Thread 15 Starmer - Nolite te bastardes carborundorum

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5244293-thread-14-starmer-the-starmeristas-strike-back?page=40&reply=141334312

Some sort of weird "well if the Tories can do it" kind of feeling ? Rather forgetting their place in media land

The Johnson government was indeed mired in dodgy deals but he didn't even pretend to care abouit it. This sequence of issues feels more like willful blindness toward the shortcomings of chums in the Camden set and a poor understanding of the optics.

I hoped for better at least in the first 12 months.

The Siddiq posting was chummy. I didn't agree with Badenoch's accusation on robbery (doesn't she know what that means??) but much happier with Bell being in post (smarter).

Without a classics background, how would allusions to Caesars wife be understood ?

Perhaps we need to update it to say that

Boris Johnson is never beyond reproach

Ever since you popped in to chat with us Rummly I always say your name in my head as "Cholmondeley!" Daft , I know.
Anyhoo , I feel really cheered by the comments under Beth Rigby calling out the ridiculous coverage of The Reform party.
I cannot see for the life of me why this is being done?

It's a new angle for a bored media who would otherwise be stuck with Starmer (unexciting public servant) and Badenoch (over superior but under resourced in intellect).

Farage and lots of emotional copy gets them money. Who can get excited by Starmer and Badenoch. One is desperately preaching a kind of stodgy competency and the other is trying not to be eaten by rivals.

word salad

https://bsky.app/profile/adambienkov.bsky.social/post/3lfrxr2dj622f

How Kemi Badenoch's spokesman responded today when I asked which of the communities living in the UK she was referring to when she described them as "peasants"

https://news.sky.com/story/labour-mps-told-to-put-their-money-where-their-mouth-is-and-back-eu-youth-mobility-scheme-13289274

A campaign by Mike Galsworthy to write to your MP to back the EU youth mobility scheme

https://bsky.app/profile/mikegalsworthy.bsky.social/post/3lfrrvledx22u

Done!

Bloop bloop bloop

What bothered me as someone who has followed Siddiq's family shenanigans for a long time was the fact that it could all be overlooked for a certain set of people. It seemed both stupid and arrogant, especially with all the leaping to her defence (by contrast with the treatment of Louise Haigh).

Bell is smarter but again is part of the inner circle of chums and the CLP were not happy about another candidate imposed from North London. The management of constituencies before the last election may yet come back to bite them in North London. His background in the policy side of DWP should make him very aware of the common organisational problems but I would like also to see more MPs moving into that department who have hard experience of depending on its competence (or lack of it).

@SerendipityJane

Really if you do it right, getting a degree should almost be independent of your subject. The point is to learn rigour and how to find and interpret information and then use it to advance whatever it is you want to, or are asked to.

Absolutely. When I had a role in recruitment, in one of the agencies I worked at, we always favoured degrees like History or Literature over, say Marketing or Business, because the former were about learning how to analyse and think and put together an argument.

Oh dear.

I rarely watch much from parliament - it's almost all performance over substance.

However a snippet popped up in my feed.

I had no idea that Kemi Badenoch was that bad. I had assumed there was an element of hyperbole in the descriptions.

No wonder all the local Tories have removed their party from their profiles around here (they are now "Your local candidate"). I'd keep it quiet too.

The first reply regards propitiate media time per MP was brilliant!

The key quote:

Yes I always thought Latin was a subject those who wanted to do medicine would take if offered.

Which again - if true - will limit social mobility if it's still seen as a preference for medical students to have and only offered at private education establishments.

However I don't think really it'll have that much affect now - most unis simply admit on ucas points. Gone are the days that personal statement and work experience would be influential (although some unis still use these to determine offers)

As long as practitioners get the difference between hyper and hypo.

Frankly I would be more worried about innumeracy. Not just in medicine, but everyday life. The number of people who have zero grasp of numbers would be laughable if they weren't allowed to vote.

Although, on reflection it could also be a failure of imagination. And I have no idea how to deal with that. Especially as I will maintain till I die that imagination and intelligence are symbiotic.

I agree with you, numeracy is fundamental to understand if you are to have any hope of not being ripped off.

Of bamboozled in general.

Many years ago I was shopping and a lady went to select a 48-pack of Weetabix. It was (say) £3. Meanwhile there was a special offer of 2x24 boxes for £2. A small boy in their parents trolley (aged about 7) excitedly pointed out that it would be better to get 2x24 than one 48.

The lady looked at him like he was deranged, and just said (rather condescendingly) "But I want 48" - and put the 48 pack in her trolley and sashayed off.

Much as I detest small children 😀as I was in earshot I praised the lad and said not everyone can be clever with numbers. But it was a tiny snapshot into why everything in the UK is fucked.

The only compulsory subject for medicine always tended to be Chemistry, not even Biology, the argument being that the biology is much easier to learn.

The thing I am most disappointed about with regards to the Labour government is how cowardly they are being on Europe. There's nothing to gain in pandering to that part of the electorate who went for Leave - thaty lot are Reform fodder. Far better to go for closer ties and engage the young - Brexit is sooooo passe.

Just wanted to say thank you all for the interesting discussion on Latin, music, choral choirs and the importance of the creative arts.

I'm a product of an art school education (1970s) and was told by my Girls' Grammar School head of 6th form that I was "wasting myself" by pursuing a career in art and design.

I did Latin up to 3rd form (year 9) - had to drop it to continue with art! I was in a class that wasn't supposed to take art to O level (GCSE) so the timetable didn't work.

Not much has changed has it?

@SerendipityJane years ago when packaging was changing to metricthere was a phone in and someone was complaining that something used to be 8oz and now it was 250g for the same price and it was a disgusting price rise and the presenter agreed. DH and I were both shouting at the radio that 250g is more than 8oz so it was in fact a price decrease.

Even when I was going into IT, student were advised not to do computer science at A level but (wisely) keep their options open. A lot can happen between 16 and 18.

And forcing children to choose their life path at 14 is positively cruel - beyond medieval. Who knows if I had been allowed to wait to chose, I may have ended up putting my love of history, music, language(s) learning and reading into a more arty based life.

14 ! An age when the week before you had a favourite Tweenie.