Thursday 18 March 2010

'We will also hear the views of other professionals as we ask are we failing children who leave care and is the care system fit for purpose? '

Something else to privatise?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

i'm not a big fan of the victim culture. kids the same age are fighting in afghanistan

The Scandic model for child care, as has been pointed out by many people, appears to be a lot more humane. It also probably pays for itself in the long run as the young people don't make such tragic mistakes for themselves, and others, with corresponding social and economic costs.

You have to hope that all goes well for the Newsnight young people.

Prostate Cancer, Its not A good idea Auntie, best 2 be avoided, thats not 2 say blokes should bury their heads in the sand, A simple blood test once u reach fifty and there after every 2 years or so. The treatmeant is a bit of a drag but no real drama, my nipples hurt the hair on my body has all butt gone the wedding tackle has shrunk a bit but they still work, (woke up with a stonker yesterday whats the story morning glory)oh and i am sterile, just as well really i have more than 2 plus 2 bairns/children running about. The worst thing is the Kafata? up the old blue veined trumpet I didnt like it up me Auntie. on the plus side I still have a full head of hair and I dont have man boobs unlike tony blair. so everything is hunky dory.

I do hope Sir Andrew is doing well, I did clock him and Chris Martin on Radio 1, I have more than 2 reasons for staying under the covers/hidden/camoflaged/remaining in shadow, one of them is above. I wish him Well.

#1 statist

I can't read the comment as its awaiting moderation but I assume that you will be rattling on about National Socialism.

Some would say the Hitler Youth were all very well behaved barring the odd invasion of a neighbouring country that left seventy or so million dead and being ingrained racists - the latter on a false scientific and philosophical basis of course.

The far right has so much to offer, as somebody used to "explicate" in the past, but only if you are into unbridled emotionally driven hatred.

Even today the BNP are so confident in their true philosophy that they have to hide their true beliefs and claim not to be a Nazi Party.

They also could not find any basis to rebutt the EHRC requirement that they base their membership policy not on their unscientific racial outlook but on the law. They cannot substantiate an argument therefore that would stand a chance in the court and resort to the inevitable emotional rage and describe the EHRC as a "sniveling quango".

Griffin has they had been "meaning to change their membership policy for years" and Simon Darby told an Asian businessman that his application "would be blocked".

So typical consistency there then.

Is it Tom/Tam Dick Wullie or Harry 2/twa Princes there or is it Bob eh! Vic or Jim.

his sketching of the Loch Ness Monster needs a wee bit of working on

A really excellent piece by Mark Urban last night in that it brought home the realities of the war and its impact on their families.

Despite the carnage and emotional stress I am still utterly convinced that this war, unlike Iraq, is necessary.

If possible I would like to know whather the disruption of arrests and drone attacks in Pakistan is seeing training and organisational impacts in Afghanistan. There have been senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed or taken out of action and there must be improving intelligence.

Are we saying the same kind of insurgent or is it a real patchwork of local and international influences?

I still wonder whether if you can cut the flow of people to and fro across the AfPak border you can't stabilize the region quite quickly.

You should also, by targeting the transit bases/caves, be able to do so without collateral damage and further weaken the morale of the enemy.

Meanwhile I was also pleasantly suprised that the comments about the ANA were so positive and that has to be a good thing.

GOLF HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS: 'A GOOD WALK RUINED'

Similarly, three party politicians, ostensibly seeking to explore and perhaps advance the 'care system', amounts to 'a worthwhile discussion sabotaged'. Add the fact of an impending election, and it qualifies as 'A CRASS DEBACLE EXACERBATED'.

Why not seek out capable minds with the necessary experience to comment on 'care' and its improvement (including the 'causes of care') with minimum contamination from any angle? Or do such rare people refuse to do the 'establishing-walk shot' and edgy presentation?

Dear Beeb, you are in a position to do so much that is positive and constructive. If you just fiddle, while the country fractures (and no doubt burns, in some city-centres) don't think the heat will not reach your expensive citadel too. Revolutionaries all know about seizing centres of communication!

Response to ....

43. At 11:28pm on 17 Mar 2010, ecolizzy wrote:

Many thanks for the link, much appreciated. I must admit that I was trying to do a couple of other things whilst watching so ...... Thanks to iPlayer .... I can ....

Am I now entitled to a fee for advertising the BBC?. Discount on the licence fee perhaps?

Nah!

Keep the fee, I’d rather it went to pay for more decent, in depth, investigative news reporting.

Political dogma aside .... ( Is that at all possible?)

Mr Woolas was brought in to introduce a tougher approach but then, if you read between the lines, he’s been somewhat throttled by the suited socialists using the - ubiquitous -policy ‘Don’t upset the minorities, we need their votes’. (This policy is an ‘all party’ approach I must mention, so no bias or advantage to be gained here!) As I have said before he is doing a pretty good job - better than previous incumbents and or governments - but that is not the same as saying the job is done nor that it could not be done better. ( The latter being what I believe most of he GBP is actually hoping for rather than being ‘racist’ per se. )

In my honest opinion there is not one political party - Yes, even the BNP is way off the mark - that has a logical, sensible effective policy to deal with the issue of the number of immigrants settling in the UK. (This assertion will, no doubt, be jumped on as me making a call for radical, devisive and racist policies.)

Not the case .... Period.

As implied above ....

I want a logical, sensible effective policy to deal with the issue. .... Period.


One more point regarding your post No. 43 ...

I have to offer just a little bit of criticism ....

My local bus transport provider employs many female drivers ....

Not one, even remotely, reminds me of Mr Woolas!

(And I do fully appreciate that you are not even being a tiny bit .... ‘busdriver-ist’!)



Today’s Today (Subsequently - if you say it often enough it will be true - et al!) ....

Top Con No 2 certainly knows how to .....

What was that word ....

Obfuscate?

He can’t remember a conversation from a decade ago, and he can’t remember a couple of dates ( of conversations) since Christmas! Considering the importance, and subsequent furore involved, one would imagine that these two ‘dates‘ would be permanently etched in ones memory?

(As an aside .... Does this short term - apparent - amnesia or ‘recall’ problem mean that failure to remember the commitments sic being made to the GBP today will be aloof to criticism, say in a couple of months, because the GBP has been pre-warned? I wonder?)

A - personally pre-ordained(?) - statement of fact early in the interview denied that the ‘draft‘ papers were leaked by him.

So were they leaked by HMG or a New Con Mole?

How many months is Quote ... a few months ....? How long is Quote .... about a month .... ? And when were these two vague timescale first stated by Top Con No. 2?

Maths can sometime be a very confusing subject, decidedly so if you are not given any of the numbers to work with! And in this case no ‘numbers’ clearly says the ‘sums’ can’t ever be calculated!

Boy! I wish I had a pound of Mr Ashcroft’s money every time Second Top Con defends the situation by trying to deflect on to Mr Paul!

Hint .... It’s not the same .... Move on, and give the GBP the facts!

Sadly, the interview was more like a rendition of “Here we go round the mulberry bush.”

I can imagine the scenario at Nu Con Central .....

“Get me a mine detector, we’ve taken the money and we need to run.”

Or ....

“We need to fool more people this time!


Your thoughts on a postcard please to ....



Sadly, it looks like Pakistan is going to be off the list of tourist destinations for UK travellers for a while?

We should all hope that there aren’t any taxation implications on any payments that might have been made?


And .....

Finally ...

At 00:29am on 18 Mar 2010, mimpromptu

Is it not remotely possible that he was briefed incorrectly and yet had the decency and integrity to report the error to the house knowing full well he would be subjected to child-like barracking from one side of the house, negative banner headlines from the press and politically biased opinion pieces in the broadsheet columns?

Regarding “decency and integrity” please read my observations above?

As we approach the election I hope the Beeb will pose one of the big questions to all of the parties namely why won't the economic crisis ever be repeated?

Labour are trying not to acknowledge mistakes but the Tories have not really said much except that the BoE would get a bigger role - but then that suggests the FAS would have less of a role and we would be out of synch with the US where they seem to be heading towards greater consumer protection.

The US want to make sure no bank is too big to fail. Thats excellent but if you have a lot of baby banks and they are still selling crazy derivatives do you end up with a larger nightmare regulatory landscape and still the same risk? Is our Barclays too big too fail?

Even the mighty Vince Cable has done well in identifying the causes of what went wrong but not been over generous in preventing the problems in the future. Myself I am not convinced that bonuses are the central issue as its that the banks could not see the risks that they were taking and were dark to the regulators. I don't really care overmuch why they took those decisions as they might have done the same for prestige rather than cash. What is a fair bonus and who would define it?

Other big questions have to be does the sleaze in Parliament and the subsequent disenchantment mean that the change of the electoral system is the only viable way to reengage voters and break the two party Toffs n'Unions distortions that mean the UK does not act as a viable system but as a country at war with itslef?

What constitutional changes would they make to the Lords and why could we not get the same path to war via a Tony and some cronies as we got with Iraq? Even if you were for the war the governmental process was a disgrace as shown by the vast opposition of lawyers versus Tony's mate the attorney general.

On employment there needs to be a clear visioon of where jobs will be created and how we would rebalance the economy - or whether we would or could rebalance it.

Last night I could not help seeing the ex-Corus workers plight in the North East and wonder whether there are not opportunities to use their existing skills.

We buy all of these renewable "windmills" from outside the country and I assume that they are largely steel. We can't get them fast enough.

Could we not have a government initiative where we create an enterprise that would build differing sizes of windmills to power government buildings and older peoples homes - to prevent breaking EU rules?

That would keep the pressure on the energy companies to invest in clean energy and we could end up with a viable new enterprise, less JSA and a better energy infrastructure and more up to date workers.

British Libel Law....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/denmark/7457611/Defamation-case-over-Prophet-Mohammed-cartoons-to-be-held-in-Britain.html

Does any of this over in Peston's blog ring any bells?

It's something which the Newsnight investigative team(s) would do well to think about, perhaps instead of wasting their talent(s) on ephemeral issues?

More displacement activity. If you've given up on all attempts to cover real News then change your name.

Mirror Mirror on the wall

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1258822/Gordon-Brown-fight-Tories-tea-parties.html

who is the perfect loony of them all ?

Tea cosy with a mad dog round for a cuppa - there must be a law against it some where, they made enough of um up - get the fuzz round to arrest him.

'Can I interest you in a vanilla favoured Credit default Swap with your custard cream biscuit madam or how about a toasted tea cake sprinkled with a redaction on the defence budget complete with nut ter 'notes'

'Now madam if you go ' Woppa ' with leverage say I loan you 50 million...... '

CAN I SUE ON GROUNDS THEY WERE NOT THAT FUNNY LIZZY? (#13)

Surely 'cartoon crime' (on which our own Straw Man come 'Justice Minister' - now that IS funny - is a specialist) varies in severity with the level of laughter engendered?

Now: as every fule kno, the British Cartoonist is the finest cartoonist in the world (on a par with our mercenary killers) but these were drawn by inferior foreign cartoonists, thus the transgression is second rate.

On reflection, by the time we have collected all the 'intelligence' - and adjusted it, lost some, declared some inadmissible (security) and got the case into court, Armageddon should be upon us, and the Muslims will have discovered they are just not contenders for eternity.

That ought to do it.

Post 2 what was wrong with that? (the odd smelling mistake perhaps)

Ok, Ashcroft, I admire the man.All these holier than thee mp's who are up in arms about him make me sick. from brown down NON of them pay income tax. The taxpayer pay their income tax, if they are paid by the taxpayer then it stands 2 reason that the dozy taxpayer pays their income tax,so the next time you see a mp spouting off about people not paying income tax remind the idiot who pays their wages including their income tax.

Auntie have seen the latest turdsuban/taliban dvd/vid, they have these 4 blokes bound and gagged they dig a big pit for their accomodation, they fill it with brushwood and splash petrol on it and then one at a time they soak them with petrol and then chuck the poor unfortunate into the pit and set them on fire. great balls of fire. do you think they were witches/warlocks auntie?

cant wait for sharia law oh what fun eh, hanging young children from lamposts or shooting them point blank, honor killing their own children and shooting womens in the head, dont forget suicide bombs.


Bash the Bishop not that bishop auntie, I meant the arching backwards bishop

Vote nulabour Vote for islam forget freedom of speech forget freedom

Post #6 ( original letter to my MP )

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/susanwatts/2010/01/judgement_day_for_public_trust.html

Responce to reply from said minister

Thanks for sending me a reply to my letter on ACT ON CO2 from the said minister Khan. It would appear that the eco-fascists have hijacked transport science and turned it into a quasi-religion. The 1980s research I originally quoted about air resistance falling above a given speed seems to have been erased from history, perhaps like the medieval warm period the climate scam scientists attempt to hide.

Its perhaps hardly surprising since aerodynamics became a marketing scam in the 1990s, but at the end of the day its only 0.00 something even on a " square " 1960s designed car. Unfortunately you did not send me alleged fuel map graph to back up their low RPM low fuel consumption assertion. I suspect that said " unnatural " reduction of fuel consumption comes with a " bill ", probably a massive increase in NOX emissions.

Tonight we devote the whole of Newsnight to a crucial issue for society - children in care.

The Government's chief adviser on the safety of children delivered his first report on Wednesday, warning that vulnerable youngsters will be put at greater risk if cuts in public services affect child protection funding.

The reality is that we are literally reproducing far too many (of these) kids which parents and the state are ill equipped to care for because the other type of kids are not being produced in sufficient quantities anymore.

It's basically as simple as that. It's a skewed birth-rate problem - i.e. differential fertility. It's in the data. The cost is increasing crime, deteriorating school and home behaviour, falling standards of literacy and numeracy, rising unemployment and..... across liberal-democracies, looming/growing economic disaster.

Yet tonight's programme will, I lamentably predict, be little more than another highly feminized, emotional, whine, because pervsely, people get off on emotion of any sort (shock horror, but it's true), and because the people putting these programmes together, like the experts they interview, will not face the harsh facts of what's really driving all of this. In fact, they're barking up the wrong tree altogether, saying what tey think sounds/looks good, which just makes matters worse as it doesn't work, based on the trends and evidence.

Do any of them read this blog? Do they all think that truth comes in pretty packages? Of course they do - as they're products of a celebrity business, or want to be ;-)

BUS-DRIVER BROWN DUE TO CHAT AMIABLY WITH THE PASSENGERS.

Will the comedy of the absurd never end? Even if he IS jolly and engaging, when chatting about his kids, or 'er indoors', HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE DRIVING THE BLOODY BUS, something he has clearly demonstrated that he can't do. What is more, every time he crashes, because he thinks he has ABOLISHED ACTION AND REACTION, he blames the American traffic lights. Why must we be put through this torture? In the name of Tony Blair: GO AND GO NOW.

PS A note to spoof-merchants countrywide. Can you mobilise a bunch of look-alikes to 'go visiting' at the same time as Brown, and dilute the media coverage?

23. barriesingleton 'Even if he IS jolly and engaging, when chatting about his kids, or 'er indoors', HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE DRIVING THE BLOODY BUS'

No. There is no bus.

Are you sure you really understand the nature of liberal-democracy?

As I see it, the key word is liberal. Think of the Governor of California, and 'Lights, Camera, Democracy!'

Imagine Brown, Blair etc as not really doing anything other than appearing to, but us having to pay for their performances as part of the funding of state services like health, education etc, which they are in fact slowly but surely giving away to entrepreneurs to provide, and being well compensated in the future for doing so (see Blair).

Statist # various

Like everything else related to alleged " science " these day's, anything that universities allegedly research has the " results " pre determined by the financial interests of Corporate Nazi establishment. I was hardly surprised to find that the head of many universities are paid massive salaries. Perhaps executive remuneration reflects how big the " lies " you are prepared to go along with ?

NO BUS? NO BUS! THEN HOW DID WE GET HERE? I KNOW THERE WAS A BUS! (#24)

You had me fooled there for a while Gockenspeil, but I found these two gold shoes in my pocket - there was definitely a BUS.

Perhaps you have caught Newsnight Virus that makes buses almost invisible - if you get a double-dose, you might not see them at all! But relax, the metaphorical requires a particularly adroit mind to embrace; it may come to you, if you believe.

Clegg says only the Lib Dems will curb 'snooping state'

It looks like if we vote for the Liberal-Democrats (the official ones) we'll get an even less snooping/regulating state. Presumably, the anarchiste mess we've ensured under Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown hasn't been destructive enough?

Make sure you read the (above) Peston piece today, it's good. The Clegg bit seems to me like the question: 'do you want a poke in the eye with an orange rather than a red or blue stick?'

25. brossen99 Like everything else, I think they want to privatise the universities. So the hit on publicly funded science etc is really only to be expected. Not all of it is bad.

My evening has passed on having a snooze,
On eating ice cream and having a dream.
A dream of things that are yet to come
Once all the crap and all of the scam
Have ended up in some dirty bin
Where there’s no place for passion ice cream.

mim

Real Heroes:

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8574378.stm

26. barriesingleton 'it may come to you, if you believe'

The behaviour therapy, it just isn't working ...Is it?

Hey up, all is not lost, Mim's about. Maybe I'll have more luck there? Maybe I can help her to completely lose her mind (like I did decades ago)?

I thought that tonight's BBC2 'The People's Politician' would be interesting as it claimed that it would involve several MPs who would be standing down, and would deal with 'the challenge of healing the rift betweenthem and us'.

Unfortunately the new wave of Media Studies graduates were let loose again, as they were for the documentary about the Natural History Museum that proceded it. Both programmes were wrecked by a cacophony of loud wierd noises, growling, trumpets and drumming sounds, totally unrelated to the material and discussion.

I had to turn off the sound and put up the subtitles to hear what was being said.

Does anybody else suffer from this? Maybe it is having a profound subliminal(?) psychological affect on the population? Bring back the good old days with serious treatment of serious subjects, with clear pronunciation and enunciation - and without these bloody smart-arsed edgy effects.

'Interior Minister Eli Yishai announced construction of 1,600 new apartment units in Arab East Jerusalem. Stunned and humiliated, Biden issued a statement saying he "condemned" the decision.

He then retaliated by coming late to dinner at Bibi's house.

Netanyahu has apologized for the timing, but they are going ahead with the apartments. What are the Americans going to do about it? At this point, nothing but bluster.

Indeed, a day later, at Tel Aviv University, Joe was back at it: "(T)he U.S. has no better friend ... than Israel."

On his departure for Jordan, Ha'aretz reported that Israel plans to build 50,000 new homes in East Jerusalem over the next few years.'
//
What Netanyahu and Yishai are telling Obama with their decision to keep building on occupied land is, "When it comes to East Jerusalem and the West Bank, we decide, not you."

Pat Buchanan, The poodle Gets Kicked 16 March 2010

We just don't do it like that here.... do we?

Hey, Investigators, Sir Michael Lyons, the Police, etc. What have I been telling you? The perpetrator has made his final admission. Please see his #31!

Monika
More details are with Newsnight

29. mimpromptu 'On eating ice cream and having a dream.'

It makes you fat you know (ice cream).

Indy #32

I must admit that I have been " switched off " by most of the recent " science / documentary " programmes on the BBC. I just get fed up with all the close-ups and camera tricks, then the presenter deliberately attempting to intensify their local accent in the hope that you will believe everything they say because they are just well educated " normal " people ?

#26 & #31 & #34

Singie

I would suggest that the tables have been turned!

mim

#35

And please may I ask what is it to you whether I'm thin or fat, stat?
Ice cream gives me heavenly pleasure
Semsatiom of which my taste buds do treasure

A message for the young people to be discussed on Newsnight tonight:

Whatever you do try and stay positive, it's a big wide world out there waiting for you to enjoy and to contribute to!

mim

36. brossen99 'I must admit that I have been " switched off " by most of the recent " science / documentary " programmes on the BBC.'

They appear to be made for non-scientists, by non-scientists. It's as if they're making programmes about alien cultures for xenophobes! I imagine many traditional scientists will try to avoid these programme-makers, or are avoided by the programme makers as being far 'too peculiar', hence the very peculiar results.

A lot of recent TV 'science' these days appears to focus on people's lower orifaces and their diseases/disorders for some peculiar reason....

We're in serious trouble culturally/intellectually, I fear....

Sorry to be so trivial, but can anyone tell me the name of the rather charming incidental music playing beneath that section of the programme that ran from approx 22:30 to 22:40 this evening (Teenagers Leaving Care story)? I'm sure I know it but I can't place it ...

39. mimpromptu 'A message for the young people to be discussed on Newsnight tonight: Whatever you do try and stay positive, it's a big wide world out there waiting for you to enjoy and to contribute to!'

Here's a reminder of what we are now all up against. You would do well to study this, instead of whatever delightful 'thoughts' pop into your head.

Please note, Newsnight, people like Martin Narey are mangers, not experts.

34. mimpromptu 'Hey, Investigators, Sir Michael Lyons, the Police, etc. What have I been telling you? The perpetrator has made his final admission. Please see his #31!'

Now, that's exactly the sort stuff you need to lose.

'Whatever you do try and stay positive, it's a big wide world out there waiting for you to enjoy and to contribute to!'

Please take note...

42. managers .... ;-)

Please note, the problem has been growing... especially under New Labour, despite Mr Narey's help.

As a police officer I feel very stongly about engaging with youths from a young age. I have conducted a number of "Street level" questions to youths and young men who state there is a lack of trust for authorities due to the "Parent figure" telling them what to do. I feel that to engage with youths in a positive way (Activities, sports.....)from the age of 10 and above will brake down barriers and hopefully change the youth culture from hanging around on the streets. It is quite evident from some of the questions i have conducted that individuals fear crime more than crime occures. around 60% of the people i asked feared a violent crime, but had never been a victim of a violent crime. We all need to take a pro active approach in HELPING and assisting youths. At the end of the day....they are the ones paying our pension!

I work in childcare and yes it is underpaid but I strongly object to a comment made on the programme that implied that because it is low paid we are not giving children a good quality service and are failing them.

Whilst I cannot speak for everyone - I think you'll find that generally we do the job because we love it and not because of what we are paid.

Jan

#43

Well, too late stat. It's already there accepted by the Mods.

Not only am I not planning to lose it but I shall be forwarding it further to all concerned, including the Shrinks and Lawyers!

David Akinsanya is a breath of fresh air he is right about so many things.He hit on a point that I have been saying for many years when he mentioned 'children at risk'.What is the point of an 'at risk register', How can we justify assessing a child as at risk and then leaving them in the place they are at risk in ,it is ludicrous!Socials Services have limited resources surely priority goes to protecting children , give the family support when the child is safe.

I wonder if he's paying tax, or is he a non dom?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259030/Blairs-fight-oil-cash-secret-Former-PMs-deals-revealed-earnings-2007-reach-20million.html

As much as I think the most vulnerable chilcren shouldn't be used as a political football, I did find the Labour Baroness lightweight and annoying.

She says she'd be happy to help!? Well, is she waiting for the young people to kneel down in front of her and beg her for help? It looks like Jarret's situation needs to be addressed ASAP. I have seen him positive before so it is a question of tapping into his positive side and encouraging him to feel more confident about himself. He could be told, for example, that in fact many dyslexic people are talented and that some of them have made it big in the world, including Branson,

mim

#49

Ecolizzy

By doing all that TB is undermining all the good things he has achieved, with one of them being brokering relative peace in Northern Ireland.

Now that the truth about the secret deal has come into public domain, I shouldn't think he ought to be allowed to stay on as a special envoy in the Middle East. In fact, he probably shouldn't be allowed to hold any public office again. I'm sure he can live comfortably on what he's already got.

mim

45. Gas 'As a police officer I feel very strongly about engaging with youths from a young age.'

So do teachers and offender managers of all sorts. The problem is that with a growing number, there are limits to what can be done. The reason is that is that much of behaviour is genetically expressed, and they get this from their parents. See the PPO project.

On a more general matter, it makes little sense to compare the UK with Scandinavian countries, as their demographics are quite different, i.e ceteris paribus doesn't hold. This makes most of what one hears on programmes like Newsnight not just silly, but embarrassingly so. rational discussion of these issues becomes a waste of time as soon as one hears this sort of naive talk. Have a look at the YJB data and look at the Independent article. Then look at the projected population figures for just London up to 2030. What do you notice? If you don't know what I am talking about, you haven't a clue what Social Workers, Probation staff, MAPPA etc are up against and will be up against. To see where this is all going, have a look at the USA or South Africa etc.

BLAIR LIVES 'WITHIN THE LIE' (#49)

So I guess that would make him a CON - DOM Lizzy.

TONY BLAIR - NAKED EMPEROR STRUTTING A WORLD STAGE. (#49 link)

And not one perceptive little boy is left on the planet to point a finger of reality at him. Is he mentioned by Nostradamus, I wonder? Or in Revelation?

You can see how it only takes one man to dazzle an age. In previous times he could have started yet another religion, or ordered unspeakable slaughter - probably in God's name. Tragic that millions of ordinary Britons know Tony for what he is, while many abroad have 'bought' the Messiah act - for a lot of money.

I am still bemused that the Three Prize Men think Blair is an asset in winning votes for Labour. The fee must be phenomenal. (Paid by one of Tony's many back doors, of course.)

Truly beyond weeping.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

#52

Following your unshakeable logic, stat, the conclusion would be that you've had very 'fine', genetically transferred, upbringing.

I thought it was a very good programme sadly showing, however, too many insufficiencies and flaws in the release of care leavers straight into adhulhood at the age of 18.

Dontcha just love the bitter irony...........................





that the parents of one these poor young people chose to call her 'CHERISH!'

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

#58

Let's hope BYT she will find somebody who will cherish her for real! She looks like a lovely person.

mim

The blame game starts :

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7475531/Markets-spooked-as-Greek-rescue-plan-crumbles.html

'However, Mr Papandreou is in danger of exhausting sympathy in other EU states. His game of playing off the EU and IMF against each other has begun to irk fellow leaders, and his insistent claim that Greece is the victim of speculators may be unwise in any case. It creates the impression that the country has been cut off from access to the capital markets. By demonizing credit default swaps his rhetoric may discourage investors from buying Greek bonds, since many use these contracts to hedge their holdings. Deutsche Bank chief Josef Ackermann said the furore over CDS swaps showed a "basic misunderstanding" of modern finance.'

Its worth while reiterating this quote :

'Deutsche Bank chief Josef Ackermann said the furore over CDS swaps showed a "basic misunderstanding" of modern finance.''

This is to realise what a moral mess we are in when people thinking like this are in control of banks. You know those places that you give your money who now use it to destroy companies and countries because they worked out a way to incentivise destruction and smugly brush off those who bring the truth with: "basic misunderstanding" of modern finance.''

And the Soros quote on CDS from the telegraph, summer last year :

“It’s like buying life insurance on someone else’s life and owning a licence to kill him,”

he said of the swaps, which pay the buyer face value if a borrower defaults, in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent. (telegraph)

Didnt watch it all last night but it seems to got the colour red under control and Kirsty presented well.

MAKING A 'MARK' (#58)

What's in a name, BYT?

I believe the kinds of job that exist to 'serve' disadvantaged people (rather than to address inanimate stuff) all too often attract the 'one eyed' to the 'Kingdom of the Blind'. Hence they, primarily, serve themselves, as it were.

Add to this, the fact that the animal in us, is not too bothered by those heading for oblivion, as long as they don't live next door (it's what Nature does) and any old fig-leaf, low cost, poorly staffed 'service' will do, as a pretence of humanity.

If we won't/can't acknowledge BOTH The Ape and the thinness of the human veneer, and govern appropriately (gestation/birth/mothering/learning/maturation/widom) we will stay 'right here' - and struggle.

60. impromptu 'Let's hope BYT she will find somebody who will cherish her for real! She looks like a lovely person.'

What about those who have not inherited genes which make them look good?

Another point to try to grasp is that shared environment (look this up!) contributes far less than people have been led to believe.

The problem for society is that some environments are physically injurious/toxic to children's development. That is not a metaphor. It is not words or attitudes which damage, it is physical agents. This is why being taken into care can help (although it is often too late and it doesn't impact on their genomes), and why it is very important to try to get agents of the state to understand the modus operandi and limits of Child Protection.

The problem is, far too many people hearing these words haven't a clue what this entails or the limits of Social Work etc.

Anyone having been in care, or having come from a problem family, is not thereby qualified for anything incidentally, on the contrary probably. Do people reading this see why?

The entire way that most people currently think, write and talk about care (and behaviour in general) is in fact radically wrong. Can people here now see how and why that may be the case?

Beijing People's Thought For the Day: Far too many people take material seriously because it's on TV etc.

The important stuff doesn't get onto TV as it's not enterataining or popular enough. Most of what's really 'interesting' clashes with what most people take for granted, which one might think would make it good material (or even news) for TV. It doesn't...as most people don't/can't understand/believe it. Even if it's put very simply. In fact, that makes it even harder for them. What most people say is 'no, that's not what I think'.

Can you believe it??! ;-)

Brightyangthing

Cherish's parents may have meant it for real but then something hateful must have happened between for the girl needing to go into care.

I wonder whetther apart from sex education schools shouldn't be tackling the subject of parenthood in their own intererst as well as the kiddies they'll be accidently or willingly conceiving.

mim

Perhaps we should start a one-child policy as in China.....you actually have to have a licence from the government to have kids.
and a HUGE congratulations to Lyse on winning the David Bloom Award for her film on Afghani women's mortality rates.

....and this.....
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259139/Headmistress-accused-Islamophobia-wins-400-000-payout.html

what the is then philosophy behind the care system?
isn't it a failed philosophy of humanity?

the reality is in a nihilist relativist atmosphere it is impossible to create a parenting course to prevent kids going into care in the first place [because that
is '-'prescriptive' and so an 'oppression'].

for the same reason there is no philosophy in education because its 'an oppression' to suggest there is something called the good and that it is rational to prefer it [preference for the good they see as 'discrimination'].

so anything good is seen either as an oppression of discrimination. which are crimes in nihilist relativist philosophy of the state.

so a philosophy with that denigrates and belittles the good is not going to have much good in it.

could the whole population be classed as resident and non dom so avoiding tax?

67. Mistress76uk 'Perhaps we should start a one-child policy as in China.....you actually have to have a licence from the government to have kids.'

It seems a highly socially responsible policy doesn't it?

Can you predict what the most common/likely/vociferous response would be to such a suggestion from those comprising our highly individualistic/self-centred (but pradoxically caring and politically correct) culture?

THE POWER LEVY!

Jewish Leadership Council
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Leadership_Council

'In December 2009 the Council sought and published a legal Opinion from Lord Pannick QC advocating a change in UK law to prevent the issuing of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders without prior consent of the Attorney General.'

69. jauntycyclist 'what the is then philosophy behind the care system?
isn't it a failed philosophy of humanity?'

Politicians have given up on 'philosophy' as you think of it precisely for the reasons which I have already tried to explicate for you, namely, that what actually matters are practical policies which can be evaluated by outcome measures or performance indicators. This is why one hears so much about 'tick boxing' (a good thing incidentally based on all the research) and risk assessment (now being called 'safeguarding by some).

'the reality is in a nihilist relativist atmosphere it is impossible to create a parenting course to prevent kids going into care in the first place [because that is '-'prescriptive' and so an 'oppression'].'

Parenting is not something one teaches. You don't see lions, moneys, cats, rats and mice going on courses do you?

'for the same reason there is no philosophy in education because its 'an oppression' to suggest there is something called the good and that it is rational to prefer it [preference for the good they see as 'discrimination'].'

There are policies. Some effective, some not, some statist, some not.I keep urging you to look at politic in terms of policies (behaviours). Why do you persist in doing otherwise?

'so anything good is seen either as an oppression of discrimination. which are crimes in nihilist relativist philosophy of the state. so a philosophy with that denigrates and belittles the good is not going to have much good in it.'

You really do have to move on from 'the good'. Try reinforcement instead. Find out what this word means and how it operates. OK?

Read 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity' and learn about something which practically works. You are currently using antiquated words which actually, in practice, have no currency value in terms of accountability. Do you know otherwise, is the question which you should ask yourself in order to motivate yourself to do what is, in fact, in your better interests.

NEWSNIGHT OPINION - The main page doesn't make the Web Team blog that obviously accessible (anymore) does it...?

68. Why exclusively Israeli leaders? Or was it a more general petition?

Was this what one might call a gentle pre-emptive strike, i.e it's better that we do it so others might not bother? Clever folk do clever stuff which most less clever folk never see.

...Parenting is not something one teaches...

i have to disagree. it is the most vital thing that can be taught. we expect people to pass a test to drive a car or work in care homes or as nurse or doctors or teachers but not to be a parent which has greater care responsibility [there's that hated word again] than a teacher of children?

in the same way as a 'no rules' policy in the markets or on road or in air traffic control leads to smash up so the same in parenting. it is to be a relativist fundamentalist to say parenting cannot be defined and best practice taught.

the evidence of the current nihilist failures is in the current crisis in uk society.

its is the nihilist policy

76. jauntycyclist 'i have to disagree.'

No you don't.

'it is the most vital thing that can be taught.'

No, parenting is a natural, emitted behaviour.

'we expect people to pass a test to drive a car or work in care homes or as nurse or doctors or teachers but not to be a parent which has greater care responsibility [there's that hated word again] than a teacher of children?'

You've run a lot together there> We are born with the mechanism to reproduce and nurture progeny. We are not born to drive cars (although many of our behaviours can be shaped so we can do so with varying skill).

In the main we select people to work as carers. Sometime we get this wrong.

I am trying to teach you something useful about behaviour and its management. Imagine you are a first year student. Obviously you would have come to the course with ideas, but you would have been selected for being bright/receptive/trainable/shape-able (well, in the past you would have been, today is another matter).

It is no 'good' referring to nebulous notions like 'the good'. It may be well intentioned in your case (I'm pretty sure it is in fact), but it gets in the way of doing any 'good' - honest. Follow the cues I have given you.

I was astounded at the report on child care and how bad the management of the "system" if you can call it that, has become. It was galling to hear of the Care Minister, faced with accusations, to exclaim "but we've just invested another £x millions into this or that", as if throwing money at the problem will solve it.

I mean, the government is so out of its depth, so inept. It's reduced what was once common-sense and judgement to a morass of bureaucracy, ie turning it into rules and procedures: paperwork or the computer equivalent. As ever, the paperwork is about backside-covering. The gov is unable to see that bureaucracy is hazardous and far from comprehensive. The result: agencies don't know what to do when the problem doesn't quite fit the bureaucratic solution.

Co-ordination is poor. Discipline is absent: that's why 6 social workers have been sacked in Birmingham, NOT the managers who supervised them and should have known what was going on. You bet those managers filled in their paperwork correctly.

It's now just a mess, serving the interests of public officials rather than the children who provide their fodder. It must be: otherwise it would be very different.

What's happened to that common-sense and judgement once enjoyed by social workers? The Social Services Act 1970 that amalgamted departments to provide family caseworkers? Why has fostering failed so abysmally?

I was a foster child - placed with a family whom I came to love and respect. I'm still with them! I was pulled out of my parental home by a Children's Officer. It needed no paperwork. She made a decision. There was no dispute. The paperwork was done later by a clerk. When a move was made to reunite me with my birth-parents, I told the Children's Officer that I'd run away. That was the last I heard of that idea. Perhaps not everyone was as lucky, thoroughly enjoying my foster home, valuing great happiness against the misery and horrors of my original home (and suffering nightmares at times that were things but slightly different, chance mightn't have favoured me so brightly). But most of us able to adjust to a normal civilised life, had but one placement that lasted us through.

Until we empower social workers; give them a decision-making capacity; until we make their work a vocation (and value it appropriately) rather than just a job they can hop into and out of at will; until we develop reliable lateral communication between agencies and cut out unnecessary paperwork, the situation will go on as now: throw money at it, increase co-ordination problems, bureaucracy, build larger empires: increasing layers of middle-management, supervisors, etc. But above all we need to get society back on its footing so we can all watch out for trouble in the knowledge that "the system" has the scope to deal with problems we suspect.

77. At 12:54pm on 19 Mar 2010, Statist wrote:

re 76. jauntycyclist wrote:

"'we expect people to pass a test to drive a car or work in care homes or as nurse or doctors or teachers but not to be a parent which has greater care responsibility [there's that hated word again] than a teacher of children?'

You've run a lot together there> We are born with the mechanism to reproduce and nurture progeny. We are not born to drive cars (although many of our behaviours can be shaped so we can do so with varying skill).

I think you've oversimplified things. There were times when parenting came "naturally" and most parents fell into it easily. But the world has become far more complicated and bewildering to most. Consumerism has taken its toll with its messages of "buy me" barely veiling the forbidden fruit effect, the stresses of the workplace and both parents exercising the right to work just to survive and with debts piling up. So they farm their kids out to childminders, nursery schools, primary schools etc., when they should be doing what you claimed: nurturing their progeny. And with their post-Thatcherite, post-Greer freedom, they barely notice their children when at home because the TV beckons, once the ready-meals have been slammed in the microwave, and they wind down after their hard days.

These parents will NEVER get to know their kids. They have shared none of their kids' lives in those important early years. You don't need look far for evidence of children being mere nuisances for some parents, the unfortunate side-effect of intercourse, you'd think at times. You'll find plenty of homes where mid-teen kids and their parents are always at loggerheads; or homes where the parents are in total denial of the mischief their kids are getting up to. Why? Because the parents simply weren't nurturing.

So how on earth they can be expected to nurture is anyone's guess. However, I do agree that you can't teach people to be parents. You can't reduce it to a series of procedures and rules supplemented by reinforcers, negative and positive. I really don't know what the answer is unless we adopt policies that promote one of the parents being there for the kids at almost all times.

TEACHING PARENTS

In my experience parenting is a mixture of (a) natural instinct (b) common sense (for example, I don't need a study to tell me that if ny children are tired they get grouchy)(c) what I have learned from my own parents (good and bad!) during my upbringing.

The problem I have with teaching parenting is that in my view it is an impossibility for the state. In any case, do parents really bring up kids nowadays? How much waking time does the average prent spen with their kids in today's world?

One of the audience on last night's Question Time summed up for me where we have got to. She suggested the problem with children's behaviour today is that their carers are paid the minimum wage. By implication, her view was that if we paid more for carers, it would solve the problem. She did not seem to consider that having children cared for by their parents was a possibility!

78,79 doctor bob - Not a lot to basically disagree with, except the paperwork (or box-ticking) is not what many think/make out it is. One can not 'empower' Social Workers etc, one can only select and deploy people who will do these jobs as they are required to. carefully worded, that. Social Workers, like other professionals in these fields, apply evidence driven rules - that's all that 'decision making' basically is, but that requires discipline, and it is not a cognitive process at all but an actuarial one. It is more skilled than many appreciate. In fact, the errors tend to happen when rogue 'professionals' don't follow the rules/procedures. Think what would happen in medicine if doctors or surgeons did that. Fortunately they don't, as a rule, as they are better trained in science and generally brighter too. One of the reasons for errors in behaviour management is the poor selection/recruitment and retention policies in recent times. We tend to select the wrong people to do this work, and there is a general political policy to run down the state/public sector in the interest of privatization too. That has been going on now for at least a generation (30 years). Some may have noticed that the sex balance in these professions is heavily tilted towards females. One should ask why given that males tend to be better at science, logic etc.

In your second post you are really adding grist to the mill that many people should not be allowed to have children without a licence (as in China). Your (valid) points don't change the fact that parenting is not a learned behaviour. It's just that many people make unfit parents (going out to work to make money and having a family should not be encouraged, children are not play-things). We have a major problem in this respect, and its consequences are known as differential and dysgenic fertility. We have too many people who are at root, unfit to be parents, having far too many kids, and not enough people who are fit to have kids, reproducing. The consequences in the long-run should be obvious, but they are not: a declining number of competent people providing Social Care of all sorts, and too many problem people.

This can only be solved, I submit, by changing this socially and economically destructive birth-rate balance as it is a demographics or population genetics problem, but that would now be a very slow process (China started it many years ago), and our current political system (which we have had for many generations now) is not conducive to this change happening at all, so my prognosis is, alas, bleak for those of us in the liberal-democracies.

In the meantime, we should not encourage daft talk like that which we heard on the programme last night. It just distracts people. :-(

80. nedafo2 'common sense' is not all that common, and not a lot of people know what it is either. You should have a look into what I said to jauntycylist about using terms which are given a lot of explanatory work to do without knowing what they actually comprise or refer to. The reality is, this is the domain of behaviour science, and that's hard work, not least because it demands one to radically question what one comes to it with before hand.

81. At 5:29pm on 19 Mar 2010, Statist wrote:


This can only be solved, I submit, by changing this socially and economically destructive birth-rate balance as it is a demographics or population genetics problem, but that would now be a very slow process (China started it many years ago), and our current political system (which we have had for many generations now) is not conducive to this change happening at all, so my prognosis is, alas, bleak for those of us in the liberal-democracies.
Agreed and there's the larger concern about population control generally that will have to be faced sooner or later if humanity is to survive. Sooner rather than later. The demands of an exponentially growing population will push the ecology beyond the point that it can support humanity at all. I doubt a politician could bring something like population control off from the liberal end of the spectrum so it'll be down to Nature to weed the garden. The elapsed time of the Swine Flu response tells me that if a truly virulent disease broke out most would stand no chance.

A politician could bring it about. I once thought the idea impossible. I mean, what a regime that would be. But looking at the way things are: law and order almost out of control with society effectively a mere collection of individual puppets with crime spoken of as an acceptable norm; and, ii) almost every minute of our lives under surveillance - with data standards compatible acrosss all departments, it wouldn't be beyond a tyrant to do a bit of data mining and round up who needs to be expunged from the gene pool.

We have an example of that from less than a century ago. He did the data mining with machines supplied by IBM, of course.

Cheers

83. doctor bob 'We have an example of that from less than a century ago. He did the data mining with machines supplied by IBM, of course.'

I wonder if the victors didn't re-write the history? As I read it, what the losers were doing was trying to reverse population decline in their country after WWI. What they were battling wasn't even seen as an inferior group, but as a ruthless anarchistic economic predator in their midst. Warnings about this were provided to the rest of Europe, and to the USA, but few listened. If my analysis is correct, what's favoured are large, dumbed down populations, as these make for ideal consumers and electorates.