Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
... which rather suggests that she was way ahead of getting As at A Level.
EDIT: which is why Universities are increasingly asking about "life stories" in the American style.
She was top student in her school last year and is part of an international literary group
Well done to your granddaughter. If I were her though I'd be slightly annoyed though that many other students not of the same calibre ended up with the same grades. The grade inflation of the last 2 years does the most damage to the most able pupils, unfortunately.
The comedy of A* and A** grades......
Back when I did A levels, you had to be very very good to get 3 As at A. 5 As at A was what a tiny handful of future Stephen Hawkings got.
The problem is that that only makes the tiny% who get those grades happy. Give out more As, more happiness....
Hence the exam board scandal a few years back - "You don't want to to use Exam Board X, They have hard, nasty, private school type A Levels, we offer student friendly A Levels....."
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Why is a team gold worth less? If it was a football team, a dozen or more gold perhaps, but one of a duo?
And engaging narrative helps sells the accomplishments. Hes young, handsome, gay, seems to be a nice guy, has suffered personal tragedy and it might well have been his last chance to win, whereas Peaty for one is going to compete again. Trying over and over and then succeeding is a good story.
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Charles II was rather interested in science, or what passed for it at the time.
Contemperaneous with a young Isaac Newton; quite a lot going on, scientifically.
Prince Albert was a big patron of science and engineering....
Is this chart genuine doe anyone know please? If it is then in the future there will be no trust in anyone with A Levels from 2020 and 2021. This does a massive disservice to those genuinely deserving of A grades.
Yes, but see my earlier post about the issues in comparing. Certainly you should not use any grade from before 2015 as the exam system was different.
One thing it is worth remembering is that the exam system itself before Covid was not very reliable.
Why in the real world would anyone want to compare 2005 and 2021 cohorts based on A-levels? Who is giving out jobs to people in the mid-30s based on their A-level results?
Most lawyers and doctors went to Russell group universities (which include Oxbridge), as do most MPs and most bishops.
You get to Russell group universities with good A levels
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
Not necessarily. The exams may only be testing a small fraction of her capabilities.
Indeed, many people over the years have argued that closed book exams are a lousy way to judged the capabilities and knowledge of a person.
Further, that such exams cause people to prepare for the exam, not learn to the limits of their abilities.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
Outside of examination the family and others have recognised her extraordinary intellect and she has already authored 7 books
... which rather suggests that she was way ahead of getting As at A Level.
EDIT: which is why Universities are increasingly asking about "life stories" in the American style.
She was top student in her school last year and is part of an international literary group
Well done to your granddaughter. If I were her though I'd be slightly annoyed though that many other students not of the same calibre ended up with the same grades. The grade inflation of the last 2 years does the most damage to the most able pupils, unfortunately.
Thank you and I agree, but to be honest I expect she will now concentrate on her University studies as she has been confirmed on her course that means so such to her ambitions
I say this all having done extremely badly in my exams, failing to get into the University I wanted to go to and doing a pretty bad job of the one I did eventually go to.
I don't believe this makes me any more or less intelligent than the bloke who got 4 A*s and is one of my best friends.
It'd be interesting to hear what your mate who got 4 A*s has to say on the matter.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
I think Peaty and Whitlock are strong candidates on sporting merit, but given the dominance of the Chinese in diving I'd say Daley did a hell of a job too.
But, as others have said, it's a public vote not an objective assessment. Daley is well known and liked by the press and public.
That's why I don't like SPOTY. It's become the tabloids' choice.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
She didn’t sit the modern exams though, Big G. I have no doubt that 3 As reflects her ability, and I’m delighted to hear she’s got on her course. But remember, exams can go wrong even for the ablest students, through no fault of their own.
Many of my GCSE history cohort struggled because the exam board sent us the wrong paper. Prague Spring of 68, which we hadn’t covered, instead of the Secret Speech of 1956, which we had. Didn’t bother me, as I knew enough about the topic to answer the questions anyway, but everyone else’s grades were down about 25%. And also remember @Morris_Dancer and the fun (/sarcasm) he had with A-level philosophy.
The point CHB is making, and here he has some justice on his side, is that maybe there are better ways to measure intelligence than just a few final exams.
Whether that is how things will develop I don’t know.
Anyway, enough procrastinating from me. I need to get this patio done.
See you later.
One followup to that is whether Exam Results should be based on measuring intelligence.
I say this all having done extremely badly in my exams, failing to get into the University I wanted to go to and doing a pretty bad job of the one I did eventually go to.
I don't believe this makes me any more or less intelligent than the bloke who got 4 A*s and is one of my best friends.
It'd be interesting to hear what your mate who got 4 A*s has to say on the matter.
I asked him beforehand - you'll be pleased to hear he completely disagrees with me
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Charles II was rather interested in science, or what passed for it at the time.
Contemperaneous with a young Isaac Newton; quite a lot going on, scientifically.
Robert Hooke, too; Wren, Boyle, as well; and the foundation of the Royal Society.
I am currently watching my daughter preparing for GCSEs - I have discussed with her the way in which, in some things, she is having to prioritise exams skills over actually learning.
When I tutor students for A-level French and Russian we do nothing but past exam questions in the last week before the exam. It's not the way to be the best French or Russian speaker but it's the shortest route to an A*.
I think I did very little but past papers in the last *six months* before my A Levels....
My daughter has a while to go, but all her homework seems to be past paper questions now.
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Prince Charles wrote a book
As did Fergie.
Chaucer and I wrote a story, Bawdy and lewd from the start. But mine, people said, was just filthy, While Chaucer's was Classical Art.
If the story is as it's been reported he has every right to do so - the nursery has been caught bang to rights.
I think what some of Twitter is missing is that to test the admission processes, a number of children (not sure if real or fictional) children were entered who where not the children of prominent SNP politicians.
I’m sure the nursery will argue that they didn’t give a place to Yousaf because he was an arse, rather than because he was Asian.
I remember a guy that bought a hotel in a highland village a few decades ago. He used to loudly inform all and sundry that everybody hated him because he was English. Not true. Everybody hated him because he was an arse. That village was full of other English people that were loved, admired and respected, but that little fact went unobserved by the poor soul.
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Charles II was rather interested in science, or what passed for it at the time.
Contemperaneous with a young Isaac Newton; quite a lot going on, scientifically.
Prince Albert was a big patron of science and engineering....
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
She didn’t sit the modern exams though, Big G. I have no doubt that 3 As reflects her ability, and I’m delighted to hear she’s got on her course. But remember, exams can go wrong even for the ablest students, through no fault of their own.
Many of my GCSE history cohort struggled because the exam board sent us the wrong paper. Prague Spring of 68, which we hadn’t covered, instead of the Secret Speech of 1956, which we had. Didn’t bother me, as I knew enough about the topic to answer the questions anyway, but everyone else’s grades were down about 25%. And also remember @Morris_Dancer and the fun (/sarcasm) he had with A-level philosophy.
The point CHB is making, and here he has some justice on his side, is that maybe there are better ways to measure intelligence than just a few final exams.
Whether that is how things will develop I don’t know.
Anyway, enough procrastinating from me. I need to get this patio done.
See you later.
One followup to that is whether Exam Results should be based on measuring intelligence.
First you have to come up with a way of actually measuring intelligence.
Before that you have to define what you mean by intelligence.....
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Charles II was rather interested in science, or what passed for it at the time.
Contemperaneous with a young Isaac Newton; quite a lot going on, scientifically.
Prince Albert was a big patron of science and engineering....
And George III had a great interest in astronomy and agronomy IIRC. In cutting-edge psychiatry, not so much (poor sod).
There’s an interesting by election in my ward on Newcastle City Council on Thursday. The Cons are doing better here on a local level and its a Lib Dem defence (following the unfortunate death of a councillor).
I’ll be voting LDs I think as Labour don’t need any more councillors on NCC.
There is a not a single Conservative councillor on Newcastle City Council, they could do with 1
Don’t think they deserve it to be honest but my fellow residents may disagree
17.6% of Newcastle voters voted Tory in May but they had no representation, so regardless of whether you hate the Tories or not it would be nice if they got at least 1 councillor to represent their views out of 78
Another convert to Proportional Representation!
You'll be up for a severe telling off by Ms Priti Patel!
He’s in favour of PR when it suits his party.
Yet he voted AV and is open to PR, whatever the reason and with caveats. For a PB famous loyalist that's something.
And it's a rare occasion that someone supports an electoral change which doesnt benefit them, even if that's not the driver behind it.
Eventually you begin to learn the patterns in the way questions are recycled. You never see the same exact question twice. But variations on questions rotate through the years for each examining board. So if you rote learn methods and arguments... On exam day, it's like meeting old friends who have changed, slightly.
Once had a history exam where the question was near identical to an essay question I'd done not long before in class. A quick explanation at the start to explain for X read Y and I was able to essentially regurgitate the previous one from memory and got 96 out of 100 (I don't recall now how one marks an essay out of 100 but whatever). Good times.
In general apart from Law I seemed to do worse when I practised a lot, I don't think i was revising right!
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
I think Peaty and Whitlock are strong candidates on sporting merit, but given the dominance of the Chinese in diving I'd say Daley did a hell of a job too.
But, as others have said, it's a public vote not an objective assessment. Daley is well known and liked by the press and public.
That's why I don't like SPOTY. It's become the tabloids' choice.
Naughty. People buy tabloids and that is why they are popular. They are a reflection of society. It isn't (yet) illegal to buy the Socialist Worker or indeed An Phoblact just that people choose not to.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
I think Peaty and Whitlock are strong candidates on sporting merit, but given the dominance of the Chinese in diving I'd say Daley did a hell of a job too.
But, as others have said, it's a public vote not an objective assessment. Daley is well known and liked by the press and public.
That's why I don't like SPOTY. It's become the tabloids' choice.
It’s certainly no longer really an award given on sporting merit.
It’s still likely to be a two-stage process, and we have no idea who the shortlist judges will be and what they’re looking for.
It’s probably reasonable to assume that they’re looking for ‘diversity’ among the nominees, which gives problems when there isn’t a lot of that among the Olympic medal winners.
Don’t also forget that the Paralympics are still to come, and there will be at least one Paralympian nominee.
Modern exams are a judge of an ability to remember things, not intelligence
With respect that is an insult to my granddaughter who has just achieved 3 x As
She is highly intelligent and has the world at her feet
She didn’t sit the modern exams though, Big G. I have no doubt that 3 As reflects her ability, and I’m delighted to hear she’s got on her course. But remember, exams can go wrong even for the ablest students, through no fault of their own.
Many of my GCSE history cohort struggled because the exam board sent us the wrong paper. Prague Spring of 68, which we hadn’t covered, instead of the Secret Speech of 1956, which we had. Didn’t bother me, as I knew enough about the topic to answer the questions anyway, but everyone else’s grades were down about 25%. And also remember @Morris_Dancer and the fun (/sarcasm) he had with A-level philosophy.
The point CHB is making, and here he has some justice on his side, is that maybe there are better ways to measure intelligence than just a few final exams.
Whether that is how things will develop I don’t know.
Anyway, enough procrastinating from me. I need to get this patio done.
See you later.
One followup to that is whether Exam Results should be based on measuring intelligence.
First you have to come up with a way of actually measuring intelligence.
Before that you have to define what you mean by intelligence.....
Eh, I'll just stick to It meaning did you have the intelligence to be born to a family with good connections and wealth.
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Whitlock on merit in my opinion, but Daley has "been on a journey" and, actually, that's fair enough. Peaty is amazing, but I think he suffers from just having to turn up!
Its worth pointing out that Team GB victory in the synchro was the only non-Chinese gold in the whole diving programme.
But Daley isn't the GOAT in the way Peaty is. Or Cav. Nor has the just incredible successful in the way the Kenny's have.
Phil Taylor was the GOAT and did eventually get a second place in SPoTY. But some people don't think darts should be included. And that's the thing. Not all gold medals are equal.
Personally I think the events that are qualitatively difficult deserve a little bit more respect than those that are about being really good at something most people can do. So whilst Daley isn't the GOAT, I think he is perhaps deserving of more respect than Peaty. But if it were up to me, I'd give it to Whitlock. Defending the pommel horse Olympic title is seriously impressive in my opinion.
Eventually you begin to learn the patterns in the way questions are recycled. You never see the same exact question twice. But variations on questions rotate through the years for each examining board. So if you rote learn methods and arguments... On exam day, it's like meeting old friends who have changed, slightly.
Our students do the same. Its a fine strategy, until it hits something unexpected.
And the mind set it seems to instil is unhelpful for a very practical degree course.
Yes, indeed. I didn't buy into it, the way some contemporaries did. For me it was learning a skill (exam passing) alongside actually learning.
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
In this case, the ignorance is yours not Twitter’s
Kate Clanchy is an esteemed poet and, more importantly, her book - Some Kids - was a big bestseller and a notable literary phenomenon, creating a whole new wave of interest in kids’ poetry
It is also a great book - first given to me by a smart young London teacher who said, in prayerful tones, ‘this is the best book about education I have ever read’
Lor' lumme Gav Williamson is piss-poor! He can't remember his A-Level results (!), says Bradford was exotic (bet he didn't put it first), waffles, repeats himself... Meanwhile Ferrari asks about A*s. Don't think they had them 27 years ago? I reckon he got 2 Es.
Philip Cowley @philipjcowley · Aug 18, 2016 Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.
Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.
Strange you never seem to see the ones from the other side of the coin: "I cruised my A levels. Straight As. Thought I was the dog's dangly bits. But since then I've been a complete fuckup"
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
Yes but it is the effect on Clanchy and the implication for freedom of speech generally which concerns.
Lor' lumme Gav Williamson is piss-poor! He can't remember his A-Level results (!), says Bradford was exotic (bet he didn't put it first), waffles, repeats himself... Meanwhile Ferrari asks about A*s. Don't think they had them 27 years ago?
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
In this case, the ignorance is yours not Twitter’s
Kate Clanchy is an esteemed poet and, more importantly, her book - Some Kids - was a big bestseller and a notable literary phenomenon, creating a whole new wave of interest in kids’ poetry
It is also a great book - first given to me by a smart young London teacher who said, in prayerful tones, ‘this is the best book about education I have ever read’
I see that randomers on Twitter are important when they happen to agree with your point of view.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
I think Peaty and Whitlock are strong candidates on sporting merit, but given the dominance of the Chinese in diving I'd say Daley did a hell of a job too.
But, as others have said, it's a public vote not an objective assessment. Daley is well known and liked by the press and public.
That's why I don't like SPOTY. It's become the tabloids' choice.
Naughty. People buy tabloids and that is why they are popular. They are a reflection of society. It isn't (yet) illegal to buy the Socialist Worker or indeed An Phoblact just that people choose not to.
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
I'd never heard of her so had a look on Twitter to see what people were saying, and the first comment was someone trying to cancel Philip Pullman for defending her. Apparently "these people" feel "a sense of ownership of borders".
If Gavin Williamson had got two Es, I'd be quite respectful of him. Look at all he has achieved despite the bad results he got, that's inspiring to many people.
Many of the most successful people in the world completely dropped out of University/college. I still believe they're intelligent people.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
Whitlock on merit in my opinion, but Daley has "been on a journey" and, actually, that's fair enough. Peaty is amazing, but I think he suffers from just having to turn up!
Its worth pointing out that Team GB victory in the synchro was the only non-Chinese gold in the whole diving programme.
But Daley isn't the GOAT in the way Peaty is. Or Cav. Nor has the just incredible successful in the way the Kenny's have.
Phil Taylor was the GOAT and did eventually get a second place in SPoTY. But some people don't think darts should be included. And that's the thing. Not all gold medals are equal.
Personally I think the events that are qualitatively difficult deserve a little bit more respect than those that are about being really good at something most people can do. So whilst Daley isn't the GOAT, I think he is perhaps deserving of more respect than Peaty. But if it were up to me, I'd give it to Whitlock. Defending the pommel horse Olympic title is seriously impressive in my opinion.
Taylor also suffered from the split in his sport - for a decade or more there were two world champions, and the other one was on the BBC.
Agree on Whitlock, as the best sporting merit of all the Olympians.
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
In this case, the ignorance is yours not Twitter’s
Kate Clanchy is an esteemed poet and, more importantly, her book - Some Kids - was a big bestseller and a notable literary phenomenon, creating a whole new wave of interest in kids’ poetry
It is also a great book - first given to me by a smart young London teacher who said, in prayerful tones, ‘this is the best book about education I have ever read’
Well done Kate. Stay off Twitter would remain my advice.
Lor' lumme Gav Williamson is piss-poor! He can't remember his A-Level results (!), says Bradford was exotic (bet he didn't put it first), waffles, repeats himself... Meanwhile Ferrari asks about A*s. Don't think they had them 27 years ago? I reckon he got 2 Es.
A-levels and degree results are far from the ultimate arbiter of ones intelligence, but in Gav's case I think they will definitely reinforce what we all know to be true.
There’s an interesting by election in my ward on Newcastle City Council on Thursday. The Cons are doing better here on a local level and its a Lib Dem defence (following the unfortunate death of a councillor).
I’ll be voting LDs I think as Labour don’t need any more councillors on NCC.
There is a not a single Conservative councillor on Newcastle City Council, they could do with 1
Don’t think they deserve it to be honest but my fellow residents may disagree
17.6% of Newcastle voters voted Tory in May but they had no representation, so regardless of whether you hate the Tories or not it would be nice if they got at least 1 councillor to represent their views out of 78
Spot on, young HY. And that is why the Conservative Party is campaigning enthusiastically for PR. Or more exactly, it ought to be.
The present system of winner takes all is clearly indefensible.
Perhaps PR could be adopted in local elections where we get the wrong results.
On a national level, as we are now getting the correct and fair result from FPTP. (43% vote gives an 80 seat Conservative majority) no change, I suspect.
If Gavin Williamson had got two Es, I'd be quite respectful of him. Look at all he has achieved despite the bad results he got, that's inspiring to many people.
Many of the most successful people in the world completely dropped out of University/college. I still believe they're intelligent people.
Why is Daley fav for SPOTY? Got a bronze didn't he - others are more worthy surely? If he had got a gold to go with the joint gold thingy then fair enough. But he didn't.
Peaty or Whitlock on merit don't you think?
I think Peaty and Whitlock are strong candidates on sporting merit, but given the dominance of the Chinese in diving I'd say Daley did a hell of a job too.
But, as others have said, it's a public vote not an objective assessment. Daley is well known and liked by the press and public.
That's why I don't like SPOTY. It's become the tabloids' choice.
Naughty. People buy tabloids and that is why they are popular. They are a reflection of society. It isn't (yet) illegal to buy the Socialist Worker or indeed An Phoblact just that people choose not to.
But aren't they tabloids too?
The content of both is tabloid style - "Furriners!/Capitalists! Doing! Bad! Things! To! Our! Kind! Of! People!"
The reality is that EVs are still for many people an expensive novelty. Almost everyone I know drives a cheap petrol car. An EV is going to cost you £300 plus per month in leasing/depreciation costs. A decent second hand petrol car is closer to £100 per month. Old petrol cars can be kept going for 10-20 years. EV's are not going to last as long as the battery will go and will be uneconomic to replace....
Simply not true for some battery chemistries. The iron cathode LFP batteries, which are likely to be used in cheaper models (already used in some of Tesla's Chinese cars), have slightly lower performance, but are much more stable, and should last up to a million km.
By the time EVs are fully cost competitive with ICEs, battery life (as well as costs costs) ought to be much less of a concern.
Absolutely but as of today and over the next few years (how many? 3-5?) ain't no one hanging around for a 2nd hand Tesla at £30k +/-.
I can see a huge amount of inertia in changing to electric and that's aside from the "charging point in every lamp post" fallacy.
Cost and convenience have to change dramatically so Allegra is quite right in what she says. Or would people prefer her to go out and spaff £50k on an electric car and say "come on you lot what's keeping you?"
Thing is, she's supposed to be a spokesperson for the government, not a tribune of the people. It's their, and her business to explain how they propose to get from where we are now to where you want to be.
I didn't see her comments. Did she not do that? She said, reasonably, that she preferred a diesel car today. Did she say for now and evermore? I haven't looked.
Plus can people please lose the "lampost charging" fantasy.
Lamposts are on streets which either have yellow lines or cars parked beside them. They are not dedicated charging stations, which is what is needed. There will need to be such dedicated bays up and down the country. Every or close to every current pay & display space will have to have access to a charger.
At present I reckon around 0.01% of them are such.
This is a huge infrastructure project that I don't see the government addressing now or perhaps for the next decade.
Absolutely! The average person will not buy an EV is they have nowhere to charge it.
This reminds me of the get rid of boilers nonsense and the replace them with an Air/Ground Sourced Heat Pump. This will simply not happen as the vast majority of people do not have a Plant Room in their house to put all the required equipment in, (and ASHP will not warm a normal house very effectively)
Leaving aside whether some of these things are actually practically possible as opposed to just expensive, I do wonder whether some of these emerging Govt policies are being produced by scientists and others on a “money is no object” basis. With Govt ministers not really understanding the technology and implications before apparently adopting as policy.
I think ministers not really understanding the technology and implications is a given. Very few have any science or engineering knowledge whatsoever. Also true for many civil servants with the exception of those working in their field of speciality.
Therese Coffey, the Work and Pensions secretary, has a PhD in Chemistry.
However it is hardly surprising that most politicians have degrees in history, politics and law etc rather than science and that most scientists prefer to go into industry or the city or medicine or actually do scientific research than become politicians.
However ministers can also hire top rate scientific advisers and academics if they need to
Yes, however this is slightly missing my point (and is actually relevant for the whole Covid/SAGE discussion). That there is a danger that policies get formulated by "expert" groups, that don't just only fail to consider the full picture (particularly from a financial aspect), but don't even make reference to it. Perhaps at a push they might deign to include a few paragraphs citing that "the cost of inaction is unquantifiable (but implicitly large)" such that the Government will be expected to pay for any alternative offered to inaction.
Part of the problem with the whole climate change situation is that there are sound arguments for thinking that ultimately solutions will be found and invested in by "the market" since at some point the market will recognise that they have no choice. But by the time that becomes the market consensus and they go hell for leather, it will likely be too late.
So the upfront action has to come from Governments, but where this action is expensive and/or unpopular (and has negative short or even medium term economic consequences) they can't do it either in democratic societies.
This is why Hansen's tax and dividend plan was so clever. It would tax carbon (and other greenhouse gases) so that there was a greater market incentive to invest in low/zero carbon technologies.
It didn't involve government having to decide which technologies to subsidise or invest directly in, avoiding delays and errors.
The 100% dividend meant that it didn't involve an overall increase in the tax take, though the pattern of carbon consumption means that it would be mildly redistributive, which is a benefit since switching technologies is likely to be expensive, so you want to provide some money to help the less wealthy to invest in making the change.
Sadly sunk by those making profit out of the status quo, and the gullible fools who swallowed their nonsense talking points.
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
“The longer the Twitter bio, the more pompous the man”
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
That doesn't add up.
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
The reality is that EVs are still for many people an expensive novelty. Almost everyone I know drives a cheap petrol car. An EV is going to cost you £300 plus per month in leasing/depreciation costs. A decent second hand petrol car is closer to £100 per month. Old petrol cars can be kept going for 10-20 years. EV's are not going to last as long as the battery will go and will be uneconomic to replace....
Simply not true for some battery chemistries. The iron cathode LFP batteries, which are likely to be used in cheaper models (already used in some of Tesla's Chinese cars), have slightly lower performance, but are much more stable, and should last up to a million km.
By the time EVs are fully cost competitive with ICEs, battery life (as well as costs costs) ought to be much less of a concern.
Absolutely but as of today and over the next few years (how many? 3-5?) ain't no one hanging around for a 2nd hand Tesla at £30k +/-.
I can see a huge amount of inertia in changing to electric and that's aside from the "charging point in every lamp post" fallacy.
Cost and convenience have to change dramatically so Allegra is quite right in what she says. Or would people prefer her to go out and spaff £50k on an electric car and say "come on you lot what's keeping you?"
Thing is, she's supposed to be a spokesperson for the government, not a tribune of the people. It's their, and her business to explain how they propose to get from where we are now to where you want to be.
I didn't see her comments. Did she not do that? She said, reasonably, that she preferred a diesel car today. Did she say for now and evermore? I haven't looked.
Plus can people please lose the "lampost charging" fantasy.
Lamposts are on streets which either have yellow lines or cars parked beside them. They are not dedicated charging stations, which is what is needed. There will need to be such dedicated bays up and down the country. Every or close to every current pay & display space will have to have access to a charger.
At present I reckon around 0.01% of them are such.
This is a huge infrastructure project that I don't see the government addressing now or perhaps for the next decade.
Absolutely! The average person will not buy an EV is they have nowhere to charge it.
This reminds me of the get rid of boilers nonsense and the replace them with an Air/Ground Sourced Heat Pump. This will simply not happen as the vast majority of people do not have a Plant Room in their house to put all the required equipment in, (and ASHP will not warm a normal house very effectively)
Leaving aside whether some of these things are actually practically possible as opposed to just expensive, I do wonder whether some of these emerging Govt policies are being produced by scientists and others on a “money is no object” basis. With Govt ministers not really understanding the technology and implications before apparently adopting as policy.
I think ministers not really understanding the technology and implications is a given. Very few have any science or engineering knowledge whatsoever. Also true for many civil servants with the exception of those working in their field of speciality.
Therese Coffey, the Work and Pensions secretary, has a PhD in Chemistry.
However it is hardly surprising that most politicians have degrees in history, politics and law etc rather than science and that most scientists prefer to go into industry or the city or medicine or actually do scientific research than become politicians.
However ministers can also hire top rate scientific advisers and academics if they need to
Yes, however this is slightly missing my point (and is actually relevant for the whole Covid/SAGE discussion). That there is a danger that policies get formulated by "expert" groups, that don't just only fail to consider the full picture (particularly from a financial aspect), but don't even make reference to it. Perhaps at a push they might deign to include a few paragraphs citing that "the cost of inaction is unquantifiable (but implicitly large)" such that the Government will be expected to pay for any alternative offered to inaction.
Part of the problem with the whole climate change situation is that there are sound arguments for thinking that ultimately solutions will be found and invested in by "the market" since at some point the market will recognise that they have no choice. But by the time that becomes the market consensus and they go hell for leather, it will likely be too late.
So the upfront action has to come from Governments, but where this action is expensive and/or unpopular (and has negative short or even medium term economic consequences) they can't do it either in democratic societies.
This is why Hansen's tax and dividend plan was so clever. It would tax carbon (and other greenhouse gases) so that there was a greater market incentive to invest in low/zero carbon technologies.
It didn't involve government having to decide which technologies to subsidise or invest directly in, avoiding delays and errors.
The 100% dividend meant that it didn't involve an overall increase in the tax take, though the pattern of carbon consumption means that it would be mildly redistributive, which is a benefit since switching technologies is likely to be expensive, so you want to provide some money to help the less wealthy to invest in making the change.
Sadly sunk by those making profit out of the status quo, and the gullible fools who swallowed their nonsense talking points.
In the UK, we have managed to stay away from mandating solutions, rather than taxing the carbon, more than most. It is probably why we have been relatively successful, so far.
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
“The longer the Twitter bio, the more pompous the man”
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
In this case, the ignorance is yours not Twitter’s
Kate Clanchy is an esteemed poet and, more importantly, her book - Some Kids - was a big bestseller and a notable literary phenomenon, creating a whole new wave of interest in kids’ poetry
It is also a great book - first given to me by a smart young London teacher who said, in prayerful tones, ‘this is the best book about education I have ever read’
I see that randomers on Twitter are important when they happen to agree with your point of view.
You must have missed the bit where I said ‘Kate Clanchy is on the Left’
There are many ironies here, eg one of the accusations aimed at Clanchy is that she is rude about autistic kids. She really isn’t. She is just admirably honest about how frustrating, demanding and sometimes downright boring it is, trying to teach them
I often feel the same way interacting with about 60% of PB
But, also like Clanchy, it is richly rewarding when I see some of you make progress, despite your handicaps
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
That doesn't add up.
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
Barcas La Liga salary cap has gone from about 600m in 2019 to 400m in 2020 to 200m in 2021, aiui the more debt you have the lower your cap. It is not just about current revenues.
If we reach 12.5k followers by Sunday, we’ll launch our Scottish poll as a monthly tracker: tracking indyref voting intention, approval ratings, and more (comment your own suggestions!).
If you already follow us, RT so we can gauge support!
Lor' lumme Gav Williamson is piss-poor! He can't remember his A-Level results (!), says Bradford was exotic (bet he didn't put it first), waffles, repeats himself... Meanwhile Ferrari asks about A*s. Don't think they had them 27 years ago?
I reckon he got 2 Es.
Because it's miles north of Watford Gap?
He likes real curry.
Or is a Waitrose man who just discovered Morrisons.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
That doesn't add up.
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
Barcas La Liga salary cap has gone from about 600m in 2019 to 400m in 2020 to 200m in 2021, aiui the more debt you have the lower your cap. It is not just about current revenues.
Then that's pretty screwed up, yes. €100m for the world's best player in a squad costing €600m is entirely reasonable, but when the caps dropped by 67% that's going to stuff any budgetting. That's a crazy system.
I don't think its reasonable to call it "greed" though if they were prepared (and supposedly able) to spend €600m in total two years ago then having 1/6th of your wage bill going to 'the star' of the squad is probably not too exceptional.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
That doesn't add up.
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
It's not just Messi and his wages that have been the problem - they have spent an absolute fortune on player transfers in the last few years - but he has been part of it. Wages of €100m per annum are absolutely nuts. And I bet he's been saying "you need to buy better players to help us win" since Xavi and Iniesta left.
There’s an interesting by election in my ward on Newcastle City Council on Thursday. The Cons are doing better here on a local level and its a Lib Dem defence (following the unfortunate death of a councillor).
I’ll be voting LDs I think as Labour don’t need any more councillors on NCC.
There is a not a single Conservative councillor on Newcastle City Council, they could do with 1
Don’t think they deserve it to be honest but my fellow residents may disagree
17.6% of Newcastle voters voted Tory in May but they had no representation, so regardless of whether you hate the Tories or not it would be nice if they got at least 1 councillor to represent their views out of 78
Spot on, young HY. And that is why the Conservative Party is campaigning enthusiastically for PR. Or more exactly, it ought to be.
The present system of winner takes all is clearly indefensible.
Perhaps PR could be adopted in local elections where we get the wrong results.
On a national level, as we are now getting the correct and fair result from FPTP. (43% vote gives an 80 seat Conservative majority) no change, I suspect.
Electing three members by FPTP and giving each voter three votes is almost designed to disfranchise minorities, even quite substantial ones.
Lor' lumme Gav Williamson is piss-poor! He can't remember his A-Level results (!), says Bradford was exotic (bet he didn't put it first), waffles, repeats himself... Meanwhile Ferrari asks about A*s. Don't think they had them 27 years ago?
I reckon he got 2 Es.
Because it's miles north of Watford Gap?
He likes real curry.
Or is a Waitrose man who just discovered Morrisons.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
That doesn't add up.
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
It's not just Messi and his wages that have been the problem - they have spent an absolute fortune on player transfers in the last few years - but he has been part of it. Wages of €100m per annum are absolutely nuts. And I bet he's been saying "you need to buy better players to help us win" since Xavi and Iniesta left.
Time for a salary cap system at the european level ?
Melville hasn't quite reached the Stygian, reputation-destroying depths of Oliver and Lozza but damn close. I preferred his puppies and nice sunsets phase.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
That doesn't add up.
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
Barcas La Liga salary cap has gone from about 600m in 2019 to 400m in 2020 to 200m in 2021, aiui the more debt you have the lower your cap. It is not just about current revenues.
Yes, its a complex formula based on revenues, debt repayment and transfer expenses.
Barca and RM suffered more than most, from the empty stadia of the pandemic, and now need to cut their cloth according to their means.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
That doesn't add up.
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
Barcas La Liga salary cap has gone from about 600m in 2019 to 400m in 2020 to 200m in 2021, aiui the more debt you have the lower your cap. It is not just about current revenues.
Then that's pretty screwed up, yes. €100m for the world's best player in a squad costing €600m is entirely reasonable, but when the caps dropped by 67% that's going to stuff any budgetting. That's a crazy system.
I don't think its reasonable to call it "greed" though if they were prepared (and supposedly able) to spend €600m in total two years ago then having 1/6th of your wage bill going to 'the star' of the squad is probably not too exceptional.
Their salary cap system probably didnt anticipate coping with a pandemic and no crowds. Barca won't have enough friends to have got them to waive the rules for this year.
Philip Cowley @philipjcowley · Aug 18, 2016 Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.
Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.
Strange you never seem to see the ones from the other side of the coin: "I cruised my A levels. Straight As. Thought I was the dog's dangly bits. But since then I've been a complete fuckup"
Actually, I have come across a few, mainly those who went to Oxford (Cambridge less so but maybe that's because I didn't go there). It was almost as though they felt they didn't have to work hard afterwards or anything else and, before they could turn it around, it was too late.
If he loved Barcelona so much, why not play for them for free?...
[T]he notion the world’s most gifted footballer should simply offer his services pro bono betrays a telling lack of perspective.
Whilst the situation may have been beyond recovery at this point, the real issue is that Messi has drained Barca over the last few years. It reminds me a little bit of Ayrton Senna and McLaren. Senna thought that to be considered the best he had to be paid the most by a long way. And whilst McLaren were spending silly money on Senna's salary, Williams were spending money on Adrian Newey.
The good news for Messi is that his greed probably won't lead indirectly to his death.
Has Messi drained Barca?
It's not Messi's responsibility to manage Barca's finances. Plus they should have improved over his time there. One thing worth noting is that you see quite frequently people walking around in Barcelona replica shirts nowadays which was almost unheard of a decade ago. At least as far as I'd noticed in the UK.
His wages undeniably have. If that's his fault or the clubs is a different matter. They said what % of the overall wage bill of the entire first team squad his salary was on the Athletic, I want to say it has been ~50%. Its been 500 million for the past 5 years, I think 850m over 10. The extra shirt sales isn't making up for that and Barcelona are now 1.3bn in the hole.
That doesn't add up.
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
They have also spent insane amounts on transfers that have turned out to be total duds. It isn't in dispute they are in that much debt or that is what Messi earned (his contract leaked, it was 100 million a season for the past 5 years).
And now the Spanish FA have said enough is enough. They have a system in Spain where the FA say how much a club can spend on wages, based on a number of factors including revenue, and they have said the previous level of wages is unsustainable and capped it right down, thus his previous contract being rolled over would be taking up that much of the total wage allowance.
Remember they can't even reigster their new signings at the moment, as they are still over the wage cap. That's what a total disaster they are in.
Wikipedia says he got three, English, Economics and History, but doesn't mention the grades. TBH, I don't think any of the Royal Family are very academic, are they?
Charles II was rather interested in science, or what passed for it at the time.
Contemperaneous with a young Isaac Newton; quite a lot going on, scientifically.
Robert Hooke, too; Wren, Boyle, as well; and the foundation of the Royal Society.
Robert Hooke is one of my heroes. He was a much better man than nasty Newton.
Henry Cavendish is another person who, like Hooke, is little known nowadays, and had less an effect on the world than he should (although in his case, it's largely his own fault.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cavendish
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
And I'm guessing that 1.4% of PBers knew there was a twitter spat or indeed who Kate Clanchy is.
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
In this case, the ignorance is yours not Twitter’s
Kate Clanchy is an esteemed poet and, more importantly, her book - Some Kids - was a big bestseller and a notable literary phenomenon, creating a whole new wave of interest in kids’ poetry
It is also a great book - first given to me by a smart young London teacher who said, in prayerful tones, ‘this is the best book about education I have ever read’
I see that randomers on Twitter are important when they happen to agree with your point of view.
You must have missed the bit where I said ‘Kate Clanchy is on the Left’
There are many ironies here, eg one of the accusations aimed at Clanchy is that she is rude about autistic kids. She really isn’t. She is just admirably honest about how frustrating, demanding and sometimes downright boring it is, trying to teach them
I often feel the same way interacting with about 60% of PB
But, also like Clanchy, it is richly rewarding when I see some of you make progress, despite your handicaps
You often feel you are frustrating, demanding and sometimes downright boring when interacting with PB? Not going to argue with you there! We do love you though
Philip Cowley @philipjcowley · Aug 18, 2016 Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.
Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.
Got a place where?
Edinburgh it would appear from Wiki. Straight outta Harrow.
How does one “hustle” a place at the University of Edinburgh?
Connections between the staff at Harrow and the faculty, would be my first guess.
In other words: corruption.
Glad we got that clarified.
I have no idea about this case but I have a friend from my state school who screwed up his interviews for doing biology at various high profile universities. It made him decide he hated biology anyway, and he started calling round various admission phone lines to do philosophy instead. Ended up getting an offer from Nottingham over the phone. He was later told by the Head of Department they liked his drive.
Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?
Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.
Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
Even if "herd immunity" can't be reached, vaccinating as many people as possible creates a lower level of endemic disease within a population.
Yes - but "herd immunity" implies that once it's "reached" the disease no longer spreads - that's not going to happen with COVID - we're all going to catch it sooner or later, but fortunately very few of the vaccinated will end up in hospital, and few of them will end up dying. But it's not going away anytime soon.
Edit - thread:
To provide some wider context to the recent declarations by Andrew Pollard, JCVI chair, I'm retweeting a thread I wrote a few weeks ago.
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
The crucifixion started when she claimed the criticism was based on fabrications and lies and then got angry when people posted the contents of her book validating the criticism.
The initial criticism of her was both incredibly mild and within the context of supportive, positive comments.
It’s a shame Alistair Meeks left us. He’s having an interesting debate about Clanchy with @cyclefree on Twitter
Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points
So that's tim and Alistair you've got as notches on your flint dildo scabbard? Good work.
Alistair left because of ME?! He's far too smart to be scared off by badinage and bantz. I think he wisely realised that he was losing his cool, too often (which he was) on a site that is at least half Leaver. So he Meexited
Do electric car enthusiasts have any concerns regarding the cost of manufacture and the potential difficulty of disposing of batteries once they're done?
Not a driver, but I am wondering if this is going to be akin to the biofuel situation where something that seems very good environmentally turns out not to be so when the full lifetime (and aftermath) of the car is accounted.
Listened to a professor on that very topic on radio yesterday and he said that in fact a small diesel would be more environmentally friendly over lifespan than EV. Given the battery production / scrapping 8 year life span , electricity usage , they are far from environmentally friendly.
I'm also yet to be convinced of this aspect, too. Making those batteries isn't exactly environmentally friendly, and what are we going to do with the billions of old batteries?
Philip Cowley @philipjcowley · Aug 18, 2016 Middle aged people who did A levels decades ago: today is not about you.
Always worth a reprise of this from Lord Bethell of Burnerphone though.
Strange you never seem to see the ones from the other side of the coin: "I cruised my A levels. Straight As. Thought I was the dog's dangly bits. But since then I've been a complete fuckup"
Actually, I have come across a few, mainly those who went to Oxford (Cambridge less so but maybe that's because I didn't go there). It was almost as though they felt they didn't have to work hard afterwards or anything else and, before they could turn it around, it was too late.
I meant you never see people advertising that fact (by, e.g. posting it on Twitter). These people do exist, for sure. I've come across some myself. And myself, I cruised A levels, straight As - got a bit of a shock in early lectures at university (particularly those that assumed further maths, which I had not done) but had enough self-awareness/self doubt to quickly realise I wasn't as special as I thought I was and I did actually need to work hard if I wanted to do well.
Haven't seen this story on the Guardian website. Maybe because their mother talks about "discipline" being important at school, and the pic has a picture of the school flying the Union Jack....
Talking of teachers, the Twitter crucifixion of Kate Clanchy is as abominable as it is predictable. Yes her reaction has been a little brittle and precious, but she must be frightened. A hideous experience
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
The crucifixion started when she claimed the criticism was based on fabrications and lies and then got angry when people posted the contents of her book validating the criticism.
The initial criticism of her was both incredibly mild and within the context of supportive, positive comments.
Her reaction was utterly off the hook.
Yes, her initial reaction was foolish. As I said - "brittle, precious".
But if you go back further there have been people trying to vigorously cancel her for years, because of that "racist, disableist" book, so you can see why she is paranoid
Anyway Picador is now rewriting it, she has been shamed for life, and a very fine book will now be metaphorically burned. Another victory for the Wokestapo
Haven't seen this story on the Guardian website. Maybe because their mother talks about "discipline" being important at school, and the pic has a picture of the school flying the Union Jack....
Comments
Back when I did A levels, you had to be very very good to get 3 As at A. 5 As at A was what a tiny handful of future Stephen Hawkings got.
The problem is that that only makes the tiny% who get those grades happy. Give out more As, more happiness....
Hence the exam board scandal a few years back - "You don't want to to use Exam Board X, They have hard, nasty, private school type A Levels, we offer student friendly A Levels....."
And engaging narrative helps sells the accomplishments. Hes young, handsome, gay, seems to be a nice guy, has suffered personal tragedy and it might well have been his last chance to win, whereas Peaty for one is going to compete again. Trying over and over and then succeeding is a good story.
You get to Russell group universities with good A levels
https://www.chambersstudent.co.uk/where-to-start/newsletter/law-firms-preferred-universities
https://russellgroup.ac.uk/about/
https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases/39680-newly-elected-mps-now-more-likely-to-have-been-educated-at-state-schools
https://www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2016/04/church-of-england-bishops-are-more-elitist-than-david-camerons-cabinet
My daughter has a while to go, but all her homework seems to be past paper questions now.
Bawdy and lewd from the start.
But mine, people said, was just filthy,
While Chaucer's was Classical Art.
When I read her marvellously humane book - Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me - I thought, Jesus this is so brutally honest and level-headed she will get Cancelled. And here we are
This iconoclastic culture war has gone beyond any sense of ‘social justice’. It is now pure nihilism. Destroy everything. The irony is that Clanchy is definitely on the Left.
Straight outta Harrow.
Before that you have to define what you mean by intelligence.....
And it's a rare occasion that someone supports an electoral change which doesnt benefit them, even if that's not the driver behind it.
In general apart from Law I seemed to do worse when I practised a lot, I don't think i was revising right!
It’s still likely to be a two-stage process, and we have no idea who the shortlist judges will be and what they’re looking for.
It’s probably reasonable to assume that they’re looking for ‘diversity’ among the nominees, which gives problems when there isn’t a lot of that among the Olympic medal winners.
Don’t also forget that the Paralympics are still to come, and there will be at least one Paralympian nominee.
J Kenny 9/4
Daley 5/2
Peaty 13/1
Hamilton 16/1
L Kenny 16/1
Cavendish 20/1
Whitlock 22/1
Brownlee 40/1
And also that 0.0014% of real people do either.
So who cares.
A good maxim to apply to twitter under all circumstances.
'Ok, put him in the probably not pile.'
'Heir to Baron Glentoran who's a bloody good chap.'
*shuffles papers*
Personally I think the events that are qualitatively difficult deserve a little bit more respect than those that are about being really good at something most people can do. So whilst Daley isn't the GOAT, I think he is perhaps deserving of more respect than Peaty. But if it were up to me, I'd give it to Whitlock. Defending the pommel horse Olympic title is seriously impressive in my opinion.
Apple seeing developments in 'iCar' talks with Korean partners
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/08/693_313622.html
BioNTech: Third vaccine dose will be needed, but no need to adapt for Delta variant https://t.co/n3qXgKlrDx
Kate Clanchy is an esteemed poet and, more importantly, her book - Some Kids - was a big bestseller and a notable literary phenomenon, creating a whole new wave of interest in kids’ poetry
It is also a great book - first given to me by a smart young London teacher who said, in prayerful tones, ‘this is the best book about education I have ever read’
Giles MacDonogh
@GilesMacDonogh
Lor' lumme Gav Williamson is piss-poor! He can't remember his A-Level results (!), says Bradford was exotic (bet he didn't put it first), waffles, repeats himself... Meanwhile Ferrari asks about A*s. Don't think they had them 27 years ago?
I reckon he got 2 Es.
"I cruised my A levels. Straight As. Thought I was the dog's dangly bits. But since then I've been a complete fuckup"
Many of the most successful people in the world completely dropped out of University/college. I still believe they're intelligent people.
Agree on Whitlock, as the best sporting merit of all the Olympians.
On a national level, as we are now getting the correct and fair result from FPTP. (43% vote gives an 80 seat Conservative majority) no change, I suspect.
It didn't involve government having to decide which technologies to subsidise or invest directly in, avoiding delays and errors.
The 100% dividend meant that it didn't involve an overall increase in the tax take, though the pattern of carbon consumption means that it would be mildly redistributive, which is a benefit since switching technologies is likely to be expensive, so you want to provide some money to help the less wealthy to invest in making the change.
Sadly sunk by those making profit out of the status quo, and the gullible fools who swallowed their nonsense talking points.
'Bradford, what college is that?'
https://twitter.com/JoshBerryComedy/status/1425021602341826562?s=20
“The longer the Twitter bio, the more pompous the man”
In 2019 Manchester United had a player wage bill of £296m (about €350m).
Barcelona have higher revenues than Manchester United, so you'd think their wage bill could reasonably be higher, closer to €400m and still turn a profit.
If his wage bill was about €100m per annum and ~50% of the wages then that's only €200m total, that would mean they're spending about the same on wages as Everton not any of Europe's biggest clubs.
https://twitter.com/breeallegretti/status/1425048046442848267
Another one in the JCVI.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/10/sainsburys-failed-to-warn-cat-owners-of-toxic-food-recall-due-to-email-issues
There are many ironies here, eg one of the accusations aimed at Clanchy is that she is rude about autistic kids. She really isn’t. She is just admirably honest about how frustrating, demanding and sometimes downright boring it is, trying to teach them
I often feel the same way interacting with about 60% of PB
But, also like Clanchy, it is richly rewarding when I see some of you make progress, despite your handicaps
Interested in #indyref polling?
If we reach 12.5k followers by Sunday, we’ll launch our Scottish poll as a monthly tracker: tracking indyref voting intention, approval ratings, and more (comment your own suggestions!).
If you already follow us, RT so we can gauge support!
https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1425029532197834759?s=20
Currently on 10.8k....
Or is a Waitrose man who just discovered Morrisons.
I don't think its reasonable to call it "greed" though if they were prepared (and supposedly able) to spend €600m in total two years ago then having 1/6th of your wage bill going to 'the star' of the squad is probably not too exceptional.
He could possibly have chosen his words more carefully but he's absolutely correct.
https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1425052536118075393?s=20
Glad we got that clarified.
Brexit sent him partly bonkers, but his departure from PB lowered the average IQ here by several points
You are a bit pushy,
He is corrupt.
Barca and RM suffered more than most, from the empty stadia of the pandemic, and now need to cut their cloth according to their means.
And now the Spanish FA have said enough is enough. They have a system in Spain where the FA say how much a club can spend on wages, based on a number of factors including revenue, and they have said the previous level of wages is unsustainable and capped it right down, thus his previous contract being rolled over would be taking up that much of the total wage allowance.
Remember they can't even reigster their new signings at the moment, as they are still over the wage cap. That's what a total disaster they are in.
Henry Cavendish is another person who, like Hooke, is little known nowadays, and had less an effect on the world than he should (although in his case, it's largely his own fault.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cavendish
Edit - thread:
To provide some wider context to the recent declarations by Andrew Pollard, JCVI chair, I'm retweeting a thread I wrote a few weeks ago.
https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1425055618570850304?s=20
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40756/new-details-emerge-on-the-highly-modified-drone-that-outran-police-helicopters-over-tucson
The initial criticism of her was both incredibly mild and within the context of supportive, positive comments.
Her reaction was utterly off the hook.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58156170
But if you go back further there have been people trying to vigorously cancel her for years, because of that "racist, disableist" book, so you can see why she is paranoid
Anyway Picador is now rewriting it, she has been shamed for life, and a very fine book will now be metaphorically burned. Another victory for the Wokestapo