Dr Strangelove (how I learned to stop worrying and love Boris)
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Any govt in Europe, with any sense of decency, would focus on a very different message. That boat sinking in the med recently, with c700 on board, needed to be a watershed moment for Europe. Stopping the boats needs to be removed from political vocabulary. At least Labour are making sounds to try to tackle the gangs.
I really dislike the way immigration is discussed in modern politics. It has become whoever can be tougher on it seems to win. Why is that? Immigration is such a positive and beneficial thing in many ways. We should be talking about how we can improve our country by opening our borders, not rattling on about how many boats we can stop.
I am not defending him here, he should turn up more if it is a mandatory thing. My challenge back to the commons is either improve the standard of PMQs or scrap it. It has become like a rubbish punch and judy show over the last few years. Very little of substance ever comes out of it, from either side, and it makes our political process look silly in my opinion. If it were to be replaced with something much more rigorous in terms of policy debate, that would be great.
Interesting stuff and difficult to control, real genie out of a bottle territory.
I remember Sunak recently announcing a big new maths initiative but then it all went quiet ...
... has anything happened.
Or don’t have the resources to apply because of circumstances or skills in some cases
I think we should move from the House of Commons to a round more integrative space. It is designed for ‘us against them’ politics. Most have moved on to circular less confrontational spaces . More cooperation would be a good thing for us all. I go back to my point about PR - first past the post also implies winner v loser. A negotiated government would get us beyond ‘I won so **** off’ 52-48 Brexit resulting in an extreme version of it being an example where politics divides us when as we’ve seen it’s very important to the most vulnerable.
I am a cynic about AI in many ways. It is why I am seconded on to a strategy group at work on how we use it, I am like Steptoe in the corner of the room saying 'Bah' a lot of the time. There is a lot of scaremongering about it which is daft in my opinion. There are great opportunities in education though and if we had had things like ChatGPT during lockdowns I would bet kids would not have lost half as much education as they did. Health is probably another area, but not my expertise area.
As for Sunaks maths plans. It is around doing maths until you are 18. I am all for it so long as they dont just stick to the usual A level route. It needs to be embedded in T levels, apprenticeships etc. Plus in a way that is meaningful to the world of work kids go into. Make it relevant, by focussing on things like sales quotes, materials pricing, data analysis etc etc. I think he has tasked the education dept. to put forward the detail proposal, and he has called out it needs to be wider than students staying in 6th form. I suspect it will take years to find its way into the national curriculum but Labour havent dismissed it so maybe they will stick with the plan.
That is a really interesting point. Never crossed my mind but it makes a load of sense. Winners and losers is what we have now, no more consensus poltics.
The Guardian, of all newspapers, have done 3 articles this week so far crticising Starmer. Focussed mainly around the policies he won the leadership contest and how few remain. They are quite cutting articles actually by their standard. The underlying theme is Starmer has adopted a must win approach, above principles. I am not necessarily blaming him for that, in the first past the post system it is probably necessary.
Good post - how we get there is the question
I was surprised, a little, by the Labour policy announcement on having graduate led nursery education. It is a massively complex issue, so a plan is really welcome, if only to challenge it and improve it. I wasnt massively convinced that this is the answer, but fair play for opening the debate.
Nursery education is a complex thing. The little I know is a mix of learning through play, and a level of structure is key. I would hate to replace a freedom to flex approach with a level of strict stuff. It also comes back in part to wanting parents in work I suspect. I dont mean Mums staying at home. My wife was poorly for a year and I was a stay at home Dad. It was good. We are on a path to equality, so one parent being an early life educator is ok.
Back in my baby days I went to 'playschool' and mam was a volunteer. I remember nowt of it. I do remember school year 1 though and being with people I already knew. Vaguely anyway. I have a big painting of Mr Happy I painted in weel 1, hanging up iny loft. It is rubbish, but my Mam says she was there in week 1 with me.
My wife is a teacher. The level of expectations parents seem to have of teachers is mad. Based on what she says some parents want teachers to do basic parenting. Reading with kids, basic number play, even toilet training is something some kids dont have. My sense is solving this by more trained educators at nurseries is no good. Maybe a soceity where Dads or Mums are rewarded and respected for child education at pre school is a lesson from the past we should learn. Lets have a society where govts dont have to do everything, but us citizens take accountability where we can.
Nursery education is a complex thing. The little I know is a mix of learning through play, and a level of structure is key. I would hate to replace a freedom to flex approach with a level of strict stuff. It also comes back in part to wanting parents in work I suspect. I dont mean Mums staying at home. My wife was poorly for a year and I was a stay at home Dad. It was good. We are on a path to equality, so one parent being an early life educator is ok.
Back in my baby days I went to 'playschool' and mam was a volunteer. I remember nowt of it. I do remember school year 1 though and being with people I already knew. Vaguely anyway. I have a big painting of Mr Happy I painted in weel 1, hanging up iny loft. It is rubbish, but my Mam says she was there in week 1 with me.
My wife is a teacher. The level of expectations parents seem to have of teachers is mad. Based on what she says some parents want teachers to do basic parenting. Reading with kids, basic number play, even toilet training is something some kids dont have. My sense is solving this by more trained educators at nurseries is no good. Maybe a soceity where Dads or Mums are rewarded and respected for child education at pre school is a lesson from the past we should learn. Lets have a society where govts dont have to do everything, but us citizens take accountability where we can.
Haway man - poor attempt.
He just got mixed up. Nothing sinister about it. Not like he's got ten thousand more important things on his mind is it.
Still, I'll add it to the list of things that are fair game for the next government.
It's literally in the video.
It does go on for a whole minute though, so I understand I'm probably asking too much. Ain't nobody got time for a whole story.
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The problem is that your comment will be seen, by some, as unpatriotic, snowflakey or plain 'giving up the fight'.
When the Rwanda plan was announced some seething Tory auto-defender came on to say that 'rigorous enforcement' would soon stop the boats. (As close to a Braverman screech as is possible.)
They obviously couldn't care less if the people were desperate or women or refugees. When the boat crossings dropped, a day or so after, they were back on shouting 'We won' like it was a match day thread
You're absolutely right in what you say, the whole thing is warped. It's making us look inhumane with our attitude and inept for failing with every new insane scheme.
Our flag waving chest beating 'patriotic' politics is backfiring imo.
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Ha’way Rishi son, get them promises fettled
"Crossings by people seeking asylum have set a new record for the month of June, pushing the total for the year so far to more than 11,000. In the first six months of 2023, 11,434 people were detected making the journey from France, according to provisional government figures.
This includes 155 people arriving in three boats on Friday, taking the total for June alone to 3,824. This is the highest total for the month of June since records began."
He's already starting to trot out excuses for failing to halve inflation now ...
... no one told him, before his promise, that people in the UK have mortgages
"Rishi Sunak blames fixed-rate mortgages over failure to curb inflation
Increasing number of home owners on multi-year deals makes task of bringing down rate challenging, PM claims."
Unbelievable Jeff. You couldn't make it up if you tried.He's already starting to trot out excuses for failing to halve inflation now ...
... no one told him, before his promise, that people in the UK have mortgages
"Rishi Sunak blames fixed-rate mortgages over failure to curb inflation
Increasing number of home owners on multi-year deals makes task of bringing down rate challenging, PM claims."
