Totally, O/T but I was thinking more about the question, which crops up from time to time here, whether Nazism is worse than communism. Why is it still more respectable to be a communist than a Nazi?
I think the answer has to be that despite the loathsome nature of Lenin, Stalin, and their cliques:-
1. The mass of men and women of the Soviet Union displayed extraordinary valour in WWII, and the world owes them a debt of gratitude for it.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
That sai
But they are at least, achievements. Name one achievement of Nazism that has actually stood the test of time. Economic recovery? Not really, they had food rationing even before the war, because they couldn't import both food and war materials. Architecture? Most of it was flattened in World War Two. Sustained, if modest and gradual, increases in living standards, which the Soviet Union did achieve from Khrushchev onwards? No.
It is worth pointing out though - in support of your argument - that I was once told Mussolini remains quite popular in Italy, as the man who gave them lots of new infrastructure and rebuilt the army and navy so Italy became a proper power. I don't know how true that is - @Cyclefree would be able to help - but it suggests that the reason for far right getting a worse press in this country than the far left is, straightforwardly, that 'far-right=Hitler' in the popular mind.
For sure, which is why I deliberately said Nazism rather than fascism.
It's ironic that the one thing that Communists were really good at is war - and building up the infrastructure needed to wage war - when in theory, communism will bring war to an end. Whereas the Nazis who actually glorified war were destroyed on the battlefield.
The Nazis were good at war until they stopped being good at it, or at least when the luck of their mug punter of a leader ran out.
It's an uncomfortable thought, or is since Stalin stopped being our honoured ally and became one of history's monsters, that JS was a superior leader to Hitler, able to pragmatically discard ideology in a way that Hitler couldn't. Also his decision to stay in Moscow in 1941 while all the apparatchiki were shitting themselves and booking seats on the 16:45 to Kuibyshev could be seen as one of the turning points in the war (in the east at least).
I would not dispute Stalin's leadership skills. AS CS Lewis put it "To be truly and effectively wicked, a man needs some virtue."
There is something grotesque about giving China credit for taking people out of poverty when it made them poor in the first place and killed many tens of millions through famine first.
A similar thing happened with British Rule in India.
That is brutal. That inverts everything supporters of the SQA have been assuming about grade inflation.
It also strongly suggests they have wrongfully clobbered every bright pupil in an inner city school.
If John Swinney doesn't resign over this...
How does it suggest that they've wrongfully clobbered every bright pupil in an inner city school? The figures they've ended up with look to be in line with 2016 to 2019 actuals, in fact a bit more generous to all categories.
Of course the 2016 to 2019 figures might not be ideal, but presumably the idea was to make the grades as compatible as possible with what would have happened if the exams had taken place as normal.
I agree that politically it looks potentially dangerous, but, objectively speaking, it's not obvious that it's wrong overall. That's not to say that there won't be much individual unfairness hidden in the statistics, of course.
As with a lot of things, it's the exceptions (with evidence) that will prove how unfair it is.
Happened as we feared. A boy who got the third equal top mark in the country in his National 5 in computing last year (98%) has been given a band 2 having got a band 1 in his prelim. Just ridiculous but I am not sure that there is anything we can do since he got an "A".
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
I think the Poles might bet to differ!
And then there's the Soviet ethnic cleanising of people like the Crimean Tatars and the Buddhist Kalmyks.
- We were after a takeaway coffee on the seafront, but ended up sitting in and drinking it as it was half price. Cafe owner tipped us off. Full price if we had walked away with it.
- In evening we had a meal in a cafe (three of us) and £46 bill became £23
- In both instances, we would have bought these goods at full price if scheme wasn`t in existence
- the discounts were applied automatically. We didn`t have to ask for them.
This is going to cost a fortune and may not flush out as many scared homies as intended. I think the cost will be considerably greater than the benefit.
Happened as we feared. A boy who got the third equal top mark in the country in his National 5 in computing last year (98%) has been given a band 2 having got a band 1 in his prelim. Just ridiculous but I am not sure that there is anything we can do since he got an "A".
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
Very sorry to hear this David. Can you appeal?
Don't think so. You can only appeal classifications not bands.
That sucks.
Have you had a chance to discuss it with his college yet? (Assuming he isn't applying next year.)
Happened as we feared. A boy who got the third equal top mark in the country in his National 5 in computing last year (98%) has been given a band 2 having got a band 1 in his prelim. Just ridiculous but I am not sure that there is anything we can do since he got an "A".
This will adversely affect his Oxford application. It is bloody unfair.
Very sorry to hear this David. Can you appeal?
Don't think so. You can only appeal classifications not bands.
That sucks.
Have you had a chance to discuss it with his college yet? (Assuming he isn't applying next year.)
It will be next year that he will be applying.
Then that's unfortunate. I'm guessing this year they might have stretched a point. NExt year, possibly not.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
I think the Poles might bet to differ!
And then there's the Soviet ethnic cleanising of people like the Crimean Tatars and the Buddhist Kalmyks.
- We were after a takeaway coffee on the seafront, but ended up sitting in and drinking it as it was half price. Cafe owner tipped us off. Full price if we had walked away with it.
- In evening we had a meal in a cafe (three of us) and £46 bill became £23
- In both instances, we would have bought these goods at full price if scheme wasn`t in existence
- the discounts were applied automatically. We didn`t have to ask for them.
This is going to cost a fortune and may not flush out as many scared homies as intended. I think the cost will be considerably greater than the benefit.
I think this misunderstands the current state of the economy and the rationale for the scheme. There’s a fall in consumer (and business) spending which is more or less unprecedented in recorded history.
So what’s needed is a big wedge of spending paid for by the state. Trouble is governments are pretty crap at making purchase and investment decisions. The Trump stimulus cheque is therefore on the one hand very good, as the lowest quartile of the US population have spent almost all of it on consumption (compassionate welfare and effective Keynesianism). But higher up the income chain all it’s served to do is inflate stock prices.
Eat Out To Help Out is a voucher scheme with quite easy administration. Doesn’t matter if you’d have gone out anyway, you can now go out again. Or buy something else with the saved money. Hopefully it will also tempt the overly paranoid out of their homes and to re-engage with the services economy, rather than just giving 80% of everything they spend to Amazon and Ocado. All the while encouraging people to spread out their spending between Monday to Sunday, to avoid weekend crowds. Personally I see it as a master stroke. And it’s cheap in the context of the hundreds of billions of pounds this crisis has already cost.
2. For all their brutality and cruelty, the Soviets never implemented the equivalent of Generalplan Ost, or the Holocaust, on the countries they occupied.
I think the Poles might bet to differ!
And then there's the Soviet ethnic cleanising of people like the Crimean Tatars and the Buddhist Kalmyks.
Comments
DavidL has a perfect example below...
And then there's the Soviet ethnic cleanising of people like the Crimean Tatars and the Buddhist Kalmyks.
Just back from Devon. A few observations:
- We were after a takeaway coffee on the seafront, but ended up sitting in and drinking it as it was half price. Cafe owner tipped us off. Full price if we had walked away with it.
- In evening we had a meal in a cafe (three of us) and £46 bill became £23
- In both instances, we would have bought these goods at full price if scheme wasn`t in existence
- the discounts were applied automatically. We didn`t have to ask for them.
This is going to cost a fortune and may not flush out as many scared homies as intended. I think the cost will be considerably greater than the benefit.
Are resits allowed in Scotland?
So what’s needed is a big wedge of spending paid for by the state. Trouble is governments are pretty crap at making purchase and investment decisions. The Trump stimulus cheque is therefore on the one hand very good, as the lowest quartile of the US population have spent almost all of it on consumption (compassionate welfare and effective Keynesianism). But higher up the income chain all it’s served to do is inflate stock prices.
Eat Out To Help Out is a voucher scheme with quite easy administration. Doesn’t matter if you’d have gone out anyway, you can now go out again. Or buy something else with the saved money. Hopefully it will also tempt the overly paranoid out of their homes and to re-engage with the services economy, rather than just giving 80% of everything they spend to Amazon and Ocado. All the while encouraging people to spread out their spending between Monday to Sunday, to avoid weekend crowds. Personally I see it as a master stroke. And it’s cheap in the context of the hundreds of billions of pounds this crisis has already cost.