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If you’re a lurker, this thread is Especially For You, ignore the Better The Devil You Know, and delurk tonight. I Should Be So Lucky if a few of you choose to delurk tonight.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23173794
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23167525
Ed Miliband, Prime Minister’s Questions, 3 July 2013
I understand Ed M making this point, and I'm sure it is one most people would think a terrible statistic, and one Cameron would no doubt wish to rebut because he sees it as damaging.
That being said, while no-one likes the idea of classes being too large, I have to say that the Infant Class Size limit is an arbitrary and far too rigid restriction which actually causes quite a lot of distress and absurd (yet not legally unreasonable or peverse) decisions about school places, where a little more flexibility, particularly for schools which have shown when admitting over the limit (following appeals/statemented children etc) they are still outstanding, would be far more agreeable.
But politically it would look disastrous to renege on the promise to restrict to 30 at any cost, so it's here to stay, even if the level needed to go over is too restrictive in its desire to protect the limit.
From Local Government Ombudsman:
Most parents who have been refused a place at their preferred school consider this refusal to be perverse. But the word has a stronger meaning in its legal sense. It means ‘beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision maker’, or ‘a decision which is so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied his mind to the question could have arrived at it’. A decision that makes it impossible for you to transport all your family to school on time, or even impossible for you to continue working, is very unlikely to be perverse. The courts have established this.
If the admissions authority had refused a place to a child whose family had had to move house under a witness protection scheme, a panel might decide that the decision was perverse. But it is the panel’s decision. We will not question that decision if the panel followed the correct procedures in reaching it.
http://www.lgo.org.uk/publications/fact-sheets/complaints-about-infant-class-sizes/
Belgium was created to annoy the French.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/egypts-political-turmoil-puts-obama-administration-in-precarious-position/2013/07/02/00e957e0-e361-11e2-a11e-c2ea876a8f30_story.html
Should he have said 'restoration'? I mean, surely he will argue the constitution doesn't need to be restored as it is still in place as the army lacks authority to dismiss it, it's just people are ignoring it.
I tried to get 155 GBP on Yes tonight over at Hills (at 4/1). The b*****s would only allow me 50 GBP. Must still be smarting over their May 2011 losses.
How on earth can someone walk into a shop and place 200,000 GBP on No, but you're only allowed a measly 50 quid on Yes?
I say bring back the United Provinces.
"Yet the Markit/CIPS index of the services sector in June is only back to its March 2011 level, so the coalition government has yet to drag the sector back to the position it inherited from Labour. Worse, figures from the Office for National Statistics show that output in the sector remains below its 2008 peak."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2013/jul/03/service-sector-rise-economy
In better news, its also worth pointing out that today's Service PMI data showed hiring at its strongest level since August 2007.
Honestly, Europe was its finest, when Europe united under British Leadership to beat the French.
When the call was finished he turned to me and told me not to be so ******* stupid again. Great boss.
This story has nothing to do with any current news story.
Of course my support or otherwise has no relevance whatsoever. The Egyptians will decide for themselves, but nevertheless it isn't wrong to think about what your views may or may not be. I'm struggling.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4400527,00.html
If this was all to get people to yearn for the firm hand of the military and police from before the revolution again, then well played Egyptian armed forces.
'"We have allowed schools of fifty pupils to compete with schools of fifty pupils per class in the interests of parantal choice.'
So what's Labour's policy on Free schools?
Scrap them?
Do another u-turn?
Or wait for direction from Mystic Meg?
Pure stand up. Just brilliant. Unless you are Ed in which case you might feel a tad embarrassed.
What we are not seeing is that sweep is going on of Muslim Brotherhood figures. There is a rumour Morsi is one of those lifted, Twitter feed or not. No verification yet on this but it would be remiss of the Brotherhood not to have got key people out of the way.
Jeb Bush 15% (11%)
Chris Christie 11% (9%)
Rand Paul 11% (13%)
Paul Ryan 9% (11%)
Rick Perry 7% (4%)
Marco Rubio 6% (21%)
Rick Santorum 4%
Bobby Jindal 3% (4%)
Someone else/Not sure 8% (10%
Texas General
Chris Christie (R) 47% (43%)
Hillary Clinton (D) 38% (45%)
Ted Cruz (R) 49%
Hillary Clinton (D) 44%
Jeb Bush (R) 46%
Hillary Clinton (D) 43%
Hillary Clinton (D) 48% (50%)
Rick Perry (R) 44% (42%)
Guess who helped get the legislation through parliament, back in 2010 when it was still a minority SNP government, which needed the support of other parties to get bills onto the statute book?
Yep, that's right, the Scottish Lib Dems. A different breed from the English ones.
Nick Compton believes he has not been given a chance by the England selectors after being dropped for their warm-up match against Essex.
I don't think they like whining, even if justified.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/23174449
What could possibly go wrong?
r
I second that Mr Eagles, but the next time the Prussian Army takes a daytrip to Belgium, just let's send SkyNews or BBC Sports.
BBC sports would seriously slow them down. The roads would be clogged solid with expensive vans and equipment and every restaurant would be full.
of course thinking abut it 100 years on the world still is run by about just over half a dozen countries. What could possibly go wrong indeed ?
A continually disgusting state of affairs that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23170959
Military deposes democratically elected leader, the people rise up to, um, celebrate.
Interesting world we live in.
Don't many military coups usually at least start off popular though?
Does anyone have the results of last years Egyptian vote to hand. I suspect Morsi had most of his support in the countryside.
Democracy vs Secularism is a tough one, but like most of the Middle East we should steer clear.
The Middle East and Asia was fine when we were the Colonial Power there.
Everything has gone to pot since we left.
Way back during the protests that eventually turfed out Mubarak I posted on here that I reckoned the West, led by the US, would regret backing the Brotherhood horse. So far, I'm still of that opinion.
No matter, the question is how Morsi's supporters and more particularly, the Brotherhood and its own militias choose to react. At this time the military has segmented the big crowds in Cairo. I'm not sure the Brotherhood much care either way about Morsi himself, useful figurehead as he is. Its the fact their old foes in the military and security apparatus have just walked right in after their attempts to neuter (and to some extent humiliate) them.
or if that doesn't work a constant stream of bodybags being flown back home ?
Entirely with you. It was a hypothetical question.
Link 16 is demonstration of very fine judgment on our part. India or the USA: who would you rather play at cricket?
Exactly. Good call as our Australian friends would say.
I went to an all boys school and was in a class of over 30 boys. At least four (I haven't kept tabs on them all) of my classmates have been to jail.
The size of my class was never a problem, and neither were the crazy, dragged-up mentalists who were in it. The school was forced to cater for all abilities (our classes were called 'mixed-ability', underneath were the 'rems', two full classes of remedial kids. This was the Welsh valleys!) and we knew no different. After all, we were kids, as far as we knew all schools were like that.
One boy - I'll call him JP - was absolutely unreformed nuts. He left when he was about 14, there was no hope for him academically. The funny thing was, I liked him, he was actually a nice boy. Just bonkers. I went to his house after school once, a rough place, no carpets, no father, his Mam and her friends all sat in the kitchen smoking fags, and they made me food and ruffled my hair and were common-as-muck. Decent, poor, slightly backward people.
People like that were my classmates and we all got along. Some bright boys, some thick boys, most boys on free dinners, me lucky not to be. The building was due to be demolished, asbestos roofs and crumbling terrapins. Constant fights between boys, but no gang stuff, just one-on-one boy fights on the yard.
It was a proper, rough, fun, pikey, friends-for-life place, with teachers who really, really, really gave a shit about you. I had a fantastic education, a History teacher who would pounce from wooden desk to wooden desk to enact scenes from the war, a Maths teacher who played golf with my brother and me on Saturday mornings, and English teacher who came round my Nan's house to teach me Cat on a Hot Tin Roof when I'd missed school ill. I came away with A's in my A Levels and a route to a good job and an ability in life to see good in all people, whatever their background.
I have no doubt I could've done better in an academy school, but I also could've done better if I'd bothered to go to Uni rather than be a homer. My point is, the school may have been decrepit, the classmates crazy and the community a bit rough, but I wouldn't change it for the world. And if someone offered me Eton or Repton or an Academy over my school I'd never take it. I'm happy with what I was given.
I wish everybody the best in their educations, and I hope my kids do well. And Michael Gove is right in that our next generation of kids need to be even better, more rigorously educated to compete in the "global race". But I do find pushy parents a bit overbearing; it's surprising how life enhancing and fun being schooled in a crazy dive can be! Let kids enjoy it and don't fret about them too much. I came out alive, and feel alive because of it.
Secret document shows Unite attempt to influence 41 selections http://on.ft.com/16Pe8yb
If legitimate political viewpoints are denied a democratic voice, then the radicals amongst them will move to violence in suport of their objectives, and who can blame them?
The best option now would be a new constitution with more checks and balances of power, followed by fresh elections. Leave it too long and resentment will build and the Muslim Brotherhood will be back with a vengance.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/07/03/97001-20130703FILWWW00690-le-pen-cinq-fois-plus-d-adhesions.php
1) I'm assuming there's some internal Tory polling that shows voters think Ed is weak
2) Backbench MPs (even the awkward squad) have seen this polling, and helped Dave to reinforce this point.
Another post that makes me greatly regret the absence of a like button Fenster. Really interesting.
The key to a really good education is teachers who really care. And the key to that is good leadership. The rest is to give the bureaucrats something to do.
I like your comment Fenster. Sounds like the school I went to, apart from the all boy thing.
Egypt. Blimey.
There is much more to being educated than reading books and passing tests, though these should not be neglected.
I salute your indefatigueability!
"anyone spot tonight's pop references"
were President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood a Soul group ? They sang " You need hands" off their album Courtroom.
contribution of Fenster a few posts below.
1st round: Le Pen 29%, Hollande 18%, Fillon 16%; Le Pen 31%, Hollande 18%, Cope 11%; Le Pen 24%, Sarkozy 29%, Hollande 20%.
2nd Round: Sarkozy 67%, Le Pen 33%
So if Sarkozy does not run, Le Pen would top the poll in the first round. If Sarkozy does manage to navigate through the corruption allegations, Le Pen could still get a 1/3 of the vote against him in the run-off!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_French_presidential_election
NB - I went to the same school as Neil Kinnock, albeit when he went there it was a grammar school. It changed to a comp around 1974, I think?! I was there late 80s, early 90s. It was pulled down around 1999 and replaced with one of those new, dashing, all-in-one buildings. All for the better, the facilities are now fab, but sad that my school is no longer there. Only the memories...
http://centreforlondon.co.uk/event/londoneurope/
Al Jazeera's Egyptian TV station has been 'taken off air' during a live broadcast, according to its website http://itv.co/13giksA
#bbc keeps alluding to fact that islamic fascist tyrant #morsi was democratically elected. yes.... so was #hitler
Just a reminder to those who believe that a man/woman elected democratically must be a democrat him/herself.
But there has been a growing sense of discontent since last November, when Mr Morsi issued a controversial constitutional declaration granting himself extensive powers.
His moves to entrench Islamic laws and concentrate power in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood also alienated liberals and secularists.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23173794
But the real irony of this evening news report had to be the sight of the late Mrs Thatcher getting about the positive media coverage she has ever had in about thirty years in Scotland.
I can't compete with that and don't want to, but I had some fairly unusual schooling too. My dad was a translator with various UN agencies, so I grew up in Austria and Denmark. The Brits mostly sent their kids home, so the English-speaking schools had an American curriculum, and I was in one from its startup, with correspondence classes from the University of Nebraska. In those pre-internet days several weeks would pass between when you wrote an essay or took a test and when you got results, though we had a few teachers to talk us through the material. Collusion was endemic and actively encouraged by the teachers - one friend told me he deliberately fell behind to avoid being sucked in, but I wasn't that upright.
By the time I finished there were 20 or so nationalities in the school, mostly with parents who were in business or the embassies. We rubbed along in a slightly detached way, typical of mobile communities, with the American kids amiably tolerant of my communist views - I never saw bullying or fighting of any kind in our school or the various Danish ones that we shared premises with, though there was some serious William Hague-level boozing after hours. The standard started really low (in retrospect I should have taken the plunge and gone to a Danish school - integration and all that) and gradually improved as correspondence classes were replaced by proper lessons. Eventually I got offers at MIT and Yale and studied briefly at the former, before dropping out as my parents couldn't afford the costs.
Another world from Fenster's school, which sounds a lot better preparation for British life and a warmer place than my rather clinical experience. But when I came back to Britain I was astonished to find people who thought bullying and fighting in schools commonplace and to be expected 'cos kids are like that. It's not universal. I wonder if one can get the warmth without it?
I moved from a fee paying all boys school to a mixed comprehensive when family circumstances changed for the worse at 13 and there were pro's and cons. Would things have been different had I stayed at the other school??, almost certainly.
However, you put up with your new circumstances and my parents gave me the best opportunity they could and I will always appreciate that.
National intervention to clean it up is needed as people know the faceless men control all decision making. Banning property developers is a relevant one he planned to introduce here in Oz. Bit like banning bankers in the Uk, seen the same way by the public.
There are parallels with why having support solely from unions with a diminishing voter base is an issue and a greater appeal needs to be achieved outwith unions.
Not that a speech today will have a big effect.
Lots of PR from Rudd, a poor PM with fraud and psychopathic issues according to his colleagues.
Trying to win an election where self preservation and self serving corruption and deceit has meant the public are turned off with all of Labor, except Rudd on his PR honeymoon. Labor need to make it Rudd v abbott, not Liberals against Labor as they would get smashed if that becomes the agenda and not personality politics.
Rudd sabotaged Labor last election and his promise not to stand again against Gillard was a lie yet again as we all knew it was.
I lived for a while in a former council flat- a nice place in Croftfoot glasgow, 4 flats in a wee block with gardens. It started off respectable (I heard from a schemie pal that it was considered by them to be a "snooty" scheme
Well that is Oz, now what about Egypt which also fits the above commentary?
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/07/03/chinese-video-sites-embrace-british-invasion/
"That puts British shows at the top an increasingly snobbish pop-cultural hierarchy in China — described by local media as the “disdain chain.” (鄙视链 in Chinese) – in which British drama fans look down on fans of American shows, who themselves look down on Korean soap fans, who in turn look down on fans of domestic dramas."