to wonder if there is anything that could be changed in our society that most people would agree is reasonable

[chomalungma]

Without angry headlines in the Daily Mail, columns and tweets by Piers Morgan and Laurence Fox, comments by Boris Johnson, no angry arguments on Twitter, on social media, on morning TV programmes etc

Just something that unites most people as a good thing, something that is wrong and needs changing.

Because it's just division at the moment. Division, tribes, culture wars etc.

Can anyone think of anything?

I don't think there is, because some people find find flaw with anything. This is basically how tabloids and certain politicians thrive.

Even things like reintroducing the death penalty or sinking the boats of migrants trying to cross the Channel illegally would draw an outcry from some.

Yep, I’d definitely be in the camp of ‘some’. I think that camp would be pretty fucking large. The state deliberately drowning people, including children? Are you an actual monster?

I think we need to be a GLOBAL community and stop viewing people who are different to us as beneath us.
The whole reason why Covid wasn’t taken seriously in the first place was because we viewed SARS viruses as an ‘eastern problem’. We were naive and thought it would stay over there.
Now when you look at the worldwide burden from infectious diseases you see that many many prevalent endemic diseases are a lot more deadly than Covid but we as a worldwide community don’t spend any time or effort making a difference to the countries which are affected.

I think the main issue is no one recently has had a coherent vision.

If you look at the post-war labour government, they intended to fundamentally change things. Same with Thatcher.

Now we get a menu of policies, each of which can be opposed. Everyone's a critic after all. 'that'll never work' is a British catch phrase.

We really need an overhaul. We've been overtaken by European approaches, UK standard of living, happiness, stress, illness not good enough - but each individual policy to improve those things gets shouted down.

Improving broadband would hopefully not be controversial.

I do think that by its very design, Parliament itself is designed for confrontation and division. But I guess the idea of redesigning Parliament in a semi circular shape so there is les potential for finger wagging etc.

We are living in divisive times.

There aren't many changes to society that wouldn't provoke a divided reaction. Perhaps reducing fly tipping and improving broadband coveragewould be generally well received?

@Splodgetastic
What fun is that? Rather than a wedding gift, I’ve donated to twinning a toilet for you :). Somewhere in the world there’s a toilet with your name on it.

Re the separate schools. We had it where I grew up. It wasn't for all SEN. Just when it did seriously impact on learning. Now they merged it and my relative who is a teacher said they feel so sad for the kids. Unfortunately, as it usually is, it wasn't fully thought through so now there are kids in classes who no matter how hard they try fall behind, and it ends up with everyone frustrated. The rest of the class, because they are held back and the child because they get overwhelmed by trying to keep up. Many parents said their children were better off before. It helps no one.

I want:
Mandatory pockets on skirts and dresses!

Unless you have actual data on outcomes for children with sen in specialist provision PLEASE stop saying it is better for them.

[quote tootiredtothinkofanewname]@schrodingersimmigrant

What nonsense! A teacher does not hold the whole classes learning back because of a few children struggling. Work is differentiated.

New suggestion: People like this ^ should be banned from being parents so their toxic views don't pollute future generations. (add racists, bigots, misogynists and abusers to the list) [/quote]
It's not in the UK. It works differently

‘Almost everyone would be happy with a zero tolerance approach towards littering and fly tipping but there would need to be enforcement and punishment.’

When I brought up fly tipping and littering, I wasn’t really thinking about punishment. It was more about how councils cut budgets for street cleaning over ten years ago, and how dirty many areas now look as a result. This encourages more poor behaviour.

There should be a crackdown on businesses who fly tip though.

On the Facebook group for my local area, fly tipping and littering are the most complained about issue.

@SchrodingersImmigrant no school should expect all the children to be at the same level. Makes no difference where in the world they are.

[quote drspouse]@SchrodingersImmigrant no school should expect all the children to be at the same level. Makes no difference where in the world they are.[/quote]
No they shouldn't. That's why I wrote that it wasn't thought through. There is barely any support now. There are supposed to be teaching assistants but there is basically no budget especially for poorer schools. So now there are thousands of children with special needs with no proper provision. While before they had support, small classes and differently done curriculum.

Even on MN we see parents of children who homeschool or have issues with schools because there isn't adequate support.

Just to make it clear I am not talking about something like milder dyslexia. I am talking about issues which seriously impact learning and general life.

I just got told that I should be banned from having kids for basically saying that parents of some kids with serious sen said they had it better before in special schools in one country🤷🏻 Fuck me.

@SchrodingersImmigrant fascinating, where are you in the world that this happens? Are there no special schools at all????

CMS payments.
There should be social stigma for those who don’t pay, and legal consequences.
Tbh I’d like jail time for the ones who don’t pay, but I can’t see that happening unfortunately.

As another poster alluded to.

Changing the success measures for schools so they are measured on things that help children become happy, healthy and able to contribute to society rather than only educated to be funnelled into the traditional streams of university/apprenticeships/job.

@Distressedchic

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with you, that would be very controversial. Unfortunately.

@Monkeynuts18 do they not already do that in the US?

I have to agree on the cms thing. It should be a crime not to support your children financially

CMS absolutely. There should be no excuse

@SchrodingersImmigrant

Re the separate schools. We had it where I grew up. It wasn't for all SEN. Just when it did seriously impact on learning. Now they merged it and my relative who is a teacher said they feel so sad for the kids. Unfortunately, as it usually is, it wasn't fully thought through so now there are kids in classes who no matter how hard they try fall behind, and it ends up with everyone frustrated. The rest of the class, because they are held back and the child because they get overwhelmed by trying to keep up. Many parents said their children were better off before. It helps no one.

I want:
Mandatory pockets on skirts and dresses!

Trousers also need mandatory pockets. Also, all pockets must be big enough to fit your entire hand into!

@drspouse what, the CMS thing? I don’t know.

monkey - depends on the state. Some evoke your driving license, some states deduct it from your wages if you fall behind.

Not sure how effective this system is but better than the UK where every absent nonpaying parent knows that there will be no repercussions in not paying.

Providing clean water and basic toilet facilities to everyone in the world