persuade experienced teacher to mark their exams and so the mark schemes have to be as clear-cut as possible to allow non-specialists to do it with minimal supervision.

Don’t know what it’s like in physics, but History marking for AQA at least is an utter shambles. Around 40% of their Principal Examiners have quit in the last five months, not including one person I raised a concern about after she graded identical answers two levels apart, they don’t actually do standardisation or training any more, and they have just been fined £1.1 million for sending scripts where remarks have been requested back to the person who marked them in the first place.

So I can see why buzzwords would be easier, but it doesn’t help if, say, the Principal Examiner for Wars of the Roses doesn’t know the Duke of Suffolk was murdered in 1450.

No, I haven’t made that up.

YBarddCwsc

Foxy said:

ydoethur said:

Sandpit said:

The major difference being that England is rising in the PISA rankings, and Scotland is falling.
https://inews.co.uk/news/education/pisa-test-results-2019-rankings-england-education-england-scores-maths-1330524

That’s not necessarily an indicator of current performance. Those rankings are likely as the result of policy changes ten years ago under Labour, because we don’t get meaningful data on changes until a whole cohort has been through a system.

Indeed, one of the problems with education is that since the 1980s there has been such constant change it’s difficult to identify the impact of any one event on the achievement of children. But that, in itself, is almost certainly damaging their education.

Aren't a lot of the PISA improvements in England relative to Scotland demographic in origin? We know that immigrant derived populations outperform on most school measures, and these are much greater share of England pupils relative to Scotland and Wales.

In other terms, are we not looking at underperformance of white populations, independent of educational policy, just masked by the white population being a lower share in England?

I am beginning to sound like tim...

Labour party supporters on pb.com have repeatedly explained to me -- when I queried the abysmal performance of Welsh education -- that it was the full of the Welsh, and not the Labour party.

Usually, they put forward the semi-racist explanation that you have proposed.

Nigelb

Fysics_Teacher said:

Nigelb said:

Fysics_Teacher said:

Nigelb said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

AlastairMeeks said:

Nigelb said:

https://twitter.com/neonrated/status/1230660039028789248

You can’t buy advertising like that.

Probably worth another 2-3 weeks in the coastal multiplexes.

It got a big boost after the oscars and is still on 2000 screens - we'll see whether Trump has any impact:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1258849793/?ref_=bo_tt_gr_1

In some ways it reminded me of a 1930s screwball comedy.....and then it took a darker turn. No doubt someone will remake ruin it - the social commentary 'breadline grifters hoodwink clueless wealthy' has currency far beyond South Korea.

A Hollywood remake is reportedly already in the works - almost certainly hideously misconceived.

Western remakes can be great: The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars, and For a Fistful of Dollars spring to mind.

Going the other way Ran? Or does that not count as a remake?

I wouldn't argue with that.
But almost all recent Hollywood remakes have been utterly tone deaf to the cultural nuance of the originals, seeking to force them into an American cultural mould, rather than creatively engaging with what made the original interesting.

Certainly more recent efforts such as “The Italian Job” and “The Ladykillers” have not been a good advert.

Of from an Asian perspective, Ring, The Grudge, A Tale of Two Sisters, Oldboy, Dark Water, The Eye….

Fysics_Teacher

Philip_Thompson said:

Fysics_Teacher said:

I realise I am being contrarian over “magic” words. The reason they are used is surely that exam boards are finding it harder to persuade experienced teacher to mark their exams and so the mark schemes have to be as clear-cut as possible to allow non-specialists to do it with minimal supervision.

So you're suggesting the exams are being graded by people who don't know what they're talking about?

That doesn't sound like a solution to me . . .

Modern exam papers are scanned into a computer and then different parts are marked in different ways.
In some subjects there are a few (~5%) multiple choice question: these are marked by the computer itself. Then there are simple questions with little choice as to the answer which might be marked by non-specialists, and finally the longer, open ended questions which need a specialist to mark. These are the ones I hate marking when we have mock exams, particularly with those pupils whose handwriting is hard to decipher.

kinabalu

ydoethur said:

The best way would be to massively reduce class sizes in the state sector. That would mean there was no point in paying for a private education, as that’s its selling point.

The odds of this happening are zero, of course.

Let's not be defeatist. I have a dream. I have a dream that our children will one day live in a nation where their prospects are determined not by the size of their parents bank balance but by the quality of their hearts and minds.

Charles

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/MrMcEnaney/status/1230764449209835522?s=20

I notice that “history” and “psychology” were the worst performing

Uncharitably you might suggest that a lack of knowledge in both areas might help the cause of independence

Sandpit

Foxy said:

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

TGOHF666 said:

Scotland deserves better than the SNP.

https://twitter.com/bbcgaryr/status/1230755802094268417?s=21

My son will be sitting his highers in approximately 2 months. From close hand experience the problems are deep rooted and not capable of simple solutions.

I suggest you read the report before they redact the "Official - Sensitive" part.

I've read it. The first part is just embarrassing, relentlessly upbeat and positive. The comments on the individual subjects in the second half show a much greater degree of realism.

As a matter of interest, is there much interest in Scotland in switching to the IB, or even A levels?

Though at Fox jrs old school the IB proved unpopular, as harder to get the scores required for Uni entry.

Most of the international, English-curriculum schools have moved from A-Levels to the IB over the past decade.

DecrepiterJohnL

Fysics_Teacher said:

Magic words (a phrase I may start using in my lessons) are an issue in Physics and other sciences as well. The big difference is that many of them don’t really have synonyms: if you are talking about the rate of doing work then you have to use the word “power”.
Getting a top grade means being able to cope with a question that starts with the word “explain” without waffling. Most of my pupils find that their biggest challenge.

Sixty Symbols has a video of the Nottingham physics professors talking about A-level physics (as you will know but background for others) and one of the comments that made me pause is that so many multiple choice tests means students are no longer experienced in writing fuller answers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzn2ecB4Hzs

ydoethur

Fysics_Teacher said:

Philip_Thompson said:

Fysics_Teacher said:

I realise I am being contrarian over “magic” words. The reason they are used is surely that exam boards are finding it harder to persuade experienced teacher to mark their exams and so the mark schemes have to be as clear-cut as possible to allow non-specialists to do it with minimal supervision.

So you're suggesting the exams are being graded by people who don't know what they're talking about?

That doesn't sound like a solution to me . . .

Modern exam papers are scanned into a computer and then different parts are marked in different ways.
In some subjects there are a few (~5%) multiple choice question: these are marked by the computer itself. Then there are simple questions with little choice as to the answer which might be marked by non-specialists, and finally the longer, open ended questions which need a specialist to mark. These are the ones I hate marking when we have mock exams, particularly with those pupils whose handwriting is hard to decipher.

I did an amusing experiment the other day. I got years 12 and 13 to read some sample scripts on a computer screen.

They all went away with a sudden urge to practice their handwriting...

matt

kinabalu said:

ydoethur said:

The best way would be to massively reduce class sizes in the state sector. That would mean there was no point in paying for a private education, as that’s its selling point.

The odds of this happening are zero, of course.

Let's not be defeatist. I have a dream. I have a dream that our children will one day live in a nation where their prospects are determined not by the size of their parents bank balance but by the quality of their hearts and minds.

You’re banning engaged middle class parents then. Or private tutoring for pupils Of state schools (the dirty little secret of a number of well performing state schools near me). Cameras in every home to confirm that children aren’t being encouraged to read other than class books?

What did you do for your children?

Or, thinking about it, you’re a performance art project to see if the most cliched statements can be made to sound inspiring?

isam

kinabalu said:

ydoethur said:

The best way would be to massively reduce class sizes in the state sector. That would mean there was no point in paying for a private education, as that’s its selling point.

The odds of this happening are zero, of course.

Let's not be defeatist. I have a dream. I have a dream that our children will one day live in a nation where their prospects are determined not by the size of their parents bank balance but by the quality of their hearts and minds.

Left wingers are keen to be heard saying they want the next generation to have the same advantages they had, so maybe Sir Keir will open Grammar schools in poor areas, or increase the state funded places in private schools