Friday 8 October 2010

Please, please, please can you invite in as 'sample of society' 'guest' commenter Kevin Maguire to repeat his 'Tory toffs are an all-boys' club' over and over.

And do forget to ask him how come he is less troubled by the various hues he used to be so keen on, from pink to black, now such as Mr. Bradshaw and Ms. Abbott are less in the frame.

Or, if it is Emily tonight, at least get in a fellow orange in the form of Peter Hain, as we can save 'leccy in the lounge basking in the glow as they snipe about cuts and benefits all night long.

SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO

Surely Ed's wishes will be swamped by force majeur? We may never know, nor be able to infer, where he might have wanted to lead. One thing is sure: his words won't tell us - he's a politician.

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

Neither Balls nor Cooper have been made Shadow Chancellor......Alan Johnson has.....wasn't he also high up in the Trade Unions? Looks like the Unions are back.

Shadow Chancellor?

Ed Balls, The Mrs, Or?

Quel surprise.


It's.................. None of the above

How will tonight's programme be handled now there is no 'ooh ah a split between man and wife' to pick over.

Will Real News get a look in.

I won't be there - have a spot of Beethoven with the BBC SSO to go and listen to.

The police marksmen who shot barrister Mark Saunders may have been confused by the huge size and jargon of the training guidelines they have to study before using firearms, a coroner has suggested.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8050495/Mark-Saunders-inquest-coroner-jargon-hampering-police-common-sense.html

There so much to worry about in this about official procedure and mindset, from lowly person who still gets to shoot guns through their box-ticking PC bosses to supposedly savvy coroners, it is hard to know where to start.

A guy got slotted (anyway) because the Rambos on the ground had a a big book to read instead of leadership and common sense?

As it's "dress down" Friday, (do they still do that?) Has anyone watched the google birthday tribute to John Lennon?

https://www.google.co.uk/

No mods I'm not advertisng the above, just thought it slightly amusing!

Does Ed know what he's doing?! He certainly looks shocked and terrified!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/ed-miliband/8050726/Ed-Miliband-unveils-shocks-in-shadow-cabinet-selection.html

HOW MANY POLICE MARKSMEN DOES IT TAKE TO SHOOT A 'TARGET'?

Two - one to mark the man, and the other to mark where they got to in the manual.

(Well - someone had to, and there's lots more to come.)

Hastings - where this week the town's 138-year-old pier was hit by a devastating fire.

Aahhh but you miss out an important part of this story, the council were about to pay 3 million pounds to some off shore, or definitely not here, company just to secure the old pier that was there before the fire.

How much is that pier worth now? How much more would the council spend of tax payers money on it? 5 - 10 million to rebuild it all, so that someone can again make a lot of private money out of the (public) venture.

Why not knock it all down and ask for a private company to build a new exciting pier instead, they could then charge to walk on it, and have their own amusements, that the public would pay to use. Hhhhmm not such a popular venture then I fear.

NO CHANGE THERE THEN (#8)

All of us who function with viable intuition, sense that Limited Ed is LIMITED. He constantly sends signals, albeit inadvertently - that one or more executive files are corrupted.

WE ARE DESIGNED TO PICK UP SUCH SIGNALS AND WE IGNORE THEM AT OUR PERIL.

We ignored Brown's signals. Why did this early aspirant to Prime Ministership drop his first name James and espouse the second: Gordon? Might 'GB' be a clue?
That was just hors d'oevres.

We ignored Tony's eagerness to be in the 'limelight' (on stage) REGARDLESS OF 'THE JOB'. We got an actor.

Now we have Limited Ed. Risen through the same processes of selection and approval among very strangely motivated oddballs (MPs). If it looks odd, behaves odd, and your gut says 'ODD' then WE HAVE ANOTHER ONE - AND HE IS ODD.

One day Limited Ed could be Prime Minister of this feudal nation, with far more power than is wise. Would you get in a taxi driven by a man with THAT look on his face?

#11

I would, singie. He seems fine to me to be i'n a car with. I could tell him then what I've been saying here on the Newsnight website straight into his eats and I don't think he'd beat me up for being honest.

He could then tell me what his main worries are, perhaps, and we could even have a few laughs about this and that.

mim

Who has won the most Nobel prizes?


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11500373

THIS

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8049253/Tory-teacher-sent-home-from-school.html

is (or at least in the first instance looks like )a DISGRACE.

I am trying to find transcript of this ladies speech as I too hold strongly that the system of education (not individual teachers or schools) is failing too many young people who have potential.

It IS broken and we need MORE not fewer people, especially those at the coal face, to call the system and those who uphold and administer it, to account.

Don't send Katharine back to her classroom. Give her a senior position (and the power and personnel to achieve) in local or national education review.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE DATA AS DISPLAYED

Only fair to tell you - this is the Age of Fairness.
Will that count against Britain? I could call myself English if it helps.

With no apologies, this again.

The Average Child

by Mike Buscemi

I don’t cause teachers trouble;
My grades have been okay.
I listen in my classes.
I’m in school every day.
My teachers think I’m average;
My parents think so too.
I wish I didn’t know that, though;
There’s lots I’d like to do.

I’d like to build a rocket;
I read a book on how.
Or start a stamp collection…
But no use trying now.

’Cause, since I found I’m average,
I’m smart enough you see
To know there’s nothing special
I should expect of me.

I’m part of that majority,
That hump part of the bell,
Who spends his life unnoticed
In an average kind of hell.

#13

Have you got your eyes set out for one too, debty?

There has been a lot of angst regarding the final pension payments of the slaves that serve the Borg:

Yet there never seems to be a great deal of concern about the “Golden Hellos”, the “Golden Handshakes”, and the “Golden Parachutes”!

For example .... An individual could go from, say, Soccer body to a Communications outfit to a Broadcasting company and, each time, get more in rewards sic than most people would earn in their entire lifetime!

Oh well!


Job cuts, cost savings and downsizing lead to an improved bonus for the people at the top!

Oh well!


In Schools ‘History’ is taught, large parts of which (Locally ) centre around the WW2 topic of the systematic extermination of undesirables - Sorry, strike that last word and insert Jews (Forget all the others wiped out! They are as not important.) - and extended reference to Alex Haley’s “Roots”

Oh well!

The Abbess didn’t make it to the final 19, perhaps the PLP is finally getting the idea?

But wait! .... Co-opted members!

Is still a chance!

Oh well!



Today’s “Today” The women with ten children referenced several times how immigration had had a detrimental and direct effect upon on her and her family. The subsequent ‘discussion’ never mentioned the subject.

Is that an indirect indication of the difference between the people at the bottom and those that have the opportunity to influence the people at the top? i.e. when you are one of the ‘intelligentsia” it’s no longer necessary to listen to others even when they are right under your nose!

Oh well!


Selective Gaussian Blur is everywhere in the media! Car Number Plates, Children’s faces, Celebrity faux pas!

That old adage needs to be re-written .....

“A picture paints a thousand words minus the redacted bits.”

But then whom actually decides where the blur should go?

And at what eventual cost to our ’Social History’?

Oh well!


The Big Cons could save a fortune - in the National Interest of course - by making all it’s Speech Writers redundant.

Why?

The Big Cons often never intend what they say , and rarely say what they intend!

Oh well!



It’s Turn-over your-stomach Prize time again!


Oh .... maybe it’s not all going that terribly .... well?

https://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2010/10/paul-weston-banana-republic-that-is.html?spref=fb

latest on the passport fakers

..But apart from his London address, Mr. Lockwood left little in the way of a paper trail. U.K. investigators couldn't find any public-health records or tax information about the man, according to people familiar with the probe. He never paid a TV-license fee, mandatory in Britain for anyone who owns a set...

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704652104575493883093318088.html


that's a £1000 fine for starters.

Is it just me but ....

Has anybody ventured to suggest that the forthcoming Housing Benefit changes could also be interpreted as a cynical attempt at changing Inner City political demographics?

This is of course taking no account of the fact that it is entirely possible that a side effect will be to consequently make more rented housing available for ‘better off’ voters ....

.... whom can of course pay higher rents and therefore make landlords just that little bit richer unless, of course, landlords decide to sell - in a depressed market - to people whom have got a mortgage readily lined up!


And ...

Why would a Council Housing Authority formally announce that it will take no more asylum seekers?

Perhaps they want to make a point? i.e. That they have run out of space and need to give priority elsewhere?

From little acorns .....

Oops!

Posted on the wrong day again so ...



Response to ....

46. At 3:26pm on 08 Oct 2010, mimpromptu wrote:


Apologies .....

I didn't measure it's diameter!

Next time!

18
...WW2 topic of the systematic extermination of undesirables - Sorry, strike that last word and insert Jews (Forget all the others wiped out! They are as not important.) - and extended reference to Alex Haley’s “Roots”...

..Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship. It was an important event because it captured everyone's imagination...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots:_The_Saga_of_an_American_Family

much of education is to create false consciousness.

#19 Good link brossen99 thanks, perhaps we ought to go back to one person one vote here, instead of proxy voting, and postal voting. If the house of commons manage one person, one vote, why can't the GBP?

#21 Has anybody ventured to suggest that the forthcoming Housing Benefit changes could also be interpreted as a cynical attempt at changing Inner City political demographics?

Why would a Council Housing Authority formally announce that it will take no more asylum seekers?


Ahh yes JA there is something afoot amongst our coalition government, not obvious but being subtley and quietly carried out.

Ah I see Lord Wei, wants our money, to invest?

https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/18/lord-wei-big-society-isa

What if it all goes pear shaped?

#15 Ah Barrie, that's the old word fairness, the new one is going to be trust ; )

But I think the new one, might be a very old one, that's being renewed

AND TRUSSED, INDEED, WE ARE (#27)

Trust is a beautiful word Lizzy. To my mind it can only really exist between mature individuals. When we find no need to inspect, or enquire of, the other's thoughts or actions, that is what Eric Berne termed 'Intimacy' - an end to Games.

Not dependent on education or status, but imbibed with mothers milk and mother's nurturing, as we map wisdom onto our being. So much is lost and, starting from here, cannot be regained.

The last people I would give my trust to are the wannabes of Westminster. Listening to all the variations on a theme of delight and loyalty, from the newly installed Cabinet, my heart sank yet lower. The prize goes to Postman Prat for lauding his arrival as shadow Chancellor, in 'the deep end' of monetary ignorance.

Oh - it's all going awfully well.

HIGH TIGER LOW HORIZON (#26)

There is something poignant about an ethnic Chinese, westernised to the point of pursuing excellence in OUR School system.

Don't you just long for an inscrutable Hollywood-style 'Master', who magically materialises in desperate schools, and having caught the short-span kids attention, with magic, fills them with a realisation that THERE IS ANOTHER WEI?

Oh - it could all go awfully well.

29

chinese military intelligence have installed our telephone exchanges so why shouldn't they run our schools too?

given the kid wants '..to see local referendums used so that people can have a say on beat policing, public health, or take over unused local public assets. Wei suggested community organisers might be able to create pro-social behaviour groups built around mobile phone networks so that people could be instantly alerted to gather, collectively witness, or challenge outbreaks of antisocial behaviour by a gang....'

it sounds a lot like what the maoists were doing in nepal?

ecolizzy #25

It would appear that there is a subtle trend towards forcing all low income people to live in areas of towns where in the future the area can be easily turned into some kind of virtual ghetto. Such prospective future ghetto areas may be identified by the installation of heavy traffic calming. Perhaps its all part of any Corporate Nazi arch plan for the future of the UK, the population segregated on the basis of financial apartheid. The eco-fascists have consistently pushed for the introduction of traffic calming even though they knew full well at least as long ago as 1995 that it significantly increased pollution, perhaps it fits in with their plan to dispose of the majority of low income people. No need for concentration camps, perhaps far more profitable to freeze and starve people to death in a rented home in a virtual ghetto, lets see what IDS comes up with on rates for his " Universal Credit " as a pointer as to whether the Corporate Nazi plan is still on track.
It is interesting to note that almost all the scenes of the fatal Knife Crime wave a couple of years ago featured traffic calming or a 20 Mph speed limit. The installation of traffic calming is probably the key step towards a residential area becoming totally run down and lawless. By deterring regular through traffic from the streets criminals have more opportunities to commit crime without detection. Gangs of youths are more likely to congregate and cause trouble if they don't need to keep a sharp lookout for traffic. The evidence must show that almost all current semi-derelict slum areas have one thing in common, namely traffic calming installed at some point over the last 20 years. This must say something about the mentality of those alleged community leaders who campaign for the introduction of traffic calming. Take danger out of people's life ( particularly teenagers ) and they may replace it with something far worse.

Perhaps one good reason that they have installed traffic calming in Asian areas in big towns is to help control any future civil unrest. Of course they have it in " rough " white dominated estates also, where the chattering classes consider a large proportion of the inhabitants are at or near the poverty line.

Humps in the road are an ideal protection against anyone stealing a service vehicle in an attempt to break out through the gates. Impossible to get any decent speed up if there are humps everywhere. Its only one easy step to ring fencing certain areas of towns and turning them into virtual Warsaw type ghettos. Nobody will be let in or out without a permit, plenty of work for private security guard companies now that much housing is under the control of housing associations. I believe that locked gates have already been installed on some " alley's ".

The current main argument for imposing traffic calming is totally based on the NIMBY philosophy, ten bob fat cat property speculators desperately attempting to increase the theoretical value of their home. It would appear that they were under the impression that they actually own the road outside their mortgaged house and can dictate who can or can't use it, only a complete fool would buy a house with traffic calming on the street, especially if it was adjacent to an obstacle.

THE WEI THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

Good grief! If the pathetic Mr Wei is our guide, it seems the truth of Big Society is a pyramid scheme, dedicated to developing ambassadors and mentors for - THE BIG SOCIETY. Do you remember the Python sketch: "Wicker Island"? What a life.

They say our mental health is in crisis. DARNED RIGHT IT IS!

I hope Miss76 was moved when Mentor Wei said: "The Big Society? It's about NOT BEING SMALL!" Worth a toe-curling effusion I thought.(:o)

"Tonight we investigate the background of Abdul Jabbar, the British terrorist suspect killed last month in a drone attack in Pakistan, who Newsnight learnt earlier this week was being groomed to head an al-Qaeda splinter group in the UK."

oh dear NN still at it. the great big threat to the uk from pakistan and yet the uk intel services would say the greater threat is from irish dissidents.

so in whose interest is it to keep this propaganda alive, despite no hard evidence of any serious grouping or plot and based on some anonymous tip offs which may or may not be true.is someone looking for a war in yet another country?

what is the hard - physical evidence that jabbar has been killed?

anyway richard watson should have referred to todays guardian :

"A US terror alert issued this week about al-Qaida plots to attack targets in western Europe was politically motivated and not based on credible new information, senior Pakistani diplomats and European intelligence officials have told the Guardian."

https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/07/barack-obama-terror-threat-claims

beyond that quote the article suggests that the pre emptive strikes that may have killed jabbar are possibly illegal and might be viewed as assassinations. the article even goes on to state that the setting up of 'jihadi' groups that watson is suggesting is not an easy task.

the guardian article quotes Thomas de Maizière, germanys interior minister who described the danger to germany as "hypothetical".

again watson fails to make any commentary on the illegality of the drones, assassinations and the great human cost to ordinary pakistan citizens. these are important points that should not be overlooked just because the narrative from governments/intel orgs chooses to ignore these alleged criminal actions.

so again the uk media including the bbc NN is hyping a rather tiny threat to the uk and the question remains for what purpose and whose benefit.

an even more interesting piece in the independent that should really put richard watsons commentary on pakistan and jihadis in perspective :

".... There is no incentive to play down the "Islamic threat to Pakistan" on the part of any journalist who wants his or her story to be published, think-tankers who need a grant, or diplomats who seek promotion. The influence and prospects for growth of small jihadi organisations are systematically exaggerated. Over-attentive reading of the Koran is seen as the first step on the road to Islamic terrorism. Overstated claims about their activities by fundamentalist Islamic groups are happily lapped up and repeated...."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/is-pakistan-falling-apart-2100865.html

Good ole BBC never stand up for the British people. Everyone else is important but not us.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/10_october/08/world.shtml

#22

Considering that it is not publically known who you are, insisting in hiding behind your invented name/s, I can't imagine your 'smile' is an open and comfortable one, debty.

#35

It's not fair, Ecolizzy, there are quite a few of us who are at real pains to do just that but what I, at least, get in return is CARP. Not from everybody, though, I hasten to add.
And so, to those who recognize what I’m about and who do not see it as a bucks opportunity, a BIG THANK YOU.

mim ѼѼѼѼ

Doesn't any of our governments here understand the word overcrowded?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8051349/India-trade-deal-with-EU-will-allow-thousands-of-immigrants-into-Britain.html

Ahhhh JAperson What were we saying yesterday about leaving the poor Chilian miners alone after their ordeal???!!!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/8051575/Chile-miners-BBC-sends-25-to-cover-rescue-of-33.html

Like you pointed out, I do hope this is a totally successful operation!

IT'S YOUR 'SOAR-AWAY FUN' TABLOID BBC (#39)

One thing is sure, the reporting will be edgy and fun, going forward.

As for the miners, their mental health is in far greater danger from 'counselling' than the original situation.

When my brother had his stroke, the social worker assigned was on another planet.

#40

Laughter and Tears, singie, I predict, but this may not be on all sides, with some only in tears, with some 'having fun', as you say, while others will be shedding tears, mostly with happiness.

mim

"Ed Miliband is expected to announce his Shadow Cabinet later today.
What signals will it give us about where the new Labour leader wants to lead his party? And who will get the key role of shadow chancellor?"

Which bit of "the Shadow Cabinet is elected" (not appointed) do you not understand? Like your description of China being a dictatorship, what hope is there for rational coverage on Newsnight when your premises wrong to start with? See Democratic Centralism.

If you begin with false assumptions and your programme then proceeds as if those assumptions are true, what will you end up with other than propaganda and/or nonsense?

See comments to BBC bias Editor's Blog.

I hope this is received as helpful criticism.

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

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

14. At 5:00pm on 08 Oct 2010, LC2 wrote:

"It IS broken and we need MORE not fewer people, especially those at the coal face, to call the system and those who uphold and administer it, to account."

Let me try and prompt you to radically think (or at least become aware of your assumptions). Here it is: What makes you think that teachers have much to do with education?


Remember those school comprehension tests of old? Where you had to grasp the point of the entire passage before you were asked logical questions which tested whether you had comprehended what you had read? The correct answers had to be deduced as they were not there in the text to be copied?

Having explained the concept of dysgenic and differential fertility and how this genetically relates to cognitive ability and productivity, why might one political party encourage a flat rate Child benefit system whilst another might try to make those with low ability struggle so as not to have too many children?

That's a subtle question as it may not relate to current political parties, but one can ask which group would want more consumers but not private competition, and which group would want a growing in ability managed society?


"33. At 11:44pm on 08 Oct 2010, wendymann wrote:

oh dear NN still at it. the great big threat to the uk from pakistan and yet the uk intel services would say the greater threat is from irish dissidents."

The greatest threat of all was New Labour, their deregulated Financial Service masters and the election of the Con-Dems to put the country 'right' by slashing and burning our Public Sector.

Now, seriously, tell me about ANY terrorist group which has managed to achieve anything near that scale of disruption to our lives!

Richard Watson is an absolute disgrace

#31 You make some interesting points brossen, I know people who live near speed humps they are extremely noisy and do increase polution and length of time the car is there. They comment everyone has to change down their gears and rev up, the noise and exhaust fumes have difinitely increased. To say nothing of the damage to coil springs and catalytic converters!

I can understand your theory of lower speed limits increasing loitering around but don't know if it happens. We have 20 mph speed restrictions in our town, I think it does make people less cautious when crossing the road, they think everyone will go slow, and of course some don't.

In the growing town of Ashford they have this weird system, whereby pedestrian and cars and bikes have no restrictions. It's weird no road markings etc. at the moment everyone is very careful as people have the right to walk out in the road, but I wonder when it's established for a while, whether accidents will go up again.

We also have the locked ally's you mention, they run along the back of some houses that were once council owned, unfortunately not these days! I think it did stop the opportunist thief, and discouraged drug dealing and taking in the ally, haven't spoken to anyone lately there, to see if it's successful or not.

I hate the "gated" "community!", idea as well, an american idea of course. To my mind it would attract burglers muggers etc because there would appear to be something there that others would want.

I don't know what the idea is in regard to civil disturbance, perhaps governments haven't fully worked it out yet. But I do know that on new housing estates, the roads only have to be 10 feet wide now. So that's why we're all jammed in together, no space for parking cars or kids to play!

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

Like you pointed out, I do hope this is a totally successful operation!"

Save your sentiments ecolizzy as your hopes won't make any difference one way or the other. These just serve to increase your perceived social desirability (just as this remark from me will serve to do precisely the opposite). Neither make any difference, and the young journalists and their teams in Chile just for their jollies at our expense. Until more people shift their focus in this respect you should expect more to get worse all round. Austerity measures? Value for money from the BBC? Pah!

They are showing us that those who say that state run enterprises are corrupt do have a point. Look at what Thompson, Ross etc are paid. This is why Paxman winces when Boris Johnson raises this issue. It's like pointing to leaders of socialist states in limos paid for by the poor licence fee/tax payer.

"38. At 08:35am on 09 Oct 2010, ecolizzy wrote:
Doesn't any of our governments here understand the word overcrowded?"

They have been told by 'their electorate' that they can never have too many customers!

My take is that all the sex, race etc equalities legislation has been libertarian, i.e to ensure there are more consumers out there for Tesco etc just as all the benefits are easy come, easy go (straight into Tesco's and M&S etc coffers etc).

People are so naive.

GETTING THE HUMP (#46)

Round here, when they had to resurface the road, MOSTLY DUE TO 'EXCAVATION' RESULTING FROM COMBINED IMPACT AND LOSS OF TRACTION, AS VEHICLES RIDE HUMPS, we were democratically offered no, low, or high humps.

I tried to tell them the road would last longer with no humps, and money saved could pay for other means to the same end. I pointed out that to try to inhibit the driver's mind VIA the vehicle is DUMB and DESTRUCTIVE. Far better to impact (!) the driver's mind DIRECTLY. Remember the cardboard policemen? Also we have, ever more sophisticated, solar-powered speed signs. At busy times, you only need to slow a few and the rest have no option. In the small hours, criminals and ASBOs either ignore the humps or use them as added pleasure, in a stolen car.

I think we got medium humps - very British. Mind you, our 'Robin Hood' underpass, that is also a National Cycleway, needs humps more than any road. The ASBOs nicked the mirrors years ago - a serious event is long overdue. I did tell the Council . . .

Evenin' all.

"DEAD MEN AND WOMEN WALKING" (Douglas Alexander)

What a pathetic mentality! Douglas Alexander, on radio, felt the need to refer to Scottish LibDems using the time-honoured phrase: "Dead men walking". However, being a politician, EVERYTHING is pre-processed through an infinity of filters. The result is that nothing said presents the speaker to the listener, and Alexander ended up with a lame utterance. Perhaps this 'normality' is why politicians are so at-home with speechwriters; while the ordinary punter would not dream of using another's words, they NEVER use their own unguardedly.

The Westminster Ethos is pernicious. SPOILPARTYGAMES

@ Ecolizzy #38 - if the UK got out of the EU for good, then we could control our own borders!

#49

a king or a pig?

‘People are so naive’, you say, mr table,
But how about yourself?
Are you sure your ‘plans’ are all that stable
With recruitment of more customers for M&S and Tesco?
And what if it all ends up in a huge blasting fiasco?

mim

#53 addendum

It was somewhat unfair of you, table, not to have mentioned the importance of customers to other supermarkets like Sainsbury's and Waitrose. I'm not 100% sure what kind of contributory good work the John Lewis partnership does, apart good quality products but the Sainsbury family have been doing great work for this country in all kinds of ways for years now by contributing to politics, health, science and the arts. In this respect they seem to remain unbeatable, don't you think?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainsbury_family

mim

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainsbury_family

In reply to #45 by TabbleNabble0l

Sadly, I am already aware of how many degrees of separation exist currently between teachers/schools and 'education'. Or at least what passes for 'education'.

Where I perhaps failed was to find the right word or phrase that relates to what should be being delivered under the guise of education. Wisdom is perhaps too vague and misunderstood; knowledge - too narrow and easy to fake; Understanding - maybe, but not expressive or attractive enough a concept to work in today's market.

And isn't that the problem. Today's 'market', what the populace believe and in what percentage is the number one problem we are facing. No one wants to hear or discuss the truth, they want to be made to feel nice, and good, and inclusive, and able, and fair, and equal and wanted and...........soft and cuddly.

So in order to make changes, it seems one almost has to embrace and work with that existing 'market'. But it goes against the grain. That, or there is revolution but not sure if barricades and riots ever work. Revolutions merely install a new bourgeois class forming.

What is delivered, under the guise of essential to all education, to all who will listen from age 3 to degree is all designed to prevent rather than encourage self and world awareness. It is the practice of regurgitation of that which should be rejected or analysed in the first place.

Tests are arbitrary, too formulaic and too focused on the wrong outcomes. There seems to be no method of encouraging and 'teaching' free thinking and evaluation of known facts as far as can be ascertained.

So, the result is a growing populace who believe the lines they are fed and our society grows top heavy with manipulated middle managers who make nothing and make nothing happen other than the lining of pockets of those they collude with.

The political groups you allude to in Para 2 are a little too clear, too easy don't you think? Trick question???? But ......"which group would want a growing in ability managed society?" beats me. I give in. Do tell? Whoever they are they are going to struggle to make much headway in today's society.

By the way, no need to shout, I am not deaf!

AWARENESS (#55)

Though your use of the word 'awareness' was in a negative context LC2, I suggest it was the concept you sought to capture.

Awareness gives rise to engagement, contemplation, application, adaptation, resolution, even tolerance?. To me, that sounds like maturity.

Oh - let's not forget the greatest prize of all - SELF awareness. (;o)

The comprehension issue above is worth pondering over )(who does she think she is ...kidding?), as most people, post school-leaving age (it looks like kids are having to leave school later and later these days!), won't bother trying to think this way as it hurts and a) they had to be disciplined to think that way in the first place. b) not many were very good at it c) now they're not in school they don't have to anyway, so there! (and even if they once could, they have since filled their heads with so much alcohol and/or drugs over the years that they can't do it anymore even if they tried anyway, and d) who is this tabblenabble01 who's trying to make them do it anyway, that pompous so and so is just like Hitler/Stalin/Ahmadinejad (choose your favourite statist/authority figure to vilify)! This is, after all, just a blog where everyone can post any old rubbish they like and demand that it be respected as equal in value to anything anyone else writes (we're all equals/the same
- it was on a TV programme!). It's every human right aka licence-fee payers' entitlement to be heard.

Init?

ERROR (#57)

2 ens in innit tab.

#55

Just in case you're 'talking' to me, 'luck2', I've discovered that shouting is good both for my chest and my vocal cords. It seems to strengthen them. That's why, I think, children shout, by nature, spontaneously. In some ways it seems a shame that once we reach adulthood, we abandon spontaneity by becoming tame, feeling we need to be 'in control' of ourselves, with the worst scenario, of course, if somebody else attempts to control us. It may indeed work in some cases but it doesn't look like that sort of thing suits the way I am and feel.

However, as I've indicated before, a mutual consensual exchange seems to work fine in my case.

#59 update

Re: shouting

I feel like shouting my heart out for Linda and her Family now:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11507313

uk democracy institutionalises incompetence.

smith dodges hayekism. everyone else is pretty open about it. A Hayekist might say smith failed at the roundabout because he wasn't being 'spontaneous' enough.


https://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2010/09/philip-booth-what-ministers-should-learn-from-hayeks-the-constitution-of-liberty-.html


...why Mr Hayek and his Constitution of Liberty has all the answers

https://www.liberal-vision.org/tag/friedrich-hayek/


https://www.cobdencentre.org/2010/08/the-big-society-cameron-nichols-hayek-and-the-last-pope/

https://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=8989

#61

Don't you, yourself, belong or represent any institution, jaunty? Stop for a second and think. In this case Singie is right. One can't value self-awareness too highly. Why should you carry on underminding what's been 'built' in this country for centuries instead of positively contributing to further development? Do not forget that in most, not all, cases there's always room for improvement.

:o) Something for your Christmas stocking!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8052806/University-Challenge-Your-starter-for-50.html

64
..underminding what's been 'built' ..

in what way is 'uk democracy institutionalises incompetence' wrong? Alan Johnson is now shadow chancellor with no knowledge of skill in finance? thus he becomes a puppet of advisers who can use jedi mind tricks to make false consciousness [as happened with the credit crunch with the -light touch regulation mantra]. Does one put someone with no skill or training in a national title boxing match? What is the likely outcome? For the good of the uk people or not? Thus we should argue for the good in all things including state institutions.


in what way is pointing out the good 'undermining'? in what way is 'the good' a negative? i know many in the moral relativist world think 'the good' is an oppression, fascist even which is why they hate it. they would rather inflict the 'fairness' of the lowest common denominator that demands human sacrifice than excellence.

what has been built? A system that allows incompetence 'to rule'. where there is no society building science [see iraq inquiry]. A system that has brought the credit crunch that has made the uk bankrupt for a generation. where an inner empire of millionaire landowners are paid by the state merely for owning land yet those in 'the lower orders' have their benefits cut. Where the national oath the national anthem have nothing 'national' about them but are private role gaming monarchy propaganda. if anyone is undermining 'the good' but perverting the state to their own ends its not me.

WHAT IS THE SOUND OF ONE HEADLESS CHICKEN LYING? (#66)

Westminster-speak.

SPOILPARTYGAMES

Newsnight's VERY OWN Stephanie Flanders once dated Ed Miliband AND Ed Balls!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319222/How-Stephanie-Flanders-fell-Ed-heels--Balls-AND-Miliband.html

#66

It seems to me that you've offended quite a few of Brits above, 'the purest of the pure', jaunty, extremely deeply, I'd venture to add.

Could you please enlighten us what kind of constructive contribution have you, yourself, made to this society, apart from ceaselessly criticising the UK democratic system and the Brits.

#67

It seems to me, singie, that it's the 'original headless chicken' that is now trying to wriggle out of the mess he keeps leaving behind his undertakings.

#68

I'd rather get a pair of bright and sparkling pair of socks in my stocking for Christmas, to be honest, Mistress76uk, to match the pair of gloves that I already do have.

mim

CONFUSED DOT ED (#68)

Have I really sunk this low?

#68

So what? Do you think this piece of 'news' makes Sytephanie more interesting and attractive to men as a woman and above all does it make any difference to her work as a journalist, Mistress76uk?

#72

A bit of a shame you didn't become aware of it ages ago, singie.

@ Mim #73 - It shows that Stephanie has very poor taste in men indeed...also explains her left-wing bias - her grandfather, Claud Cockburn a Communist radical journalist..

also an interesting read
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-478859/LITTLEJOHN-If-BBC-reporter-Stephanie-Flanders-speaks-Britain-Im-gnu.html

#75

Mistress76uk

Thank you for your reply. I do not think we should be engaging on these pages assessing attractiveness or otherwise of politicians or journalists but rather concentrate on the work they do.

As far as Stephanies background is concerned, the fact that she had a communist grandfather does not mean she herself is a commie. If she is left wing orientated, well, she has every right to be so. It's true that frequently children grow up.believing i'n more or less a similar set of beliefs, nevertheless some 'rebel' and go in a completely different direction.


Stephanie and gnu? I thought so but as I haven't read the article, I can"t really comment on its contents but will try and write back on my return home as i'm currently at the Royal Chelsea Hospital Gardens enjoying the sunshine and the sculptures displayed outside which are part of the exhibition London Art with one of them being a shining iin the sun bull.

mim

NEVER MIND LIBERAL ELITES. THE LOONY FRINGE DECORATORS HAVE BEEN (#75)

I watched my first Politics Show of the new season, today. The studio is a whizz - going forward. I mean - like - Wow! All the colours of the rainbow EXCEPT GREEN on bullseye-topped cylindrical 'tables' with the coloured ring motif, reprised on the colour-saturated wall-scene, where the rings expanded and contracted like Cultural Millennium economy-sphincters. Is the absence of GREEN significant? Or is green SO NOT TODAY!

Please get gumshoe Crick to go through the bins and find out what this X-Factor make-over has cost the hard working British tax-payer going backward.

Oh it's looking terribly expensive - going forward.

PS Saw Limited Ed on the show. One thing that is not limited is his EGO! The Tories are said to be hoping to get under his skin. They will have to dig down a long way, even to find it!

If you thought Brown did a pretty good Ahab, at the end of his voyage, you ain't seen nothin', going forward.

TOO MANY FESTIVALS (#77)

Delete 'Cultural Millennium' - insert 'Cultural OLYMPICS'. The sphincters retain their relevance - perhaps the more so.

https://my.telegraph.co.uk/reasonmclucus/reasonmclucus/15835660/professor-emiritus-hal-lewis-resigns-from-american-physical-society/

#78

Are you referring to your sphincters, those of the Sphinx' or mine, singie? As for the 'X factor' retractor, no longer of much use is this loony 'constrictor'.

loony balloony
makes the world gloomy

mim
from a patch of green at Kensington Gardens

THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE LAND IN THOSE DAYS (#80 link)

A massive service performed there Bro - you will never get a job in 'Public Service' broadcasting. If Feynman were alive this would kill him.

I wonder how many know the parallels between ClimateScam and WorldTradeCentreScam? 'Purchased/coerced certainty', from 'physicists', underpins both.

Precedent goes back to the 50s when Immanuel Velikovsy was crucified by the Establishment in USA. Search The Velikovsky Affair.

https://www.grazian-archive.com/quantavolution/QUANTAVOL/va_docs/va_1.pdf

"We dedicate this book to people who are concerned about the
ways in which scientists behave and how science develops. It
deals especially with the freedoms that scientists grant or
withhold from one another." 1978

Plus ca change

BE SURE TO REPOST ON MONDAY

#81

Are you calling me 'bro' or the headless chicken, singie?

"55. At 1:52pm on 09 Oct 2010, LC2 wrote:
In reply to #45 by TabbleNabble0l

Sadly, I am already aware of how many degrees of separation exist currently between teachers/schools and 'education'. Or at least what passes for 'education'.

Where I perhaps failed was to find the right word or phrase that relates to what should be being delivered under the guise of education. Wisdom is perhaps too vague and misunderstood; knowledge - too narrow and easy to fake; Understanding - maybe, but not expressive or attractive enough a concept to work in today's market."

My point was to try to get you to examine your core (very widely shared to the point of being received wisdom) assumptions about the nature of education itself. A couple of my earlier posts have been pulled perhaps because they included long quotes? Anyway, here's my point.

Despite many beliefs to the contrary, teachers do not know how to teach, nor do they know what learning is. They operate on an almost mythical tabula rasa ideology, and yet we have no evidence that this is how teaching or learning works. What we do have evidence for is that much of human (like other animal) behaviour is emitted, and changes as a function of maturation/ageing. It is largely the function of genetic expression, for which there is evidence of subtle diversity between individuals. Most teachers are not taught in this way, and certainly don't operate this way. They operate as if they have buckets to fill, and act as if any either leak or can only be filled by very clever pouring paraphernalia. Unknown to themselves they operate as naive Lysenkoists. Some have said that for many decades our teaching profession has been subverted by Marxists, not the teachers themselves, but academics (those at the Institute of Education). Most teachers themselves mean well, but are radically misinformed about the nature of behaviour, which is why they often try to do t he impossible. Telling them what I say below will not sink in either..

The reality is that it is probably largely selection of emerging behaviours, and finding opportunities for expression, i.e shaping and directing of those emerging behaviours. This mean that if the overall gene pool (intake of a school, or even country) is in genetically in decline for all sorts of reasons, then no paraphernalia will ever work. Blaming teachers is therefore a mistake. It's the kids, and they should not be blamed either, as they did not choose their genes.

This is quite a subtle and radial shift from common sense. Can you see how?.

I'm shouting because the chances are that you still won't get it. If and when you do, re-read your original posts and you'll be saying, "aha....now I see what was meant by assumptions....

NFU fears Big Society could hurt industry

..Roberts, speaking at a British Tomato Growers' Association conference in Coventry last week, told growers that he was uncertain how Big Society and localism - allowing local people to effectively run their communities - will work.

"This Government has already taken away all of the regional development agencies, which were driving investment in their local communities, but these have been swept away with no solution as to what goes in their place. They swept away the old infrastructure without having a new one in place of it."

He added that the NFU was particular concerned about the impact that Big Society and localism will have on planning....

https://www.hortweek.com/news/1033138/NFU-fears-Big-Society-hurt-industry/

no one tells them to read Hayek. They will have to be more 'spontaneous'.

the hayekist 'big society' will lead to the same crash in society as it led in the financial system which was 'spontaneous' in making stuff up to suit them.

84

..They swept away the old infrastructure without having a new one in place of it."..

that is the point of hayekism. there will be nothing to replace it but 'spontaneous' action. In the 1980s this 'spontaneous' action was in the form of riots.

"55. At 1:52pm on 09 Oct 2010, LC2 wrote:
In reply to #45 by TabbleNabble0l

If you look up (or ask Debtjuggler nicely?) the extract from a good paper by Herrnstein in 1990 on Rational Choice Theory (cited some time back in the context of behavioural economics and our current mess), you will see the author (actually one of the progenitors of the science of Behavioural Economics alhough he wil be played down for egregious reasons) refer to The Experimental Analysis of Behavior. This is in fact another name for Operant Conditioning (aka Behavior Analysis). This is the most effective (and most poorly understood) technology of behaviour known to man. I therefore have little doubt that most of what I am saying here will not be understood by most people reading this, but I promise you, what I say here is sound and descriptive. To understand more of what I am saying, see the extract, follow up the author's work (it will be hard work), and try to see the rest of what you see me write here in that context, as an awful lot of people have been radically misled for a very long time (I suggest for political/economic purposes) in ways which are poorly appreciated and rarely openly discussed as some have a vested interest in that being and remaining the case.

#86

'an awful lot of people have been radically misled for a very long time (I suggest for political/economic purposes)', you say table? It's only too clear to me why and to what purposes. People that have been misled may indeed feel rather silly to have fallen in for it and that's why it has not come openly to light as yet. But it will.

And do you know what? I've been contacted by a bank in Africa and America promising me pots of money. For some people it may not be that much for me 18.5 million of dollars is quite a bit. I could even, possibly, buy a house or a flat for myself, or simply change all my outfits, for example, leaving enough to live on and do ice skating for a few years. Apparently, the money is deposited in a Swiss bank and it's something to do with the deposed mustchio Sadam Hussain, one of the favourites of another previously mustachioed politician, Georgie Galloway /I can see he has now grown a beard, though/. It's a 'funny old world' at times, isn't it?

P.S. I saw him once passing me by at Whiteley's in Queensway to make things even 'funnier'.

#76 update

Mistress76uk

I have now read the article from your link which reminded me of Stephanie being related to the singer of the Flanders & Swann duo and I have even found the gnu song on u-tube with Michael Flanders in the clip I saw sporting a moustache. I wonder whether it was one of the reasons why one of Newsnight bloggers, who has since changed his name, chose this particular name and who keeps mentioning Stephanie in his posts, as well as Paul Mason and Robert Peston in particular.

Whether he is known to Stephanie Flanders I do not know but I'd like to add that, like Stephen Smith, she does not get on my nerves. Most of the time, not being into the technicalities of the economy, I tend to switch off when journalists talk about the subject, but it's nothing to do with her as a person and I find her rather pleasant and composed when she's in the studio chatting to /well, discussing things with/ Paxo.

mim

#81 & #82

Are you still in need of the 'big bro', singie?

https://www.worldbusinessnews.net/politics/4954-ukip-border-control-pretence-now-gone.html

#86 tn01

I can, at least, provide a link to said Herrnstein paper from that blog post...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2010/08/as_the_leaves_turn_gold_the_wo.html

However, I have to admit that I read a lot more than just that short section above, and, I had to read it over several times to understand it i.e. I had to concentrate for more than 15 mins on the subject.

BTW

Have you heard the latest...the Govt now wants to remove the cap on student fees (currently £3,290), so that they can be increased to around £7,000 (or there abouts)... BUT THAT THESE FEES BE ALLOWED TO PAID BACK VIA LOANS WITH VARIABLE INTEREST RATES.

These free-market loving, Libertarian, snake-oil salesmen are now trying the same (Jedi mind) trick as was used on the 'sub-prime' mortgage victims.

You just couldn't make it up!

WHO SAYS WE ARE BECOMING A FEMINISED SOCIETY?

Boy Cheerleaders
[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

PERVERSE ALBION LURES OK.(#90)

Sort of sits well with having to give up your house, when 'they' move in, eh Lizzy?

Britain is now way beyond Alice in Wonderland and rapidly morphing into a Monty Python sketch.

Meanwhile the party politicians all know best how to drive Britain forward; totally failing to register that they are in the EU kiddy-seat, with a plastic steering wheel - CONNECTED TO NOTHING! (And a full nappy.)

@ Ecolizzy #90 - I am saddened but not entirely shocked. The EU control Britain now, even though we elect whomever we want, we are dictated to by the EU......this is why I keep banging on about why the UK should get out of the EU for good.

Here's the case for leaving the EU
https://www.tfa.net/betteroffout/thecaseforleavingtheeu.html

"From being a supporter of British membership of the Common Market in 1970 I have come to believe that the United Kingdom would be Better Off Out of the developing European Republic of the 21st century. We British have a thousand year history of self-government. We have been free and democratic longer than any other nation. The European Union is too diverse, too bureaucratic, too corporatist and too centralist to be a functioning democracy. We are happy to trade with our European friends and the rest of the world - but we would prefer to govern ourselves." The Rt. Hon. the Lord Tebbit of Chingford CH, PC Patron of BETTER OF OUT

#93 and 94 Yes Barrie and Mistress, UKIP look more and more tempting every day, just wish I'd voted for them this time!

I remember voting for the Common Market back in the heady days of '72, with good ole Ted spouting off. But at the time I think there were around 7 - 8 member countries, I don't remember voting for it to be almost 30 now and a strong Islamic one about to join. WHAT HAPPENED, when I wasn't looking! : (

There is a really rubbish Woody Allen film at the momement (ironically called 'Small Time Crooks' on BBC2).

It is truly one of the worst films I have ever watched!

Think of two fish wives arguing incessantly...and that just about sums up the film so far!

CORRUPTION CAN'T GOVERN ANYTHING (#94/95)

European government is too large even to hide it's own corruption. Britain is institutionally corrupt, but it is so subtly woven into our governance, it shows less, and can be quickly re-hidden should it surface.

To leave the union would be from pan to fire - just a downsize in corrupt governance. If we do not take Westminster apart: functionally, physically and symbolically (as was done with the house of Fred and Rosemary West) and RADICALLY re-configure governance to suit a small nation in a globally hyperactive, amoral world, we might as well just wait for the end.

We simply cannot start from here. The Westminster ethos is so incestuously inbred, it is devoid of pragmatic self-sacrifice in the interest of the nation's psychological wellbeing and contentedness. Westminster politics is obsessed with GDP, heroic warfare and false world status propped with Trident - the delusional deterrent.

Westminster is terrified of media subversion and paralysed by the power of Banking. Against this appalling backdrop, the party-charade endures. But we shall have a referendum on AV . . .

Just leaving the EU won't fix it.

Weep Britain.

A corrupt soul has singie
Who likes to team up with bingie
Bingie or bungie, whatever the name,
They do nothing but constantly winging.
Winging in hope to win on sphincteric fringes.

Now discuss?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8054403/Britains-coping-classes-at-breaking-point.html

Trevor has been on radio 4 this morning, I heard him talking of Chinese and Indian girls, I didn't hear him mention the indigenous race, but perhaps I'm deaf.

97. At 01:09am on 11 Oct 2010, barriesingleton wrote:

"If we do not take Westminster apart: functionally, physically and symbolically (as was done with the house of Fred and Rosemary West) and RADICALLY re-configure governance to suit a small nation in a globally hyperactive, amoral world, we might as well just wait for the end. "

So, you 1) see the UK/EU economies and political systems deconstruct with the aid of the SI, and you 2) see the Libertarian Lisbon Treat slipped into place in lieu of the EU Constitution, and you 3) see UK Westminster and public sector deconstruct before your very eyes (facilitated by a (wholly contrived) expenses scandal, ever you 4) ever more lax borders and further erosion of the welfare state and public services elsewhere in Europe to pay for bank bail-outs but you still can't see the bigger picture and put it all together ...but think governance should be radically re-configured? What did you envisage it ever looking like?

Maybe you're right - maybe you won't be told anything.

Maybe it would have been interesting to have some analysis and discussion years ago as to whether what has been going would be for the best of Britain given the way the populations of Europe were in decline?

There was the possibility of electoral/governance change back then, and even some new manifestos. Remember what happened to that Old Labour party in all but name the BNP?