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Two years and counting – politicalbetting.com

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  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    edited December 2023

    Depends how you look at it.

    Firstly, what is an academic?

    If this class includes basic post-docs then the world class might apply as the recruitment net is world-wide (subject to visa etc).

    I worked for years in universities and the PhD/Post-doc/ junior research fellow segment was often non-UK.
    And will now be more UK with more posts for UK researchers.

    British research fellowships for British post docs!

    (By the time any academic of any nationality had world class global recognition they could easily command over £38k)
  • Stupid idea at any cost.

    Tories pandering to lowest common denominator
    £290million?

    That's about £41 per expected Tory voter at GE 2024/5

  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,617
    kle4 said:

    Through Struggle, the Stars, by John Lumpkin. Pretty decent, definitely more of a character and political focused story as a cold war turns hot in space, than more fantastical fare.
    Mm, thanks: Obviously a riff on the RAF motto. Will look up.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879

    Try getting your ceiling plastered in December!

    I don't count the number of PhD students - British or foreign - as an unequivocal index of economic wellbeing.

    Even ChatGPT can't plaster my ceiling.
    British plastering jobs for British plasterers too!
  • Nigelb said:

    I hadn’t quite appreciated the numbers involved in the Ukraine drone war.

    https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/12/07/inside-ukraines-campaign-to-crush-russia-with-combat-drones/?sw345d
    Ukraine buys 60% of the total production volume of Chinese Mavic drones, excluding other UAV purchases, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal stated during the Kyiv International Economic Forum. The minister most likely referred to both state and volunteer-purchased drones, according to the data of the customs service.

    “This year, we have allocated an additional UAH 40 billion to purchase drones. These are drones of Ukrainian and foreign production. Ukraine buys 60% of the entire world production of Mavic,” Shmyhal said…


    The west needs to take a good look at how much China dominates world production. Soon.

    "He will make an excellent drone!"
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 27,492
    edited December 2023
    Nigelb said:

    I hadn’t quite appreciated the numbers involved in the Ukraine drone war.

    https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/12/07/inside-ukraines-campaign-to-crush-russia-with-combat-drones/?sw345d
    Ukraine buys 60% of the total production volume of Chinese Mavic drones, excluding other UAV purchases, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal stated during the Kyiv International Economic Forum. The minister most likely referred to both state and volunteer-purchased drones, according to the data of the customs service.

    “This year, we have allocated an additional UAH 40 billion to purchase drones. These are drones of Ukrainian and foreign production. Ukraine buys 60% of the entire world production of Mavic,” Shmyhal said…


    The west needs to take a good look at how much China dominates world production. Soon.

    sarcasm on

    Don't worry, we can trade for them.

    sarcasm off
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,132
    Carnyx said:

    Also, much of research is now effectively teamwork (some always was, vide Cuvier and his school in Paris in the early C19 for instance). HYUFD is insane if he thinks not allowing the top grade without allowing the lower grades is going to work. Of course, it would be the courteous thing to assume he is sane and deliberately wants to run British universities into the ground just because.

    When I worked in NZ 3 decades ago, the Medical Director of the Hospital had come up with a brilliant wheeze. First year trainee anaesthetists were essentially supernumerary as needing constant supervision, so he decided to only employ 2nd year and higher trainees to save a few bucks.

    Within a couple of years there was an anaesthetic staffing crisis cancelling operating lists.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 20,396

    Do you ever wonder how others would conduct themselves if born in a different time or country? i.e. Netanyahu grew up on the other side of the wall or Putin's now the son of a Home Counties head teacher etc etc.

    Is it only circumstance that means Lee isn't pushing people out of helicopters or helping to disappear protestors?
    i guess this is what the UNHCR advertisers were getting at

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5n0DLYbYqc
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,132
    kinabalu said:

    For me it was a way to leave home and escape my barren northern town for London. That's what it did for me. I suppose that's closest to your 'finishing school for joining the middle class' but it isn't quite.
    Yes, education has always been an escape from the mundane prospect of a job in the hometown. It was a large part of why I went.
  • Foxy said:

    I think there is a fundamental clash of ideas of what university is for.

    Is it the utilitarian idea of preparing people for a life time of work?

    Is it to push the boundaries of knowledge and ideas?

    Is it to innovate and research?

    Is it a social finishing school for those who wish to join the British middle classes?

    Is it a product to sell to overseas students as an income earner for the country?

    We really haven't decided, and these objectives do have quite fundamental clashes.
    A university is all of those things. The tension is in the balance.

    And they are living communities. To a certain extent they are what those who work there want them to be but also to an increasing extent what government or 'the market' tells them to be.

    As an example, there was relatively little interest within universities (old skool not the polys) with working with industry until 1990s and in particular Mandelson ideas about knowledge economy.

  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,487
    HYUFD said:

    And will now be more UK with more posts for UK researchers.

    British research fellowships for British post docs!

    (By the time any academic of any nationality had world class global recognition they could easily command over £38k)
    My son's girlfriend is a new fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. She is an extraordinary chemist and was part of the winning Romanian Olympiad team. She is currently on secondment to the Max Planck Institute. Her salary is less than £30k, although she does get free accommodation.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 44,617
    kle4 said:

    Possibly, though my more charitable impression is that he's just a bit try hard. Perhaps due to being a latecomer to the Tories he often comes across like he has a desperate need to prove his credentials in as loud and stereotypical a way as possible.

    I'm sure he still believes what he says, but he has one eye on his brand, for sure.
    Doesn't his brand now need to be Mr 40p, come to think of it? Inflation, innit, especially food.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,540
    kjh said:

    My son's girlfriend is a new fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. She is an extraordinary chemist and was part of the winning Romanian Olympiad team. She is currently on secondment to the Max Planck Institute. Her salary is less than £30k, although she does get free accommodation.
    I'd guess that Oxford Research Fellows are the seed corn for Oxford University's success / reputation from 2030-2050.

    Short-Term Rishi burning down something else to try and save his butt.

    The French will love him !
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    kjh said:

    My son's girlfriend is a new fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. She is an extraordinary chemist and was part of the winning Romanian Olympiad team. She is currently on secondment to the Max Planck Institute. Her salary is less than £30k, although she does get free accommodation.
    And once she has reached £38k plus equivalent in Munich she can then get a full time job in the UK
  • Just stuck a £5 on Jan 2025 election

  • Just stuck a £5 on Jan 2025 election

    Why?????
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,540
    Roger said:

    i guess this is what the UNHCR advertisers were getting at

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5n0DLYbYqc
    I think he's trying to be a villain in the Christmas Panto.

    I'm honestly not sure whether he believes that stuff, or if he is playing to what he thinks will appeal to the moron wing of the Tories.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 5,559
    Carnyx said:

    Also, much of research is now effectively teamwork (some always was, vide Cuvier and his school in Paris in the early C19 for instance). HYUFD is insane if he thinks not allowing the top grade without allowing the lower grades is going to work. Of course, it would be the courteous thing to assume he is sane and deliberately wants to run British universities into the ground just because.

    I would imagine he only wants public school students to attend Oxford and Cambridge, and only grammar school students to attend other universities.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,132

    I would imagine he only wants public school students to attend Oxford and Cambridge, and only grammar school students to attend other universities.
    The rich man in his castle,
    The poor man at his gate,
    The Lord made them high or lowly
    And ordered their estate.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,022
    Without the points deduction Everton would be in the top half of the table.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 20,396
    edited December 2023

    Stupid idea at any cost.

    Tories pandering to lowest common denominator
    The best analysis of the stupidity of Sunak's Rwanda plan was given by SKS at yesterday's PMQs. It's funny too!
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,540
    HYUFD said:

    Place generally still too posh to vote Labour but now too liberal for the post Brexit Conservatives
    Does anyone have a list of Councils heavily dominated by Lib Dems?

    Example: Richmond.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,487
    kjh said:

    My son's girlfriend is a new fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. She is an extraordinary chemist and was part of the winning Romanian Olympiad team. She is currently on secondment to the Max Planck Institute. Her salary is less than £30k, although she does get free accommodation.
    Her status is not at risk thank goodness. She has a British passport now having been at Cambridge from undergraduate to now which is a period of 10 years, the same as my son. However I made the post to point out hyufd was wrong about young up and coming leading academic salaries. These people will be lost, unless universities increase the starting pay, which I guess may happen to keep them.
  • Why?????
    10/1

    Chaos everywhere for Sunak.

    Yet - he strikes me as a bit of a Major type who will soldier on to the end "just in case something turns up".

    Trump win in November will turn the world wargame board up on its end and we may well all be debating how NATO is coming to an end and the threat of Putin and so on. We may all be focused on stuff we are not now.

    I like wildcard bets.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,132

    Just stuck a £5 on Jan 2025 election

    Isn't February the soonest it could be?
  • Alphabet_SoupAlphabet_Soup Posts: 3,577
    edited December 2023
    kinabalu said:

    For me it was a way to leave home and escape my barren northern town for London. That's what it did for me. I suppose that's closest to your 'finishing school for joining the middle class' but it isn't quite.
    Try as I might I can't forget that I'm just one generation removed from hard graft and grinding poverty. I can never rise above the assumption that wealth must be grown, manufactured or dug out of the ground. Arbitrary advancement has been personally convenient but hasn't done much for the world at large.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,540
    Foxy said:

    Isn't February the soonest it could be?
    "2025".
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,154
    kjh said:

    My son's girlfriend is a new fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. She is an extraordinary chemist and was part of the winning Romanian Olympiad team. She is currently on secondment to the Max Planck Institute. Her salary is less than £30k, although she does get free accommodation.
    Free accommodation is a big plus. A Mon-Fri rent in Oxford would be about £500pcm.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,132
    MattW said:

    "2025".
    Doh!
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 10,087



    10/1

    Chaos everywhere for Sunak.

    Yet - he strikes me as a bit of a Major type who will soldier on to the end "just in case something turns up".

    Trump win in November will turn the world wargame board up on its end and we may well all be debating how NATO is coming to an end and the threat of Putin and so on. We may all be focused on stuff we are not now.

    I like wildcard bets.
    He did look very stressed out in the press conference.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,482
    Foxy said:

    When I worked in NZ 3 decades ago, the Medical Director of the Hospital had come up with a brilliant wheeze. First year trainee anaesthetists were essentially supernumerary as needing constant supervision, so he decided to only employ 2nd year and higher trainees to save a few bucks.

    Within a couple of years there was an anaesthetic staffing crisis cancelling operating lists.
    HYUFD logic.
  • Foxy said:

    Doh!
    What's Homer Simpson's favourite city in the Gulf?

    D'Oha.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,132
    Eabhal said:

    He did look very stressed out in the press conference.
    It's just not happening as his spreadsheet said it would.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,487
    edited December 2023
    HYUFD said:

    And once she has reached £38k plus equivalent in Munich she can then get a full time job in the UK
    Her job is at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Honestly! You need to read the post. New fellows get a lot less than £38k contrary to your post. You will lose all these great scientists. In her case not, as she has a British passport now, but lots of others will be lost. They do great work that benefits the UK. Poof, all gone.

    You do know what secondment means?
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 4,608
    kjh said:

    Her job is at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Honestly! You need to read the post. New fellows get a lot less than £38k contrary to your post. You will lose all these great scientists. In her case not, as she has a British passport now, but lots of others will be lost. They do great work that benefits the UK. Poof, all gone.
    I think, if you think about it hard enough, you will find that you are wrong and HY is right. For he has read The Mail. And The Word Was Good.
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 4,608
    Foxy said:

    It's just not happening as his spreadsheet said it would.
    =SUM(A1:A3) <> SUM(B1:Z3)
    ERROR! ERROR!
  • Go Monboit.

    Tearing into Tory failure.

  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 10,087
    Foxy said:

    It's just not happening as his spreadsheet said it would.
    Sunak's strategy:

    1) Swing to right to secure core vote
    2) Reform vote share increases
    3) ??????
    4) "Stop the boats" to secure parliamentary party
    5) Jenrick and Braverman resign
    6) ??????

    I almost feel sorry for him.
  • Mike Galsworthy

    @mikegalsworthy
    ·
    1h
    George Monbiot absolutely shredding this govt and their sadistic, pure distraction, Rwanda policy.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,540
    edited December 2023
    Foxy said:

    Doh!
    This is why the NHS make such comprehensive use of checklists :wink: .

    Met that again this summer when having blood transfusions.

    Apparently I am the blood group that means I can have transfusions from everyone, but can't give them to anyone.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,487
    viewcode said:

    Free accommodation is a big plus. A Mon-Fri rent in Oxford would be about £500pcm.
    It is an interesting house. A 3 storey converted 600 year old bakery. 2 rooms on each floor so small you couldn't swing a Manx cat. Stairs really steep with a rope bannister.
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 4,608

    A university is all of those things. The tension is in the balance.

    And they are living communities. To a certain extent they are what those who work there want them to be but also to an increasing extent what government or 'the market' tells them to be.

    As an example, there was relatively little interest within universities (old skool not the polys) with working with industry until 1990s and in particular Mandelson ideas about knowledge economy.

    I still think the conversion of poly's to uni's was one of the worst educational mistakes we've (well, "we") made.

    Alongside never really valuing 'the trades' vs. 'the professions'. See also the way 'just' college qualifications are treated versus a 'proper' university one.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,251

    Just stuck a £5 on Jan 2025 election

    Just checking: is this for the next General Election, or would any UK General Election count?
  • rcs1000 said:

    Just checking: is this for the next General Election, or would any UK General Election count?
    Next.

    But LOL
  • VerulamiusVerulamius Posts: 1,555
    MattW said:

    Does anyone have a list of Councils heavily dominated by Lib Dems?

    Example: Richmond.
    St Albans is one.

    https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/0*oAPfXX6NmWvUJd6c.png

    We have a byelection today in Sandridge and Wheathampstead.


    https://medium.com/britainelects/previewing-the-five-council-by-elections-of-7th-december-2023-29b531881a34
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,482
    UK’s top mobile firms face £3.3bn class action lawsuit over ‘loyalty penalties’
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/07/uk-ee-vodafone-three-o2-face-3bn-class-action-lawsuit-over-loyalty-penalties
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    edited December 2023
    kjh said:

    Her job is at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Honestly! You need to read the post. New fellows get a lot less than £38k contrary to your post. You will lose all these great scientists. In her case not, as she has a British passport now, but lots of others will be lost. They do great work that benefits the UK. Poof, all gone.

    You do know what secondment means?
    No we won't, British post docs will take their places. Many British phd students find it very difficult to get academic research posts after completing their studies.

    The whole point of these proposals is exactly what Brown promised over a decade ago ie more 'British jobs for British workers.'

    Where there is a genuine shortage immigrants can still come regardless of salary and the most skilled and high paid immigrants who produce most value added can come too.

    Numbers of immigrants outside that however will be cut, also reducing pressure on housing and on public services
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,540

    A university is all of those things. The tension is in the balance.

    And they are living communities. To a certain extent they are what those who work there want them to be but also to an increasing extent what government or 'the market' tells them to be.

    As an example, there was relatively little interest within universities (old skool not the polys) with working with industry until 1990s and in particular Mandelson ideas about knowledge economy.

    That's not really fair.

    There have been these things called "Sandwich Courses" since at least I think th e 1960s.

    I did a fully integrated one, with sponsorship and 18 months of industrial placements, in the 1980s.
  • ohnotnow said:

    I still think the conversion of poly's to uni's was one of the worst educational mistakes we've (well, "we") made.

    Alongside never really valuing 'the trades' vs. 'the professions'. See also the way 'just' college qualifications are treated versus a 'proper' university one.
    "conversion of poly's to uni's was one of the worst educational mistakes"

    Yes. 100x this.

    I worked in a post-1992 poly just after the change.

    Huge mistake.

    Good stuff with local industry and training and access for non-standard students like back-to-work mum and so on was being lost in the chase to be yet another research-led uni. Ridiculous attempts to make non-research profile people professors and set up teams of post-docs.

  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    Starmer is a 'Pabloite revolutionary' according to Hitchens
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,910
    HYUFD said:

    No we won't, British post docs will take their places. Many British phd students find it very difficult to get academic research posts after completing their studies.

    The whole point of these proposals is exactly what Brown promised over a decade ago ie more 'British jobs for British workers.'

    Where there is a genuine shortage immigrants can still come regardless of salary and the most skilled and high paid immigrants who produce most value added can come too.

    Numbers of immigrants outside that however will be cut, also reducing pressure on housing and on public services
    And increasing the pressure on the poor bloody minimum wage workers in care and education.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,482
    ohnotnow said:

    I still think the conversion of poly's to uni's was one of the worst educational mistakes we've (well, "we") made.

    Alongside never really valuing 'the trades' vs. 'the professions'. See also the way 'just' college qualifications are treated versus a 'proper' university one.
    That’s been the case since WWII, at the very least.
    The tripartite system for secondary education was only ever really bipartite.
  • HYUFD said:

    Nobody can be a 'world class academic' on any definition if they earn less than £38k a year, indeed to be a 'world class academic' most would be able to command 6 figure salaries at any university or college they wished to go to
    But the point about World Class Academics is that many of them could command huge salaries elsewhere, but they choose not to. Because they value other stuff. Not necessarily honourable stuff- they're not saints and the life of a JRF has huge privileges. They just don't show up in their bank accounts at the end of each month.

    (The same is probably true for clergy- are vicars from abroad going to be chucked out as well?)

    It's not all about the money. Conservatives used to understand this sort of thing, however reluctantly. That understanding has been fading for a while. Has it finally been snuffed out?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 76,482
    .

    But the point about World Class Academics is that many of them could command huge salaries elsewhere, but they choose not to. Because they value other stuff. Not necessarily honourable stuff- they're not saints and the life of a JRF has huge privileges. They just don't show up in their bank accounts at the end of each month.

    (The same is probably true for clergy- are vicars from abroad going to be chucked out as well?)

    It's not all about the money. Conservatives used to understand this sort of thing, however reluctantly. That understanding has been fading for a while. Has it finally been snuffed out?
    With any luck they’ll get a long period in opposition to relearn it.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,285
    Let's be honest about the civil war in the Tory Party: it's mostly a class thing.
  • But the point about World Class Academics is that many of them could command huge salaries elsewhere, but they choose not to. Because they value other stuff. Not necessarily honourable stuff- they're not saints and the life of a JRF has huge privileges. They just don't show up in their bank accounts at the end of each month.

    (The same is probably true for clergy- are vicars from abroad going to be chucked out as well?)

    It's not all about the money. Conservatives used to understand this sort of thing, however reluctantly. That understanding has been fading for a while. Has it finally been snuffed out?
    Looks increasingly like it has.

    "But now I only hear
    Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
    Retreating"
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,487
    edited December 2023
    HYUFD said:

    No we won't, British post docs will take their places. Many British phd students find it very difficult to get academic research posts after completing their studies.

    The whole point of these proposals is exactly what Brown promised over a decade ago ie more 'British jobs for British workers.'

    Where there is a genuine shortage immigrants can still come regardless of salary and the most skilled and high paid immigrants who produce most value added can come too.

    Numbers of immigrants outside that however will be cut, also reducing pressure on housing and on public services
    Yes that is true, these posts will go to the 2nd best. The Universities want the very best. That is why she got it and the others didn't. If you lose the best to Universities in other countries and give these posts to the 2nd best then our Universities will no longer be the leading Universities attracting the best talent. However if you want Oxford and Cambridge to become 2nd rate in 10 years time then go ahead.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    edited December 2023

    But the point about World Class Academics is that many of them could command huge salaries elsewhere, but they choose not to. Because they value other stuff. Not necessarily honourable stuff- they're not saints and the life of a JRF has huge privileges. They just don't show up in their bank accounts at the end of each month.

    (The same is probably true for clergy- are vicars from abroad going to be chucked out as well?)

    It's not all about the money. Conservatives used to understand this sort of thing, however reluctantly. That understanding has been fading for a while. Has it finally been snuffed out?
    Immigrant Vicars who don't earn more than £38k ie not Bishop quality or at least Arch Deacon or Dean quality would also not be admitted no.

    The whole point of these measures is that jobs below £38k a year should be done primarily by British workers unless there is a severe shortage of skills in that area amongst the domestic population. That will in turn reduce downward pressure on the average British worker's wages and reduce demand for housing and public services
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,632


    Goodnight PB.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,423
    HYUFD said:

    Starmer is a 'Pabloite revolutionary' according to Hitchens

    And what on earth is that? Who is going to be impressed or scared by that label?
  • HYUFD said:

    Starmer is a 'Pabloite revolutionary' according to Hitchens

    Not sure I get it, looking into Pablo.

    Starmer is an entryist? He's a trot who has joined a Stalin like communist party??

    I am missing something...
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 98,423
    Andy_JS said:

    Let's be honest about the civil war in the Tory Party: it's mostly a class thing.

    What's the evidence for that? It's the first I've heard the theory.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,132
    Andy_JS said:

    Let's be honest about the civil war in the Tory Party: it's mostly a class thing.

    Really?

    Braverman is a Cambridge and Sorbonne educated lawyer, Jenrick a Cambridge educated lawyer. Both went to fee paying schools.

    Or are you saying the working class are on the other side, with Sunak?
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,154
    Cyclefree said:



    Goodnight PB.

    Dog. For scale. I approve.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    kjh said:

    Yes that is true, these posts will go to the 2nd best. The Universities want the very best. That is why she got it and the others didn't. If you lose the best to Universities in other countries and give these posts to the 2nd best then our Universities will no longer be the leading Universities attracting the best talent. However if you want Oxford and Cambridge to become 2nd rate in 10 years time then go ahead.
    They won't be as they will still be able to attract world leading academics from outside the UK who they will pay far more than £38k a year for Professorships and Senior Fellowships.

  • kjh said:

    Yes that is true and that is because the Universities want the very best. That is why she got it and the others didn't. If you lose the best to Universities in other countries and give these posts to the 2nd best then our Universities will no longer be the leading Universities attracting the best talent. However if you want Oxford and Cambridge to become 2nd rate in 10 years time then go ahead.
    To make it explicit for those at the back. One of the things that makes Oxford and Cambridge attractive places to study and do research is the eclectic mix of clever people from around the world. This policy, if it ever happens, is going to make that mix less interesting. And that will put people we want to attract to this country off.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,132

    Not sure I get it, looking into Pablo.

    Starmer is an entryist? He's a trot who has joined a Stalin like communist party??

    I am missing something...
    It sounds like Hitchens is barking up the wrong tree. Or maybe just barking!
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    edited December 2023
    Foxy said:

    Really?

    Braverman is a Cambridge and Sorbonne educated lawyer, Jenrick a Cambridge educated lawyer. Both went to fee paying schools.

    Or are you saying the working class are on the other side, with Sunak?
    Neither went to Eton or Harrow or even Winchester or Charterhouse like Rishi and Hunt.

    There are a few exceptions like Boris or Jacob Rees Mogg and Damian Green but generally the One Nation Tory group went to major private schools and the great public schools or at least Oxbridge and the ERG and Conservative right went to state schools or minor public schools and are more likely to be non Oxbridge
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,285
    There are exceptions: Jacob Rees Mogg is a good example of that.
  • Foxy said:

    It sounds like Hitchens is barking up the wrong tree. Or maybe just barking!
    I always preferred his brother.




  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,154
    rcs1000 said:

    Just checking: is this for the next General Election, or would any UK General Election count?
    Date of first GE in 2025. You can still get 5/1 on 3 or less in 2025 if you rush.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,487
    edited December 2023
    HYUFD said:

    They won't be as they will still be able to attract world leading academics from outside the UK who they will pay far more than £38k a year for Professorships and Senior Fellowships.

    Goodness this is going around in circles. The bread and butter for these places is nurturing the best undergraduates from whom you cream off the best to become PhD students from whom you cream off the best to become fellows. The new fellows and to a lesser extent the PhD students are part of the process. They teach, they tutor, they mark in addition to the research they do.

    Hundreds of the best ones from around the world gone. But hey we can appoint a couple of professors from overseas. Several of which wont want to come if the students, postgraduates and junior fellows are substandard.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,285
    edited December 2023
    What I want to see is Keir Starmer in 10 Downing Street as soon as possible, trying to do something about the various migration crises.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 30,690
    eek said:

    It very much looks like Rishi has lost the vote

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/07/tory-chairman-warns-ousting-rishi-sunak-insanity-rwanda/
    Reading that, it would appear to me that Rwanda's statements on not agreeing to the scheme if it contravenes international law have come from No. 10. If you're Rwanda and you have concerns, why bite the hand that's writing you the cheques? You'd express them privately. Public statements indicate that Sunak has asked them to weigh in to prove to would-be rebel MPs that the Braverman/Jenrick proposals wouldn't work. Which (if true) is just exceedingly stupid.
  • sladeslade Posts: 2,157
    Lib Dem hold in North Norfolk.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,218
    slade said:

    Lib Dem hold in North Norfolk.

    Aha!
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    edited December 2023
    kjh said:

    Goodness this is going around in circles. The bread and butter for these places is nurturing the best undergraduates from whom you cream off the best to become PhD students from whom you cream off the best to become fellows. The new fellows and to a lesser extent the PhD students are part of the process. They teach, they tutor, they mark in addition to the research they do.

    Hundreds of the best ones from around the world gone. But hey we can appoint a couple of professors from overseas. Several of which wont want to come if the students, postgraduates and junior fellows are substandard.
    Well that was a if not the key point of Brexit and why Leave won the referendum and Boris led the Conservatives to victory in 2019.

    British workers didn't want to have to compete with the rest of the world for paid jobs from plumbing to construction to academia to electricians to waiters and cooks to receptionists to lorry drivers to middle managers etc. They don't want any more downward pressure on their wages and they don't want to have to compete for housing either.

    Yes we will still have top foreign Premiership footballers, bankers, Professors, actors etc here but no longer will the average worker in their field have to face as much competition from immigrant labour for jobs
  • MightyAlexMightyAlex Posts: 1,753
    edited December 2023
    kjh said:

    Goodness this is going around in circles. The bread and butter for these places is nurturing the best undergraduates from whom you cream off the best to become PhD students from whom you cream off the best to become fellows. The new fellows and to a lesser extent the PhD students are part of the process. They teach, they tutor, they mark in addition to the research they do.

    Hundreds of the best ones from around the world gone. But hey we can appoint a couple of professors from overseas. Several of which wont want to come if the students, postgraduates and junior fellows are substandard.
    Having spent a little time in that world... Outside of the true genius, pure maths lecturer at 25 etc etc Who is the best and who isn't in academia plays more than not to subjectivity. Are some people's research and potential better than others, for sure. But are some luckier in respect to picking the right advisor/institution/topic at the right time, also yes. I've known clearly brighter, more creative postgrads stumble in the race to become junior academics and others I'd consider less able, bound away. And in academe success tends to beget success.

    So IMO is HYUFD being obtuse, more than likely. But there is a grain of truth in that supporting more of the UK's postgraduates in their early careers might not be as detrimental to research as you are making out.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,285
    Sad to hear about the death of Benjamin Zephaniah. RIP.
  • sladeslade Posts: 2,157
    Lib Dem hold in St. Albans.
  • sladeslade Posts: 2,157
    Lib Dem gain in Hertfordshire. Con hold in Bromley.
  • sladeslade Posts: 2,157
    slade said:

    Lib Dem gain in Hertfordshire. Con hold in Bromley.

    Con had a majority of 1580 in Hertfordshire last time!
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,154
    edited December 2023
    isam said:

    Aha!
    Back of the net!
  • HYUFD said:

    Well that was a if not the key point of Brexit and why Leave won the referendum and Boris led the Conservatives to victory in 2019.

    British workers didn't want to have to compete with the rest of the world for paid jobs from plumbing to construction to academia to electricians to waiters and cooks to receptionists to lorry drivers to middle managers etc. They don't want any more downward pressure on their wages and they don't want to have to compete for housing either.

    Yes we will still have top foreign Premiership footballers, bankers, Professors, actors etc here but no longer will the average worker in their field have to face as much competition from immigrant labour for jobs
    Well they will. But they will be from India rather than Poland.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    edited December 2023

    Well they will. But they will be from India rather than Poland.
    Only if they get a job paying over £38k a year now actually whether from India or Poland.

    Otherwise unless they are in an area like social care they won't be able to get a visa to come and work here
  • swing_voterswing_voter Posts: 1,466
    Foxy said:

    Really?

    Braverman is a Cambridge and Sorbonne educated lawyer, Jenrick a Cambridge educated lawyer. Both went to fee paying schools.

    Or are you saying the working class are on the other side, with Sunak?
    The Tory Party seems destined to fight over anything.... its a light relief from Europe but immigration perhaps the bitterest issue in UK politics at present. I cant fathom why RS took to the podium yesterday, managing to pixx off a good chunk of his backbenchers and I suspect a fair few of his front bench. Surely his advisors (who are they?) could see this is a lose-lose. I cant see how this rather inexperienced thin skinned PM comes out of it.... California must surely be a calling
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,251
    viewcode said:

    Date of first GE in 2025. You can still get 5/1 on 3 or less in 2025 if you rush.
    How many General Elections do you think there will be in 2025?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,285
    "Sam Gosling
    December 3, 2023 at 12:19 pm

    Absolutely compelling viewing – I can’t believe I’ve just watched all four sessions of Jarnail Singh’s “testimony” but it was worth every minute. What Jason Beer so skilfully brings out is the sheer laziness of Mr Singh and his persistent unwillingness to take any responsibility… which in turn appears to reflect Post Office culture generally. Also, “the progress I’ve made isn’t as swift as I’d hoped for one reason or another” (end of session 3) – how does Jason Beer keep such a poker face!"

    https://www.postofficescandal.uk/post/more-singhd-against-than-singh-ing
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 54,734
    Very pessimistic take on Ukraine:

    https://x.com/ehunterchristie/status/1732858719082303699

    “We're on the verge of being check-mated by just one man, namely Vladimir Putin.”
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 51,080
    rcs1000 said:

    How many General Elections do you think there will be in 2025?
    There might still be some Tories left after the first one….
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,353
    Andy_JS said:

    Let's be honest about the civil war in the Tory Party: it's mostly a class thing.

    I would say it's mostly a lack of class thing, actually.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 79,204

    Very pessimistic take on Ukraine:

    https://x.com/ehunterchristie/status/1732858719082303699

    “We're on the verge of being check-mated by just one man, namely Vladimir Putin.”

    Recent updates are more positive for Russia but they still can't eliminate the Krynki bridgehead. Looks like stalemate rather than checkmate to me
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 126,879
    Jonathan said:

    Didn’t British workers generally vote to remain? It was retired people that voted Brexit.
    No Leave won non graduate workers and every age group over 45
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 24,154
    rcs1000 said:

    How many General Elections do you think there will be in 2025?
    There are 52 Thursdays in 2025, so assuming only one election per day, that's 52 elections. An entirely sensible approach as I'm sure you'll agree.
  • EabhalEabhal Posts: 10,087
    viewcode said:

    There are 52 Thursdays in 2025, so assuming only one election per day, that's 52 elections. An entirely sensible approach as I'm sure you'll agree.
    Only a convention. What odds Christmas Day?

  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 22,100
    HYUFD said:

    No Leave won non graduate workers and every age group over 45
    Nice try. Very selective.
This discussion has been closed.