FFS he's a middle aged fat bloke - he heads the world's fourth biggest economy with several millions at his disposal and is now allegedly enjoying the company of a hottish 40 yr old actress as well as a hottish 48 yr old.
Tell you what I'll take on his problems.
It really shows the decline in our moral culture when people admire adultery.
There is no doubt if we had PR at general elections there would be higher turnout. Then voters would have a more genuine choice, with genuinely left-wing parties like the Greens and genuinely right-wing parties like UKIP all likely to gain significant numbers of seats alongside the main parties!
I have to say I find posters on both sides of this debate being massively hypocritical. If Gove had suggested teachers licensing, Labourites would say how he was waging his war on teachers on another front and Tories would say he was restoring rigour to education.
I am not denigrating the new Labour stance, CPD is something most of us have to go through in our various professions. But it seems like a gimmick, they run education in Wales why aren't they doing it there?
Socrates With the possible exception of De Gaulle has there been a French President who has not committed adultery? The French almost seem to admire their virility
This Tristram Hunt announcement seems to be yet another example of the Labour leadership assuming that the Westminster bubble consensus is also the consensus out there in the real world. In reality, I think this site posted polling data showing teachers were the 2nd most-respected profession, behind only doctors (and well ahead of business leaders, who the political class including Labour still bizarrely regard as deities who they can't afford to speak out against for fear of being seen as "uncredible").
Most parents think teachers generally are doing the best they can in difficult circumstances. The type of education proposal Labour could come up with which might go down well is making it easier to expel troublesome kids who have no interest whatsoever in learning and just act as a malign influence on kids who have willingness to learn (but I don't know how practical such a policy would be); but practically noone buys into this Tory/Westminster narrative that the problems with our education system are caused by lazy, incompetent, "ideological" teachers.
I do. Well the ideological bit anyway.
In what way do you think a typical teacher is ideological?
Socialist indoctrination.
Not all of them obviously, but read through the comments of the likes of Blower to see where I am coming from. Uni lecturers are even worse.
Free schools have enabled the less ideological ones to move away from that rubbish.
I'm sorry, but I think that's a bit of a myth.
I agree with the people who were saying the other day that, in some ways, teachers have a typically small-c conservative outlook on life. My mum was a teacher for 40 years, and she said when she started in the early 70s, more teachers than not were Conservative voters, back in the days when they were all about civic duty, doing your bit for society rather than being motivated by personal profit, having compassion for the poor, while they found Labour a bit too extreme for their tastes.
The reason teachers have trended away from the Tories is because of Thatcherism and (what they saw as) the lack of compassion for the poor, as well of course with the recent hysterical anti-public sector bile that comes from the Tories. But to suggest the teaching profession is somehow inherently Marxist is ridiculous.
(OT) Some dreary woman phoned me (unsolicited) during the day and said she wanted to "set me up for free calls on my landline phone". It sounded as if she meant that I would not have to pay for making phone calls. I wasn't in the mood for discussing it, so I just hung up and didn't bother.
But why would someone? What's the catch? What's in it for her (whoever she was)?
There is no doubt if we had PR at general elections there would be higher turnout. Then voters would have a more genuine choice, with genuinely left-wing parties like the Greens and genuinely right-wing parties like UKIP all likely to gain significant numbers of seats alongside the main parties!
If PR was such a draw to voters why is it that when the Euros switched from constituencies to list PR (1999 onwards) there was no appreciable change in the turnout (well other than the first time PR was used when turnout was around 10% lower).
The turnout is remarkably consistent throughout (1999 aside). There is no evidence that PR improves turnout.
The electorate made it very clear they were not interested in changing the voting system for the General Election. Why is it some people just cannot accept that!
(OT) Some dreary woman phoned me (unsolicited) during the day and said she wanted to "set me up for free calls on my landline phone". It sounded as if she meant that I would not have to pay for making phone calls. I wasn't in the mood for discussing it, so I just hung up and didn't bother.
But why would someone? What's the catch? What's in it for her (whoever she was)?
Well theoretically I'm on Sky and I don't pay for my phone calls. I pay for my line rental and the actual Sky provision of the service but I don't pay for the calls. I imagine it'll be something along those lines.
(OT) Some dreary woman phoned me (unsolicited) during the day and said she wanted to "set me up for free calls on my landline phone". It sounded as if she meant that I would not have to pay for making phone calls. I wasn't in the mood for discussing it, so I just hung up and didn't bother.
But why would someone? What's the catch? What's in it for her (whoever she was)?
I think the proposal here is for re-licensing rather than licensing. It is an important distinction.
Doctors are licensed after qualification, but now have to revalidate five yearly to relicense.
This is a system that is deeply unpopular, needlessly bureaucratic, distracts doctors from medical care and causing a wave of early retirements. It also will be ineffective in weeding out bad doctors, so fails on all grounds. I fully understand why teachers will dislike Tristan Hunts proposal.
Teachers, like Doctors and Nurses, have a variety of political views, but are "small c" conservatives in many ways, suspicious of change. To an extent this is a reflection of the quintissential world view of the British: All change is change for the worse. Most want the government off their backs as far as possible. In 2010 (according to Pulse surveys) most British doctors voted Conservative.
These public sector workers are electorally significant, not only because of the number in each constituency, but also because their views influence the votes of friends and family. I form my views on education policy not only drectly from experience from my son, but also from discussions with my neighbour, who is head of department at a large comprehensive.
Getting these people onside is a way to win elections. Gove has failed to do this, just as Lansley failed to do so. Jeremy Hunt, whose style is less confrontation, does not inspire the same hostility from doctors. There is a palpable drift back to the conservatives by many of my colleagues as a result, particularly as the reforms seem to be working and a lot of the bad aspects greatly exagerrated.
SmithersJones2013 But they were offered AV not PR, and of course the highest turnout for a European Election came in 2004 under PR at 37.6%. Countries which have PR, Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Sweden etc all on average tend to have higher turnout than countries which stick to FPTP like the UK, US and Canada!
SmithersJones2013 But they were offered AV not PR, and of course the highest turnout for a European Election came in 2004 under PR at 37.6%. Countries which have PR, Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Sweden etc all on average tend to have higher turnout than countries which stick to FPTP like the UK, US and Canada!
Iirc when New Zealand changed PR (a couple of decades back now) there wasn't much change in turnout before and after.
Comments
I agree with the people who were saying the other day that, in some ways, teachers have a typically small-c conservative outlook on life. My mum was a teacher for 40 years, and she said when she started in the early 70s, more teachers than not were Conservative voters, back in the days when they were all about civic duty, doing your bit for society rather than being motivated by personal profit, having compassion for the poor, while they found Labour a bit too extreme for their tastes.
The reason teachers have trended away from the Tories is because of Thatcherism and (what they saw as) the lack of compassion for the poor, as well of course with the recent hysterical anti-public sector bile that comes from the Tories. But to suggest the teaching profession is somehow inherently Marxist is ridiculous.
But why would someone? What's the catch? What's in it for her (whoever she was)?
1979 32.7%
1984 33%
1989 36%
1994 36.8%
1999 23%
2004 37.6%
2009 34%
The turnout is remarkably consistent throughout (1999 aside). There is no evidence that PR improves turnout.
The electorate made it very clear they were not interested in changing the voting system for the General Election. Why is it some people just cannot accept that!
Doctors are licensed after qualification, but now have to revalidate five yearly to relicense.
This is a system that is deeply unpopular, needlessly bureaucratic, distracts doctors from medical care and causing a wave of early retirements. It also will be ineffective in weeding out bad doctors, so fails on all grounds. I fully understand why teachers will dislike Tristan Hunts proposal.
Teachers, like Doctors and Nurses, have a variety of political views, but are "small c" conservatives in many ways, suspicious of change. To an extent this is a reflection of the quintissential world view of the British: All change is change for the worse. Most want the government off their backs as far as possible. In 2010 (according to Pulse surveys) most British doctors voted Conservative.
These public sector workers are electorally significant, not only because of the number in each constituency, but also because their views influence the votes of friends and family. I form my views on education policy not only drectly from experience from my son, but also from discussions with my neighbour, who is head of department at a large comprehensive.
Getting these people onside is a way to win elections. Gove has failed to do this, just as Lansley failed to do so. Jeremy Hunt, whose style is less confrontation, does not inspire the same hostility from doctors. There is a palpable drift back to the conservatives by many of my colleagues as a result, particularly as the reforms seem to be working and a lot of the bad aspects greatly exagerrated.