Bolitics The New Condem Government

[Kingfisher]

So, David Cameron's cost of living crisis continues apace as a new wave of pocket busting rail fare hikes are implemented. Your hard earned going into the pockets of the rail barons. Privatisation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25567969

[bickster]

So, David Cameron's cost of living crisis continues apace as a new wave of pocket busting rail fare hikes are implemented. Your hard earned going into the pockets of the rail barons. Privatisation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25567969

50% increase in fares in 10 years, anyone noticed much improvement in service? Thought not.

BBBR!

[chrisp65]

just pay the money to keep commuting to your **** pleb jobs you **** plebs, or we can always find some east europeans who will live closer by sharing 12 to a flat

[Kingfisher]

It's amazing how so many large companies, such as energy, or rail companies have posted obscenely large and even record profits during this 'recession'. Network Rails debts are ours, the profits are theirs. Similarly the banks have been bailed out, with no repercussions. The government selling our Royal Mail to their mates in the city, on the cheap, our NHS being sold in pieces to their mates, whilst they get an 11% pay rise to boot. What kind of a recession is this?

This isn't a recession is it. This is a bloody robbery. We're all having the wealth we've created taken away from us and it's going into ever fewer and fewer pockets. We're having our civil liberties and working rights eroded, our wages squeezed, the disabled and the poor are being demonised and hammered the hardest.

What is the end game here. Where is this all leading?

[villaajax]

I think you're forgetting that we're all in this together!

[StefanAVFC]

 

 

Michael Gove blasts 'Blackadder myths' about the First World War spread by television sit-coms and left-wing academics

 

Left-wing myths about the First World War peddled by Blackadder belittle Britain and clear Germany of blame, Michael Gove says today.

The Education Secretary criticises historians and TV programmes that denigrate patriotism and courage by depicting the war as a ‘misbegotten shambles’.

 

 

Link

 

I...err..what?

[mockingbird_franklin]

 

 

 

Michael Gove blasts 'Blackadder myths' about the First World War spread by television sit-coms and left-wing academics

 

Left-wing myths about the First World War peddled by Blackadder belittle Britain and clear Germany of blame, Michael Gove says today.

The Education Secretary criticises historians and TV programmes that denigrate patriotism and courage by depicting the war as a ‘misbegotten shambles’.

 

 

Link

 

I...err..what?

 

Thank you Mr Gove, When you suspect someone of being a complete dunce, it's always nice of them to open their mouths and let their idiocy loose and confirm your suspicions, and you Mr Gove so often Oblige

[Eames]

I thought he equipped himself very well on R4. Came across and sensible, articulate and intelligent. His ideas for the curriculum didn't sound unreasonable.

 

Makes me sad he **** it up so brilliantly in the article.

 

[Jon]

He is a word removed of the highest order. Utter gland.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Where is this all leading?

 

Nowhere I want to be.

 

The system is ****. It needs to change. It's both as simple and as difficult as that.

Edited January 3, 2014 by CarewsEyebrowDesigner

[mockingbird_franklin]

I thought he equipped himself very well on R4. Came across and sensible, articulate and intelligent. His ideas for the curriculum didn't sound unreasonable.

 

 

I guess any judgement depends how high you set your standards and your benchmarks.

Edited January 3, 2014 by mockingbird_franklin

[chrisp65]

 

I thought he equipped himself very well on R4. Came across and sensible, articulate and intelligent. His ideas for the curriculum didn't sound unreasonable.

 

 

I guess any judgement depends how high you set your standards

 

 

I'm not the world's biggest Gove fan. Under his proposed system I would have utterly failed within the education system and wouldn't have had half the life experiences and chances I've since been lucky enough to enjoy.

 

But interestingly, I've previously listened to him on R4 a couple of months ago. On both occassions he came over as thoughtful and engaged and his ideas sounded reasonable and worth trying. Strangely, later on Newsnight / QT / the next day's Independent etc the actual theory nehind his ideology was ripped to shreds.

 

Could it be a soft style of R4 interview is allowing him more of a 'pitch' than an interrogation?

[Eames]

It wasn't an interview as such. It was a panel discussion type thing with two other academics.

Like I said I thought he came across very well. Was careful not to make a comment on his politics.

[snowychap]

Link

So, one of our senior politicians (someone often touted as a leader in waiting), whilst Secretary of State for Education, sees fit to attack the opinion of a leading academic at one of the foremost universities in this country by claiming that the prof in question's 'arguments are more reflective of the attitude of an undergraduate cynic playing to the gallery in a Cambridge Footlights revue rather than a sober academic contributing to a proper historical debate'?

I think that alone ought to have the minister in question considering his position.

He hasn't simply relied upon the contrasting opinions of those other academics whose work he raises later in his article to support his own opinion and to suggest that he considers Evans's opinion thus to be misguided, biased and incorrect; he seems to me to have issued a personal attack upon the academic himself and by belittling that academic's opinion in the way he has (and from the position he holds in government) has overstepped the mark.

Gove ought to learn that he isn't still on an episode of Newsnight Review having an argument with Paul Morley.

Edited January 3, 2014 by snowychap

[bickster]

Link

So, one of our senior politicians (someone often touted as a leader in waiting), whilst Secretary of State for Education, sees fit to attack the opinion of a leading academic at one of the foremost univesities in the World by claiming that the prof in question's 'arguments are more reflective of the attitude of an undergraduate cynic playing to the gallery in a Cambridge Footlights revue rather than a sober academic contributing to a proper historical debate'?

I think that alone ought to have the minister in question considering his position.

He hasn't simply relied upon the contrasting opinions of those other academics whose work he raises later in his article to support his own opinion and to suggest that he considers Evans's opinion thus to be misguided, biased and incorrect; he seems to me to have issued a personal attack upon the academic himself and by belittling that academic's opinion in the way he has (and from the position he holds in government) has overstepped the mark.

Gove ought to learn that he isn't still on an episode of Newsnight Review having an argument with Paul Morley.

Corrected but yes I completely agree

[snowychap]

Corrected but yes I completely agree

He he. My edit toned it down (by taking out 'if not the world' - ouch and not originally correcting my poor spelling!) so I shan't argue.

Edited January 3, 2014 by snowychap

[Kingfisher]

What any government should do is let teachers get on with teaching, instead of constantly meddling in the system. Gove seems to be one of the worst 'I know better' politicians, by my reckoning. Education should be free, class sizes should be small, and all schools should be required to be open to all religions, genders and social backgrounds - just like work is. That should be the mantra. Simple.

Edited January 4, 2014 by Kingfisher

[chrisp65]

What any government should do is let teachers get on with teaching, instead of constantly meddling in the system. Gove seems to be one of the worst 'I know better' politicians, by my reckoning. Education should be free, class sizes should be small, and all schools should be required to be open to all religions, genders and social backgrounds - just like work is. That should be the mantra. Simple.

 

I agree with that, the basic simplicity of that just cannot be denied. The devil comes in the detail.

 

We have two comprehensives in our town, one is close to the top of the league table, one is very close to the bottom. Same town, same generally average population to draw from same guidelines on religion and on uniform etc.. Both are state funded LGA controlled etc.. There is only one clear difference. The comp that is currently out performing where it should be, is a girls only school. The comp that has consistently for 15 years underperformed under the control of various head teachers, is all boys.

 

The solution currently proposed? One supersized mixed school. Now I may just be a cynical old bugger, but I don't see that achieving anything other than making one supersized broadly average school. Yippe doo to that solution.

 

I don't think the boys' school should simply be left to 'get on with it' condemning all male students to a poor education. I also don't believe the solution is to dilute the girls' school. So now we have to deal with those pesky details.

 

I don't claim to have the answers, but I'm fairly sure there are two things that won't work:

Gove style amateur political interference.

A supersized, all in, one stop, mega comprehensive left free to just get on with it. 

[Kingfisher]

What any government should do is let teachers get on with teaching, instead of constantly meddling in the system. Gove seems to be one of the worst 'I know better' politicians, by my reckoning. Education should be free, class sizes should be small, and all schools should be required to be open to all religions, genders and social backgrounds - just like work is. That should be the mantra. Simple.

I agree with that, the basic simplicity of that just cannot be denied. The devil comes in the detail.

We have two comprehensives in our town, one is close to the top of the league table, one is very close to the bottom. Same town, same generally average population to draw from same guidelines on religion and on uniform etc.. Both are state funded LGA controlled etc.. There is only one clear difference. The comp that is currently out performing where it should be, is a girls only school. The comp that has consistently for 15 years underperformed under the control of various head teachers, is all boys.

The solution currently proposed? One supersized mixed school. Now I may just be a cynical old bugger, but I don't see that achieving anything other than making one supersized broadly average school. Yippe doo to that solution.

I don't think the boys' school should simply be left to 'get on with it' condemning all male students to a poor education. I also don't believe the solution is to dilute the girls' school. So now we have to deal with those pesky details.

I don't claim to have the answers, but I'm fairly sure there are two things that won't work:

Gove style amateur political interference.

A supersized, all in, one stop, mega comprehensive left free to just get on with it.

I'd listen to the opinions and recommendations of various teachers working in the failing school. I'd send other teachers there to inspect it. I'd trust the professionals to sort it, I wouldn't interfere, other than co ordinate and implement their recommendations.

Having the letters MP attached to your name doesn't make you the worlds **** expert at everything. Would you walk into a hospital and start telling the doctors and nurses how to do their job, or go into a school and tell the teachers how to teach? No, of course not, you be a rocket polisher of Gove proportions if you did.

I'd let the professionals get on with their work, and as a government minister I'd listen to them, and assist them in making the system work.

My mantra would be to make sure the service I was in charge of was accessible to as many of the people I serve as possible. That should be the beginning and the end of an MP's job.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

**** the Tories.