So that would be...the Tories then? Margaret Thatcher, famously woke.
Truss has had a pretty exceptional few weeks. I think it was @Casino_Royale who was tipping her for next leader this morning. He has a point.
It gets worse, if that is teh Tory talent they are well and truly fecked, she is a useless donkey.
Well, she isn't, is she? Liam Fox was a useless donkey. Gavin Williamson is a useless donkey. Liz Truss has just replicated (or bettered) all our significant trade deals via the EU in less than 11 months, is negotiating several other new ones, has won a victory for common sense over the gender recognition act and is now standing up for the same over fashionable obsessions about identity politics (i.e. making absolutely everything in life about race, gender and sexuality) in favour of a calmer and more evidence based of what really holds people back.
Does she sometimes exaggerate a bit for effect and not always come across as intended? Sure she does - she's a politician. And it's hard to forget her "pork markets" speech.
But, she's a doer - not a talker - and although you can lay many criticisms at her door "useless donkey" isn't one of them.
Yep, it's great that Truss has rediscovered her Marxist roots and recognised that all other inequalities are trumped by social class / socio-economic situation, which cuts across race/gender etc. With references to Foucault (unconvincing) and such like, I wondered if her speech was written by Munira Mirza, the ex Revolutionary Communist Party member at No. 10.
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
Yes, I lived in a one-bed flat in a pleasant estate in Nottingham and paid £500/month. When I moved south for my job I got an almost identical flat where I live now. It's £1000/month. I shopped around and that's entirely typical of Godalming/Guildford etc.
Supermarket prices, though, are very similar - perhaps 5-10% cheaper in Nottingham, no more than that. It's almost entirely about a shortage of cheap housing near London. Indeed, even real slum property is not much cheaper than good places in the same area. When I was in London (paying £1750 for another 1-bed flat, in Islington), I remember one place I looked at where the door had been broken down and was just patched up, there was a huge stain on the carpet and the central heating didn't work. That was £1300/month.
Liz Truss priced at 21 for next Con leader on Betfair, seems good value.
Looks like fillet steak for lunch today
Dunno what the supply situation is in the UAE but over here there is a literal mountain of meat that is going to waste. Producers planned for a normalish Christmas which of course isn't here. Eating out not happening, big family gatherings not happening on the normal scale, everyone wants small meat portions.
I've seen several people on Twitter commenting that their requested small joint / bird has been subbed for a massive one. Yes - thats what they have to send you! Suggest people learn the old joys of Boxing Day turkey butties, Turkey soup etc
Steak here from all over the world: Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA and yes, even some Aberdeen Angus.
Life is so much easier outside the Common External Tarriff.
We just ordered the turkey for next weekend, hotels here do takeaway boxes with the cooked bird and all the trimmings, ready to eat. Just add your choice of beverage 🥂
Sounds good.
The Common External Tariff is rank protectionist nonsense. In the short term there may be disruptions at Dover/Calais but in the long term being outside of that will be a good thing.
And if a bit less of our trade ultimately comes from Calais to Dover and a bit more from the Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA etc to Portsmouth, Liverpool etc then that seems like a good balancing act too.
Yes, one of the largest Brexit benefits is going to be cheaper food. Yes there might be some initial disruption, but supermarkets will soon see that they can source their food from a much wider range of countries than previously.
We can do deals with countries like Ukraine, for example, who produce many times what they need but have quotas and tarrifs limiting their exports to the EU.
Agreed
I invested in Ukrainian agriculture. Just before the Russians invaded
Correlation does not necessarily equal causation Charles. We can give you the benefit of the doubt.
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
The idea that because one or two people went to a comprehensive school and subsequently did ok for themselves means that they're all world-class educational establishments that honour every child is possibly one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen on this website.
Sure: but I'm the same age as Truss and went to a variety of comprehensive schools and all our lessons except one were about, you know, reading, writing, maths, geography, etc. The other one was "PSE" - or personal and social education - and was just one period a week.
PSE was a fairly random bunch of (frankly) shit. The local police would come in and give a talk, for example. And "sex education" ("what do you want to know, miss?") too. In my last school it taught by a bored and elderly teacher who seemed completely disinterested in teaching and let us all chat and generally ignore him.
Liz Truss is guilty of creating a strawman. And I speak as someone who is normally a fan of her.
That was then, one of my younger cousins is completely infected with "intersectionalism" and all kinds of other bullshit about how she's a victim because she's female and Asian and that she might be transgender, but probably isn't.
Schooling is the one reason my wife and I are seriously considering moving back to Zurich even if it is extremely dull. We don't want to put any kids we have through this liberal wanky school system where activist charities encourage teachers to tell children they are 64 different genders. The whole Anglosphere seems to be infected with this kind of bullshit. I fear that this Tory government will make a valiant last stand here but as soon as Labour get in it's going to get a lot worse.
My children are both in their early twenties. Your analysis was not their experience in a Roman Catholic Comprehensive school.
Have you been reading Guido and The Daily Mail again?
He's a bit like Casino Royale sometimes, nearly always very sensible but occasionally go off the ledge.
We need to bring them back with some common ground.
Grapes on pizza, yuck yuck yuck, am I right?
I have no dog in the fruit on pizza race.
Is there such a thing as a pizza without fruit don't they all have tomato sauce on them and tomato is a fruit
Pizza Bianco with Gorgonzola, Parma ham, and walnuts.
Sounds like posh food and plebs like me dont get to eat that we order at domino's
Eh, I grew up in one of London's most violent estates (so much so that we got relocated and the council shut it down), and I have no need to ever order domino's or anything so awful. Life is what you make of it, 11 year old me on the estate could never have imagined going to the opera but it's one of the things I've missed this year.
Each to their own, you keep doing you Max
I think the assumption that the working classes are this sea of lumpen types who sit around eating McDonalds and think Nandos is the height of culture bothers me. Most of my friends are from working class backgrounds as I went to a state school and a pretty ordinary university, it's not as bleak as that.
My experience is different probably because I come from an era when few still went to university. Most of my working class friends are therefore of my age and still on crap wages and just don't have the chance to expose themselves to the finer things in life due to money. Not saying they couldn't buy the ingredients and home make it but they aren't likely to sample it in a restaurant as if they eat out it will be wetherspoons, hungry horse, nando's etc because a 40£ a head meal just isn't cost effective for them. Plenty I know aren't any less intelligent than many here. They merely didn't get the chance to go to university or like me had no desire too and have later in life found that limits them in terms of earning power. I would estimate the average wage of those friends at about 33k and that doesnt go so far in the south east
Doesnt change the fact that living costs more in the south east where a one bedroom flat will cost you the best part of 1000 a month. 33k in say slough is a lot less than 33k in grimsby
I’d argue that £33k in Slough = £33k in Grimsby (although it may buy less).
Still what do I know
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
That Grimsby 4 bed says £1100 pcm on the brochure.
Interesting that it is the only one listed. Under "unforeseen consequences", it tells you something what mandating a 6 month notice period for eviction does to market availability, and chances to rent for people needing houses.
True. In my own town one of the councillors commented a few weeks back that it was the first week when there was absolutely no property available for residential renting (excluding holiday short lets), for the first time he had ever seen.
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
Yes. I think the general point is that social science/humanities teaching at uni level has been completely overtaken by Foucault/Derrida et al. mindset. My limit knowledge thru a friend who did an MA is that Foucault was certainly taught.
The idea that because one or two people went to a comprehensive school and subsequently did ok for themselves means that they're all world-class educational establishments that honour every child is possibly one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen on this website.
Sure: but I'm the same age as Truss and went to a variety of comprehensive schools and all our lessons except one were about, you know, reading, writing, maths, geography, etc. The other one was "PSE" - or personal and social education - and was just one period a week.
PSE was a fairly random bunch of (frankly) shit. The local police would come in and give a talk, for example. And "sex education" ("what do you want to know, miss?") too. In my last school it taught by a bored and elderly teacher who seemed completely disinterested in teaching and let us all chat and generally ignore him.
Liz Truss is guilty of creating a strawman. And I speak as someone who is normally a fan of her.
That was then, one of my younger cousins is completely infected with "intersectionalism" and all kinds of other bullshit about how she's a victim because she's female and Asian and that she might be transgender, but probably isn't.
Schooling is the one reason my wife and I are seriously considering moving back to Zurich even if it is extremely dull. We don't want to put any kids we have through this liberal wanky school system where activist charities encourage teachers to tell children they are 64 different genders. The whole Anglosphere seems to be infected with this kind of bullshit. I fear that this Tory government will make a valiant last stand here but as soon as Labour get in it's going to get a lot worse.
My children are both in their early twenties. Your analysis was not their experience in a Roman Catholic Comprehensive school.
Have you been reading Guido and The Daily Mail again?
He's a bit like Casino Royale sometimes, nearly always very sensible but occasionally go off the ledge.
We need to bring them back with some common ground.
Grapes on pizza, yuck yuck yuck, am I right?
I have no dog in the fruit on pizza race.
Is there such a thing as a pizza without fruit don't they all have tomato sauce on them and tomato is a fruit
Pizza Bianco with Gorgonzola, Parma ham, and walnuts.
Sounds like posh food and plebs like me dont get to eat that we order at domino's
Eh, I grew up in one of London's most violent estates (so much so that we got relocated and the council shut it down), and I have no need to ever order domino's or anything so awful. Life is what you make of it, 11 year old me on the estate could never have imagined going to the opera but it's one of the things I've missed this year.
Each to their own, you keep doing you Max
I think the assumption that the working classes are this sea of lumpen types who sit around eating McDonalds and think Nandos is the height of culture bothers me. Most of my friends are from working class backgrounds as I went to a state school and a pretty ordinary university, it's not as bleak as that.
My experience is different probably because I come from an era when few still went to university. Most of my working class friends are therefore of my age and still on crap wages and just don't have the chance to expose themselves to the finer things in life due to money. Not saying they couldn't buy the ingredients and home make it but they aren't likely to sample it in a restaurant as if they eat out it will be wetherspoons, hungry horse, nando's etc because a 40£ a head meal just isn't cost effective for them. Plenty I know aren't any less intelligent than many here. They merely didn't get the chance to go to university or like me had no desire too and have later in life found that limits them in terms of earning power. I would estimate the average wage of those friends at about 33k and that doesnt go so far in the south east
Doesnt change the fact that living costs more in the south east where a one bedroom flat will cost you the best part of 1000 a month. 33k in say slough is a lot less than 33k in grimsby
I’d argue that £33k in Slough = £33k in Grimsby (although it may buy less).
Still what do I know
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
The point being made was, I think, that, yes, you'd get more for your money in Grimsby, but you'd be further from London than Slough, and so your life would be an unending series of increasingly futile attempts to fill the London-shaped hole in your existence.
Well that's not my experience. I wouldn't go back; London is a place to visit, not to live.
Liz Truss priced at 21 for next Con leader on Betfair, seems good value.
Looks like fillet steak for lunch today
Dunno what the supply situation is in the UAE but over here there is a literal mountain of meat that is going to waste. Producers planned for a normalish Christmas which of course isn't here. Eating out not happening, big family gatherings not happening on the normal scale, everyone wants small meat portions.
I've seen several people on Twitter commenting that their requested small joint / bird has been subbed for a massive one. Yes - thats what they have to send you! Suggest people learn the old joys of Boxing Day turkey butties, Turkey soup etc
Steak here from all over the world: Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA and yes, even some Aberdeen Angus.
Life is so much easier outside the Common External Tarriff.
We just ordered the turkey for next weekend, hotels here do takeaway boxes with the cooked bird and all the trimmings, ready to eat. Just add your choice of beverage 🥂
Sounds good.
The Common External Tariff is rank protectionist nonsense. In the short term there may be disruptions at Dover/Calais but in the long term being outside of that will be a good thing.
And if a bit less of our trade ultimately comes from Calais to Dover and a bit more from the Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA etc to Portsmouth, Liverpool etc then that seems like a good balancing act too.
Yes, one of the largest Brexit benefits is going to be cheaper food. Yes there might be some initial disruption, but supermarkets will soon see that they can source their food from a much wider range of countries than previously.
We can do deals with countries like Ukraine, for example, who produce many times what they need but have quotas and tarrifs limiting their exports to the EU.
Some of the best food and drink in the world comes from the Southern Hemisphere New World. "Protecting" ourselves from it is shooting consumers in the foot.
Which countries have a better mix of variety, quality and price of food than the UK?
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for starters.
Meat here is far more expensive and except for the best cuts like Aberdeen Angus it isn't as good quality. I don't know why that is.
NZ quality is extraordinary. Go to the South Island and it’s littered with sheep raised on pasture that’s been untouched by modern chemicals, with the crisp air they breathe whipped straight across from the Antarctic and the smell of sea salt hanging in the air. Full of Omega 3, about the healthiest thing you can eat. And the there’s those giant green lipped mussels...
South Africa I got quite into farmed ostrich as a go to staple. Perfect with a Pinot.
The trick with meat is to buy quality and make it go far.
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
Yes, I lived in a one-bed flat in a pleasant estate in Nottingham and paid £500/month. When I moved south for my job I got an almost identical flat where I live now. It's £1000/month. I shopped around and that's entirely typical of Godalming/Guildford etc.
Supermarket prices, though, are very similar - perhaps 5-10% cheaper in Nottingham, no more than that. It's almost entirely about a shortage of cheap housing near London. Indeed, even real slum property is not much cheaper than good places in the same area. When I was in London (paying £1750 for another 1-bed flat, in Islington), I remember one place I looked at where the door had been broken down and was just patched up, there was a huge stain on the carpet and the central heating didn't work. That was £1300/month.
Supermarkets aren't hugely labour intensive, though, so you'd expect pricing to be pretty similar. When you move away from London you notice how much cheaper anything that involves labour is - haircuts, vets, all manner of contractors.
David and I have different lived experiences when it comes to Edinburgh. One, Edinburgh as a destination and the other Edinburgh as a place to live day to day.
There is a reason so many locals move out during the Festival
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
Yes. I think the general point is that social science/humanities teaching at uni level has been completely overtaken by Foucault/Derrida et al. mindset. My limit knowledge thru a friend who did an MA is that Foucault was certainly taught.
Quite right that Foucault/Derrida etc. should be taught at degree and above level on social sciences/humanities courses, along with many other important thinkers across the spectrum. I do hope that nobody on here, or in government, thinks Foucault should be cancelled.
But I have never come across these thinkers being taught on teacher training courses. I'm confident that the typical maths/science/geography teacher will never have come across Foucault.
In fact, I'm confident that any survey of teachers would demonstrate that the vast majority would know sod all about Foucault.
The idea that because one or two people went to a comprehensive school and subsequently did ok for themselves means that they're all world-class educational establishments that honour every child is possibly one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen on this website.
Sure: but I'm the same age as Truss and went to a variety of comprehensive schools and all our lessons except one were about, you know, reading, writing, maths, geography, etc. The other one was "PSE" - or personal and social education - and was just one period a week.
PSE was a fairly random bunch of (frankly) shit. The local police would come in and give a talk, for example. And "sex education" ("what do you want to know, miss?") too. In my last school it taught by a bored and elderly teacher who seemed completely disinterested in teaching and let us all chat and generally ignore him.
Liz Truss is guilty of creating a strawman. And I speak as someone who is normally a fan of her.
That was then, one of my younger cousins is completely infected with "intersectionalism" and all kinds of other bullshit about how she's a victim because she's female and Asian and that she might be transgender, but probably isn't.
Schooling is the one reason my wife and I are seriously considering moving back to Zurich even if it is extremely dull. We don't want to put any kids we have through this liberal wanky school system where activist charities encourage teachers to tell children they are 64 different genders. The whole Anglosphere seems to be infected with this kind of bullshit. I fear that this Tory government will make a valiant last stand here but as soon as Labour get in it's going to get a lot worse.
My children are both in their early twenties. Your analysis was not their experience in a Roman Catholic Comprehensive school.
Have you been reading Guido and The Daily Mail again?
He's a bit like Casino Royale sometimes, nearly always very sensible but occasionally go off the ledge.
We need to bring them back with some common ground.
Grapes on pizza, yuck yuck yuck, am I right?
I have no dog in the fruit on pizza race.
Is there such a thing as a pizza without fruit don't they all have tomato sauce on them and tomato is a fruit
Pizza Bianco with Gorgonzola, Parma ham, and walnuts.
Sounds like posh food and plebs like me dont get to eat that we order at domino's
Eh, I grew up in one of London's most violent estates (so much so that we got relocated and the council shut it down), and I have no need to ever order domino's or anything so awful. Life is what you make of it, 11 year old me on the estate could never have imagined going to the opera but it's one of the things I've missed this year.
Each to their own, you keep doing you Max
I think the assumption that the working classes are this sea of lumpen types who sit around eating McDonalds and think Nandos is the height of culture bothers me. Most of my friends are from working class backgrounds as I went to a state school and a pretty ordinary university, it's not as bleak as that.
My experience is different probably because I come from an era when few still went to university. Most of my working class friends are therefore of my age and still on crap wages and just don't have the chance to expose themselves to the finer things in life due to money. Not saying they couldn't buy the ingredients and home make it but they aren't likely to sample it in a restaurant as if they eat out it will be wetherspoons, hungry horse, nando's etc because a 40£ a head meal just isn't cost effective for them. Plenty I know aren't any less intelligent than many here. They merely didn't get the chance to go to university or like me had no desire too and have later in life found that limits them in terms of earning power. I would estimate the average wage of those friends at about 33k and that doesnt go so far in the south east
Doesnt change the fact that living costs more in the south east where a one bedroom flat will cost you the best part of 1000 a month. 33k in say slough is a lot less than 33k in grimsby
I’d argue that £33k in Slough = £33k in Grimsby (although it may buy less).
Still what do I know
I think your standard of living on 33k a year would be very different in Grimsby to Slough. No doubt you would also argue it equals 33k a year(converted to currency) in Mumbai too and its obvious nonsense.
Liz Truss priced at 21 for next Con leader on Betfair, seems good value.
Looks like fillet steak for lunch today
Dunno what the supply situation is in the UAE but over here there is a literal mountain of meat that is going to waste. Producers planned for a normalish Christmas which of course isn't here. Eating out not happening, big family gatherings not happening on the normal scale, everyone wants small meat portions.
I've seen several people on Twitter commenting that their requested small joint / bird has been subbed for a massive one. Yes - thats what they have to send you! Suggest people learn the old joys of Boxing Day turkey butties, Turkey soup etc
Steak here from all over the world: Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA and yes, even some Aberdeen Angus.
Life is so much easier outside the Common External Tarriff.
We just ordered the turkey for next weekend, hotels here do takeaway boxes with the cooked bird and all the trimmings, ready to eat. Just add your choice of beverage 🥂
Sounds good.
The Common External Tariff is rank protectionist nonsense. In the short term there may be disruptions at Dover/Calais but in the long term being outside of that will be a good thing.
And if a bit less of our trade ultimately comes from Calais to Dover and a bit more from the Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA etc to Portsmouth, Liverpool etc then that seems like a good balancing act too.
Yes, one of the largest Brexit benefits is going to be cheaper food. Yes there might be some initial disruption, but supermarkets will soon see that they can source their food from a much wider range of countries than previously.
We can do deals with countries like Ukraine, for example, who produce many times what they need but have quotas and tarrifs limiting their exports to the EU.
Some of the best food and drink in the world comes from the Southern Hemisphere New World. "Protecting" ourselves from it is shooting consumers in the foot.
Which countries have a better mix of variety, quality and price of food than the UK?
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for starters.
Meat here is far more expensive and except for the best cuts like Aberdeen Angus it isn't as good quality. I don't know why that is.
Its a while since I went shopping in any of those places, perhaps 15 years, but when I did none of them had the quality and range of the UK supermarkets. Some items cheaper, but many more expensive, and virtually no out of season imported stuff. Great stone fruit in NZ for example, but only for a month per year.
I have been delighted by the lack of Edinburgh Market this year. It completely destroys Princes Street Gardens and makes them an unusable mud bog for a huge chunk of the year.
Last year the runners of the market took the complete piss with an unauthorised expansion and deeply shonky scaff platform building
David and I have different lived experiences when it comes to Edinburgh. One, Edinburgh as a destination and the other Edinburgh as a place to live day to day.
My wife and I became engaged there on one of the park benches in 1962
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
The idea that teachers in the 80s had been trained on Foucault's texts that had only just been translated to English in the 70s in brutally unadorned translations that were ferociously difficult reads is certainly a take.
The weird specificity of it by Truss is designed to create an enemy. If she had simply said the continental tradition then it would have been believable, bit to single out one dude is just bonkers.
The funny thing is that people complained about this lack of focus on reading writing maths back in the sixties as well. So we've apparently had 60 years of wibbly education. Literally everyone under 80 should be a wibbly woke snowflake and yet here we are with a Conservative majority government.
I have been delighted by the lack of Edinburgh Market this year. It completely destroys Princes Street Gardens and makes them an unusable mud bog for a huge chunk of the year.
Last year the runners of the market took the complete piss with an unauthorised expansion and deeply shonky scaff platform building
David and I have different lived experiences when it comes to Edinburgh. One, Edinburgh as a destination and the other Edinburgh as a place to live day to day.
My wife and I became engaged there on one of the park benches in 1962
Liz Truss priced at 21 for next Con leader on Betfair, seems good value.
Looks like fillet steak for lunch today
Dunno what the supply situation is in the UAE but over here there is a literal mountain of meat that is going to waste. Producers planned for a normalish Christmas which of course isn't here. Eating out not happening, big family gatherings not happening on the normal scale, everyone wants small meat portions.
I've seen several people on Twitter commenting that their requested small joint / bird has been subbed for a massive one. Yes - thats what they have to send you! Suggest people learn the old joys of Boxing Day turkey butties, Turkey soup etc
Steak here from all over the world: Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA and yes, even some Aberdeen Angus.
Life is so much easier outside the Common External Tarriff.
We just ordered the turkey for next weekend, hotels here do takeaway boxes with the cooked bird and all the trimmings, ready to eat. Just add your choice of beverage 🥂
Sounds good.
The Common External Tariff is rank protectionist nonsense. In the short term there may be disruptions at Dover/Calais but in the long term being outside of that will be a good thing.
And if a bit less of our trade ultimately comes from Calais to Dover and a bit more from the Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA etc to Portsmouth, Liverpool etc then that seems like a good balancing act too.
Yes, one of the largest Brexit benefits is going to be cheaper food. Yes there might be some initial disruption, but supermarkets will soon see that they can source their food from a much wider range of countries than previously.
We can do deals with countries like Ukraine, for example, who produce many times what they need but have quotas and tarrifs limiting their exports to the EU.
Some of the best food and drink in the world comes from the Southern Hemisphere New World. "Protecting" ourselves from it is shooting consumers in the foot.
Which countries have a better mix of variety, quality and price of food than the UK?
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for starters.
Meat here is far more expensive and except for the best cuts like Aberdeen Angus it isn't as good quality. I don't know why that is.
Its a while since I went shopping in any of those places, perhaps 15 years, but when I did none of them had the quality and range of the UK supermarkets. Some items cheaper, but many more expensive, and virtually no out of season imported stuff. Great stone fruit in NZ for example, but only for a month per year.
I used to work with a couple of South Africans who said their best crops were exported so food there was not as good as you'd think.
I have been delighted by the lack of Edinburgh Market this year. It completely destroys Princes Street Gardens and makes them an unusable mud bog for a huge chunk of the year.
Last year the runners of the market took the complete piss with an unauthorised expansion and deeply shonky scaff platform building
David and I have different lived experiences when it comes to Edinburgh. One, Edinburgh as a destination and the other Edinburgh as a place to live day to day.
My wife and I became engaged there on one of the park benches in 1962
I hope it didn`t get too steamy, BigG.
The one thing it did do is last through these 58 years of enormous change
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
Yes. I think the general point is that social science/humanities teaching at uni level has been completely overtaken by Foucault/Derrida et al. mindset. My limit knowledge thru a friend who did an MA is that Foucault was certainly taught.
Quite right that Foucault/Derrida etc. should be taught at degree and above level on social sciences/humanities courses, along with many other important thinkers across the spectrum. I do hope that nobody on here, or in government, thinks Foucault should be cancelled.
But I have never come across these thinkers being taught on teacher training courses. I'm confident that the typical maths/science/geography teacher will never have come across Foucault.
In fact, I'm confident that any survey of teachers would demonstrate that the vast majority would know sod all about Foucault.
Foucault shouldn`t be cancelled. A syllabus that includes post-modernism has to include Foucault.
(I would hope and expect that the majority of students would come to see post modernism as absurd - but that`s besides the point.)
(CNN) - On Friday morning at 8 a.m., Vice President Mike Pence will receive the Covid-19 vaccine, becoming, in the process, the highest-profile politician in the country to do so.
For Pence, it will be that rarest of things over these past four years: A moment in which he eclipses, however briefly, President Donald Trump. (Trump isn't receiving the vaccination yet, because he has already had Covid-19.)
Pence, who has built his career on being a steady and reliable conservative, has struggled to find ways to distinguish himself in any meaningful way over Trump's term because, well, Trump is Trump.
Of late, that reality has been a good thing for Pence. The vice president has, largely, avoided being dragged into Trump's fantasy world in which he won the election but was somehow cheated out of it.
The idea that because one or two people went to a comprehensive school and subsequently did ok for themselves means that they're all world-class educational establishments that honour every child is possibly one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen on this website.
Sure: but I'm the same age as Truss and went to a variety of comprehensive schools and all our lessons except one were about, you know, reading, writing, maths, geography, etc. The other one was "PSE" - or personal and social education - and was just one period a week.
PSE was a fairly random bunch of (frankly) shit. The local police would come in and give a talk, for example. And "sex education" ("what do you want to know, miss?") too. In my last school it taught by a bored and elderly teacher who seemed completely disinterested in teaching and let us all chat and generally ignore him.
Liz Truss is guilty of creating a strawman. And I speak as someone who is normally a fan of her.
That was then, one of my younger cousins is completely infected with "intersectionalism" and all kinds of other bullshit about how she's a victim because she's female and Asian and that she might be transgender, but probably isn't.
Schooling is the one reason my wife and I are seriously considering moving back to Zurich even if it is extremely dull. We don't want to put any kids we have through this liberal wanky school system where activist charities encourage teachers to tell children they are 64 different genders. The whole Anglosphere seems to be infected with this kind of bullshit. I fear that this Tory government will make a valiant last stand here but as soon as Labour get in it's going to get a lot worse.
My children are both in their early twenties. Your analysis was not their experience in a Roman Catholic Comprehensive school.
Have you been reading Guido and The Daily Mail again?
He's a bit like Casino Royale sometimes, nearly always very sensible but occasionally go off the ledge.
We need to bring them back with some common ground.
Grapes on pizza, yuck yuck yuck, am I right?
I have no dog in the fruit on pizza race.
Is there such a thing as a pizza without fruit don't they all have tomato sauce on them and tomato is a fruit
Pizza Bianco with Gorgonzola, Parma ham, and walnuts.
Sounds like posh food and plebs like me dont get to eat that we order at domino's
Eh, I grew up in one of London's most violent estates (so much so that we got relocated and the council shut it down), and I have no need to ever order domino's or anything so awful. Life is what you make of it, 11 year old me on the estate could never have imagined going to the opera but it's one of the things I've missed this year.
Each to their own, you keep doing you Max
I think the assumption that the working classes are this sea of lumpen types who sit around eating McDonalds and think Nandos is the height of culture bothers me. Most of my friends are from working class backgrounds as I went to a state school and a pretty ordinary university, it's not as bleak as that.
My experience is different probably because I come from an era when few still went to university. Most of my working class friends are therefore of my age and still on crap wages and just don't have the chance to expose themselves to the finer things in life due to money. Not saying they couldn't buy the ingredients and home make it but they aren't likely to sample it in a restaurant as if they eat out it will be wetherspoons, hungry horse, nando's etc because a 40£ a head meal just isn't cost effective for them. Plenty I know aren't any less intelligent than many here. They merely didn't get the chance to go to university or like me had no desire too and have later in life found that limits them in terms of earning power. I would estimate the average wage of those friends at about 33k and that doesnt go so far in the south east
Doesnt change the fact that living costs more in the south east where a one bedroom flat will cost you the best part of 1000 a month. 33k in say slough is a lot less than 33k in grimsby
I’d argue that £33k in Slough = £33k in Grimsby (although it may buy less).
Still what do I know
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
That Grimsby 4 bed says £1100 pcm on the brochure.
Interesting that it is the only one listed. Under "unforeseen consequences", it tells you something what mandating a 6 month notice period for eviction does to market availability, and chances to rent for people needing houses.
Elsewhere I'm reading the tales of someone trying to rent a 3 bedroom property on the IoW at the moment - everything is being taken before people even get to see where it is let alone inside the property.
Yep - market availability and demand / supply has been badly out of whack since late spring.
Ironically, having had the conversation and come to an agreement with the T I wrote about last week I have a lovely bungalow which is empty, but I can't rent it as I may need to sell in late spring if probate paperwork for my parent comes through on time.
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
Yes. I think the general point is that social science/humanities teaching at uni level has been completely overtaken by Foucault/Derrida et al. mindset. My limit knowledge thru a friend who did an MA is that Foucault was certainly taught.
Quite right that Foucault/Derrida etc. should be taught at degree and above level on social sciences/humanities courses, along with many other important thinkers across the spectrum. I do hope that nobody on here, or in government, thinks Foucault should be cancelled.
But I have never come across these thinkers being taught on teacher training courses. I'm confident that the typical maths/science/geography teacher will never have come across Foucault.
In fact, I'm confident that any survey of teachers would demonstrate that the vast majority would know sod all about Foucault.
I'm a physics teacher and I know Foucault about him.
David and I have different lived experiences when it comes to Edinburgh. One, Edinburgh as a destination and the other Edinburgh as a place to live day to day.
There is a reason so many locals move out during the Festival
So they can punt out their one bedroom shoeboxes to six mime artists from Islington at £2k a week?
The idea that because one or two people went to a comprehensive school and subsequently did ok for themselves means that they're all world-class educational establishments that honour every child is possibly one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen on this website.
Sure: but I'm the same age as Truss and went to a variety of comprehensive schools and all our lessons except one were about, you know, reading, writing, maths, geography, etc. The other one was "PSE" - or personal and social education - and was just one period a week.
PSE was a fairly random bunch of (frankly) shit. The local police would come in and give a talk, for example. And "sex education" ("what do you want to know, miss?") too. In my last school it taught by a bored and elderly teacher who seemed completely disinterested in teaching and let us all chat and generally ignore him.
Liz Truss is guilty of creating a strawman. And I speak as someone who is normally a fan of her.
That was then, one of my younger cousins is completely infected with "intersectionalism" and all kinds of other bullshit about how she's a victim because she's female and Asian and that she might be transgender, but probably isn't.
Schooling is the one reason my wife and I are seriously considering moving back to Zurich even if it is extremely dull. We don't want to put any kids we have through this liberal wanky school system where activist charities encourage teachers to tell children they are 64 different genders. The whole Anglosphere seems to be infected with this kind of bullshit. I fear that this Tory government will make a valiant last stand here but as soon as Labour get in it's going to get a lot worse.
My children are both in their early twenties. Your analysis was not their experience in a Roman Catholic Comprehensive school.
Have you been reading Guido and The Daily Mail again?
He's a bit like Casino Royale sometimes, nearly always very sensible but occasionally go off the ledge.
We need to bring them back with some common ground.
Grapes on pizza, yuck yuck yuck, am I right?
I have no dog in the fruit on pizza race.
Is there such a thing as a pizza without fruit don't they all have tomato sauce on them and tomato is a fruit
Pizza Bianco with Gorgonzola, Parma ham, and walnuts.
Sounds like posh food and plebs like me dont get to eat that we order at domino's
Eh, I grew up in one of London's most violent estates (so much so that we got relocated and the council shut it down), and I have no need to ever order domino's or anything so awful. Life is what you make of it, 11 year old me on the estate could never have imagined going to the opera but it's one of the things I've missed this year.
Each to their own, you keep doing you Max
I think the assumption that the working classes are this sea of lumpen types who sit around eating McDonalds and think Nandos is the height of culture bothers me. Most of my friends are from working class backgrounds as I went to a state school and a pretty ordinary university, it's not as bleak as that.
My experience is different probably because I come from an era when few still went to university. Most of my working class friends are therefore of my age and still on crap wages and just don't have the chance to expose themselves to the finer things in life due to money. Not saying they couldn't buy the ingredients and home make it but they aren't likely to sample it in a restaurant as if they eat out it will be wetherspoons, hungry horse, nando's etc because a 40£ a head meal just isn't cost effective for them. Plenty I know aren't any less intelligent than many here. They merely didn't get the chance to go to university or like me had no desire too and have later in life found that limits them in terms of earning power. I would estimate the average wage of those friends at about 33k and that doesnt go so far in the south east
Doesnt change the fact that living costs more in the south east where a one bedroom flat will cost you the best part of 1000 a month. 33k in say slough is a lot less than 33k in grimsby
I’d argue that £33k in Slough = £33k in Grimsby (although it may buy less).
Still what do I know
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
Supply and demand at work, establishing value. It`s a beautiful thing.
The idea that because one or two people went to a comprehensive school and subsequently did ok for themselves means that they're all world-class educational establishments that honour every child is possibly one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen on this website.
Sure: but I'm the same age as Truss and went to a variety of comprehensive schools and all our lessons except one were about, you know, reading, writing, maths, geography, etc. The other one was "PSE" - or personal and social education - and was just one period a week.
PSE was a fairly random bunch of (frankly) shit. The local police would come in and give a talk, for example. And "sex education" ("what do you want to know, miss?") too. In my last school it taught by a bored and elderly teacher who seemed completely disinterested in teaching and let us all chat and generally ignore him.
Liz Truss is guilty of creating a strawman. And I speak as someone who is normally a fan of her.
That was then, one of my younger cousins is completely infected with "intersectionalism" and all kinds of other bullshit about how she's a victim because she's female and Asian and that she might be transgender, but probably isn't.
Schooling is the one reason my wife and I are seriously considering moving back to Zurich even if it is extremely dull. We don't want to put any kids we have through this liberal wanky school system where activist charities encourage teachers to tell children they are 64 different genders. The whole Anglosphere seems to be infected with this kind of bullshit. I fear that this Tory government will make a valiant last stand here but as soon as Labour get in it's going to get a lot worse.
My children are both in their early twenties. Your analysis was not their experience in a Roman Catholic Comprehensive school.
Have you been reading Guido and The Daily Mail again?
He's a bit like Casino Royale sometimes, nearly always very sensible but occasionally go off the ledge.
We need to bring them back with some common ground.
Grapes on pizza, yuck yuck yuck, am I right?
I have no dog in the fruit on pizza race.
Is there such a thing as a pizza without fruit don't they all have tomato sauce on them and tomato is a fruit
Pizza Bianco with Gorgonzola, Parma ham, and walnuts.
Sounds like posh food and plebs like me dont get to eat that we order at domino's
Eh, I grew up in one of London's most violent estates (so much so that we got relocated and the council shut it down), and I have no need to ever order domino's or anything so awful. Life is what you make of it, 11 year old me on the estate could never have imagined going to the opera but it's one of the things I've missed this year.
Each to their own, you keep doing you Max
I think the assumption that the working classes are this sea of lumpen types who sit around eating McDonalds and think Nandos is the height of culture bothers me. Most of my friends are from working class backgrounds as I went to a state school and a pretty ordinary university, it's not as bleak as that.
My experience is different probably because I come from an era when few still went to university. Most of my working class friends are therefore of my age and still on crap wages and just don't have the chance to expose themselves to the finer things in life due to money. Not saying they couldn't buy the ingredients and home make it but they aren't likely to sample it in a restaurant as if they eat out it will be wetherspoons, hungry horse, nando's etc because a 40£ a head meal just isn't cost effective for them. Plenty I know aren't any less intelligent than many here. They merely didn't get the chance to go to university or like me had no desire too and have later in life found that limits them in terms of earning power. I would estimate the average wage of those friends at about 33k and that doesnt go so far in the south east
Doesnt change the fact that living costs more in the south east where a one bedroom flat will cost you the best part of 1000 a month. 33k in say slough is a lot less than 33k in grimsby
I’d argue that £33k in Slough = £33k in Grimsby (although it may buy less).
Still what do I know
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
That Grimsby 4 bed says £1100 pcm on the brochure.
Interesting that it is the only one listed. Under "unforeseen consequences", it tells you something what mandating a 6 month notice period for eviction does to market availability, and chances to rent for people needing houses.
Elsewhere I'm reading the tales of someone trying to rent a 3 bedroom property on the IoW at the moment - everything is being taken before people even get to see where it is let alone inside the property.
The sale market has been similar, with properties snapped up unseen.
The island's problem has always been employment. As soon as you don't need to work, or have a job where you can work remotely, it becomes a superb place to live. The number of people (who think they are) in the latter category has just exploded.
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
Yes. I think the general point is that social science/humanities teaching at uni level has been completely overtaken by Foucault/Derrida et al. mindset. My limit knowledge thru a friend who did an MA is that Foucault was certainly taught.
Quite right that Foucault/Derrida etc. should be taught at degree and above level on social sciences/humanities courses, along with many other important thinkers across the spectrum. I do hope that nobody on here, or in government, thinks Foucault should be cancelled.
But I have never come across these thinkers being taught on teacher training courses. I'm confident that the typical maths/science/geography teacher will never have come across Foucault.
In fact, I'm confident that any survey of teachers would demonstrate that the vast majority would know sod all about Foucault.
I'm a physics teacher and I know Foucault about him.
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
The idea that teachers in the 80s had been trained on Foucault's texts that had only just been translated to English in the 70s in brutally unadorned translations that were ferociously difficult reads is certainly a take.
The weird specificity of it by Truss is designed to create an enemy. If she had simply said the continental tradition then it would have been believable, bit to single out one dude is just bonkers.
The funny thing is that people complained about this lack of focus on reading writing maths back in the sixties as well. So we've apparently had 60 years of wibbly education. Literally everyone under 80 should be a wibbly woke snowflake and yet here we are with a Conservative majority government.
I did wonder if Truss was trying to contrast herself with former Ed Sec and future leadership rival Michael Gove, who championed the liberal arts; possibly the classically-educated Prime Minister as well.
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
Yes. I think the general point is that social science/humanities teaching at uni level has been completely overtaken by Foucault/Derrida et al. mindset. My limit knowledge thru a friend who did an MA is that Foucault was certainly taught.
Foucault was a very troubled individual. He spent his life seeking extreme sensations from drugs and sadmasochistic sex. Underwent psychiatric care. Died from AIDS.
His often inpenetrable work has been hijacked by people with an agenda - a bit like Marx. Without the hijacking, he would be unknown.
Liz Truss priced at 21 for next Con leader on Betfair, seems good value.
Looks like fillet steak for lunch today
Dunno what the supply situation is in the UAE but over here there is a literal mountain of meat that is going to waste. Producers planned for a normalish Christmas which of course isn't here. Eating out not happening, big family gatherings not happening on the normal scale, everyone wants small meat portions.
I've seen several people on Twitter commenting that their requested small joint / bird has been subbed for a massive one. Yes - thats what they have to send you! Suggest people learn the old joys of Boxing Day turkey butties, Turkey soup etc
Steak here from all over the world: Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA and yes, even some Aberdeen Angus.
Life is so much easier outside the Common External Tarriff.
We just ordered the turkey for next weekend, hotels here do takeaway boxes with the cooked bird and all the trimmings, ready to eat. Just add your choice of beverage 🥂
Sounds good.
The Common External Tariff is rank protectionist nonsense. In the short term there may be disruptions at Dover/Calais but in the long term being outside of that will be a good thing.
And if a bit less of our trade ultimately comes from Calais to Dover and a bit more from the Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA etc to Portsmouth, Liverpool etc then that seems like a good balancing act too.
Yes, one of the largest Brexit benefits is going to be cheaper food. Yes there might be some initial disruption, but supermarkets will soon see that they can source their food from a much wider range of countries than previously.
We can do deals with countries like Ukraine, for example, who produce many times what they need but have quotas and tarrifs limiting their exports to the EU.
Some of the best food and drink in the world comes from the Southern Hemisphere New World. "Protecting" ourselves from it is shooting consumers in the foot.
Which countries have a better mix of variety, quality and price of food than the UK?
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for starters.
Meat here is far more expensive and except for the best cuts like Aberdeen Angus it isn't as good quality. I don't know why that is.
Its a while since I went shopping in any of those places, perhaps 15 years, but when I did none of them had the quality and range of the UK supermarkets. Some items cheaper, but many more expensive, and virtually no out of season imported stuff. Great stone fruit in NZ for example, but only for a month per year.
I used to work with a couple of South Africans who said their best crops were exported so food there was not as good as you'd think.
It probably varies dramatically across the country. A very uneven country.
My wife is Scottish South African (interesting mix) and after she moved from SA to England she stopped eating meat as much for a while as she found the meat here very disappointing compared to what she was used to.
The idea that because one or two people went to a comprehensive school and subsequently did ok for themselves means that they're all world-class educational establishments that honour every child is possibly one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen on this website.
Sure: but I'm the same age as Truss and went to a variety of comprehensive schools and all our lessons except one were about, you know, reading, writing, maths, geography, etc. The other one was "PSE" - or personal and social education - and was just one period a week.
PSE was a fairly random bunch of (frankly) shit. The local police would come in and give a talk, for example. And "sex education" ("what do you want to know, miss?") too. In my last school it taught by a bored and elderly teacher who seemed completely disinterested in teaching and let us all chat and generally ignore him.
Liz Truss is guilty of creating a strawman. And I speak as someone who is normally a fan of her.
That was then, one of my younger cousins is completely infected with "intersectionalism" and all kinds of other bullshit about how she's a victim because she's female and Asian and that she might be transgender, but probably isn't.
Schooling is the one reason my wife and I are seriously considering moving back to Zurich even if it is extremely dull. We don't want to put any kids we have through this liberal wanky school system where activist charities encourage teachers to tell children they are 64 different genders. The whole Anglosphere seems to be infected with this kind of bullshit. I fear that this Tory government will make a valiant last stand here but as soon as Labour get in it's going to get a lot worse.
My children are both in their early twenties. Your analysis was not their experience in a Roman Catholic Comprehensive school.
Have you been reading Guido and The Daily Mail again?
He's a bit like Casino Royale sometimes, nearly always very sensible but occasionally go off the ledge.
We need to bring them back with some common ground.
Grapes on pizza, yuck yuck yuck, am I right?
I have no dog in the fruit on pizza race.
Is there such a thing as a pizza without fruit don't they all have tomato sauce on them and tomato is a fruit
Pizza Bianco with Gorgonzola, Parma ham, and walnuts.
Sounds like posh food and plebs like me dont get to eat that we order at domino's
Eh, I grew up in one of London's most violent estates (so much so that we got relocated and the council shut it down), and I have no need to ever order domino's or anything so awful. Life is what you make of it, 11 year old me on the estate could never have imagined going to the opera but it's one of the things I've missed this year.
Each to their own, you keep doing you Max
I think the assumption that the working classes are this sea of lumpen types who sit around eating McDonalds and think Nandos is the height of culture bothers me. Most of my friends are from working class backgrounds as I went to a state school and a pretty ordinary university, it's not as bleak as that.
My experience is different probably because I come from an era when few still went to university. Most of my working class friends are therefore of my age and still on crap wages and just don't have the chance to expose themselves to the finer things in life due to money. Not saying they couldn't buy the ingredients and home make it but they aren't likely to sample it in a restaurant as if they eat out it will be wetherspoons, hungry horse, nando's etc because a 40£ a head meal just isn't cost effective for them. Plenty I know aren't any less intelligent than many here. They merely didn't get the chance to go to university or like me had no desire too and have later in life found that limits them in terms of earning power. I would estimate the average wage of those friends at about 33k and that doesnt go so far in the south east
Doesnt change the fact that living costs more in the south east where a one bedroom flat will cost you the best part of 1000 a month. 33k in say slough is a lot less than 33k in grimsby
I’d argue that £33k in Slough = £33k in Grimsby (although it may buy less).
Still what do I know
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
That Grimsby 4 bed says £1100 pcm on the brochure.
Interesting that it is the only one listed. Under "unforeseen consequences", it tells you something what mandating a 6 month notice period for eviction does to market availability, and chances to rent for people needing houses.
Elsewhere I'm reading the tales of someone trying to rent a 3 bedroom property on the IoW at the moment - everything is being taken before people even get to see where it is let alone inside the property.
The sale market has been similar, with properties snapped up unseen.
The island's problem has always been employment. As soon as you don't need to work, or have a job where you can work remotely, it becomes a superb place to live. The number of people (who think they are) in the latter category has just exploded.
I find that slightly strange, as the expectation is that values may tank a little come the end of the current schemes in March.
Liz Truss priced at 21 for next Con leader on Betfair, seems good value.
Looks like fillet steak for lunch today
Dunno what the supply situation is in the UAE but over here there is a literal mountain of meat that is going to waste. Producers planned for a normalish Christmas which of course isn't here. Eating out not happening, big family gatherings not happening on the normal scale, everyone wants small meat portions.
I've seen several people on Twitter commenting that their requested small joint / bird has been subbed for a massive one. Yes - thats what they have to send you! Suggest people learn the old joys of Boxing Day turkey butties, Turkey soup etc
Steak here from all over the world: Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA and yes, even some Aberdeen Angus.
Life is so much easier outside the Common External Tarriff.
We just ordered the turkey for next weekend, hotels here do takeaway boxes with the cooked bird and all the trimmings, ready to eat. Just add your choice of beverage 🥂
Sounds good.
The Common External Tariff is rank protectionist nonsense. In the short term there may be disruptions at Dover/Calais but in the long term being outside of that will be a good thing.
And if a bit less of our trade ultimately comes from Calais to Dover and a bit more from the Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA etc to Portsmouth, Liverpool etc then that seems like a good balancing act too.
Yes, one of the largest Brexit benefits is going to be cheaper food. Yes there might be some initial disruption, but supermarkets will soon see that they can source their food from a much wider range of countries than previously.
We can do deals with countries like Ukraine, for example, who produce many times what they need but have quotas and tarrifs limiting their exports to the EU.
Some of the best food and drink in the world comes from the Southern Hemisphere New World. "Protecting" ourselves from it is shooting consumers in the foot.
Which countries have a better mix of variety, quality and price of food than the UK?
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for starters.
Meat here is far more expensive and except for the best cuts like Aberdeen Angus it isn't as good quality. I don't know why that is.
Its a while since I went shopping in any of those places, perhaps 15 years, but when I did none of them had the quality and range of the UK supermarkets. Some items cheaper, but many more expensive, and virtually no out of season imported stuff. Great stone fruit in NZ for example, but only for a month per year.
I used to work with a couple of South Africans who said their best crops were exported so food there was not as good as you'd think.
Certainly the best wine is exported from NZ. I drank cheap gut rot while there. Beer not up to much really either.
Namibian beer is much better. The German connection perhaps.
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
Yes. I think the general point is that social science/humanities teaching at uni level has been completely overtaken by Foucault/Derrida et al. mindset. My limit knowledge thru a friend who did an MA is that Foucault was certainly taught.
Quite right that Foucault/Derrida etc. should be taught at degree and above level on social sciences/humanities courses, along with many other important thinkers across the spectrum. I do hope that nobody on here, or in government, thinks Foucault should be cancelled.
But I have never come across these thinkers being taught on teacher training courses. I'm confident that the typical maths/science/geography teacher will never have come across Foucault.
In fact, I'm confident that any survey of teachers would demonstrate that the vast majority would know sod all about Foucault.
I'm a physics teacher and I know Foucault about him.
Surprising to see so many deaths this time in Germany compared to last spring. Any reason for this?
I would venture the one is the cause of the other.
I thought Germany was an example to us all on how to deal with Covid
Germans do love their Christmas markets.
I have really missed the German market that we normally have in Edinburgh in Princes Street Gardens this year. Its wonderfully festive with all the smells and sounds and delicious nibbles. Really helps to get you in the Christmas spirit. Christmas has already been a long way from normal, no parties, no meals and nights out, no shopping trips, seeing less of family. Its going to be a damp squib this year I am afraid.
I have been delighted by the lack of Edinburgh Market this year. It completely destroys Princes Street Gardens and makes them an unusable mud bog for a huge chunk of the year.
Last year the runners of the market took the complete piss with an unauthorised expansion and deeply shonky scaff platform building
The Grinch lives!
I will miss the carousel.
I am missing the tunnel of light usually on George Street but occasionally on the Royal Mile and the fun of being out in Edinburgh at night at this time of year. It has a tremendous buzz about it.
I agree with your reply to Scott. Edinburgh is a place I come to work and have fun, I don't live there and that makes a difference.
Liz Truss priced at 21 for next Con leader on Betfair, seems good value.
Looks like fillet steak for lunch today
Dunno what the supply situation is in the UAE but over here there is a literal mountain of meat that is going to waste. Producers planned for a normalish Christmas which of course isn't here. Eating out not happening, big family gatherings not happening on the normal scale, everyone wants small meat portions.
I've seen several people on Twitter commenting that their requested small joint / bird has been subbed for a massive one. Yes - thats what they have to send you! Suggest people learn the old joys of Boxing Day turkey butties, Turkey soup etc
Steak here from all over the world: Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA and yes, even some Aberdeen Angus.
Life is so much easier outside the Common External Tarriff.
We just ordered the turkey for next weekend, hotels here do takeaway boxes with the cooked bird and all the trimmings, ready to eat. Just add your choice of beverage 🥂
Sounds good.
The Common External Tariff is rank protectionist nonsense. In the short term there may be disruptions at Dover/Calais but in the long term being outside of that will be a good thing.
And if a bit less of our trade ultimately comes from Calais to Dover and a bit more from the Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA etc to Portsmouth, Liverpool etc then that seems like a good balancing act too.
Yes, one of the largest Brexit benefits is going to be cheaper food. Yes there might be some initial disruption, but supermarkets will soon see that they can source their food from a much wider range of countries than previously.
We can do deals with countries like Ukraine, for example, who produce many times what they need but have quotas and tarrifs limiting their exports to the EU.
Some of the best food and drink in the world comes from the Southern Hemisphere New World. "Protecting" ourselves from it is shooting consumers in the foot.
Which countries have a better mix of variety, quality and price of food than the UK?
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for starters.
Meat here is far more expensive and except for the best cuts like Aberdeen Angus it isn't as good quality. I don't know why that is.
Its a while since I went shopping in any of those places, perhaps 15 years, but when I did none of them had the quality and range of the UK supermarkets. Some items cheaper, but many more expensive, and virtually no out of season imported stuff. Great stone fruit in NZ for example, but only for a month per year.
I used to work with a couple of South Africans who said their best crops were exported so food there was not as good as you'd think.
Certainly the best wine is exported from NZ. I drank cheap gut rot while there. Beer not up to much really either.
Namibian beer is much better. The German connection perhaps.
The Australians do it right. They export Fosters, actual Aussies won't touch that with an attitude of "that's the piss we sell to POMEs".
From that link, unemployed former MP Paul Sweeney writes: Having previously assisted many constituents with their problems dealing with the notorious Department for Work and Pensions, I approached the idea of applying for Universal Credit with some trepidation, knowing the tortuous experiences many others had gone through, but for me at least I found the online application reasonably straightforward, mainly due to the Government simplifying the normally Kafkaesque process under the pressure of an unprecedented volume of applications.
This was a revelation in itself for me, that all the hardship that so many of my former constituents had experienced in just trying to access the social security system could be easily removed at the whim of the Government, that this insidious psychological warfare against unemployed and disabled people was actually all by conscious design.
The account rings true with people I know who have lost partners through lockdown pressure etc.
Personally my sympathy is alloyed, as Sweeney ended another MPs career by going public with sexual allegations which were found to be without any foundation when independently investigated, six weeks before a General Election.
Lucky old me, having unaccountably mislaid Mr Sweeney at the last Westminster GE, I’ll have a chance to retrieve him in May’s Holyrood elections.
The idea that because one or two people went to a comprehensive school and subsequently did ok for themselves means that they're all world-class educational establishments that honour every child is possibly one of the dumbest takes I've ever seen on this website.
Sure: but I'm the same age as Truss and went to a variety of comprehensive schools and all our lessons except one were about, you know, reading, writing, maths, geography, etc. The other one was "PSE" - or personal and social education - and was just one period a week.
PSE was a fairly random bunch of (frankly) shit. The local police would come in and give a talk, for example. And "sex education" ("what do you want to know, miss?") too. In my last school it taught by a bored and elderly teacher who seemed completely disinterested in teaching and let us all chat and generally ignore him.
Liz Truss is guilty of creating a strawman. And I speak as someone who is normally a fan of her.
That was then, one of my younger cousins is completely infected with "intersectionalism" and all kinds of other bullshit about how she's a victim because she's female and Asian and that she might be transgender, but probably isn't.
Schooling is the one reason my wife and I are seriously considering moving back to Zurich even if it is extremely dull. We don't want to put any kids we have through this liberal wanky school system where activist charities encourage teachers to tell children they are 64 different genders. The whole Anglosphere seems to be infected with this kind of bullshit. I fear that this Tory government will make a valiant last stand here but as soon as Labour get in it's going to get a lot worse.
My children are both in their early twenties. Your analysis was not their experience in a Roman Catholic Comprehensive school.
Have you been reading Guido and The Daily Mail again?
He's a bit like Casino Royale sometimes, nearly always very sensible but occasionally go off the ledge.
We need to bring them back with some common ground.
Grapes on pizza, yuck yuck yuck, am I right?
I have no dog in the fruit on pizza race.
Is there such a thing as a pizza without fruit don't they all have tomato sauce on them and tomato is a fruit
Pizza Bianco with Gorgonzola, Parma ham, and walnuts.
Sounds like posh food and plebs like me dont get to eat that we order at domino's
Eh, I grew up in one of London's most violent estates (so much so that we got relocated and the council shut it down), and I have no need to ever order domino's or anything so awful. Life is what you make of it, 11 year old me on the estate could never have imagined going to the opera but it's one of the things I've missed this year.
Each to their own, you keep doing you Max
I think the assumption that the working classes are this sea of lumpen types who sit around eating McDonalds and think Nandos is the height of culture bothers me. Most of my friends are from working class backgrounds as I went to a state school and a pretty ordinary university, it's not as bleak as that.
My experience is different probably because I come from an era when few still went to university. Most of my working class friends are therefore of my age and still on crap wages and just don't have the chance to expose themselves to the finer things in life due to money. Not saying they couldn't buy the ingredients and home make it but they aren't likely to sample it in a restaurant as if they eat out it will be wetherspoons, hungry horse, nando's etc because a 40£ a head meal just isn't cost effective for them. Plenty I know aren't any less intelligent than many here. They merely didn't get the chance to go to university or like me had no desire too and have later in life found that limits them in terms of earning power. I would estimate the average wage of those friends at about 33k and that doesnt go so far in the south east
Doesnt change the fact that living costs more in the south east where a one bedroom flat will cost you the best part of 1000 a month. 33k in say slough is a lot less than 33k in grimsby
I’d argue that £33k in Slough = £33k in Grimsby (although it may buy less).
Still what do I know
A rapid visit to Rightmove and the top two for rent in Grimsby are a four-bed detached for £1250 pcm and a two-bed terrace for £485. In Slough the same money throws up flats - hunting about for a house, a four-bed detached is £2,295 and a two-bed terrace £1300. So hugely more. Looking at one bed flats, Slough's are around £900 pcm whereas in Grimsby it's about £425.
Renting property in Slough is therefore about twice as expensive, and someone on the same salary is going to have a lot less money to spend left over.
That Grimsby 4 bed says £1100 pcm on the brochure.
Interesting that it is the only one listed. Under "unforeseen consequences", it tells you something what mandating a 6 month notice period for eviction does to market availability, and chances to rent for people needing houses.
Elsewhere I'm reading the tales of someone trying to rent a 3 bedroom property on the IoW at the moment - everything is being taken before people even get to see where it is let alone inside the property.
The sale market has been similar, with properties snapped up unseen.
The island's problem has always been employment. As soon as you don't need to work, or have a job where you can work remotely, it becomes a superb place to live. The number of people (who think they are) in the latter category has just exploded.
I find that slightly strange, as the expectation is that values may tank a little come the end of the current schemes in March.
The stamp duty holiday has certainly prompted a lot of people to put long pondered plans into action. Anecdotally I know of one couple in their late 60s who have moved into smaller accommodation, and one London couple who have sold up and bought a farm in Wales, both made up their minds to go now because of the holiday. When stamp duty returns the market will be quiet, I guess - although the longer term economic damage from Covid may bring more distressed sales to the market. Edit/ And, remembering, i also know another couple who now spend much of the year in Spain, about to put their London house up for sale and buy a flat, also rushing because of the holiday
I notice that after opening her speech about her lived experience that Truss then goes and says that lived experience isn't reliable.
Top work.
Is your memory and experience always consistently 100% reliable and objective?
It's a valuable perspective - one of a number of sources of evidence that should be considered and taken into account - but, it's not an ace card that can and must trump everything else.
If people start to accept it is then it will be open to manipulation.
Yes let's start with Truss's memory of her education in the 1980s.
Glad to see you embrace the limits of empiricism like, checks notes, Foucalt.
Tbf I thought Truss's point was that Foucault somehow damaged the philosophy of education through being taught to teachers as part of their PGCEs, not directly to school pupils, though I can't be bothered to check.
Yes. I think the general point is that social science/humanities teaching at uni level has been completely overtaken by Foucault/Derrida et al. mindset. My limit knowledge thru a friend who did an MA is that Foucault was certainly taught.
Quite right that Foucault/Derrida etc. should be taught at degree and above level on social sciences/humanities courses, along with many other important thinkers across the spectrum. I do hope that nobody on here, or in government, thinks Foucault should be cancelled.
But I have never come across these thinkers being taught on teacher training courses. I'm confident that the typical maths/science/geography teacher will never have come across Foucault.
In fact, I'm confident that any survey of teachers would demonstrate that the vast majority would know sod all about Foucault.
I'm a physics teacher and I know Foucault about him.
Lacan believe that.
All bollox this stuff. Kids just need to learn to derrida and righta.
Also it doesn't take a lot of effort to buy a bag of apples and eat them. Another myth: about healthy food being "difficult to prepare". Patronising nonsense again.
It is easier to microwave a ready meal than cook some vegetables yourself though. A diet of apples doesn't sound all that appetizing.
That is true, but it really is on me that I dont eat healthy, not prevalence of fast food, adverts or even time. Theres plenty lazier than me and people not being taught to cook as a core skill is key (though when I do cook it's mostly cakes) but it really is an area where the biggest factor is personal responsibility. That people dont prioritise it is understandable, I sure dont, but its usually not about ignorance nor impossibility.
From the Mail link: It is understood the Chief Whip was so concerned by the possibility his own letter would leak that he had it formatted in a way that made each copy individually identifiable.
The implication here is that Guido leaked the leaked letter back to the government. Whether or not that actually happened, it will be a further deterrent.
I was more amused by this from the Mail link. ‘If you violate any aspect of the Ministerial Code you will be removed from your position with immediate effect.”...
Now that is news. Or an obvious lie.
Not a lie for those lower on the greasy pole. You have to rise higher before you are useful enough to defend when you violate the code.
We should have extended Lockdown 2.0 to be up to Christmas, as I called for at the time.
We came out far too early, once again the cases were simply not low enough.
We must get cases down to the 10s before we come out again.
We are never going to get cases down to the 10s.
We definitely could if we wanted to.
Well, we can pursue an elimination strategy. Unfortunately this would involve turning troops out onto the streets, shutting down more or less everything and punishing anybody caught outside the home for virtually any reason with a bullet in the back of the head.
Nothing short of total, hermetic self-isolation for individual households will stop this thing in its tracks, and that cannot be realistically achieved. We are stuck with it until the vaccination programme gets round enough people to break the chains of transmission. As I said earlier today, trying to suppress Covid is like trying to suppress the common cold. You can slow it down a little with really draconian measures, but those needed to make it stop altogether would kill a large fraction of the whole population. It is hopeless.
I doubt that. There will be an acceptance that the thing exists. The key issue is protecting the most vulnerable percentage of the population who could end up in hospital plus those who treat them/work with them at close proximity. Despite the buying of 10s of millions of vaccine doses I am not wholly convinced there will be a universal vaccination move by the end of this, it will be similar to flu vaccines where the cohort who are seen as most important to get the jab has widened over time. The rest of us can take our chances. If it was compulsory I'd have few issues getting the jab but if not, I probably wouldn't rush because I have limited consistent exposure to those considered high risk and am otherwise fit and healthy. Speaking to the same stats person who enlightened me on the contribution of schools and universities to the rising test positivity rate (which apparently is the one stat the causal observer needs to pay attention to but probably doesn't), they were of the view that the most critical 10%-15% of the population will be vaccinated before spring. If they can be protected, the hospitalisation rate, which is what really scares the crap out of politicians. is going to fall.
I've always said since Day 1 of this saga that politicians are primarily driven by the optics of the health service being over-run. Its probably no co-incidence that in Northern Ireland the stories about one hospital having a particularly hard time (and strangely often does be focus of stories about service issues) may have had an impact on the decisions made today. What was less mentioned is that another hospital 15 miles away still has spare capacity.
10-15%, however long that ends up taking, ought to make a real difference to death rates but the hospitals will still be screaming over admissions. We're going to be nowhere near the end of this until they've at least got as far as lancing everybody over about 60 or 65 and everyone who's medically vulnerable on top of that. The race in that regard is to get them all done before yet another tsunami of new cases crashes on the shore in Autumn 2021. The first half of next year is already a lost cause.
Only then can we stagger out across the smouldering ruins of the economy and start trying to put everything back together again, though of course that will be hard-to-impossible with the vast numbers of structurally unemployed workers and the ever growing horde of dependent pensioners that what's left of the tax base is going to be expected to carry.
We'll see, I haven't heard any suggestions that the profile ending up in hospital now is massively different than the profile throughout, i.e. disproportionately older, pre existing conditions, or plain unhealthy ie already largely be in the 10-15% cohort. Having said that I'm not sure how you diplomatically put across the idea that if you are severely obese that you should be in the early list for a vaccine.
with over half the English hospital deaths being those 80+
Is there any data to show whether time spent in hospital varies by age? Number of patient-days is probably a better measure of NHS load than simple admissions.
Yes, of the 18-64 cohort, is there data on admitted “because of covid” or in hospital “with covid”? ICU numbers would be the best guide perhaps. Is there a breakdown of them by age?
I see we reached "let them eat fillet" in the overnight discussion of how the poor should eat....
The poor always get tea and sympathy on here.
But no milk.
Or sugar.
Sympathy only goes so far....
My ex (we have a 19 year old son) is always desperate for money. Because I am a sucker and I love my son I have always gone above and beyond maintenance - I've literally taken out loans for her in the past and have chucked bits of cash at her when she needs it. And she does need it - a few years of dramatic illness has left her half blind, barely mobile and unable to work. But, as the boy is effectively doing a gap year I gave £5k to keep him going before he starts uni in 2021, money she has had.
So I have been sympathetic. And generous. Even after she twice tried to blackmail me for more (I had the police on her for one of them and just called her bluff on the other). But here and now I am newly self employed with a major house move imminent and cash is entertainingly tight at times, so the bank of ex is closed down.
Have politely but increasingly firmly said no to recent requests for cash. So you can imagine my bemusement when the boy advised that his mum was incommunicado for a bit. The same night she had asked for more cash (as "I have no money I owe him money and its Christmas") she had hired a taxi to shuttle her down to the all night garage to buy fags, had left the phone in the taxi which, when it was called back, had of course not been found.
Tea and sympathy only go so far. So many people are in dire straights through circumstance and the system has been explicitly designed to be as punitive as possible to them. Then again, sometimes people are just malingering fucks.
Money and family is one stressful quagmire. The last few years I've found myself the highest earning working age person in my extended family on 33k, with several others, with kids and mortgages, struggling to pay for food for themselves. Thank christ my father who'd also needed money in retirement won an amount on a lottery scratch card.
Much sympathy to all those struggling out there, and those trying to help.
Comments
With references to Foucault (unconvincing) and such like, I wondered if her speech was written by Munira Mirza, the ex Revolutionary Communist Party member at No. 10.
Supermarket prices, though, are very similar - perhaps 5-10% cheaper in Nottingham, no more than that. It's almost entirely about a shortage of cheap housing near London. Indeed, even real slum property is not much cheaper than good places in the same area. When I was in London (paying £1750 for another 1-bed flat, in Islington), I remember one place I looked at where the door had been broken down and was just patched up, there was a huge stain on the carpet and the central heating didn't work. That was £1300/month.
South Africa I got quite into farmed ostrich as a go to staple. Perfect with a Pinot.
The trick with meat is to buy quality and make it go far.
But I have never come across these thinkers being taught on teacher training courses. I'm confident that the typical maths/science/geography teacher will never have come across Foucault.
In fact, I'm confident that any survey of teachers would demonstrate that the vast majority would know sod all about Foucault.
Money is only worth what you can buy with it.
The weird specificity of it by Truss is designed to create an enemy. If she had simply said the continental tradition then it would have been believable, bit to single out one dude is just bonkers.
The funny thing is that people complained about this lack of focus on reading writing maths back in the sixties as well. So we've apparently had 60 years of wibbly education. Literally everyone under 80 should be a wibbly woke snowflake and yet here we are with a Conservative majority government.
(I would hope and expect that the majority of students would come to see post modernism as absurd - but that`s besides the point.)
For Pence, it will be that rarest of things over these past four years: A moment in which he eclipses, however briefly, President Donald Trump. (Trump isn't receiving the vaccination yet, because he has already had Covid-19.)
Pence, who has built his career on being a steady and reliable conservative, has struggled to find ways to distinguish himself in any meaningful way over Trump's term because, well, Trump is Trump.
Of late, that reality has been a good thing for Pence. The vice president has, largely, avoided being dragged into Trump's fantasy world in which he won the election but was somehow cheated out of it.
Ironically, having had the conversation and come to an agreement with the T I wrote about last week I have a lovely bungalow which is empty, but I can't rent it as I may need to sell in late spring if probate paperwork for my parent comes through on time.
The island's problem has always been employment. As soon as you don't need to work, or have a job where you can work remotely, it becomes a superb place to live. The number of people (who think they are) in the latter category has just exploded.
He wrote a lot about structure and power...
His often inpenetrable work has been hijacked by people with an agenda - a bit like Marx. Without the hijacking, he would be unknown.
My wife is Scottish South African (interesting mix) and after she moved from SA to England she stopped eating meat as much for a while as she found the meat here very disappointing compared to what she was used to.
Namibian beer is much better. The German connection perhaps.
I agree with your reply to Scott. Edinburgh is a place I come to work and have fun, I don't live there and that makes a difference.
This thread is now vaccinated
https://www.icnarc.org/Our-Audit/Audits/Cmp/Reports
It just gives interquartile ranges, though. Which gives some data, albeit not as much as we'd like.
Much sympathy to all those struggling out there, and those trying to help.