Richard_Nabavi said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

Probably fatal. It's not about blatant gamesmanship, just making sure you are not handicapping yourself with a dodgy microphone or echoing that sounds like you are in the bath. (And applies to all remote calls.)

That's a serious point: candidates from less well-off backgrounds, who don't live in a nice detached house where there's a quiet room in which to set up the call, and who don't necessarily have a good broadband connection and decent hardware, may well be severely disadvantaged by virtual interviews - even more so than in the traditional face-to-face ones.

HYUFD said:

Alistair said:

Pulpstar said:

Nigelb said:

HYUFD said:

Nigelb said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

HYUFD said:

As Nate Silver said yesterday be very wary of these Georgia polls, they imply a much lower GOP turnout than at the Presidential election.

Which might happen given the orange hued Love Object is not on the ballot for this.

That will lower Democratic turnout too and the prospect of AOC and the far left driving the agenda will push GOP turnout once Biden is confirmed as EC winner by the EC on Dec 14th

There is no prospect of that, except in the fevered imagination of the Trumpaloopas.

A Republican win would mean at least two years of legislative standstill, if not outright budget sabotage.

It would mean Biden forced to compromise with the GOP, not the Democrats in control of every branch of Federal Government and AOC and Pelosi pushing the agenda leading to Tea Party 2 with bells on and a huge conservative backlash in the 2022 midterms

There is no compromise with the GOP - did you not follow Obama's presidency at all ? And that was when they were relatively moderate compared to the present incarnation.
As has been pointed out to you above, a 50/50 Senate (with a Harris casting vote) would still need the votes of the right of centre Democrats to get any legislation through. The chances of AOC "pushing the agenda" are zero.
A Republican majority led by McConnell would block everything, as they did before.

Yes, it's a nonsense - Manchin won't vote for court expansion for instance.

HYUFD said:

Alistair said:

HYUFD said:

Pulpstar said:

Nigelb said:

HYUFD said:

Nigelb said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

HYUFD said:

As Nate Silver said yesterday be very wary of these Georgia polls, they imply a much lower GOP turnout than at the Presidential election.

Which might happen given the orange hued Love Object is not on the ballot for this.

That will lower Democratic turnout too and the prospect of AOC and the far left driving the agenda will push GOP turnout once Biden is confirmed as EC winner by the EC on Dec 14th

There is no prospect of that, except in the fevered imagination of the Trumpaloopas.

A Republican win would mean at least two years of legislative standstill, if not outright budget sabotage.

It would mean Biden forced to compromise with the GOP, not the Democrats in control of every branch of Federal Government and AOC and Pelosi pushing the agenda leading to Tea Party 2 with bells on and a huge conservative backlash in the 2022 midterms

There is no compromise with the GOP - did you not follow Obama's presidency at all ? And that was when they were relatively moderate compared to the present incarnation.
As has been pointed out to you above, a 50/50 Senate (with a Harris casting vote) would still need the votes of the right of centre Democrats to get any legislation through. The chances of AOC "pushing the agenda" are zero.
A Republican majority led by McConnell would block everything, as they did before.

Yes, it's a nonsense - Manchin won't vote for court expansion for instance.

If the Democrats win all 3 branches of government the GOP will win a landslide in the 2022 midterms that will make 2010 look like a damp squib, Americans voted to get rid of Trump, narrowly, that was it, they did not vote for any shift left at all and certainly not on cultural matters

Impressive predictive skills. How was Trump's margin in Orange County California this time out compared to 2016?

Irrelevant as California is now safe Democratic anyway, Trump did however hold Florida and Ohio, the first losing presidential candidate to do since 1960

I could have sworn someone on here made a firm prediction about Trump going to do much better in OC this time round yet in the end he lost by an even larger margin than last time.

Whoever it was, we best take their predictions with a pinch of salt this time round.

Maybe you could help me track down the prediction.

Clinton won Orange by 51% to 42% in 2016, the latest numbers have Biden on 53% in Orange but Trump on 44.5%.

So I was in fact correct and Trump has done better in Orange County with a higher voteshare there than he did in 2016, so put that in your pompous, patronising pipe and smoke it!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_California

https://edition.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/california

Fysics_Teacher said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

Probably fatal. It's not about blatant gamesmanship, just making sure you are not handicapping yourself with a dodgy microphone or echoing that sounds like you are in the bath. (And applies to all remote calls.)

That's a serious point: candidates from less well-off backgrounds, who don't live in a nice detached house where there's a quiet room in which to set up the call, and who don't necessarily have a good broadband connection and decent hardware, may well be severely disadvantaged by virtual interviews - even more so than in the traditional face-to-face ones.

I think some interviews are being done with the candidates at school: I expect most schools should be able to provide a private office with a decent internet connection. Most.

Roger said:

Carnyx said:

HYUFD said:

Carnyx said:

HYUFD said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Cameron never came across as particularly compassionate to me. The whole "calm down, dear" thing certainly didn't come over as very self-aware either. Obviously I don't know him personally. And of course he suffered personal tragedy in his life, for which I have great sympathy.
There is a lot more to disliking someone's manner and the way they treat those around them than their accent. I honestly couldn't give two shits about how people speak, although as a matter of personal preference obviously the Geordie accent is a lot easier on the ear than the dulcet tones of Rees Mogg. But you can learn a lot about people's character in those moments when they think they aren't doing anything worth watching, such as how they interact with the waiting staff at a meal.

Your generalisations are getting wilder and wilder! So you've now switched to accusing Etonians of not treating waiters properly. No doubt that is true of some. You should ask yourself what evidence you have that, as a group, it is more true of them than of SNP politicians, or Welsh rugby players, or Essex girls, or any other group.

I know you need me to be some spittle-flecked class warrior making wild accusations and displaying the ugly chip on my shoulder. You really need to "calm down, dear" and read what I have actually written. I'm not generalising, just offering some observations based on my experiences observing the posh boy in his natural habitat (Oxbridge, politics, finance) over the years. So for instance, I have observed that John Major interacted with waiting staff like they were his fellow human beings while David Cameron acted like they didn't exist. Whether I can generalise from that experience or not I don't know, but it certainly wasn't out of line with my own experiences working in a restaurant, where the rudeness of the "yahs" was well known (eg actually clicking their fingers at you).
Of course if you'd like to finance my making an in-depth study of the behaviour of different groups in a casual dining setting so I can arrive at a statistically significant sample size that would be lovely. If it's OK with you I'll kick off with the Essex girls.

You do have to grind hard on here if you hazard a word against the public schools.

How many on here went to public schools then? I would guess only a minority, in fact I would guess more here went to Oxbridge and certainly the Russell Group than went to public school

I wouldn't class institutions whose primary barrier to entry is academic ability in quite the same category as those who screen predominantly on parental income. Although of course that distinction can become blurred in practice, especially given that private schools' function is precisely to blur that distinction.

Most public schools have scholarships now and you also need to pass the Common Entrance exam to get in, certainly to the major ones.

Indeed many of the old academically selective grammar schools are now independent schools, including the school attended by the Leader of the Opposition

CE is in itself presumablyt a major social barrier. How many primaries prepare childre for it? I don't know - but maybe one of the teachers on the site can say.

Most public schools have entry at 13, primary schools finish at 11, prep schools are and always have been the main public schools feeder, though of course in Kent and Bucks and Trafford which are fully selective still primary school pupils do go on to grammars in large numbers

In other words, effectively you have to be able to afford private education to get into Headmastder's Conference "Public Schools". That adds to the social and class barrier.,

They didn't come worse than Eton. They wouldn't play rugby against my school Millfield because it wasn't part of the Headmaster's Conference or at least that was what they said. Their refusals were regularly posted on the school notice board. The headmasters implication was that the real reason was Millfield had the best rugby team in the country and they didn't want to be humiliated but I always suspected that the reason given was the correct one which was of course even worse!

dr_spyn said:

Liverpool Mayor arrested.


https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mayor-liverpool-joe-anderson-arrested-19399231

DougSeal said:

kinabalu said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

I know you need me to be some spittle-flecked class warrior making wild accusations and displaying the ugly chip on my shoulder. You really need to "calm down, dear" and read what I have actually written. I'm not generalising, just offering some observations based on my experiences observing the posh boy in his natural habitat (Oxbridge, politics, finance) over the years. So for instance, I have observed that John Major interacted with waiting staff like they were his fellow human beings while David Cameron acted like they didn't exist. Whether I can generalise from that experience or not I don't know, but it certainly wasn't out of line with my own experiences working in a restaurant, where the rudeness of the "yahs" was well known (eg actually clicking their fingers at you).
Of course if you'd like to finance my making an in-depth study of the behaviour of different groups in a casual dining setting so I can arrive at a statistically significant sample size that would be lovely. If it's OK with you I'll kick off with the Essex girls.

You do have to grind hard on here if you hazard a word against the public schools.

How many on here went to public schools then? I would guess only a minority, in fact I would guess more here went to Oxbridge and certainly the Russell Group than went to public school

I don't know. My sense is more Oxbridge on here than public schools. But lots of private schools, I think? Still, again, not sure. But that wasn't what I was driving at. My point is more that any attack on educational privilege is - not just on here but in this country - guaranteed to get the backs up of many many people who themselves have not benefited from it or in fact been anywhere near it. It is thought of as Class War. We are attached to our privilege in England. The status quo is ok by us in this regard. We don't want it smashed up.

I didn't like a lot of my time at Oxford because I went to a grammar school which were, even in the early 90s, rare beasts. We didn't quite fit into the class system anywhere comfortable. People who went to comprehensives, especially Northern comprehensives, effortlessly adopted a working-class hero, f*** the system type attitude, while the public and private school bunch swanned around like they owned the place. We grammar school types were considered a little declasse by both groups.

Roger said:

Carnyx said:

HYUFD said:

Carnyx said:

HYUFD said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Cameron never came across as particularly compassionate to me. The whole "calm down, dear" thing certainly didn't come over as very self-aware either. Obviously I don't know him personally. And of course he suffered personal tragedy in his life, for which I have great sympathy.
There is a lot more to disliking someone's manner and the way they treat those around them than their accent. I honestly couldn't give two shits about how people speak, although as a matter of personal preference obviously the Geordie accent is a lot easier on the ear than the dulcet tones of Rees Mogg. But you can learn a lot about people's character in those moments when they think they aren't doing anything worth watching, such as how they interact with the waiting staff at a meal.

Your generalisations are getting wilder and wilder! So you've now switched to accusing Etonians of not treating waiters properly. No doubt that is true of some. You should ask yourself what evidence you have that, as a group, it is more true of them than of SNP politicians, or Welsh rugby players, or Essex girls, or any other group.

I know you need me to be some spittle-flecked class warrior making wild accusations and displaying the ugly chip on my shoulder. You really need to "calm down, dear" and read what I have actually written. I'm not generalising, just offering some observations based on my experiences observing the posh boy in his natural habitat (Oxbridge, politics, finance) over the years. So for instance, I have observed that John Major interacted with waiting staff like they were his fellow human beings while David Cameron acted like they didn't exist. Whether I can generalise from that experience or not I don't know, but it certainly wasn't out of line with my own experiences working in a restaurant, where the rudeness of the "yahs" was well known (eg actually clicking their fingers at you).
Of course if you'd like to finance my making an in-depth study of the behaviour of different groups in a casual dining setting so I can arrive at a statistically significant sample size that would be lovely. If it's OK with you I'll kick off with the Essex girls.

You do have to grind hard on here if you hazard a word against the public schools.

How many on here went to public schools then? I would guess only a minority, in fact I would guess more here went to Oxbridge and certainly the Russell Group than went to public school

I wouldn't class institutions whose primary barrier to entry is academic ability in quite the same category as those who screen predominantly on parental income. Although of course that distinction can become blurred in practice, especially given that private schools' function is precisely to blur that distinction.

Most public schools have scholarships now and you also need to pass the Common Entrance exam to get in, certainly to the major ones.

Indeed many of the old academically selective grammar schools are now independent schools, including the school attended by the Leader of the Opposition

CE is in itself presumablyt a major social barrier. How many primaries prepare childre for it? I don't know - but maybe one of the teachers on the site can say.

Most public schools have entry at 13, primary schools finish at 11, prep schools are and always have been the main public schools feeder, though of course in Kent and Bucks and Trafford which are fully selective still primary school pupils do go on to grammars in large numbers

In other words, effectively you have to be able to afford private education to get into Headmastder's Conference "Public Schools". That adds to the social and class barrier.,

They didn't come worse than Eton. They wouldn't play rugby against my school Millfield because it wasn't part of the Headmaster's Conference or at least that was what they said. Their refusals were regularly posted on the school notice board. The headmasters implication was that the real reason was Millfield had the best rugby team in the country and they didn't want to be humiliated but I always suspected that the reason given was the correct one which was of course even worse!

Roger said:

Carnyx said:

HYUFD said:

Carnyx said:

HYUFD said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Cameron never came across as particularly compassionate to me. The whole "calm down, dear" thing certainly didn't come over as very self-aware either. Obviously I don't know him personally. And of course he suffered personal tragedy in his life, for which I have great sympathy.
There is a lot more to disliking someone's manner and the way they treat those around them than their accent. I honestly couldn't give two shits about how people speak, although as a matter of personal preference obviously the Geordie accent is a lot easier on the ear than the dulcet tones of Rees Mogg. But you can learn a lot about people's character in those moments when they think they aren't doing anything worth watching, such as how they interact with the waiting staff at a meal.

Your generalisations are getting wilder and wilder! So you've now switched to accusing Etonians of not treating waiters properly. No doubt that is true of some. You should ask yourself what evidence you have that, as a group, it is more true of them than of SNP politicians, or Welsh rugby players, or Essex girls, or any other group.

I know you need me to be some spittle-flecked class warrior making wild accusations and displaying the ugly chip on my shoulder. You really need to "calm down, dear" and read what I have actually written. I'm not generalising, just offering some observations based on my experiences observing the posh boy in his natural habitat (Oxbridge, politics, finance) over the years. So for instance, I have observed that John Major interacted with waiting staff like they were his fellow human beings while David Cameron acted like they didn't exist. Whether I can generalise from that experience or not I don't know, but it certainly wasn't out of line with my own experiences working in a restaurant, where the rudeness of the "yahs" was well known (eg actually clicking their fingers at you).
Of course if you'd like to finance my making an in-depth study of the behaviour of different groups in a casual dining setting so I can arrive at a statistically significant sample size that would be lovely. If it's OK with you I'll kick off with the Essex girls.

You do have to grind hard on here if you hazard a word against the public schools.

How many on here went to public schools then? I would guess only a minority, in fact I would guess more here went to Oxbridge and certainly the Russell Group than went to public school

I wouldn't class institutions whose primary barrier to entry is academic ability in quite the same category as those who screen predominantly on parental income. Although of course that distinction can become blurred in practice, especially given that private schools' function is precisely to blur that distinction.

Most public schools have scholarships now and you also need to pass the Common Entrance exam to get in, certainly to the major ones.

Indeed many of the old academically selective grammar schools are now independent schools, including the school attended by the Leader of the Opposition

CE is in itself presumablyt a major social barrier. How many primaries prepare childre for it? I don't know - but maybe one of the teachers on the site can say.

Most public schools have entry at 13, primary schools finish at 11, prep schools are and always have been the main public schools feeder, though of course in Kent and Bucks and Trafford which are fully selective still primary school pupils do go on to grammars in large numbers

In other words, effectively you have to be able to afford private education to get into Headmastder's Conference "Public Schools". That adds to the social and class barrier.,

They didn't come worse than Eton. They wouldn't play rugby against my school Millfield because it wasn't part of the Headmaster's Conference or at least that was what they said. Their refusals were regularly posted on the school notice board. The headmasters implication was that the real reason was Millfield had the best rugby team in the country and they didn't want to be humiliated but I always suspected that the reason given was the correct one which was of course even worse!

DougSeal said:

Carnyx said:

rkrkrk said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

DavidL said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

DavidL said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

DavidL said:

Apropos nothing else my son has his 3 interviews for PPE at St Annes on Monday. Going to be a slightly nervous weekend.

Fingers crossed for him. Presumably these are virtual interviews? Difficult both for your son and for the dons, I would think.

Yes, all virtual. Which is a great shame. He is in a very strong year at his school and 7 of them have Oxbridge interviews, 5 at Oxford. Normally they would all be going down on the train together and getting a proper feel of the college etc. as well as sharing their anxieties.

I agree it will be tough for the Dons too. Much harder to get a proper feel on someone on a screen in my experience.

Given the limited evidence for the predictive power of interviews, I'd have dropped them completely. Mind you, I never went to Oxford. Good luck to the @DavidL 7.

Many thanks.

To state the bleeding obvious, there might be a case for checking his connection beforehand, making sure dad is not using all the wifi bandwidth next door, camera works, microphone works, there is sufficient contrast between him and the background, no embarrassing books behind him, enough soft furnishings to soften the audio. If you've got more than one laptop, compare them all.

And the same goes for anyone making Zoom calls or similar.

A selection of the interviewer's books in the backdrop probably wouldn't hurt!

Word of warning [edit] - it has to be a genuine interest. Dons spot bullshit like Scatophaga flies do, only they don't like it nearly so much.

And always, always be able to back it up convincingly when they ask, as they might.

I turned up for my interview with a bag from the UNiversity Bookshop and a parasitology book in it - but I was able to speak convincingly about why it was interesting and why I was so pleased to have it ...

When I was in the Sixth Form I put in the narrative section on my UCCA/PCAS form (they had merged the forms in readiness for the merger to become UCAS the following year) that I enjoyed reading Chekhov's plays - simply because I was in a production of Three Sisters when I filled it out. I thought it made me sound intellectual. Only on my way to interview at Liverpool did I realise that Three Sisters was about the only Chekhov play I could name, let alone talk about. Cue panicked search in WH Smiths on Euston for a copy of anything whatsoever by Chekhov I could get my hands on. Amazingly I found a paperback copy of the 4 major plays and spent most of my lunch money on it. On the train I practically memorised the introduction, skim read The Seagull, and when it came up extemorised some complete crap based on that. Amazingly, I got a BCC offer, and would have gone there if I hadn't passed the Oxford entrance.

29 years later I still keep that very same copy near my desk to remind me that bullshitters always, always, get found out.

Carnyx said:

kinabalu said:

rkrkrk said:

kinabalu said:

Philip_Thompson said:

kinabalu said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Coronavirus cases increased in 20 of Wales’s 22 local authority areas on Thursday, with a “rising tide” of infections seen in both urban and rural areas, health minister Vaughan Gething said.

On the back of what, 17 last week?

The different national lockdown regimes to allow petty nationalistic point-scoring have been pathetic.

I am surprised at your calm non-partisan analysis. Has someone hijacked your account?

Mr Urquhart does seem rather enthusiastic as to our dropping like flies here in Wales.

Whereas, I agree Drakeford is an idiot, I don't want to be a statistic used to prove it. For what it's worth I think the responses to Covid across the four home nations have been universally pretty piss-poor, as they have across Europe and North America.

Why are people saying the 2 week firebreak was a bad idea?

Surely without it the situation now would be worse than it is, no?

Because its useless at worst and counterproductive at best as was called out at the time.

A fortnight just isn't that long to drive down numbers. Then combine that with the fact that people party and have "last nights of freedom" before the fortnight and then have "hooray free from Covid lockdown" parties afterwards and you've achieved diddly squat apart from deeply damaging the businesses that had to shut down and throw away all their stock etc.

But oh well, at least there was tape stopping people from buying a new kettle from a supermarket if theirs broke during the fortnight.

Contrast with England - did it for twice as long giving time for case numbers to actually drop, then put stricter tiers in place afterwards.

Ok. Schooling me there, I confess. Quite the role reversal. My pandemic following dial has been slipping for some time now. Still I'd have thought the aggregate net impact on infections of a 14 day Lockdown would be a reduction compared to the counterfactual of No Lockdown. Is Drakeford admitting this is not the case?

Just extrapolating the timeline from before the firebreak; cases in Wales would probably be 3-4x higher than they currently are if there were no firebreak.

Right. So if that is the case, where is all this "the Welsh firebreak was a dreadful error that made things worse" commentary coming from? Could it be anti-Drakeford sentiment in the driving seat? Is Drakeford getting on people's tits for some reason, either because he's Labour or because he's Welsh, or simply because he's Drakeford?

Or anti-devolution sentiment, as a logical possibility at least. I sometimes wonder if Ms Sturgeon can win on PB. Eityher she';s not being severe enough or she's too severe.

TheScreamingEagles said:

Blimey.

The elected Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has been arrested.

The city leader was arrested earlier today by Merseyside Police along with four other men in connection with offences of bribery and witness intimidation as part of an investigation into building and development contracts in Liverpool.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mayor-liverpool-joe-anderson-arrested-19399231#source=breaking-news

MattW said:

Fysics_Teacher said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

DougSeal said:

kinabalu said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

I know you need me to be some spittle-flecked class warrior making wild accusations and displaying the ugly chip on my shoulder. You really need to "calm down, dear" and read what I have actually written. I'm not generalising, just offering some observations based on my experiences observing the posh boy in his natural habitat (Oxbridge, politics, finance) over the years. So for instance, I have observed that John Major interacted with waiting staff like they were his fellow human beings while David Cameron acted like they didn't exist. Whether I can generalise from that experience or not I don't know, but it certainly wasn't out of line with my own experiences working in a restaurant, where the rudeness of the "yahs" was well known (eg actually clicking their fingers at you).
Of course if you'd like to finance my making an in-depth study of the behaviour of different groups in a casual dining setting so I can arrive at a statistically significant sample size that would be lovely. If it's OK with you I'll kick off with the Essex girls.

You do have to grind hard on here if you hazard a word against the public schools.

How many on here went to public schools then? I would guess only a minority, in fact I would guess more here went to Oxbridge and certainly the Russell Group than went to public school

I don't know. My sense is more Oxbridge on here than public schools. But lots of private schools, I think? Still, again, not sure. But that wasn't what I was driving at. My point is more that any attack on educational privilege is - not just on here but in this country - guaranteed to get the backs up of many many people who themselves have not benefited from it or in fact been anywhere near it. It is thought of as Class War. We are attached to our privilege in England. The status quo is ok by us in this regard. We don't want it smashed up.

I didn't like a lot of my time at Oxford because I went to a grammar school which were, even in the early 90s, rare beasts. We didn't quite fit into the class system anywhere comfortable. People who went to comprehensives, especially Northern comprehensives, effortlessly adopted a working-class hero, f*** the system type attitude, while the public and private school bunch swanned around like they owned the place. We grammar school types were considered a little declasse by both groups.

I don't even know what the difference is between "public schools" and private schools, other than that the latter seems a more accurate description. Living in the US for a number of years, where "public school" has a more logical meaning, I find it extra confusing to use the phrase in its English usage.

It is, like so many things, historical. It contrasts with someone whose parents were sufficiently rich to hire tutors to privately educate them at home (like the Queen).

I'm not actually sure whether top Independent Day Schools count as public schools.

Or are public schools the ones where they send the progeny away to board where they don't have to deal with them?

Just asking.