Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Brexit
Original poster

Westminstenders: In the Brexit Lane

999 replies

RedToothBrush · 02/08/2018 09:25

I honestly couldn't think of a better starter to the thread than simply just this tweet

Robert Peston @ peston
We’ve got an official opposition tearing itself apart over antisemitism, the founder of the EDL running rings around the judiciary and a government negotiating a Brexit plan that its own MPs and ministers tell me is dead. When will we pull ourselves together, as a nation?

But don't worry, your blue passport will get you an extra special long wait at passport control. And no deal could lead to continued freedom of movement anyway. Something for everyone in there.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
44
DGRossetti · 08/08/2018 11:25

Except a US pint is not the same as a UK one. So US gallons are different too.

Imperial is a fucking mess.

And we'd still have to label exports in metric, as India, Australia, Canada, all Africa and China are decidedly metric. As is Ireland.

I can't see Scotland reverting, either.

DGRossetti · 08/08/2018 11:25

and how many pennies to a £ ???

NoCryingInEngineering · 08/08/2018 11:27

The Yanks drink in ounces, which really fucks with my head

Peregrina · 08/08/2018 11:31

So all this nonsense about reinvigorating deals with the Commonwealth, and we would still have to use those nasty French measures? O la la.

borntobequiet · 08/08/2018 11:31

240 obvs. £sd means £sd, dontcha know.
I will (once again) mention the time I made Y8 cry with Mr Scrooge's Christmas Sums in £sd and geese in pounds and ounces, coal in hundredweights. It was meant as a fun lesson but left them traumatised.

Peregrina · 08/08/2018 11:33

India as I recall has some special units of its own. A crore being one, although I can't now remember what it was - some quite big number.

I believe the Swedes also used to have lbs, but they were the nearest metric equivalent.

borntobequiet · 08/08/2018 11:34

I think the Yanks really mean fluid ounces. However:
An imperial fluid ounce is 1⁄20 of an imperial pint, 1⁄160 of an imperial gallon or approximately 28.4 ml. A US fluid ounce is 1⁄16 of a US fluid pint and 1⁄128 of a US liquid gallon or approximately 29.57 ml, making it about 4% larger than the imperial fluid ounce.
(Thanks, Wikipedia.)

borntobequiet · 08/08/2018 11:39

And in case you ever missed it, an acre is defined as an area one chain by one furlong. So 6 cricket pitch lengths wide and 60 long, for those who know cricket.

Peregrina · 08/08/2018 11:45

Those of you who were at school in the 50s will remember exercise books had helpful lists of all these on their back covers. I thought I might have an old example to show you, but can't find it.

Even then, chains, roods, perches, whatever, were a mystery to most of us.

OhLookHeKickedTheBall · 08/08/2018 12:16

I B checked GSCE and A level papers just over 20 years ago. Some of the questions on the lower maths GCSE papers showed up in last years KS1 sats and they weren't the questions considered to be on the harder side of KS1. Amazing really. Yet people talk of exams being dumbed down.

Thomasinaa · 08/08/2018 12:31

I taught my DD maths for the 11+ exam. I'm not good at maths, and that really stretched me. I'd say that most of that syllabus is of real day to day practical use. Most people could happily stop at that point.

Thomasinaa · 08/08/2018 12:35

Do we really want a 2nd vote? They were discussing this on Radio4, and apparently a poll has shown that 7 out of 10 think that we should get on with implementing Brexit. In that context, I can see No Deal winning.

Moussemoose · 08/08/2018 12:39

I think the one thing this whole debacle has shown us is exactly how lacking in understanding the public is.

They want politicians 'to get on with it' ..... if only it was that easy.

They don't want a referendum, well what do they want? Because faced with economic recession, potential shortages and even more austerity they just want 'it sorted out'. Ffs

Thomasinaa · 08/08/2018 12:47

Yes, we are surrounded by 2 year olds (only less endearing).

DGRossetti · 08/08/2018 12:55

I checked GSCE and A level papers just over 20 years ago. Some of the questions on the lower maths GCSE papers showed up in last years KS1 sats and they weren't the questions considered to be on the harder side of KS1. Amazing really. Yet people talk of exams being dumbed down.

I did differential calculus at "O" level in 1982. Had disappeared when DS did his GCSE (2011).

DGRossetti · 08/08/2018 12:56

I think the one thing this whole debacle has shown us is exactly how lacking in understanding the public is.

It's hard to fight the suspicion that may have been the ultimate aim.

Violetparis · 08/08/2018 13:00

I think the 'People's Vote' needs to provide more clarity about it's campaign. How will the voting question be framed ? Will there be a percentage threshold on what is declared the winning vote ? What happens if Leave wins again ? Remain wins by small margin ? etc. Otherwise it is just another campaign with vague slogans and no detail which is how we ended up in this mess we are now in.

NoCryingInEngineering · 08/08/2018 13:27

Standard Grade maths had 3 papers, Foundation, General and Credit. Everyone was supposed to do General, then you did either Credit if they thought you would pass General or Foundation if they thought you would fail. I wound up doing all 3 because in the prelims I failed General but passed Credit and I can still remember the first question in the General paper (this was the one everyone was supposed to do). It had a picture of a ruler with a line drawn next to you and you had to write down how long the line was. I think it was supposed to boost your confidence by giving you a nice easy question to start with. It freaked me out because I couldn't believe they'd ask such a simple question & I thought you must have to scale it or something.

The first 3 questions on the Foundation paper were read out to everyone and pretty much were on the lines of what is 25+6. I forget how the Credit paper started but there was one question about stacked pipes I remember being unable to do

Mrsr8 · 08/08/2018 13:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tanith · 08/08/2018 14:06

This is what they’ve been spending all this time on, isn’t it? Discussing whether we should, or should not, revert to Imperial measurements.
They’ve investigated all the options, done all the maths, produced copious papers and now they can finally forge ahead with negotiations, safe in the knowledge that everyone knows exactly how a pound ought to be defined.

SingingBabooshkaBadly · 08/08/2018 14:08

I was 2nd year to do gcses.
I remember a question about a bath filling with water that made me lose the will to live...

I had a similar experience Mrsr8. One question to do with digging holes and one about two trains travelling at different speeds.

Where I really came undone though was things like multiplying matrices and all that logarithm/sine/cosine business.

Ended up ungraded but at the same time we all did a lengthy numerical test which included sums, fractions, percentages etc and I got 99% so I always felt a bit aggrieved at being branded a maths dummy.

Sometimes I imagine I may be asked to appear on a TV programme about the old ways. It will feature a roof thatcher, a blacksmith and me, smugly demonstrating the lost art of long division...

OhLookHeKickedTheBall · 08/08/2018 14:25

I should have sat the higher GCSE paper, but my teacher put me down to intermediate because she didn't feel I tried enough - its true I didn't try, because I found it bloody easy. I walked into the exams having revised two things only: the circumference and area of a circle, because I constantly muddled them and then combined them in panics. Turned the paper and they were the first things on the lists of formulas Angry. Got max B grade for pretty much not trying. I did go on to get top A level in school and top degree in uni faculty in the end though Halo

DG differential calculus didn't appear in intermediate GCSE when I did them, but I think it was in higher (late 1990s). Possibly depends on what board you sit with too, I know that used to make a difference at A level at least.

The questions I was referring too weren't ones like 25+6, etc. They were more like the aforementioned pipework and bathtub ones.

singing I shall join you in your programme about the art of long division. Reminds me though that they teach addition and subtraction differently now, and we were thoroughly told off when our DC were using the old methods. They wouldn't explain the new ones to us though so buggered as to how we were meant to help our DC learn Confused

TatianaLarina · 08/08/2018 14:31

Baroness Warsi has pointed out that Johnson’s comments make hate crime more likely and sends the message that Muslim women as fair game.

That this needs pointing out is flabbergasting.

Peregrina · 08/08/2018 14:34

It's all a jolly jape to Boris Johnson though, isn't it? He ought to be drummed out of the Tory party, but I expect on the QT a majority of them agree with him. So now we will see some newspaper articles about Corbyn's anti-semitism, just to deflect the attention.