With a company restructure imminent I am doing a little reading. It seems a little odd that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be used to pay employees during their notice period having been made redundant. Has the potential to in effect cut the value of my contractual notice period by a third...
I do not see how; it is not backdated. If your employer makes 20 or more people redundant, there must be a consultation period. Only after that consultation can they dismiss people, which is when your notice period starts. (Mine has five weeks left.) They can't backdate when this started, and aiui they cannot furlough you now if you were not already furloughed.
Indeed - my point is that if someone has already been furloughed once a consultation has been done their notice can then be furlough. How is it job retention if the job has been made redundant? This is likely to come up as a scenario a lot as the scheme ends...
Fuck me, first Shapps, then Sun reptiles stalking rescue workers, and now Chuck and his entourage. Stoney's cup runneth over (with what is yet to be ascertained).
Yeah, it's shocking how intolerant we are of Sun hacks chasing rescue workers for statements and doorstepping the family of the dead driver. Not too happy about someone who broke lockdown while suffering from Covid dragging his sorry arse about the place either.
Still, you managed to turn on a sixpence and give your support to BJ, so you'd just about tolerate anything.
No.
I just find the intolerance from the SNP very sad and reflect on my late father in law, who was a highly successful Scots sceine net skipper rejecting all to do with nationalism 50 years ago
I don't think he was a sceine net skipper..
Seine net of course but does not alter the fact he rejected everything about Scots nationalism.
No offence, but what's that got to do with 2020?
My late father in law warned of the destructive nature of nationalism and though that was 50 years ago it is still relevant today and is evidenced by the increasing attacks on all things English
You have lost the plot now G, you will be putting Vera Lynn videos up next and pictures of spitfires. If the English act like fascists and try to subjugate a country they deserve all they get. They need to get a backbone and some principles and tell their English government to practice some democracy.
Ydoethur, Hoist with my own petard. You having fun, being classed as one of the biggest cheats and liars in history , by the way. How many of your students got downgraded in the debacle.
Without going into details - let’s just say the exam boards in effect accepted my judgements. So personally, I have not been branded a cheat or a liar with the exception of a couple of unpleasant people on here.
But I’m still very angry about the shambolic way this has been handled. It really does make me wonder whether it’s worth staying in teaching, because what’s the point if everything you do is misjudged on the basis of a flawed algorithm incorrectly applied? Why put up with the hassle for an extra five weeks’ holiday a year?
Have to agree and all the thanks you get for your efforts is to be considered as either too stupid to be able to grade students or alternatively you are a liar and a fraud.
You do get more thanks than that, in person.
But at this moment, I’m apparently being blamed for schools being shut, when the government shut them and has no clear idea of how to reopen them, giving confused, conflicting and often impossible instructions and then shouts and stamps its feet when this is pointed out to them. I’m blamed for the exam debacle, when it was the government set up a flawed system and then put in place measures that warped it further.
And even in normal times, I’m blamed if not every child gets an A* at A-level, or becomes a model citizen, or does something stupid out of school hours.
And I’m paid less than I would get for the equivalent job in an office.
So - why do I bother?
If the government want to destroy education entirely, they’ve done a damn good job.
Lady G, Sunak would have the potential to win but the sheer weight of being in office for so long and of the pandemic/EU polarisation/problems would be a heavy burden for the Conservatives to bear.
Led by Johnson, they're very likely to be hammered.
Starmer is utterly charmless and boring, and has the problem of Scotland, Sunak has a genuine if geeky/weedy charisma, and is very smart. And doesn’t need Scotland.
Yes I can see Sunak winning a smallish 2024 majority as Recovery Man, after a well timed Boris resignation.
Either that or Starmer leading a highly unstable and potentially short lived coalition and losing to Sunak as the incumbent.
I have just been reading up about Warren Mitchell and came across this on Wilkipedia : 'He studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford as an RAF cadet student on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers.' That was in 1944 . Mitchell obviously never graduated and his experience of Oxford was pretty brief. I was unaware of such courses. Do they still exist?
A couple of threads back someone posted a video clip from 1970 of Warren Mitchell reminiscing about Oxford.
Universities still today offer full and short courses to serving armed forces personnel.
During the war, there were also shortened degree courses for ordinary students, which aiui were awarded on a pass/fail basis.
My hairdresser tells me that her friend in Croydon council says the government has plans to seal off London overnight, by putting the army all along the M25. Soon.
Now, i ascribe a veracity value of about 0.01 to this gossip. Sure, HMG is preparing for all scenarios, but this is extreme.
However it is interesting as a picture of how ordinary people are approaching the virus. They don’t think it’s over. They’re still scared. They’re probably right.
As someone who lives about half a mile inside the M25, and rarely ventures much further into London than that, I sure hope your veracity value is on the money!
I think he poses a real threat to any chances Labour has.
Charisma out of 10 - 9.5 vs SKS 1.0
Progressive - 8.5 vs SKS ??
Anti Establishment 1.0 vs SKS 0.5
Likeability 9.0 vs 4.5
etc etc
I think Labour are screwed without a long deep painful economic decline and even then not sure the current leader has enough personality to exploit that.
Hope i am wrong but although i can see Richis scores falling cant see SKS's rising that much
Many thanks to those who shared their retaking A-levels stories. Certainly confirmed my bias that retaking may be a better option than just settling for a second/third/fourth university/course choice.
On topic, the fox news poll is intriguing (and terrifying). I've basically decided now I will be cashed out and green before election day, just trying to time my exit.
On the night itself, I'll be placing bets as information comes in, in the hope of outrunning other bettors. But I suspect the speed and knowledge of punters will have increased.
Last time around, I remember you could still back Clinton to win popular vote and make good money long after it was obvious she would win that once California came in. I don't expect that kind of opportunity to come again but still hoping.
With a company restructure imminent I am doing a little reading. It seems a little odd that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be used to pay employees during their notice period having been made redundant. Has the potential to in effect cut the value of my contractual notice period by a third...
I do not see how; it is not backdated. If your employer makes 20 or more people redundant, there must be a consultation period. Only after that consultation can they dismiss people, which is when your notice period starts. (Mine has five weeks left.) They can't backdate when this started, and aiui they cannot furlough you now if you were not already furloughed.
Indeed - my point is that if someone has already been furloughed once a consultation has been done their notice can then be furlough. How is it job retention if the job has been made redundant? This is likely to come up as a scenario a lot as the scheme ends...
One of the first changes made to the furlough scheme was the ability to re-employ and furlough a former member of staff who had left and their new job had disappeared.
This is no different from that, it's keeping furloughed former employees off the unemployment queue for longer.
Unfortunately until or unless the army and police abandon him there still is.
And don’t rule out Putin playing silly buggers either. Look what he did when his not quite a stooge in Ukraine got kicked out.
There are lots of examples on social media of people from the police and the army throwing away their uniforms and joining the protests.
I think this is also a harder situation for Putin than Ukraine because the Belarusian state has been portraying the opposition as Russian stooges.
I very much hope you’re right.
In addition to being vile, corrupt, dishonest and murderous, the man’s an idiot who’s too damn thick to run a country. If he’d gone for 51-46 he might have got away with it.
Apparently the electoral commission were under instructions to give him a result in the high 60s but at the last minute they were told to make it 80 to rub the people's face in it...
Like I said, total idiot. Even contrarian wouldn’t believe a result like that.
But just over 50% would convince enough doubters to make protest quite muted.
Instead, by trying to pretend he won bigly he’s lost all popular authority. He may not be overthrown by the demonstrators but if he doesn’t go soon his own senior supporters will be seeking to remove him.
On a Russian political talk show, someone was arguing with a straight face that it's not possible to fake so many votes so such a strong result proves that Lukashenko must have won even if you factor in ballot stuffing!
Did the truth ever come out about that rather plump, middle aged
I thought for a moment of great surprise that you were going to say something about a certain RT talk show host!
On the substantive point, of course we know what she was doing. She was cleaning the windows, and somebody asked her to move some waste paper that happened to be there.
It had nothing to do with rigging the election. How could you even think that?
It got both the correct winner and was accurate to within 1% (aggregated) last time round.
Maybe. But Florida has only once been the tipping point state since 1960 (i.e. the one providing the 270th electoral college vote).
Since 1980, it's been Illinois, Michigan, Michigan, Tennessee (oddly - but remember Bill was very appealing in the South), Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, Colorado, Wisconsin (maybe Pennsylvania if you make some assumptions about faithless electors doing the same if there had been anything riding on it).
Don't get me wrong - Florida is often close and a good state to win and poor one to lose because it's pretty big. A Biden lead there is very encouraging for him as there are a lot of paths to victory that run through Florida and relatively few paths to defeat - plus Democrats did poorly there in the mid-terms so possibly reversing that bad result on an otherwise good night at that time is particularly positive for them.
But he and Trump can both cheer themselves up by looking at their best polling out of (say) Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and Arizona, and depress themselves by looking at the worst. The point is that either one needs to win a combination of some but not all of those.
If Biden wins Florida, he wins the White House. Not just because of Fl but because it means that enough other states will have moved to the Dems.
If Trump wins Florida, Biden still has a few other realistic combinatins to win, the most famous being Wi-Mi-Pa.
The needle is thin to thread for Biden without Florida, and thinner for Trump. The probability either one wins the whitehouse and does not have Florida is low.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
Lady G, Sunak would have the potential to win but the sheer weight of being in office for so long and of the pandemic/EU polarisation/problems would be a heavy burden for the Conservatives to bear.
Led by Johnson, they're very likely to be hammered.
Starmer is utterly charmless and boring, and has the problem of Scotland, Sunak has a genuine if geeky/weedy charisma, and is very smart. And doesn’t need Scotland.
Yes I can see Sunak winning a smallish 2024 majority as Recovery Man, after a well timed Boris resignation.
Rishi Sunak has the ability and charisma to win. In short, he looks the part, direct from central casting.
So the only question is how Rishi gets to be leader of the party (and hence already Prime Minister) before the election. In short, will Boris resign? A personal scandal can be ruled out because his colourful private life is already priced in. And what could happen politically to force out Boris but not his Chancellor? The other danger for Rishi-backers is that if he does fall out with Boris (or more realistically Dominic Cummings) then Sunak is richer than the Queen so can easily afford to flounce.
I have just been reading up about Warren Mitchell and came across this on Wilkipedia : 'He studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford as an RAF cadet student on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers.' That was in 1944 . Mitchell obviously never graduated and his experience of Oxford was pretty brief. I was unaware of such courses. Do they still exist?
A couple of threads back someone posted a video clip from 1970 of Warren Mitchell reminiscing about Oxford.
Universities still today offer full and short courses to serving armed forces personnel.
During the war, there were also shortened degree courses for ordinary students, which aiui were awarded on a pass/fail basis.
Didn’t they also offer shortened courses for demobbed students in both 1919 and 1945? Or am I confusing that with these shortened courses?
Incidentally another, even more famous actor went on a similar course at Exeter College before joining the RAF - Richard Jenkins (as he was then).
Loving the hoodie over the shirt and tie look. 50% skatepark 50% Wall Street. He's hitting those key demographics. What an absolute throbbing infected twat he is.
He’s a weird wee midge of a man, size-wise, but actually he comes over well on TV. Relaxed, amiable, articulate, not too posh. He will survive the end of furlough. He will be a real test for the Labour leader that faces him (and Nats, LDs, etc)
The quasi sacking of Javid and swift elevation of Rishi becomes more intriguing the more I see of him. Because it’s becoming much harder to characterise this as Boris / Cummings forcing out a robust counterweight and putting in an inexperienced puppet.
Rishi’s potential (both electorally and administratively) would have been obvious to Boris before he appointed him. Which makes it start to look much more like active succession planning. One has to wonder what’s been said between them behind closed doors.
There’s a lot to play out from this recession still but a hypothetical Rishi vs Starmer contest in 2024 (or beyond) would be quite a one sided affair one feels.
Worried by this post. Not the prediction as such - could be right could be wrong - but the lexicology. Not only do we have "Boris" now - and people know my views on that - but we seem to be embracing "Rishi" instead of Sunak. Another brand taking off - people talking about a Tory politician who was unknown a year ago as if he's an intimate acquaintance - and I sense I am powerless to stop it. Wits end.
Fuck me, first Shapps, then Sun reptiles stalking rescue workers, and now Chuck and his entourage. Stoney's cup runneth over (with what is yet to be ascertained).
Yeah, it's shocking how intolerant we are of Sun hacks chasing rescue workers for statements and doorstepping the family of the dead driver. Not too happy about someone who broke lockdown while suffering from Covid dragging his sorry arse about the place either.
Still, you managed to turn on a sixpence and give your support to BJ, so you'd just about tolerate anything.
No.
I just find the intolerance from the SNP very sad and reflect on my late father in law, who was a highly successful Scots sceine net skipper rejecting all to do with nationalism 50 years ago
Political activist on social media tend to be a loud and unpleasant bunch but it is a special kind of unpleasant that many Cybernats seem to subscribe to.
My Scots wife has become thoroughly ashamed of them and their anti English bile and not one of the Cybernats on here speak for her
The lack of condemnation of the anti English bile from the SNP high command rather damns them.
How is it acceptable for their supporters to stand by the border with signs and placards demanding the English keep out of Scotland.
Cybernats and SNP supporters, by and large, are happy to justify and excuse their bigotry.
What a wally, it is supposedly a free country you absolute dipstick. Not an "Only do what the English say you can do " dictatorship. Using that toilet paper rubbish suggests you are just a petty Little Englander given there was no attempt to blockade any border. A few people who obviously had little to do stood on a flyover waving flags, hardly insurrection. Put on your pearls and twinset and go out for afternoon tea , calm you down.
They were standing on the Scottish border, not a motorway bridge, that I drove over for the first time on my own after passing my test in 1961.
This article in The Metro has pictures of these cranks shouting abuse and also reports they were taking down number plates too. In order to shame people to death no less.
I hadn't been following this story at all - something else to deal with at the relevant time - but a sudden thought made me google - and yes Sean Clerkin was involved.
Very much a wild card - not someone to be taken as at all representative. The last time I'd heard of him he was being thrown out of Holyrood Parliament for protesting against the FM.
Loving the hoodie over the shirt and tie look. 50% skatepark 50% Wall Street. He's hitting those key demographics. What an absolute throbbing infected twat he is.
He’s a weird wee midge of a man, size-wise, but actually he comes over well on TV. Relaxed, amiable, articulate, not too posh. He will survive the end of furlough. He will be a real test for the Labour leader that faces him (and Nats, LDs, etc)
The quasi sacking of Javid and swift elevation of Rishi becomes more intriguing the more I see of him. Because it’s becoming much harder to characterise this as Boris / Cummings forcing out a robust counterweight and putting in an inexperienced puppet.
Rishi’s potential (both electorally and administratively) would have been obvious to Boris before he appointed him. Which makes it start to look much more like active succession planning. One has to wonder what’s been said between them behind closed doors.
There’s a lot to play out from this recession still but a hypothetical Rishi vs Starmer contest in 2024 (or beyond) would be quite a one sided affair one feels.
Worried by this post. Not the prediction as such - could be right could be wrong - but the lexicology. Not only do we have "Boris" now - and people know my views on that - but we seem to be embracing "Rishi" instead of Sunak. Another brand taking off - people talking about a Tory politician who was unknown a year ago as if he's an intimate acquaintance - and I sense I am powerless to stop it. Wits end.
My mother’s pension age friends have called him Dishi Rishi since long before the Rishi’s Dishies scheme.
It’s all a bit unfair on Keir because in a runoff between the two, he’s the one who comes across as the one who’s socially distant and not “one of us”. And yet Sunak (just to make you feel happy on a Friday!) is the one married to the billionaire. Politics is all perception.
I have just been reading up about Warren Mitchell and came across this on Wilkipedia : 'He studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford as an RAF cadet student on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers.' That was in 1944 . Mitchell obviously never graduated and his experience of Oxford was pretty brief. I was unaware of such courses. Do they still exist?
A couple of threads back someone posted a video clip from 1970 of Warren Mitchell reminiscing about Oxford.
Universities still today offer full and short courses to serving armed forces personnel.
During the war, there were also shortened degree courses for ordinary students, which aiui were awarded on a pass/fail basis.
I have a friend whose father attended Oxford on a course related to his becoming an Army Officer . This was towards the end of World War 2. He was not there long and I presume he went there on the same basis as Mitchell. Six months was far too short to obtain any degree. It seems stretching things for such people to be able to claim to have been Oxford-educated in a meaningful sense- though I am aware of Jeffrey Archer! I am just wondering whether similar courses are available today on which people can seek to enroll.
Loving the hoodie over the shirt and tie look. 50% skatepark 50% Wall Street. He's hitting those key demographics. What an absolute throbbing infected twat he is.
He’s a weird wee midge of a man, size-wise, but actually he comes over well on TV. Relaxed, amiable, articulate, not too posh. He will survive the end of furlough. He will be a real test for the Labour leader that faces him (and Nats, LDs, etc)
The quasi sacking of Javid and swift elevation of Rishi becomes more intriguing the more I see of him. Because it’s becoming much harder to characterise this as Boris / Cummings forcing out a robust counterweight and putting in an inexperienced puppet.
Rishi’s potential (both electorally and administratively) would have been obvious to Boris before he appointed him. Which makes it start to look much more like active succession planning. One has to wonder what’s been said between them behind closed doors.
There’s a lot to play out from this recession still but a hypothetical Rishi vs Starmer contest in 2024 (or beyond) would be quite a one sided affair one feels.
Worried by this post. Not the prediction as such - could be right could be wrong - but the lexicology. Not only do we have "Boris" now - and people know my views on that - but we seem to be embracing "Rishi" instead of Sunak. Another brand taking off - people talking about a Tory politician who was unknown a year ago as if he's an intimate acquaintance - and I sense I am powerless to stop it. Wits end.
‘I sense I am powerless to stop it’
In your normal life are you generally capable of steering UK public opinion as you wish?
You are Vladimir Putin and I claim my 5 bit-rubles
Fuck me, first Shapps, then Sun reptiles stalking rescue workers, and now Chuck and his entourage. Stoney's cup runneth over (with what is yet to be ascertained).
Yeah, it's shocking how intolerant we are of Sun hacks chasing rescue workers for statements and doorstepping the family of the dead driver. Not too happy about someone who broke lockdown while suffering from Covid dragging his sorry arse about the place either.
Still, you managed to turn on a sixpence and give your support to BJ, so you'd just about tolerate anything.
No.
I just find the intolerance from the SNP very sad and reflect on my late father in law, who was a highly successful Scots sceine net skipper rejecting all to do with nationalism 50 years ago
I don't think he was a sceine net skipper..
Seine net of course but does not alter the fact he rejected everything about Scots nationalism.
No offence, but what's that got to do with 2020?
My late father in law warned of the destructive nature of nationalism and though that was 50 years ago it is still relevant today and is evidenced by the increasing attacks on all things English
You have lost the plot now G, you will be putting Vera Lynn videos up next and pictures of spitfires. If the English act like fascists and try to subjugate a country they deserve all they get. They need to get a backbone and some principles and tell their English government to practice some democracy.
Ydoethur, Hoist with my own petard. You having fun, being classed as one of the biggest cheats and liars in history , by the way. How many of your students got downgraded in the debacle.
Without going into details - let’s just say the exam boards in effect accepted my judgements. So personally, I have not been branded a cheat or a liar with the exception of a couple of unpleasant people on here.
But I’m still very angry about the shambolic way this has been handled. It really does make me wonder whether it’s worth staying in teaching, because what’s the point if everything you do is misjudged on the basis of a flawed algorithm incorrectly applied? Why put up with the hassle for an extra five weeks’ holiday a year?
Have to agree and all the thanks you get for your efforts is to be considered as either too stupid to be able to grade students or alternatively you are a liar and a fraud.
You do get more thanks than that, in person.
But at this moment, I’m apparently being blamed for schools being shut, when the government shut them and has no clear idea of how to reopen them, giving confused, conflicting and often impossible instructions and then shouts and stamps its feet when this is pointed out to them. I’m blamed for the exam debacle, when it was the government set up a flawed system and then put in place measures that warped it further.
And even in normal times, I’m blamed if not every child gets an A* at A-level, or becomes a model citizen, or does something stupid out of school hours.
And I’m paid less than I would get for the equivalent job in an office.
So - why do I bother?
If the government want to destroy education entirely, they’ve done a damn good job.
But you are touching young hearts and moulding young minds.
Loving the hoodie over the shirt and tie look. 50% skatepark 50% Wall Street. He's hitting those key demographics. What an absolute throbbing infected twat he is.
He’s a weird wee midge of a man, size-wise, but actually he comes over well on TV. Relaxed, amiable, articulate, not too posh. He will survive the end of furlough. He will be a real test for the Labour leader that faces him (and Nats, LDs, etc)
The quasi sacking of Javid and swift elevation of Rishi becomes more intriguing the more I see of him. Because it’s becoming much harder to characterise this as Boris / Cummings forcing out a robust counterweight and putting in an inexperienced puppet.
Rishi’s potential (both electorally and administratively) would have been obvious to Boris before he appointed him. Which makes it start to look much more like active succession planning. One has to wonder what’s been said between them behind closed doors.
There’s a lot to play out from this recession still but a hypothetical Rishi vs Starmer contest in 2024 (or beyond) would be quite a one sided affair one feels.
Worried by this post. Not the prediction as such - could be right could be wrong - but the lexicology. Not only do we have "Boris" now - and people know my views on that - but we seem to be embracing "Rishi" instead of Sunak. Another brand taking off - people talking about a Tory politician who was unknown a year ago as if he's an intimate acquaintance - and I sense I am powerless to stop it. Wits end.
Quite right too, to feel like that - both at the foolishness of such shamefully uncritical thinking and the longer-term problems it is storing up. It's not just social but mental distancing one has to practice when politicians are around.
Many thanks to those who shared their retaking A-levels stories. Certainly confirmed my bias that retaking may be a better option than just settling for a second/third/fourth university/course choice.
Maybe. It depends what the actual choices will be, not the theoretical ones. The conventional wisdom is that it will be easier to get into university this year than it will be in 2021.
Then there are choices of university and course. If all that counts is Oxbridge, that is different from the subject being the important thing. Which is it in your case? @Foxy has already told us he chose medicine at not-Oxford over not-medicine at Oxford, but I can certainly recall people being advised to apply for less popular courses to get into Oxford.
One thing I've not seen mentioned here that I've seen three times IRL is students doing a BA/BSc somewhere followed by a Masters at Oxbridge. Best of both worlds.
Fuck me, first Shapps, then Sun reptiles stalking rescue workers, and now Chuck and his entourage. Stoney's cup runneth over (with what is yet to be ascertained).
Yeah, it's shocking how intolerant we are of Sun hacks chasing rescue workers for statements and doorstepping the family of the dead driver. Not too happy about someone who broke lockdown while suffering from Covid dragging his sorry arse about the place either.
Still, you managed to turn on a sixpence and give your support to BJ, so you'd just about tolerate anything.
No.
I just find the intolerance from the SNP very sad and reflect on my late father in law, who was a highly successful Scots sceine net skipper rejecting all to do with nationalism 50 years ago
I don't think he was a sceine net skipper..
Seine net of course but does not alter the fact he rejected everything about Scots nationalism.
No offence, but what's that got to do with 2020?
My late father in law warned of the destructive nature of nationalism and though that was 50 years ago it is still relevant today and is evidenced by the increasing attacks on all things English
You have lost the plot now G, you will be putting Vera Lynn videos up next and pictures of spitfires. If the English act like fascists and try to subjugate a country they deserve all they get. They need to get a backbone and some principles and tell their English government to practice some democracy.
Ydoethur, Hoist with my own petard. You having fun, being classed as one of the biggest cheats and liars in history , by the way. How many of your students got downgraded in the debacle.
Without going into details - let’s just say the exam boards in effect accepted my judgements. So personally, I have not been branded a cheat or a liar with the exception of a couple of unpleasant people on here.
But I’m still very angry about the shambolic way this has been handled. It really does make me wonder whether it’s worth staying in teaching, because what’s the point if everything you do is misjudged on the basis of a flawed algorithm incorrectly applied? Why put up with the hassle for an extra five weeks’ holiday a year?
Have to agree and all the thanks you get for your efforts is to be considered as either too stupid to be able to grade students or alternatively you are a liar and a fraud.
You do get more thanks than that, in person.
But at this moment, I’m apparently being blamed for schools being shut, when the government shut them and has no clear idea of how to reopen them, giving confused, conflicting and often impossible instructions and then shouts and stamps its feet when this is pointed out to them. I’m blamed for the exam debacle, when it was the government set up a flawed system and then put in place measures that warped it further.
And even in normal times, I’m blamed if not every child gets an A* at A-level, or becomes a model citizen, or does something stupid out of school hours.
And I’m paid less than I would get for the equivalent job in an office.
So - why do I bother?
If the government want to destroy education entirely, they’ve done a damn good job.
But you are touching young hearts and moulding young minds.
The Valiant, someone earlier posted they'd deliberately done that to highlight how vulnerable the site is to hacking, having contacted Mr. 1000 but not yet received a reply.
Lady G, Sunak would have the potential to win but the sheer weight of being in office for so long and of the pandemic/EU polarisation/problems would be a heavy burden for the Conservatives to bear.
Led by Johnson, they're very likely to be hammered.
Starmer is utterly charmless and boring, and has the problem of Scotland, Sunak has a genuine if geeky/weedy charisma, and is very smart. And doesn’t need Scotland.
Yes I can see Sunak winning a smallish 2024 majority as Recovery Man, after a well timed Boris resignation.
Rishi Sunak has the ability and charisma to win. In short, he looks the part, direct from central casting.
So the only question is how Rishi gets to be leader of the party (and hence already Prime Minister) before the election. In short, will Boris resign? A personal scandal can be ruled out because his colourful private life is already priced in. And what could happen politically to force out Boris but not his Chancellor? The other danger for Rishi-backers is that if he does fall out with Boris (or more realistically Dominic Cummings) then Sunak is richer than the Queen so can easily afford to flounce.
Yes I think Boris will resign. I thought it might be early 2021 - post brexit - but he now seems a bit peppier. However he is still a very old new father, he will have achieved greatness just by winning and delivering brexit, if he steers us to recovery in, say, 2023, he could gracefully retire to write his memoirs (for millions) and play with his toddler. TODDLER.
Sunak takes over and wins a handy majority in 2024 against a boring Starmer with no policies, a Scottish problem, and a racialist party still crippled by Jew-hatred.
O/T - if SKS succeeds in his calls in devaluing the English A level results as Scotland's politicians were seemingly willing to do, I will not be a happy bunny.
Totally unrelated Scrap Jnr got 3 A*s ....
How did a school did he go to and what did last years exam results look like?
I'm saying that as our friends in Cornwall (very small school) did well but our friends elsewhere definitely didn't.
I gather the school is appealing their results en masse - it's a grammar and seemingly those types of state school saw the least uplift in A/A*s compared to other types of schools year on year. I think smaller cohort schools will generally have fared better as my understanding is the teachers predictions were relied on.
But others (ydoethur) on here know a lot more than I do.
Yes, to your comment on cohorts, although with the extra information about the flaws in this algorithm the one who will probably have suffered worst are the ones with cohorts of 15-20. If you have 300 students you should have meaningful data to work with (although it’s weird from that FE colleges see, to have suffered) and if you have fewer than 15 teacher grades become critical. At 15 you have the worst of all worlds, where a meaningless statistical basis will have been applied with zero margin for error.
I think though with grammars, even allowing that the gap at sixth form isn’t as stark, the fact their grades are generally pretty high and consistently high anyway means there shouldn’t have been much variation. I’m intrigued if that isn’t the case.
I think the problem for colleges in the round is just that their overall results have been held to 2019 values, whereas other institutions have been allowed to inflate to a greater or lesser degree. So if you have just got your A Levels from Bigtown College, the uni place you were hoping for has been nabbed by someone from St Smallcohort's (NB St C's could be independent, or it could be an 11-18 comp). And the best that can happen now is probably a deferred place.
There's also a problem that, with the weighting put on an institution's past performance- pretty rubbish if you are an unusually able student for the college. And the conversion of continuous(ish) rankings into discrete grades seems to have been done in the meanest way possible, which is why some students have been downgraded from a C to a U, rather than C to D.
So yes, it's a big fat mess. But the national KPI of making the grade distribution similar has been met, so why should Downing Street care?
My local sixth form college (very large and very successful) principal is absolutely furious. Partly because some high grades have not been met, but mainly because of the number of U grades in several subjects that have not had a fail for years. Those that know the sector well will know that many subjects have A-level pass rates of 100% year after year (it's actually quite hard to fail an A-level - those students that are likely to usually don't end up completing the course). To find, for no good reason, many subjects falling below 100% has made him incandescent. This isn't over yet.
I have just been reading up about Warren Mitchell and came across this on Wilkipedia : 'He studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford as an RAF cadet student on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers.' That was in 1944 . Mitchell obviously never graduated and his experience of Oxford was pretty brief. I was unaware of such courses. Do they still exist?
A couple of threads back someone posted a video clip from 1970 of Warren Mitchell reminiscing about Oxford.
Universities still today offer full and short courses to serving armed forces personnel.
During the war, there were also shortened degree courses for ordinary students, which aiui were awarded on a pass/fail basis.
I have a friend whose father attended Oxford on a course related to his becoming an Army Officer . This was towards the end of World War 2. He was not there long and I presume he went there on the same basis as Mitchell. Six months was far too short to obtain any degree. It seems stretching things for such people to be able to claim to have been Oxford-educated in a meaningful sense- though I am aware of Jeffrey Archer! I am just wondering whether similar courses are available today on which people can seek to enroll.
O/T - if SKS succeeds in his calls in devaluing the English A level results as Scotland's politicians were seemingly willing to do, I will not be a happy bunny.
Totally unrelated Scrap Jnr got 3 A*s ....
How did a school did he go to and what did last years exam results look like?
I'm saying that as our friends in Cornwall (very small school) did well but our friends elsewhere definitely didn't.
I gather the school is appealing their results en masse - it's a grammar and seemingly those types of state school saw the least uplift in A/A*s compared to other types of schools year on year. I think smaller cohort schools will generally have fared better as my understanding is the teachers predictions were relied on.
But others (ydoethur) on here know a lot more than I do.
Yes, to your comment on cohorts, although with the extra information about the flaws in this algorithm the one who will probably have suffered worst are the ones with cohorts of 15-20. If you have 300 students you should have meaningful data to work with (although it’s weird from that FE colleges see, to have suffered) and if you have fewer than 15 teacher grades become critical. At 15 you have the worst of all worlds, where a meaningless statistical basis will have been applied with zero margin for error.
I think though with grammars, even allowing that the gap at sixth form isn’t as stark, the fact their grades are generally pretty high and consistently high anyway means there shouldn’t have been much variation. I’m intrigued if that isn’t the case.
I think the problem for colleges in the round is just that their overall results have been held to 2019 values, whereas other institutions have been allowed to inflate to a greater or lesser degree. So if you have just got your A Levels from Bigtown College, the uni place you were hoping for has been nabbed by someone from St Smallcohort's (NB St C's could be independent, or it could be an 11-18 comp). And the best that can happen now is probably a deferred place.
There's also a problem that, with the weighting put on an institution's past performance- pretty rubbish if you are an unusually able student for the college. And the conversion of continuous(ish) rankings into discrete grades seems to have been done in the meanest way possible, which is why some students have been downgraded from a C to a U, rather than C to D.
So yes, it's a big fat mess. But the national KPI of making the grade distribution similar has been met, so why should Downing Street care?
My local sixth form college (very large and very successful) principal is absolutely furious. Partly because some high grades have not been met, but mainly because of the number of U grades in several subjects that have not had a fail for years. Those that know the sector well will know that many subjects have A-level pass rates of 100% year after year (it's actually quite hard to fail an A-level - those students that are likely to usually don't end up completing the course). To find, for no good reason, many subjects falling below 100% has made him incandescent. This isn't over yet.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
Well, the best move is keep quiet, and get off planet before you are noticed....
I have just been reading up about Warren Mitchell and came across this on Wilkipedia : 'He studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford as an RAF cadet student on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers.' That was in 1944 . Mitchell obviously never graduated and his experience of Oxford was pretty brief. I was unaware of such courses. Do they still exist?
A couple of threads back someone posted a video clip from 1970 of Warren Mitchell reminiscing about Oxford.
Universities still today offer full and short courses to serving armed forces personnel.
During the war, there were also shortened degree courses for ordinary students, which aiui were awarded on a pass/fail basis.
Didn’t they also offer shortened courses for demobbed students in both 1919 and 1945? Or am I confusing that with these shortened courses?
Incidentally another, even more famous actor went on a similar course at Exeter College before joining the RAF - Richard Jenkins (as he was then).
Brits in Dunkirk failing to exhibit the Dunkirk Spirit.
They're relying on the Germans to screw up?
Blaming the French for sure. Probably a bit of light looting, queue jumping and pant wetting too.
Plus Laurence Fox getting triggered like a snowflake when he sees Indians and Pakistanis helping out at Dunkirk.
Some stirring stuff from Lozza here -
"For tens of thousands of years men and women have toiled together to safeguard the love and imagination of their children. This dogma of language destroying nonsense should be stood up to. You are not a woman because you say you are. You are a woman because you are."
First sentence takes some beating but imo he manages it with the last one.
I plan to use it as a chat-up line.
In what way is his first sentence wrong?
I wouldn't say any of it is wrong as such. I'm probably being a snob but it's just the cod prose. Presenting banal sentiment as a weighty and noble and thrilling call to arms. You could do it so much better. Indeed you do.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
And if the former, never have their identity or gender questioned on PB ever again.
O/T - if SKS succeeds in his calls in devaluing the English A level results as Scotland's politicians were seemingly willing to do, I will not be a happy bunny.
Totally unrelated Scrap Jnr got 3 A*s ....
How did a school did he go to and what did last years exam results look like?
I'm saying that as our friends in Cornwall (very small school) did well but our friends elsewhere definitely didn't.
I gather the school is appealing their results en masse - it's a grammar and seemingly those types of state school saw the least uplift in A/A*s compared to other types of schools year on year. I think smaller cohort schools will generally have fared better as my understanding is the teachers predictions were relied on.
But others (ydoethur) on here know a lot more than I do.
Yes, to your comment on cohorts, although with the extra information about the flaws in this algorithm the one who will probably have suffered worst are the ones with cohorts of 15-20. If you have 300 students you should have meaningful data to work with (although it’s weird from that FE colleges see, to have suffered) and if you have fewer than 15 teacher grades become critical. At 15 you have the worst of all worlds, where a meaningless statistical basis will have been applied with zero margin for error.
I think though with grammars, even allowing that the gap at sixth form isn’t as stark, the fact their grades are generally pretty high and consistently high anyway means there shouldn’t have been much variation. I’m intrigued if that isn’t the case.
I think the problem for colleges in the round is just that their overall results have been held to 2019 values, whereas other institutions have been allowed to inflate to a greater or lesser degree. So if you have just got your A Levels from Bigtown College, the uni place you were hoping for has been nabbed by someone from St Smallcohort's (NB St C's could be independent, or it could be an 11-18 comp). And the best that can happen now is probably a deferred place.
There's also a problem that, with the weighting put on an institution's past performance- pretty rubbish if you are an unusually able student for the college. And the conversion of continuous(ish) rankings into discrete grades seems to have been done in the meanest way possible, which is why some students have been downgraded from a C to a U, rather than C to D.
So yes, it's a big fat mess. But the national KPI of making the grade distribution similar has been met, so why should Downing Street care?
My local sixth form college (very large and very successful) principal is absolutely furious. Partly because some high grades have not been met, but mainly because of the number of U grades in several subjects that have not had a fail for years. Those that know the sector well will know that many subjects have A-level pass rates of 100% year after year (it's actually quite hard to fail an A-level - those students that are likely to usually don't end up completing the course). To find, for no good reason, many subjects falling below 100% has made him incandescent. This isn't over yet.
Well then, they can actually take the exams?
Too late. The big, big drawback with A-levels - one the Cummings/Gove reforms have made much worse - is that universities have made their decisions based on performance in exams in a one month window marked by suspect processes before students can appeal the grades. And they don't change their minds.
With GCSEs, things can be fudged. After all, a high percentage just stay on at their school, and God knows FE colleges are not usually in a position to be fussy.
But A-levels are one strike. And these ones have gone horribly, catastrophically wrong.
(I would also add that for some subjects, 'A-levels' per se are not available, as coursework elements will be inadmissable. That means they will probably bear less resemblance to a normal year's grades than teacher estimates.)
One thing this shows is that our system of assessment at 18 is wrong, and needs radical reform. Somehow, among the many suggestions put forward, we need to find a way to have university applications en masse after the results are known.
The obvious suggestion is a foundation year at a local college for those planning to go on to uni. That would also give students a chance to find out if they liked the course/subject.
And then only have two year undergraduate degrees at university. An end to Part 1.
But whether that could work in practice is another question.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
It all seems a bit angels dancing on pin heads. If you are manager of Boots and want to know how much lipstick to stock, the criterion for womanhood is different from that used for how many tampons, and different again from how many customer toilets might be needed. The arguments though, other than for sport, tend to revolve around ethereal notions of some unspecified essence of womanliness.
Clearly making money is more important than shutting off one of the main sources of new infections
11 The President of Spain by Night, Ramón Mas, announces that the nightlife sector will take to court the decision of the central government and the autonomies to close nightclubs, bars and dance halls throughout the country, to be considered this decision a "total aberration" that has been taken "without speaking" with the employers of leisure or with businessmen, and without offering any rescue or aid plan, he has assured, for this sector that represents 1.8% of the GDP, which generates 200,000 jobs and comprises 25,000 companies
I have just been reading up about Warren Mitchell and came across this on Wilkipedia : 'He studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford as an RAF cadet student on a six-month university short course which the armed services sponsored for potential officers.' That was in 1944 . Mitchell obviously never graduated and his experience of Oxford was pretty brief. I was unaware of such courses. Do they still exist?
A couple of threads back someone posted a video clip from 1970 of Warren Mitchell reminiscing about Oxford.
Universities still today offer full and short courses to serving armed forces personnel.
During the war, there were also shortened degree courses for ordinary students, which aiui were awarded on a pass/fail basis.
I have a friend whose father attended Oxford on a course related to his becoming an Army Officer . This was towards the end of World War 2. He was not there long and I presume he went there on the same basis as Mitchell. Six months was far too short to obtain any degree. It seems stretching things for such people to be able to claim to have been Oxford-educated in a meaningful sense- though I am aware of Jeffrey Archer! I am just wondering whether similar courses are available today on which people can seek to enroll.
Your friend's recollection definitely ties in with my father's experience. In 1942 at the age of 17, he joined a Royal Navy officer training programme called The Y Scheme. The first 6 months involved studying at Glasgow University.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
And if the former, never have their identity or gender questioned on PB ever again.
Absolutely. Anybody who genuinely feels strongly enough that their body does not match their gender, to go through everything involved in a sex change, deserves immense respect and support.
O/T - if SKS succeeds in his calls in devaluing the English A level results as Scotland's politicians were seemingly willing to do, I will not be a happy bunny.
Totally unrelated Scrap Jnr got 3 A*s ....
How did a school did he go to and what did last years exam results look like?
I'm saying that as our friends in Cornwall (very small school) did well but our friends elsewhere definitely didn't.
I gather the school is appealing their results en masse - it's a grammar and seemingly those types of state school saw the least uplift in A/A*s compared to other types of schools year on year. I think smaller cohort schools will generally have fared better as my understanding is the teachers predictions were relied on.
But others (ydoethur) on here know a lot more than I do.
Yes, to your comment on cohorts, although with the extra information about the flaws in this algorithm the one who will probably have suffered worst are the ones with cohorts of 15-20. If you have 300 students you should have meaningful data to work with (although it’s weird from that FE colleges see, to have suffered) and if you have fewer than 15 teacher grades become critical. At 15 you have the worst of all worlds, where a meaningless statistical basis will have been applied with zero margin for error.
I think though with grammars, even allowing that the gap at sixth form isn’t as stark, the fact their grades are generally pretty high and consistently high anyway means there shouldn’t have been much variation. I’m intrigued if that isn’t the case.
I think the problem for colleges in the round is just that their overall results have been held to 2019 values, whereas other institutions have been allowed to inflate to a greater or lesser degree. So if you have just got your A Levels from Bigtown College, the uni place you were hoping for has been nabbed by someone from St Smallcohort's (NB St C's could be independent, or it could be an 11-18 comp). And the best that can happen now is probably a deferred place.
There's also a problem that, with the weighting put on an institution's past performance- pretty rubbish if you are an unusually able student for the college. And the conversion of continuous(ish) rankings into discrete grades seems to have been done in the meanest way possible, which is why some students have been downgraded from a C to a U, rather than C to D.
So yes, it's a big fat mess. But the national KPI of making the grade distribution similar has been met, so why should Downing Street care?
My local sixth form college (very large and very successful) principal is absolutely furious. Partly because some high grades have not been met, but mainly because of the number of U grades in several subjects that have not had a fail for years. Those that know the sector well will know that many subjects have A-level pass rates of 100% year after year (it's actually quite hard to fail an A-level - those students that are likely to usually don't end up completing the course). To find, for no good reason, many subjects falling below 100% has made him incandescent. This isn't over yet.
Well then, they can actually take the exams?
Too late. The big, big drawback with A-levels - one the Cummings/Gove reforms have made much worse - is that universities have made their decisions based on performance in exams in a one month window marked by suspect processes before students can appeal the grades. And they don't change their minds.
With GCSEs, things can be fudged. After all, a high percentage just stay on at their school, and God knows FE colleges are not usually in a position to be fussy.
But A-levels are one strike. And these ones have gone horribly, catastrophically wrong.
(I would also add that for some subjects, 'A-levels' per se are not available, as coursework elements will be inadmissable. That means they will probably bear less resemblance to a normal year's grades than teacher estimates.)
One thing this shows is that our system of assessment at 18 is wrong, and needs radical reform. Somehow, among the many suggestions put forward, we need to find a way to have university applications en masse after the results are known.
The obvious suggestion is a foundation year at a local college for those planning to go on to uni. That would also give students a chance to find out if they liked the course/subject.
And then only have two year undergraduate degrees at university. An end to Part 1.
But whether that could work in practice is another question.
Or modify University entry and/or the A-Level exam schedule so that the results are available before interview.
I did 2 A Levels a year early.
When I got a 2 pass offer from my university of choice, at interview, it startled the interviewing professor when I pointed out that he had just given me a place....
Fuck me, first Shapps, then Sun reptiles stalking rescue workers, and now Chuck and his entourage. Stoney's cup runneth over (with what is yet to be ascertained).
Yeah, it's shocking how intolerant we are of Sun hacks chasing rescue workers for statements and doorstepping the family of the dead driver. Not too happy about someone who broke lockdown while suffering from Covid dragging his sorry arse about the place either.
Still, you managed to turn on a sixpence and give your support to BJ, so you'd just about tolerate anything.
No.
I just find the intolerance from the SNP very sad and reflect on my late father in law, who was a highly successful Scots sceine net skipper rejecting all to do with nationalism 50 years ago
I don't think he was a sceine net skipper..
Seine net of course but does not alter the fact he rejected everything about Scots nationalism.
No offence, but what's that got to do with 2020?
My late father in law warned of the destructive nature of nationalism and though that was 50 years ago it is still relevant today and is evidenced by the increasing attacks on all things English
You have lost the plot now G, you will be putting Vera Lynn videos up next and pictures of spitfires. If the English act like fascists and try to subjugate a country they deserve all they get. They need to get a backbone and some principles and tell their English government to practice some democracy.
Ydoethur, Hoist with my own petard. You having fun, being classed as one of the biggest cheats and liars in history , by the way. How many of your students got downgraded in the debacle.
Without going into details - let’s just say the exam boards in effect accepted my judgements. So personally, I have not been branded a cheat or a liar with the exception of a couple of unpleasant people on here.
But I’m still very angry about the shambolic way this has been handled. It really does make me wonder whether it’s worth staying in teaching, because what’s the point if everything you do is misjudged on the basis of a flawed algorithm incorrectly applied? Why put up with the hassle for an extra five weeks’ holiday a year?
Have to agree and all the thanks you get for your efforts is to be considered as either too stupid to be able to grade students or alternatively you are a liar and a fraud.
You do get more thanks than that, in person.
But at this moment, I’m apparently being blamed for schools being shut, when the government shut them and has no clear idea of how to reopen them, giving confused, conflicting and often impossible instructions and then shouts and stamps its feet when this is pointed out to them. I’m blamed for the exam debacle, when it was the government set up a flawed system and then put in place measures that warped it further.
And even in normal times, I’m blamed if not every child gets an A* at A-level, or becomes a model citizen, or does something stupid out of school hours.
And I’m paid less than I would get for the equivalent job in an office.
So - why do I bother?
If the government want to destroy education entirely, they’ve done a damn good job.
But you are touching young hearts and moulding young minds.
Can't do that in an office.
Get arrested.
That last one seems a bit of a non-sequitur.
Yes, sorry. Forgetting we're not chatting down the pub after a few.
My serious point is that teaching - for those who both like it and are good at it - must provide a level of satisfaction hard to find in an office job. So this (I'm thinking) makes it hard to leave even if one gets periodically pissed off and the stress is high and the money not great.
O/T - if SKS succeeds in his calls in devaluing the English A level results as Scotland's politicians were seemingly willing to do, I will not be a happy bunny.
Totally unrelated Scrap Jnr got 3 A*s ....
How did a school did he go to and what did last years exam results look like?
I'm saying that as our friends in Cornwall (very small school) did well but our friends elsewhere definitely didn't.
I gather the school is appealing their results en masse - it's a grammar and seemingly those types of state school saw the least uplift in A/A*s compared to other types of schools year on year. I think smaller cohort schools will generally have fared better as my understanding is the teachers predictions were relied on.
But others (ydoethur) on here know a lot more than I do.
Yes, to your comment on cohorts, although with the extra information about the flaws in this algorithm the one who will probably have suffered worst are the ones with cohorts of 15-20. If you have 300 students you should have meaningful data to work with (although it’s weird from that FE colleges see, to have suffered) and if you have fewer than 15 teacher grades become critical. At 15 you have the worst of all worlds, where a meaningless statistical basis will have been applied with zero margin for error.
I think though with grammars, even allowing that the gap at sixth form isn’t as stark, the fact their grades are generally pretty high and consistently high anyway means there shouldn’t have been much variation. I’m intrigued if that isn’t the case.
I think the problem for colleges in the round is just that their overall results have been held to 2019 values, whereas other institutions have been allowed to inflate to a greater or lesser degree. So if you have just got your A Levels from Bigtown College, the uni place you were hoping for has been nabbed by someone from St Smallcohort's (NB St C's could be independent, or it could be an 11-18 comp). And the best that can happen now is probably a deferred place.
There's also a problem that, with the weighting put on an institution's past performance- pretty rubbish if you are an unusually able student for the college. And the conversion of continuous(ish) rankings into discrete grades seems to have been done in the meanest way possible, which is why some students have been downgraded from a C to a U, rather than C to D.
So yes, it's a big fat mess. But the national KPI of making the grade distribution similar has been met, so why should Downing Street care?
My local sixth form college (very large and very successful) principal is absolutely furious. Partly because some high grades have not been met, but mainly because of the number of U grades in several subjects that have not had a fail for years. Those that know the sector well will know that many subjects have A-level pass rates of 100% year after year (it's actually quite hard to fail an A-level - those students that are likely to usually don't end up completing the course). To find, for no good reason, many subjects falling below 100% has made him incandescent. This isn't over yet.
Well then, they can actually take the exams?
Too late. The big, big drawback with A-levels - one the Cummings/Gove reforms have made much worse - is that universities have made their decisions based on performance in exams in a one month window marked by suspect processes before students can appeal the grades. And they don't change their minds.
With GCSEs, things can be fudged. After all, a high percentage just stay on at their school, and God knows FE colleges are not usually in a position to be fussy.
But A-levels are one strike. And these ones have gone horribly, catastrophically wrong.
(I would also add that for some subjects, 'A-levels' per se are not available, as coursework elements will be inadmissable. That means they will probably bear less resemblance to a normal year's grades than teacher estimates.)
One thing this shows is that our system of assessment at 18 is wrong, and needs radical reform. Somehow, among the many suggestions put forward, we need to find a way to have university applications en masse after the results are known.
The obvious suggestion is a foundation year at a local college for those planning to go on to uni. That would also give students a chance to find out if they liked the course/subject.
And then only have two year undergraduate degrees at university. An end to Part 1.
But whether that could work in practice is another question.
That's an interesting point. One issue with Scotland which PBTories have been ignoring in their haste to say SNPBad is that the exams are Highers, more like AS levels than A levels, and that the university degree is a 4 year system - the first year being multiple subjects eg at Edinburgh. So there is something of that aspect there already, which may be helpful in dealing with the various expectations - justified or, as many PBTories insist, otherwise (which last doesn't make sense unless you send your children to a private school or other one which benefits disproportionately from the mass marking down which has now been cancelled).
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
It all seems a bit angels dancing on pin heads. If you are manager of Boots and want to know how much lipstick to stock, the criterion for womanhood is different from that used for how many tampons, and different again from how many customer toilets might be needed. The arguments though, other than for sport, tend to revolve around ethereal notions of some unspecified essence of womanliness.
There have always been transvestites, drag queens, and very feminine gay men, who purchase 'women's' beauty items. That has not really changed, it's just now that a subset appears to want gender to be assigned on the basis of a notion - one that can change daily if desired. I don't see why the state should tie itself in knots trying to fit around this. If you like your willy and want to keep it, more power to you, but you don't get to use the ladies' loos. That should be the *ahem* long and short of it.
A fun week: 1. My dad rushed into hospital with a prolapsed hernia. Expected emergency surgery delayed then cancelled as its too risky in his condition and its better to manage it as is. He's home now but the daft old sod really should have got it sewn up years ago FFS. 2. The boy and his A-Levels. Downgraded vs expectations but scrapes over the line to get the minimum requirement for his primary choice. Which is more than a lot got but still epic stress 3. Brilliant interview on Tuesday with once in a blue moon opportunity. That has now progressed to what appears to be confirmed subject to contract. I'll need to get a Ltd company up and running... 4. Rumblings about the state of the business turned into a "theoretical" conversation with the CEO about restructure on Tuesday has turned this afternoon into my notice period starts 1st September albeit with a promise of a genuine review at the end of October where cancelling it is an option or else PILON+accrued holidays from 1st November.
Fuck me, first Shapps, then Sun reptiles stalking rescue workers, and now Chuck and his entourage. Stoney's cup runneth over (with what is yet to be ascertained).
Yeah, it's shocking how intolerant we are of Sun hacks chasing rescue workers for statements and doorstepping the family of the dead driver. Not too happy about someone who broke lockdown while suffering from Covid dragging his sorry arse about the place either.
Still, you managed to turn on a sixpence and give your support to BJ, so you'd just about tolerate anything.
No.
I just find the intolerance from the SNP very sad and reflect on my late father in law, who was a highly successful Scots sceine net skipper rejecting all to do with nationalism 50 years ago
I don't think he was a sceine net skipper..
Seine net of course but does not alter the fact he rejected everything about Scots nationalism.
No offence, but what's that got to do with 2020?
My late father in law warned of the destructive nature of nationalism and though that was 50 years ago it is still relevant today and is evidenced by the increasing attacks on all things English
You have lost the plot now G, you will be putting Vera Lynn videos up next and pictures of spitfires. If the English act like fascists and try to subjugate a country they deserve all they get. They need to get a backbone and some principles and tell their English government to practice some democracy.
Ydoethur, Hoist with my own petard. You having fun, being classed as one of the biggest cheats and liars in history , by the way. How many of your students got downgraded in the debacle.
Without going into details - let’s just say the exam boards in effect accepted my judgements. So personally, I have not been branded a cheat or a liar with the exception of a couple of unpleasant people on here.
But I’m still very angry about the shambolic way this has been handled. It really does make me wonder whether it’s worth staying in teaching, because what’s the point if everything you do is misjudged on the basis of a flawed algorithm incorrectly applied? Why put up with the hassle for an extra five weeks’ holiday a year?
I hope no one`s branding you a "cheat or a liar" Ydoethur.
As we agreed the other day, it was naive in the extreme for Ofqual to assume that teacher grades would be consistent with previous years. Teachers are , after all, under pressure from a school league table perspective and from a parent perspective.
Teachers were always, then, going to grade pupils at the, ahem, top end of expectations. Pointing this out is not to in any way place blame. If the teachers at my daughter`s school didn`t do this at least to the mean that teachers did overall across the country then I would be annoyed with the teachers.
So teachers are not being called cheats or liars - and anyone saying that they are should be ashamed of themselves.
A fun week: 1. My dad rushed into hospital with a prolapsed hernia. Expected emergency surgery delayed then cancelled as its too risky in his condition and its better to manage it as is. He's home now but the daft old sod really should have got it sewn up years ago FFS. 2. The boy and his A-Levels. Downgraded vs expectations but scrapes over the line to get the minimum requirement for his primary choice. Which is more than a lot got but still epic stress 3. Brilliant interview on Tuesday with once in a blue moon opportunity. That has now progressed to what appears to be confirmed subject to contract. I'll need to get a Ltd company up and running... 4. Rumblings about the state of the business turned into a "theoretical" conversation with the CEO about restructure on Tuesday has turned this afternoon into my notice period starts 1st September albeit with a promise of a genuine review at the end of October where cancelling it is an option or else PILON+accrued holidays from 1st November.
Its no wonder I am on happy pills and alcohol
Sounds like quite a roller coaster RP! At least RP Jr got the grades (just) and you got the job.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
Individuals should be able to identify as any ethnicity they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
What about in sport?
Sport participation is based on sex not gender. Always has been. "Gender" as a word wasn`t even invented until, I think the 50-60s, and sport preceded this!
A fun week: 1. My dad rushed into hospital with a prolapsed hernia. Expected emergency surgery delayed then cancelled as its too risky in his condition and its better to manage it as is. He's home now but the daft old sod really should have got it sewn up years ago FFS. 2. The boy and his A-Levels. Downgraded vs expectations but scrapes over the line to get the minimum requirement for his primary choice. Which is more than a lot got but still epic stress 3. Brilliant interview on Tuesday with once in a blue moon opportunity. That has now progressed to what appears to be confirmed subject to contract. I'll need to get a Ltd company up and running... 4. Rumblings about the state of the business turned into a "theoretical" conversation with the CEO about restructure on Tuesday has turned this afternoon into my notice period starts 1st September albeit with a promise of a genuine review at the end of October where cancelling it is an option or else PILON+accrued holidays from 1st November.
Its no wonder I am on happy pills and alcohol
Really sorry to hear about your Dad. That excepted, though stressful, it might appear that things are falling nicely in to place? Especially if your current role ends in a payment that you could potentially invest in your new venture?
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
Individuals should be able to identify as any ethnicity they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this
Yes they should. And we can mock them if they warrant mocking for doing so.
No one should ever get less than an A* in their first language.
In fact, exams in English can be abolished. Think of the savings.....
One of the changes that was definitely noticeable in the C&G shambles reforms was that they did tighten up noticeably on MFL A-levels.
Although @Dura_Ace would know more than me, my understanding is they do now include substantial elements of literature, study and cultural knowledge that just wasn't there before. So they're not a gimme for native speakers as they once were.
Of course, that makes them bloody near impossible for the notoriously monoglot English...
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
I find that view extraordinary, but thanks for expressing it so respectfully.
Fuck me, first Shapps, then Sun reptiles stalking rescue workers, and now Chuck and his entourage. Stoney's cup runneth over (with what is yet to be ascertained).
Yeah, it's shocking how intolerant we are of Sun hacks chasing rescue workers for statements and doorstepping the family of the dead driver. Not too happy about someone who broke lockdown while suffering from Covid dragging his sorry arse about the place either.
Still, you managed to turn on a sixpence and give your support to BJ, so you'd just about tolerate anything.
No.
I just find the intolerance from the SNP very sad and reflect on my late father in law, who was a highly successful Scots sceine net skipper rejecting all to do with nationalism 50 years ago
I don't think he was a sceine net skipper..
Seine net of course but does not alter the fact he rejected everything about Scots nationalism.
No offence, but what's that got to do with 2020?
My late father in law warned of the destructive nature of nationalism and though that was 50 years ago it is still relevant today and is evidenced by the increasing attacks on all things English
You have lost the plot now G, you will be putting Vera Lynn videos up next and pictures of spitfires. If the English act like fascists and try to subjugate a country they deserve all they get. They need to get a backbone and some principles and tell their English government to practice some democracy.
Ydoethur, Hoist with my own petard. You having fun, being classed as one of the biggest cheats and liars in history , by the way. How many of your students got downgraded in the debacle.
Without going into details - let’s just say the exam boards in effect accepted my judgements. So personally, I have not been branded a cheat or a liar with the exception of a couple of unpleasant people on here.
But I’m still very angry about the shambolic way this has been handled. It really does make me wonder whether it’s worth staying in teaching, because what’s the point if everything you do is misjudged on the basis of a flawed algorithm incorrectly applied? Why put up with the hassle for an extra five weeks’ holiday a year?
I hope no one`s branding you a "cheat or a liar" Ydoethur.
As we agreed the other day, it was naive in the extreme for Ofqual to assume that teacher grades would be consistent with previous years. Teachers are , after all, under pressure from a school league table perspective and from a parent perspective.
Teachers were always, then, going to grade pupils at the, ahem, top end of expectations. Pointing this out is not to in any way place blame. If the teachers at my daughter`s school didn`t do this at least to the mean that teachers did overall across the country then I would be annoyed with the teachers.
So teachers are not being called cheats or liars - and anyone saying that they are should be ashamed of themselves.
And yet two posters have - on this very forum. And been thoroughly unpleasant about it.
Lady G, Sunak would have the potential to win but the sheer weight of being in office for so long and of the pandemic/EU polarisation/problems would be a heavy burden for the Conservatives to bear.
Led by Johnson, they're very likely to be hammered.
Starmer is utterly charmless and boring, and has the problem of Scotland, Sunak has a genuine if geeky/weedy charisma, and is very smart. And doesn’t need Scotland.
Yes I can see Sunak winning a smallish 2024 majority as Recovery Man, after a well timed Boris resignation.
Rishi Sunak has the ability and charisma to win. In short, he looks the part, direct from central casting.
So the only question is how Rishi gets to be leader of the party (and hence already Prime Minister) before the election. In short, will Boris resign? A personal scandal can be ruled out because his colourful private life is already priced in. And what could happen politically to force out Boris but not his Chancellor? The other danger for Rishi-backers is that if he does fall out with Boris (or more realistically Dominic Cummings) then Sunak is richer than the Queen so can easily afford to flounce.
Yes I think Boris will resign. I thought it might be early 2021 - post brexit - but he now seems a bit peppier. However he is still a very old new father, he will have achieved greatness just by winning and delivering brexit, if he steers us to recovery in, say, 2023, he could gracefully retire to write his memoirs (for millions) and play with his toddler. TODDLER.
Sunak takes over and wins a handy majority in 2024 against a boring Starmer with no policies, a Scottish problem, and a racialist party still crippled by Jew-hatred.
Job done.
Ignoring the antisemitism-baiting... I expect Boris might resign on health grounds next year if he has still not fully recovered from Covid-19. I doubt the pull of fatherhood will come into play, however (and remember Boris himself spent most of his childhood farmed out to boarding schools).
We are in an odd position because Boris won by hijacking much of Labour's 2017 platform so we are left with Labour trying to oppose the Conservatives doing what Labour proposed, and Conservatives supporting what they'd spent their political lives opposing. If Brexit goes badly then I expect Conservatives will remember Boris is not one of them, and will end up something like America's Lincoln Project of non-Trump Republicans.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
Individuals should be able to identify as any ethnicity they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this
Why only ethnicity?
Iain Banks postulated a future in which changing species, or even becoming an AI was just a phase....
"Young people don't respect British values" - what does this mean?
Quite! I know what young people are but the next bit needs a definition.
TBH, this - does the youth of today respect British values? - is imo one of those questions that psychologically steers to an answer of No unless it's a young person being asked.
A bit like - "Do you trust today's politicians?"
People will tend to say No because it's expected of them. They fear looking a mug or an eccentric otherwise.
No one should ever get less than an A* in their first language.
In fact, exams in English can be abolished. Think of the savings.....
One of the changes that was definitely noticeable in the C&G shambles reforms was that they did tighten up noticeably on MFL A-levels.
Although @Dura_Ace would know more than me, my understanding is they do now include substantial elements of literature, study and cultural knowledge that just wasn't there before. So they're not a gimme for native speakers as they once were.
Of course, that makes them bloody near impossible for the notoriously monoglot English...
Indeed - I showed some past papers to my daughter. Who has now demanded extra Spanish lessons, since her idea that cruising on I-speak-the-language has been dashed.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
I find that view extraordinary, but thanks for expressing it so respectfully.
Liberalism. Individuals should be able to pursue their chosen paths in life without coercion.
Identify as a man (gender) one day and woman the next, only to reverse this a few years later, is fine by me. Individuals should have maximum freedom right up to the point that they harm others. Then, on only then, their freedom stops.
Conservatives are offended by the notion of gender differing from sex - but mere offence is not harm. J S Mill was clear on that.
"Young people don't respect British values" - what does this mean?
Quite! I know what young people are but the next bit needs a definition.
TBH, this - does the youth of today respect British values? - is imo one of those questions that psychologically steers to an answer of No unless it's a young person being asked.
A bit like - "Do you trust today's politicians?"
People will tend to say No because it's expected of them. They fear looking a mug or an eccentric otherwise.
'British Values' (again thanks to Gove) has a very specific legal meaning, in schools at least:
All have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values were first set out by the government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2011.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
It all seems a bit angels dancing on pin heads. If you are manager of Boots and want to know how much lipstick to stock, the criterion for womanhood is different from that used for how many tampons, and different again from how many customer toilets might be needed. The arguments though, other than for sport, tend to revolve around ethereal notions of some unspecified essence of womanliness.
There have always been transvestites, drag queens, and very feminine gay men, who purchase 'women's' beauty items. That has not really changed, it's just now that a subset appears to want gender to be assigned on the basis of a notion - one that can change daily if desired. I don't see why the state should tie itself in knots trying to fit around this. If you like your willy and want to keep it, more power to you, but you don't get to use the ladies' loos. That should be the *ahem* long and short of it.
Older women do not use tampons, nor do young girls. The former use lipstick but not the latter. All sit down to pee.
"Young people don't respect British values" - what does this mean?
Quite! I know what young people are but the next bit needs a definition.
TBH, this - does the youth of today respect British values? - is imo one of those questions that psychologically steers to an answer of No unless it's a young person being asked.
A bit like - "Do you trust today's politicians?"
People will tend to say No because it's expected of them. They fear looking a mug or an eccentric otherwise.
'British Values' (again thanks to Gove) has a very specific legal meaning, in schools at least:
All have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values were first set out by the government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2011.
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
It all seems a bit angels dancing on pin heads. If you are manager of Boots and want to know how much lipstick to stock, the criterion for womanhood is different from that used for how many tampons, and different again from how many customer toilets might be needed. The arguments though, other than for sport, tend to revolve around ethereal notions of some unspecified essence of womanliness.
There have always been transvestites, drag queens, and very feminine gay men, who purchase 'women's' beauty items. That has not really changed, it's just now that a subset appears to want gender to be assigned on the basis of a notion - one that can change daily if desired. I don't see why the state should tie itself in knots trying to fit around this. If you like your willy and want to keep it, more power to you, but you don't get to use the ladies' loos. That should be the *ahem* long and short of it.
Older women do not use tampons, nor do young girls. The former use lipstick but not the latter. All sit down to pee.
For a moment, I was thoroughly startled by the image of older women using lipstick instead of tampons.
"Young people don't respect British values" - what does this mean?
Quite! I know what young people are but the next bit needs a definition.
TBH, this - does the youth of today respect British values? - is imo one of those questions that psychologically steers to an answer of No unless it's a young person being asked.
A bit like - "Do you trust today's politicians?"
People will tend to say No because it's expected of them. They fear looking a mug or an eccentric otherwise.
'British Values' (again thanks to Gove) has a very specific legal meaning, in schools at least:
All have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values were first set out by the government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2011.
Seeing them written down like that, you can see why Gove might think these are important things for people to learn. Starting with Gove and his colleagues.
"Young people don't respect British values" - what does this mean?
Quite! I know what young people are but the next bit needs a definition.
TBH, this - does the youth of today respect British values? - is imo one of those questions that psychologically steers to an answer of No unless it's a young person being asked.
A bit like - "Do you trust today's politicians?"
People will tend to say No because it's expected of them. They fear looking a mug or an eccentric otherwise.
'British Values' (again thanks to Gove) has a very specific legal meaning, in schools at least:
All have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values were first set out by the government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2011.
Seeing them written down like that, you can see why Gove might think these are important things for people to learn. Starting with Gove and his colleagues.
Who was it said 'you value most what you do not have?'
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
I find that view extraordinary, but thanks for expressing it so respectfully.
Liberalism. Individuals should be able to pursue their chosen paths in life without coercion.
Identify as a man (gender) one day and woman the next, only to reverse this a few years later, is fine by me. Individuals should have maximum freedom right up to the point that they harm others. Then, on only then, their freedom stops.
Conservatives are offended by the notion of gender differing from sex - but mere offence is not harm. J S Mill was clear on that.
I also believe in maximum freedom, and the right of individuals to self-identity as any gender they want - but I don't see why the state (and the taxpayer) should be involved. Take all the freedom you want, but not on my dollar.
Has anyone looked at comments re exam grades story on BBC website?
Literally all of the most liked comments are supporting downgrading teachers estimates.
Looks like another media misjudgement.
One wonders whether, out of the blue, this is Starmer's first mis-step - ie he is giving the impression he supports prizes for all - and of course people will read into that a similar attitude to public spending, benefits etc.
Employment question. Business enters consultation, needs to make the role redundant. Conversations, consultation (held on a day the person being consulted is on furlough as directed) and then a "sadly we are making your role redundant. However, I have already been promised that 2 months into my 3 months notice, there will be a trading review where if things have picked up my role may be reinstated.
Q - can they make a role redundant and trigger notice having already confirmed the role may not be redundant a few months down the line before notice period expires? Feels odd that I will have it confirmed the role is redundant but in 2 months we may make it unredundant. I don't see how that works, albeit from having served less than 2 years therefore no rights at all.
Yes, I think I have new more interesting consulting venture to start. But even so...
Only a minority of Labour MPs think schools should teach kids respect for “authority”
What do the rest suggest schools should do? Instill a respect for anarchy?
Labour MPs are right on every one of those questions though. As I recall even Tory MPs are to the left of the British public on some questions, eg the death penalty. I've always suspected that Cummings' next referendum will be on the death penalty, the ultimate way to stick it to the Libs while rallying the silent majority behind the Tory banner (while also getting round the objections of elite Tory opinion, just as with Brexit). This will probably be my personal emigration point, BTW).
Watching radical feminists scrap with the pro trans lobby over who has the right to call themselves a woman is a bit like watching alien versus predator for me.
To me the answer seems rather obvious. All those who have been through the very difficult and painful sex change process have earned the right to be known as their acquired gender. Those who have not, have not.
I couldn`t disagree with you more.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
Individuals should be able to identify as any ethnicity they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this
Which is the case. I can identify as Chinese if I want. Or whatever. But to identify is not the same as to legally become. The gender issue is imo sufficiently different as to render the comparison to race unhelpful. Changing of gender is driven by gender dysphoria. The feeling of being male in a female body or vice versa. There's no true equivalent for race. Also race is far more fluid that m/f. Also race is not as integral to legal identity as gender is. So, yes, I can identify as Chinese and that's pretty much end of story. Piece of cake. But if I'm a woman trapped in a man's body, I want to do more than just identify as a woman. I want to become a woman. I want to change my birth cert. I probably (although not necessarily) want to undergo hormone treatments and physical operation(s) too. And I want to assume my legal female ID on receipt of a diagnosis of gender dysphoria rather than having to wait until all treatments are completed.
Has anyone looked at comments re exam grades story on BBC website?
Literally all of the most liked comments are supporting downgrading teachers estimates.
Looks like another media misjudgement.
One wonders whether, out of the blue, this is Starmer's first mis-step - ie he is giving the impression he supports prizes for all - and of course people will read into that a similar attitude to public spending, benefits etc.
Only a minority of Labour MPs think schools should teach kids respect for “authority”
What do the rest suggest schools should do? Instill a respect for anarchy?
Labour MPs are right on every one of those questions though. As I recall even Tory MPs are to the left of the British public on some questions, eg the death penalty. I've always suspected that Cummings' next referendum will be on the death penalty, the ultimate way to stick it to the Libs while rallying the silent majority behind the Tory banner (while also getting round the objections of elite Tory opinion, just as with Brexit). This will probably be my personal emigration point, BTW).
I don't like Cummings and I think he should quit, but it seems a bit much to suggest he hold a referendum on hanging himself.
Has anyone looked at comments re exam grades story on BBC website?
Literally all of the most liked comments are supporting downgrading teachers estimates.
Looks like another media misjudgement.
One wonders whether, out of the blue, this is Starmer's first mis-step - ie he is giving the impression he supports prizes for all - and of course people will read into that a similar attitude to public spending, benefits etc.
Comments
But at this moment, I’m apparently being blamed for schools being shut, when the government shut them and has no clear idea of how to reopen them, giving confused, conflicting and often impossible instructions and then shouts and stamps its feet when this is pointed out to them. I’m blamed for the exam debacle, when it was the government set up a flawed system and then put in place measures that warped it further.
And even in normal times, I’m blamed if not every child gets an A* at A-level, or becomes a model citizen, or does something stupid out of school hours.
And I’m paid less than I would get for the equivalent job in an office.
So - why do I bother?
If the government want to destroy education entirely, they’ve done a damn good job.
Universities still today offer full and short courses to serving armed forces personnel.
During the war, there were also shortened degree courses for ordinary students, which aiui were awarded on a pass/fail basis.
Charisma out of 10 - 9.5 vs SKS 1.0
Progressive - 8.5 vs SKS ??
Anti Establishment 1.0 vs SKS 0.5
Likeability 9.0 vs 4.5
etc etc
I think Labour are screwed without a long deep painful economic decline and even then not sure the current leader has enough personality to exploit that.
Hope i am wrong but although i can see Richis scores falling cant see SKS's rising that much
On topic, the fox news poll is intriguing (and terrifying). I've basically decided now I will be cashed out and green before election day, just trying to time my exit.
On the night itself, I'll be placing bets as information comes in, in the hope of outrunning other bettors. But I suspect the speed and knowledge of punters will have increased.
Last time around, I remember you could still back Clinton to win popular vote and make good money long after it was obvious she would win that once California came in. I don't expect that kind of opportunity to come again but still hoping.
This is no different from that, it's keeping furloughed former employees off the unemployment queue for longer.
On the substantive point, of course we know what she was doing. She was cleaning the windows, and somebody asked her to move some waste paper that happened to be there.
It had nothing to do with rigging the election. How could you even think that?
So the only question is how Rishi gets to be leader of the party (and hence already Prime Minister) before the election. In short, will Boris resign? A personal scandal can be ruled out because his colourful private life is already priced in. And what could happen politically to force out Boris but not his Chancellor? The other danger for Rishi-backers is that if he does fall out with Boris (or more realistically Dominic Cummings) then Sunak is richer than the Queen so can easily afford to flounce.
Incidentally another, even more famous actor went on a similar course at Exeter College before joining the RAF - Richard Jenkins (as he was then).
Palatial betting?
Very much a wild card - not someone to be taken as at all representative. The last time I'd heard of him he was being thrown out of Holyrood Parliament for protesting against the FM.
It’s all a bit unfair on Keir because in a runoff between the two, he’s the one who comes across as the one who’s socially distant and not “one of us”. And yet Sunak (just to make you feel happy on a Friday!) is the one married to the billionaire. Politics is all perception.
In your normal life are you generally capable of steering UK public opinion as you wish?
You are Vladimir Putin and I claim my 5 bit-rubles
Can't do that in an office.
Get arrested.
Then there are choices of university and course. If all that counts is Oxbridge, that is different from the subject being the important thing. Which is it in your case? @Foxy has already told us he chose medicine at not-Oxford over not-medicine at Oxford, but I can certainly recall people being advised to apply for less popular courses to get into Oxford.
One thing I've not seen mentioned here that I've seen three times IRL is students doing a BA/BSc somewhere followed by a Masters at Oxbridge. Best of both worlds.
Sunak takes over and wins a handy majority in 2024 against a boring Starmer with no policies, a Scottish problem, and a racialist party still crippled by Jew-hatred.
Job done.
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1294218363980439554?s=20
https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/undergraduate-diplomas
https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate-certificates-and-diplomas
and there's more!
So yes.
Mitchell mentions meeting Richard Burton at Oxford who inspired him to become an actor.
Only a minority of Labour MPs think schools should teach kids respect for “authority”
What do the rest suggest schools should do? Instill a respect for anarchy?
With GCSEs, things can be fudged. After all, a high percentage just stay on at their school, and God knows FE colleges are not usually in a position to be fussy.
But A-levels are one strike. And these ones have gone horribly, catastrophically wrong.
(I would also add that for some subjects, 'A-levels' per se are not available, as coursework elements will be inadmissable. That means they will probably bear less resemblance to a normal year's grades than teacher estimates.)
One thing this shows is that our system of assessment at 18 is wrong, and needs radical reform. Somehow, among the many suggestions put forward, we need to find a way to have university applications en masse after the results are known.
The obvious suggestion is a foundation year at a local college for those planning to go on to uni. That would also give students a chance to find out if they liked the course/subject.
And then only have two year undergraduate degrees at university. An end to Part 1.
But whether that could work in practice is another question.
11 The President of Spain by Night, Ramón Mas, announces that the nightlife sector will take to court the decision of the central government and the autonomies to close nightclubs, bars and dance halls throughout the country, to be considered this decision a "total aberration" that has been taken "without speaking" with the employers of leisure or with businessmen, and without offering any rescue or aid plan, he has assured, for this sector that represents 1.8% of the GDP, which generates 200,000 jobs and comprises 25,000 companies
I did 2 A Levels a year early.
When I got a 2 pass offer from my university of choice, at interview, it startled the interviewing professor when I pointed out that he had just given me a place....
My serious point is that teaching - for those who both like it and are good at it - must provide a level of satisfaction hard to find in an office job. So this (I'm thinking) makes it hard to leave even if one gets periodically pissed off and the stress is high and the money not great.
Individuals should be able to identify as any gender they wish without having to be operated on to achieve this.
As for the operation itself, which is gruesome and removes healthy tissue to mimic a sex (not gender) they are not, the surgeon who does such a thing gets no respect from me.
1. My dad rushed into hospital with a prolapsed hernia. Expected emergency surgery delayed then cancelled as its too risky in his condition and its better to manage it as is. He's home now but the daft old sod really should have got it sewn up years ago FFS.
2. The boy and his A-Levels. Downgraded vs expectations but scrapes over the line to get the minimum requirement for his primary choice. Which is more than a lot got but still epic stress
3. Brilliant interview on Tuesday with once in a blue moon opportunity. That has now progressed to what appears to be confirmed subject to contract. I'll need to get a Ltd company up and running...
4. Rumblings about the state of the business turned into a "theoretical" conversation with the CEO about restructure on Tuesday has turned this afternoon into my notice period starts 1st September albeit with a promise of a genuine review at the end of October where cancelling it is an option or else PILON+accrued holidays from 1st November.
Its no wonder I am on happy pills and alcohol
In fact, exams in English can be abolished. Think of the savings.....
As we agreed the other day, it was naive in the extreme for Ofqual to assume that teacher grades would be consistent with previous years. Teachers are , after all, under pressure from a school league table perspective and from a parent perspective.
Teachers were always, then, going to grade pupils at the, ahem, top end of expectations. Pointing this out is not to in any way place blame. If the teachers at my daughter`s school didn`t do this at least to the mean that teachers did overall across the country then I would be annoyed with the teachers.
So teachers are not being called cheats or liars - and anyone saying that they are should be ashamed of themselves.
Stay strong feller, and enjoy the booze!
shamblesreforms was that they did tighten up noticeably on MFL A-levels.Although @Dura_Ace would know more than me, my understanding is they do now include substantial elements of literature, study and cultural knowledge that just wasn't there before. So they're not a gimme for native speakers as they once were.
Of course, that makes them bloody near impossible for the notoriously monoglot English...
We are in an odd position because Boris won by hijacking much of Labour's 2017 platform so we are left with Labour trying to oppose the Conservatives doing what Labour proposed, and Conservatives supporting what they'd spent their political lives opposing. If Brexit goes badly then I expect Conservatives will remember Boris is not one of them, and will end up something like America's Lincoln Project of non-Trump Republicans.
Iain Banks postulated a future in which changing species, or even becoming an AI was just a phase....
TBH, this - does the youth of today respect British values? - is imo one of those questions that psychologically steers to an answer of No unless it's a young person being asked.
A bit like - "Do you trust today's politicians?"
People will tend to say No because it's expected of them. They fear looking a mug or an eccentric otherwise.
Identify as a man (gender) one day and woman the next, only to reverse this a few years later, is fine by me. Individuals should have maximum freedom right up to the point that they harm others. Then, on only then, their freedom stops.
Conservatives are offended by the notion of gender differing from sex - but mere offence is not harm. J S Mill was clear on that.
All have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values were first set out by the government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2011.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/guidance-on-promoting-british-values-in-schools-published
https://twitter.com/vermontgmg/status/1294272992151830528
Although following his new exercise regime, he's gone down to an A cup.
Literally all of the most liked comments are supporting downgrading teachers estimates.
Looks like another media misjudgement.
One wonders whether, out of the blue, this is Starmer's first mis-step - ie he is giving the impression he supports prizes for all - and of course people will read into that a similar attitude to public spending, benefits etc.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53776938?sortBy=HighestRating&sortOrder=Descending&filter=none#comments
Q - can they make a role redundant and trigger notice having already confirmed the role may not be redundant a few months down the line before notice period expires? Feels odd that I will have it confirmed the role is redundant but in 2 months we may make it unredundant. I don't see how that works, albeit from having served less than 2 years therefore no rights at all.
Yes, I think I have new more interesting consulting venture to start. But even so...
Do I have this right? This is the debate.
I think I do.