To think schools will close, rubbish will rot and bodies won't be buried

[bananacake2134]

‏Local authorities making emergency plans for March 29th onwards 2019 for Crash Out Brexit (Leaving without a deal)

@faisalislam
NEW: Extraordinary Kent County Council No Deal Brexit document detailing “Operation Fennel” next month to hold 10,000 HGVs “on a routine basis”

-administration GCSEs/SATS

• waste services “delayed and disrupted”
• “difficulties with transport of the deceased”

Looks like there's a serious possibility of 1000s of our kids having wasted years of education as GCSE and A level exams could be cancelled.

@Racecardriver you are out of your mind if you believe that.
And @Havanananana , I saw those first time around and don't want to see them again.

buteo

I had a beer when i got in and then some port with brie and crackers and then a baileys before i went to bed

I wonder what it would be like as a cocktail...i once had a tia maria and lucazade after watching an episode of Only fools and horses, and that was very nice

Racecardriver - you have a very false image of education during the war. I am a child of the 1960s and my parents’ generation, as well as my DH’s parents’ generation (different EU country) all suffered massive educational deprivation during and after the war.

Indeed. The government had planned to increase the school leaving age from 14 to 15 at the end of the 30s as a first step to providing free secondary education for all children. That went on hold when the war started and it wasn't until the 1944 Education Act was put into force after the war that all children got secondary education. Before that most children went to the nearest elementary school at 5 and left on their 14th birthday, having had a grounding in the 3 Rs and not a lot else.

During the war, schools were evacuated from London and other cities and set up improvised schools in church halls or squeezing into a village school, often just for half the day, so they couldn't provide a full day's teaching and the facilities were poor. Not all children went with the school and lots of children returned very quickly when the bombing failed to materialise. The authorities had to provide some sort of schooling for these children in each area, but it was very hit and miss and nobody was monitoring attendance, so a lot of children missed a huge amount of education. In areas that were bombed many children would have been permanently sleep deprived and there wouldn't have anything in the way of therapy or counselling for children who were traumatised by separation from their families, bereavement, experiencing a direct hit on their home or living near one, homelessness and so on.

Older teachers were called out of, or delayed, their retirement. Married women who'd had to leave teaching were allowed to come back. Men and women who weren't medically fit to serve in the forces or go into munitions factories were able to stay in teaching.

So yes, education didn't cease altogether, but it was not provided to pre-war standards, and many children born in the late 20s through to early 40s felt the effects of that poor education well into adult life.

Bittermints my mother was born in 1936 and to her eternal shame could barely read or write, such schooling she did receive was more about crowd control, she recalled.

@ToftyAC

Yes, we survived. I was born mid 70s so more an 80s child. Things weren’t perfect, but we survived pretty well before the EEC & EU.

As you were born in the mid-70's, you obviously cannot have any memory of how life was before the UK joined the EEC in 1973, and quite likely no real memory of how things were in the late 1970's.

• Pre 1973 - Britain was the sick man of Europe, having fallen far behind the rest of western Europe in terms of economic growth, productivity, healthcare, housing standards, educational standards, innovation and standards of living. Britain looked on in bewilderment as the rest of Europe grew through cooperation, pragmatic compromise and mutual respect while the UK was stuck in semi-permanent conflict and dogma. Even when the UK joined the EEC, British politicians assumed that the UK would rapidly become the leaders of the Community - one of the main reasons why De Gaulle wanted to keep the UK out. How could these countries and cities, many of which had been almost totally destroyed by the war, now be forging ahead of the UK? How could Britain be falling behind when the natural order of things was for Britain to lead the world? (Typing this now has a very familiar ring to it )

• 1973 - 3-day working week, for 3 days pay. Power cuts every day. No TV in the evenings. Limited availability of food etc.

• 1978 - High unemployment, Strikes, food shortages, uncleared rubbish, unburied bodies (see photos above - I decided not to post the photo of the rows of coffins in Liverpool waiting to be buried).

Yes, the UK survived. I voted Remain because I have ambitions for my children and grandchildren that go a bit further than just surviving.

Why all the comparisons to the war? Brexit is something we are actively CHOOSING to do to the detriment of everyone, bar the very rich. It is self sabotage. And people just don't seem to understand how the world works! The comment about of course the Royal Mail will deliver exam papers, when the whole thread is about the chance of Kent being gridlocked - something that has happened several times already, without Brexit, and poor snowflakes living without the internet for a few hours, when most systems are now internet reliant - well words fail me really.

I was born well before 1973. It was shit.
People who think the internet is just about watching cat videos and ordering avocados for your Ocado delivery are stupid idiots. Your whole world depends on it functioning, you numpty.
People who think exams won't get interrupted by gridlock are also stupid idiots.
People who think life in WWII was manageable are idiots.
People who think no deal doesn't mean mayhem are idiots.

We don’t live in the 70’s anymore, people nowadays don’t have a clue about make do & mend & carrying on regardless!

THIS ^
In today's throwaway society, the idea of mending clothes, repairing electrical items and using up every scrap of food just isn't even considered.
When (note: not if) the meltdown comes, it isn't going to be pretty...
Apart from worrying about the medication that I must take daily to stay alive, I think that I'll be stockpiling toilet paper - as running out of that might cause problems (& maybe I can use loo rolls as currency...🤔).
My DM, who was born in WW1 and lived through WW2, always recommded stocking up on knicker elastic, needles and hairgrips, as those were what she'd found difficult to obtain

Don't panic @SeamstressfromTreacleMineRoad - hop over to the Prepper topic for lots of ideas about actual taking back control if things get tricky. The extent to which you do it is entirely up to you.

I am old enough to remember the dead nit buried and rubbish piled in the streets. Latest 70's under a Labour government. Nonsense to link this to Brext. It was bad government.

@Floods123 -and what we have now is good government?
No I don't link it toBrexit either but if roads get clogged up in Kent, other stuff can't happen.

I lived through the 1970s too, as a teenager, and I don't think it was bad government that caused our economic problems then. I certainly don't think Wilson or Callaghan (or Heath) were as bad as the current government. There was a huge crisis when the price of oil went through the roof and that led to very high rates of inflation. The unions were a lot more powerful then and that was why strikes got such high support from union members, including one group of workers striking in support of another group, not even over an issue that affected them, just to show solidarity.

Those days are long gone. We'd need a huge change in attitudes to go back to high levels of union membership and industrial action. Mrs Thatcher saw to that, and employees have been paying the price ever since.

bit it was thatcher who bought the militant unions to heel. how have employees suffered since ? they still belong to unions and have legal rights.

I have to laugh at the intrepid postie getting through with those exam papers when the whole of Kent has ground to a standstill due to gridlock.

On the other hand, I dont have to laugh at the idea that DH's cancer treatment could be impaired in any way if/when drugs and the medics necessary to give them cant reach the hospitals, or patients cant reach the hospitals either.

they still belong to unions and have legal rights.

There is much less union membership and union members's rights have been severely curtailed. Hence the rubbish of zero hours contracts and job insecurity.

Exam papers can be sent electronically/faxed and exams taken at alternative centres/public buildings if necessary - this state school in Oxfordshire had an exam contingency plan in 2015/16 for such eventualities...

1. Centre unable to open as normal for scheduled examinations

*In the event that the head of centre decides the centre cannot be opened for scheduled examinations, the relevant awarding body must be informed as soon as possible. Awarding bodies will be able to offer advice regarding the alternative arrangements for conducting examinations that may be available and the options for candidates who have not been able to take scheduled examinations.
Centre actions:
Centre to open for examinations and examination candidates only, if possible.
 Centre to use alternative venues in agreement with relevant awarding organisations (e.g. share facilities with other centres or use other public building, if possible)...


1. Candidates unable to take examinations because of a crisis - centre remains open.

Criteria for implementation of the plan: Candidates are unable to attend the examination centre to take examinations as normal. Centre actions:  Centre to liaise with candidates to identify whether the examination can be sat at an alternative venue in agreement with the relevant awarding organisations...  10. Exam Papers not arrived in time / Students issued with wrong exam papers Criteria for implementation of the plan.  Candidates are unable to sit exam due to wrong paper being delivered.  Examination papers not delivered to school on time. Centre actions:  Centre will check all exam papers upon arrival in school and will alert the appropriate Awarding Bodies of any discrepancies.  If this happens on the day of the exam, contact the Exam Boards immediately. Awarding organisations to provide centres with electronic access to examination papers via a secure external network Exam contingency plan 2015/16

Awarding organisations to fax examination papers to centres if electronic transfer is not possible.The Examinations Officer would need to ensure that copies are received, made and stored under secure conditions
.
11. Disruption to the transportation of completed examination scripts
Criteria for implementation of the plan.
Delay in normal collection arrangements for completed examination scripts.
Centre actions:
In the first instance centres to seek advice from awarding organisations and normal collection agency regarding collection. ... School should not to make their own arrangements for transportation without approval from awarding organisations.

Centre must ensure secure storage of completed examination papers until collection.

All exams scripts must be stored in the secure Exams Office. If this
is not accessible, then in the safe in the Main Front Office...

Joint Contingency Plan in the event of widespread disruption to the Examination System in England, Wales and Northern Ireland dera.ioe.ac.uk/16235/1/2012-12-11-joint-contingency-plan-november-2012.pdf
GOV.UK
Emergencies and severe weather: schools and early years settings www.gov.uk/emergencies-and-severe-weather-schools-and-early-years-settings

As yet, we haven't invented matter transfer beams so that wouldn't be a way of getting children to schools through traffic jams or food to supermarkets. Perhaps this is the technological solution that ERG expect to happen.

There are such things as trains of course and most children live within walking distance of a school or public building - or they can arrange to stay with a relative or friend.

clavinova do you live rurally? I think perhaps not. The school my children attended buses 80% of pupils in, a large proportion of them from farming communities. Where are these schools or public buildings in the middle of the countryside? Would you like your exam-taking children to have to camp out before/after their exams?

It may affect chldren in Dover if we still have transport delays by June time - pretty unlkely. If so schools could tell them to come the day before with a sleeping bag anmd just get on with it.

My parents went to grammar school during WWII and then off to further education around 1947. The war was certainly a difficult time but it was not so bad in most areas that children didn't do their public exams.

clavinova do you live rurally? I think perhaps not

No, but why would there be a gridlock in a rural area?

because, in Kent, when the M20 grinds to a halt (as pp have explained due to operation stack) the rural roads and lanes get blocked by traffic trying to get where it wants to be. as I said earlier, I once spent 2 hours stuck in the countryside when an artic jackknifed into the canal - literally, no one can go anywhere, emergency services cant get through. many rural lanes are single carriageway with the odd pulling in spot.

when you have a canal on one side, a ditch on the other and no where to pass/move to you are stuck.

Public examinations can take place in rural primary schools then - they seem to manage SATs and the Kent 11 plus.

Weird that people in Kent are saying there's a likely problem. But people who don't live there are certain there isn't . Who should I believe, I wonder....?