Where’s Dominic ‘herd immunity, only freaks and weirdos need apply’ Cummings?

[Tellmetruth4]

Just that really. He was last seen running towards a London tube station, statement then comes out that he has symptoms (sure everyone else on that carriage were pleased) and we’ve heard fuck all since.

Has he realised his Rasputin days are over and legged it?

Because we're more humane? If you can't feel sorry for people who wouldn't feel sorry for you, are you really any better than they are?

If their behaviour has been disgusting and yours hasn't, then yes.

chomalungma
In so many people's cases, there is always a tweet that shows exactly the kind of person they are.

I take it you've seen the quote from J H-B showimg her gloating over Fidel Castro's death, then? Such a shame for her that some people have memories.

university education is not a marker of intelligence - it just proves someone jumped through the necessary hoops.

But they are hoops that someone who has no academic attainment cannot jump through.

I’m not suggesting someone without an degree isn’t capable of attaining one. But it is the case that someone with a degree must have a certain level of attainment. They cannot be considered thick.

You don’t, it was a rubbish example.

According to UCAS you do. Or do you know better than the organisation who’s job it is to deal with university applications?

Law seems to be reading and digesting wodges of legal cases.

There is a little more to it than that. But entry requirements are also linked to the numbers of people who apply for the course. The more people who want to study the course, the higher the entry requirements.

If you have 3 Cs at A level you are unlikely to get on to a law degree course. But you may get on to an economics course. And certainly, if you are as thick as shit as evidenced by having no secondary qualification, you won’t get a place on either of them.

I can’t believe people are actually arguing that it is possible to gain a tertiary qualification if you are as thick as shit.

I can’t believe people are actually arguing that it is possible to gain a tertiary qualification if you are as thick as shit

Perhaps because we have personal experience of people who fall into that category? I’ve certainly worked with a few of them.

I can’t believe people are actually arguing that it is possible to gain a tertiary qualification if you are as thick as shit.

I am arguing this on the basis of having met such people... If you come from a certain background you can easily find yourself at a good university despite having limited intelligence.

Conversely, I have met many people with no tertiary education who have proven themselves to be more intelligent and well-read than those who did attain degrees.

Perhaps because we have personal experience of people who fall into that category? I’ve certainly worked with a few of them.

Likely you don’t. You work with people who have many other failings, lack of common sense, lack of foresight, lack of empathy, understanding, organisation, or a multitude of other skills required. Not a lack of academic ability that would make them as thick as shit. That’s a lazy insult that doesn’t actually address what their problems are.

having limited intelligence

Is not the same as being as thick as shit.

Conversely, I have met many people with no tertiary education who have proven themselves to be more intelligent and well-read than those who did attain degrees

I never argued that this couldn’t be the case. Those people aren’t as thick as shit either.

You won't get onto an Economics course at the LSE with three Cs.
The maligned Essex asks for three Bs.

But having no secondary qualification doesn't mean you are as thick as shit, as many an adult who has qualified by either the OU or previously London University External Degrees can attest.

No @MintyMabel, genuinely stupid people who can’t follow a logical line of reasoning. And ask questions that make your jaw drop.

I love this thread
I agree re Cummings, he’s problematic in so many ways and Boris was a fool for taking his advice and allowing him so much influence. Cummings managed him and used him, supposedly filtering his contact with civil servants and insisting that all communications were limited to two page summations, dismissing expert advice and allowing “forecasters” no better than astrologers that he found in the net to take precedent over organisations such as the WHO. He allowed him to avoid responsibility and pressure of actually governing.

And yes Thick people can get degrees in any university. I currently have a woman sending my sister emails about how coronavirus is a hoax, a conspiracy for left wing politicians and celebrities to avoid prosecution for their cult pedo group, involving bill gates and nanobots in vaccines. She has two degrees including law.
Dumb as a rock.

The subsequent public enquiry into what was known, minutes of meetings etc will be very interesting after all this.

Especially when it comes to the role of Cummings.

In itself, there is nothing wrong with two page summations e.g. like Executive Summaries or Abstracts of academic papers. It's a good skill to be able to distil the essence into a few sentences. But once you have got the basic idea, you then need to go on to read the whole, to get the full argument.

But having no secondary qualification doesn't mean you are as thick as shit, as many an adult who has qualified by either the OU or previously London University External Degrees can attest.

I never argued that this was the case. I argued that having a secondary qualification means you aren’t. There is a difference.

I currently have a woman sending my sister emails about how coronavirus is a hoax

Ignorance is not the same as being thick. There are some very highly educated people out there who hold very questionable beliefs. To call them thick is laughable.

genuinely stupid people who can’t follow a logical line of reasoning. And ask questions that make your jaw drop.

Indeed.

You won't get onto an Economics course at the LSE with three Cs.

You will at Keele.

I admit, I was surprised to see that Patel was educated to Masters level, because of the way she presented herself when interviewed.

Minty I didn’t call her thick.
I said that she is Dumb as a rock.

Many people in this current govt are not up to standard in governing, despite their academic qualifications never mind in a crisis and that is becoming more obvious.
A sheltered academic with no social skills or outside experience or ability to think beyond limited party ideology is not going to perform well in an international crisis. We are currently extremely vulnerable as a country to malign outside influences as a result.
Mainly China and the US but others as well.

Sure. Everyone studying at a university is as thick as shit these days. There are no entrance requirements, you can get in with absolutely no schooling whatsoever, universities are just loaded with people who dropped out of a school at 16 with no secondary qualifications whatsoever.

That's not what I'm saying at all. You're deliberately misconstruing what I wrote.

There are of course many gifted, motivated and intelltually curious students that I teach. Qualifications and intelligence are not a perfect match and it is painfully clear that some students from elite schools or with wealthy parents have been coached through the system.

In particular at masters level there's pressure to accept anyone with a low 2:1 high 2:2 onto the course as humanities Masters are massive money spinners. A high 2:2 is an incredibly low hurdle to clear, especially after 30 odd years of grade inflation. The pressure to accept international students is intensified due to the money they bring.

Regarding Patel, the salient point is that she has the advantage of education and at least some academic ability, and yet still lacks competence.

I am sure she is very intelligent, given her education

That said, intelligence is far more than education, and she seems to be lacking in other skills and traits that a decent politician needs.

Hence her lack of public appearances

And as for Cummings....

Ignorance is not the same as being thick. There are some very highly educated people out there who hold very questionable beliefs

It is, in the example cited above, it shows a clear lack of critical thinking and logic.

A sheltered academic with no social skills or outside experience or ability to think beyond limited party ideology

To an extent I agree that academic achievements on their own are a poor predictor of success. Gordon Brown is by far one of the most academically able prime ministers of recent decades, he started university at 16 and was widely considered to be the best history student at Edinburgh since the Second World War, yet other aspects of his makeup made him less well suited to the role of prime minister.

I do however take umbrage with the notion that academics are sheltered or in an ivory tower. Over 50 per cent of us are working on casual contracts at low wages and will have spent time unemployed or unable to make ends meet on part time contracts and have had to relocate away from friends, families and homes to chase the few short term contracts that are out there. The current crisis has seen those on temporary contracts laid off at some universities and no prospect of work from September for many as universities cut costs in the light of Coronavirus.

Most of us who entered the profession in recent years have had plenty of hard cold doses of reality.

I think the tory front bench illustrate that you can have an amazing education and yet lack intelligence. The thing with intelligence is that its extremely difficult to measure, or even define. Obviously you need a certain amount of intellectual capacity to get a masters degree, but for leadership and governance you also need empathy, life experience, a certain amount of charisma, self awarenes.. it's a very broad skill set.

Well Diane Abbott went to Oxford (staggeringly!)

Well Diane Abbott went to Oxford (staggeringly!)

Cambridge actually and she was the first black British female to do so.

Well Diane Abbott went to Oxford (staggeringly

Cambridge actually