Westministenders: Hey Hey we're the Monkies.

[RedToothBrush]

Welcome to the Listening Parliament.

Have you noticed it yet?

The Three Monkeys of See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil have been in a bit of a fight with didn’t fair well. Its funny how politicians of all shades and levels are desperate to prove just how good they at listening and how they see the problems.

Its quite incredible to think that officials elected to serve the public are even in this position where they are having suddenly think about how they show they are listening. It rather shows up that they have been accustomed to telling the public what to think and what to believe.

What they are still to work out, is that in saying they are listening, they also have to demonstrate they are listening and be credible.

The trouble is, that even though some of the monkeys have been killed off, we still have a lot of monkeys in parliament. 'Monkey say, Monkey do' actions still lurk. Politicians who imitate others without understanding the consequences.

There is no point in listening if you are only listening to one group and don’t understand the consequences of simply repeating the words of others.

Politicians saying they are listening when you can find dozens of incidents where they have said completely the opposition, without having the gumption to explain they have changed their position and without having the grace to explain the evidence that has lead them to change that position rather undermines the idea they are listening.

U-Turns are not a bad thing. U-Turns can show that you were making an error but were wise enough to admit that and why you were wrong. U-Turns are bad when you fail to acknowledge your failings and only do it to chase votes. This is where cynicism creeps in and lack of trust in politicians occurs.

Listening also requires actions to reflect words. There is no good in saying one thing, if your actions don’t reflect that. This is where the Listening Parliament is already failing. And I’m sure we will see it more.

Above all, listening is only part of a conversation. A politician is supposed to be accountable. They are supposed to have their eyes open to evil, not deaf to it and not unwilling to speak inconvenient truths where they recognise the evil.

Any politician who tells you they listen needs to back it up somehow. They need to demonstrate and justify their positions accurately. If they don’t they aren’t listening properly.

Isn’t it funny how it was in Hartlepool that the monkey got hung for being a Frenchman? No one was there to explain differently.

George Court‏ @courty1793

1. Dear UK, we denounce the convention, regards, the UK"
2. Dear All, the UK has informed the UK that its leaving, regards the UK"

This was my post from 2016 on the issue comparing HE access between Scotland and England.

Here is the link to the original underlying report from the Sutton Trust:
www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Access-in-Scotland_May2016.pdf

There is no inference that introducing fees would narrow the gap nor that it has narrowed the gap in England relative to Scotland. Rather there is an acknowledgement that Scotland had a more pronounced historic issue and although progress has been made there is still work to do. However overall participation in tertiary education in Scotland is higher at 55% and the provision of and access to places at the Ancient universities is better and more equal in Scotland than to equivalent English institutions for English students.

This is the finding which stuck out for me:
"The four-fold access gap between the most and least disadvantaged entrants in higher tariff universities is not very different from that in other Scottish universities. This is in contrast to the seven-fold gap at higher tariff, mainly Russell Group, universities in England. The higher
tariff group in Scotland however covers a larger proportion, and wider range, of institutions. The provision of 720 funded places for disadvantaged students at the ancient universities since 2012 appears to have helped with recruitment to this group."

The article below explains why the press misreported and subsequently retracted their misreporting of the findings.

newsnet.scot/citizen/disadvantaged-students-lack-scottish-english-evidence-means-no-firm-conclusions/

More than a year later journalists and politicians still carry on misrepresenting the report for their own ends.

The fact that such a high percentage of Scottish free places at Ancient Unis are going to rEU students is a separate concern we have previously discussed.

This is the Scottish Government's position paper on the Common Fisheries policy produced as part of Indyref1 - covers a lot of the comments above.

www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/08/8589/2

This is their more robust position in 2009 arguing for return of fishing policy to Nation States within the EU.

ec.europa.eu/fisheries/sites/fisheries/files/docs/body/scottish_government_en.pdf

I'm sure some protests can be rumbled up at short notice...

Oh yes, we can mobilise very quickly when it comes to tubular bellends, perhaps by following him with a large instrument? any excuse

to all especially red.

Fishing ...............
.............this is a red herring,......

Was coming on to make the point that iirc, the UCAS stats understate the Scottish FE (and Higher sector) participation but see that that has already been pointed out

Added benefit that I have achieved a placement king

peregrina

I was looking at summer school courses at Cambridge for gdd. They want a vast amount of money for a 2-3 week course. Does anyone know of anywhere what would give us help to fund it? I mean we are talking a couple of grand (wipes brow).

Peregrina

Where i live used to be a really bustling fishing port. When I first came here in the 70s there was a fleet of over 40 trawlers. Now there are none. So even with fishing rights back there are no boats here left. They were mainly family concerns and as the industry declined the boats were sold off. Lots of jobs lost too.

The DUP otoh are taking the piss.

I know my 16 year old, politically aware ds would be delighted to have the opportunity to go and protest at short notice.

School stopped for the holidays last Tuesday so he has nothing else to do

I'll even drive him to wherever required and join in crosses fingers it's Turnberry and not Aberdeen

As with all issues the answer to increasing access to universities is complicated and has to include action on a lot of fronts. The mentoring charity I am familiar with achieves amazing things just by giving the pupils at inner city schools from diverse backgrounds what amounts to white middle class cultural capital, along with the help and example of people who have achieved from the same background. They say that above all it gives them the confidence to aspire, achieve, resist peer pressure. Then they get to top universities and absolutely fly. I cannot say that inner city schools in London can be said to hold pupils back anymore, the opportunities are there. However sometimes there are clashes between teachers who culturally / politically / for whatever reason do not feel comfortable with eg bankers, mentoring their pupils. There are many layers to the influences that hold people back in British Society even before we get to individual personalities.

I am not sure the private school system is really an answer except for those who have a particularly resilient and teflon personality together with a real talent in one or more areas. Certainly in London it is a rat race even for those whose parents pay. Imagine a set of people who have been pushed, and made to feel parental love / approval rests on a narrow target for achievement, getting into certain highly selective schools. Imagine the insecurity, and how it skews the peer group if not resulting in high levels of mental illness. From experience I am not sure that if you are not in London you would really understand how bad it can be. The Priory group tailor products to the market with special teen units ......

Sos Oxbridge run lots of free courses for state school pupils, in almost every subject. Travel expenses can of course still be an issue but I think they will help with that too. Maybe a couple of years on for your ggd, usually first year of sixth.

Not sure if this has been posted

https://mobile.twitter.com/NickKehoe007/status/880682219915927553/video/1 (a DUP version of 500 Miles).

Orange walks are touched on in the video; there is a very angry and justifiably outraged thread in Scotsnet on the stain on Scotland of Orange Walks. It was originally entitled "Orange Walk Fuckers" but MNHQ in its ignorance wisdom decided that that was too accurate provocative a title and deleted the "Fuckers". Tellingly - and to Scotland's credit - everyone on the thread has defended the original title and there has been no one on the thread who has defended why the title should be changed.

NI is the area of the UK where poverty has the least (relatively speaking) effect on university attendance. The figures shown do not reveal the whole picture in NI, which is that finishing secondary school and/or university attendance tends to be the goal of one community in NI more than the other.

The RC/nationalist community, very much excluded from local council jobs and in decades past from shipbuilding jobs, and tending to attend (rigorous, exam prep) RC secondary schools, ended up with a culture that valued education to university level so much that Queen's University Belfast is now viewed as a hotbed of Irish nationalism by the protestant working classes, whose anti-intellectual bias was reinforced by easy availability of low skilled jobs in the past. In particular, boys in the more impoverished loyalist areas have a huge problem in a model of masculinity that does not value education.

Girls at the impoverished end of both communities fare better than boys in either one, but in general the nationalist community do better than the loyalist community.

Has Oxbridge considered that many poorer students are working part time while studying and can't afford to take off work to go to a summer course? Or they are caring for younger family members during the summer while a parent works three very low paid jobs...

I see the same lack of joining the dots in American universities.

You get enormous problems when people in a position to make a meaningful difference for a whole class of people do not start with the basic assumption that some people have literally no money at all that is not accounted for by food, utilities, the minimum of clothing and footwear, and rent.

Motheroffourdragons - sending your son every good wish.