UK General Discussion: Rishecession

[Torrain]

https://twitter.com/alicia_fitzg/status/1610652667092807687?s=20&t=NvmFeZi1P...
 

Oh man, he’s created a non-fungible EdStone.

[Blair]

I still lol at ‘an NHS with time to care’- so vacuous but equally shows how far we’ve gone!

I was a bit surprised Mark Darcys speech this morning didn’t have more on the NHS- I feel Labour should really just been leaning into it all winter.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

When I was working at a further skills college, my main job was effectively glorified English and Maths tutor: students needed to basically be dragged past the finishing line because they needed to get a few more grades while the college tried every means to assist them in the exam. I assume this would be the  result of Sunak's ideas.

Ultimately the issue is a lack of literacy: sometimes i think it would be best if most "subject" teachers in KS3 (11-14) started learning phonics. This is basically the thing that depresses me most about the profession: you really get a startling look at endemic illiteracy.

I think if you really want to target lack of maths skills, you need to look at the adult population: plenty of NEETS or "low skilled" workers out there that probably could have better maths results (whether GCSE or Advanced), but for whatever reason it's not really pushed even though you'd think that population would be more easily mobilised and would certainly be more motivated (and probably more financially viable as well).

[EastAnglianLefty]

I think if you really want to target lack of maths skills, you need to look at the adult population: plenty of NEETS or "low skilled" workers out there that probably could have better maths results (whether GCSE or Advanced), but for whatever reason it's not really pushed even though you'd think that population would be more easily mobilised and would certainly be more motivated (and probably more financially viable as well).

There is a broader political (and especially elite media) hostility towards adult education - look at all the criticisms of so many apprenticeships being taken by people aged over 25, when all that shows is the fairly obvious point that there are many people over that age who want to retrain into a different profession or to improve their skills.

[CumbrianLefty]

I was a bit surprised Mark Darcys speech this morning didn’t have more on the NHS- I feel Labour should really just been leaning into it all winter.

They have of course been criticised for over-reliance on the NHS as a campaign prop in the past, but maybe more relevant at the moment is - why waste a big chunk of your speech on the obvious?

Even low information voters don't need Starmer to tell them that it is in crisis right now.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I think if you really want to target lack of maths skills, you need to look at the adult population: plenty of NEETS or "low skilled" workers out there that probably could have better maths results (whether GCSE or Advanced), but for whatever reason it's not really pushed even though you'd think that population would be more easily mobilised and would certainly be more motivated (and probably more financially viable as well).

There is a broader political (and especially elite media) hostility towards adult education - look at all the criticisms of so many apprenticeships being taken by people aged over 25, when all that shows is the fairly obvious point that there are many people over that age who want to retrain into a different profession or to improve their skills.

It's genuine madness. I used to think it was simply a bit of blindness because the people in charge - whether through genuine brains or hard work or family or luck - have disproportionately had relatively straightforward paths from education to employment, but at this point it strikes as outright contempt. Do these people not realise that many people have a sort of vague regret they spent so much time in school pissing around, but are given no tools to do anything about it?

[Meclazine for Israel]

Prince Harry admits to killing 25 people.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/5/prince-harry-reveals-he-killed-25-in-afghanistan-british-media

[Blair]

Very weird to see people reporting about the ‘Trussites’ plotting and trying to influence policy. In what other world would anyone remotely listen to what these people have to say?

It was the biggest calamity in over a century of British politics and these people should be ignored. It’s really as simple as that.

[CumbrianLefty]

They still probably have more newspaper support than a centre-left Labour party, though. If there was ever a comment on how ludicrously slanted our printed media is, that is surely it.

[YL]

They still probably have more newspaper support than a centre-left Labour party, though. If there was ever a comment on how ludicrously slanted our printed media is, that is surely it.

... when they're not indulging their bizarre obsession with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.  Isn't there anything else going on at the moment which might be quite important?  Or do they not want to talk about those things for some reason?

[CumbrianLefty]

Prince Harry admits to killing 25 people.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/5/prince-harry-reveals-he-killed-25-in-afghanistan-british-media

I actually disagree with those who say he was wrong to mention this.

More honesty about what war actually involves is almost always a good thing.

[NewYorkExpress]

England joins Scotland and Wales in banning single-use cutlery and plates.

Single-use items like plastic cutlery, plates and trays will be banned in England, the government has confirmed.

It is not clear when the ban will come into effect, but it follows similar moves already made by Scotland and Wales.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said the move would help protect the environment for future generations.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Why are people complaining about studying math until they are 18? I thought that was standard practice?

[YL]

Why are people complaining about studying math until they are 18? I thought that was standard practice?

It isn't in the UK, where the A level system means students specialise quite early on; see Alcibiades' post on the previous page of this thread.

[CumbrianLefty]

I note the thread title change

[Torrain]

Grant Shapps is still up to some Michael Green level escapades:
https://mobile.twitter.com/ionewells/status/1612777957113892864

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Prime Minister Vanishes. LOL. We're going to miss Grant Shapps when he's gone. Sure, he's a dreadful, lousy minister as a rule, but the man is an inherently funny content machine!

[CumbrianLefty]

He is a rather strange man, if anything made more so by his occasional flashes of lucidity.

[Torrain]

Bit of knife-twisting from Christian Wakeford on the MP funding scandal.
https://twitter.com/TomLarkinSky/status/1612831202800435202
Been a while since a defector used their unique position to leverage some insider dirt on their former comrades.

[YL]

So, Andrew Bridgen.  Still, at the time of writing, in receipt of the Tory whip.

[Torrain]

So, Andrew Bridgen.  Still, at the time of writing, in receipt of the Tory whip.

Exactly what I came here to say. The vaccine-holocaust comparison is just ghastly.

What a way to spend your Commons suspension for lobbying - with the whip intact.

[Torrain]

And there it is: https://mobile.twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1613132229164638208

[Conservatopia]

Reform UK get their first MP I reckon.

[CumbrianLefty]

Jonathan Gullis next, possibly? He is sailing close to the wind rather a lot.

[Torrain]

Reform UK get their first MP I reckon.

I know Tice is desperate for the level of publicity that would bring, but do you think they'd really throw their lot in with Bridgen? He'd essentially become the public face of the party, given how little cut-through Tice has, and Farage's pretty laissez-faire approach to the party.

I know Bridgen has what Reform would consider impeccable "Brexit credentials" given his ERG leadership, but he's become such an indiscriminate bomb-thrower over the past year or two.

Then again, I'm hardly the target demographic for Reform, so my predictions about the "right move" for them are inevitably going to be skewed by my own (fairly beige) politics.

I could easily see them welcoming Red Wall MPs like Gullis (concur with CL that he fits their profile, and has a habit of challenging the line under Sunak), Lee Anderson, Mark Jenkinson, etc - if they could be convinced. But Bridgen is about a month away from doing a round-table interview with Andrew Wakefield, Alex Jones and David Icke at this point.