Westminstenders: In the Brexit Lane

[RedToothBrush]

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.

Possibly depends on what board you sit with too

Sorry, but I have never understood why we have different exam boards.
Just seems like an(other) excuse for discrimination. Especially given the horlicks they seem to make of their primary (of not only) job in life.

I guess that's another one for the "You're not quite English, are you ?" that I used to get asking such questions at school. I'd worked out by high school that in that context, "English" meant you didn't ask questions of authority, and if you did, the answer "because it is" is a sign to shut up.

That civil service job wording is standard on all ads (except those where nationality restrictions apply, such as some MoD, FCO and Home Office jobs)

I have friends of a similar age to me (but who went to different schools) who were only able to sit the intermediate maths GCSE paper because for timetabling reasons they were in the second set for maths because they were also in the second set for French or German (in most cases there is a strong correlation between maths skills and languages skills, as noted by Red above in a different context). Which is clearly bonkers to limit a student to getting a B grade at most, when they are capable of getting an A. I hope this sort of thing doesn't still happen - though the system has been mucked around with so much, who knows

I know we're not talking about the floppy haired ex-F Sec, but it seems pretty clear to me that he is looking to take the role of "says what everyone* is thinking but doesn't dare to say out loud" previously occupied by Farage. (In which case he should just fuck off and run UKIP)

• "everyone" obviously not meaning "everyone", but the real life Al Murray Pub Landlord type folk

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

Luckily, no one cares what a muslim woman thinks. Also, she's got some pretty off-colour views on homosexuals.

My daughter was annoyed by the first question on her Textiles GCSE (1999, one tier of entry), which was "Name four things you would find in a sewing box other than a pair of scissors."

Islam isn’t known for its enlightened attitude to to homosexuality.

It doesn’t invalidate Warsi’s criticism of Boris. She is doing what May should.

It's all a jolly jape to Boris Johnson though, isn't it?

Well I think his calling card is buffoon when really he’s just a cunt.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45113862

The pound has fallen below $1.29 for the first time in almost a year on continuing worries Britain will leave the EU without a trade deal.

(contd)

Didn't there used to be a death penalty or something for ministers who "talked the pound down" ? When's the disgraced former defence secretary Liam Fox date with the hangman ?

Sorry, but I have never understood why we have different exam boards.
Me either DG. I naively thought they all would be pretty similar until I started uni and realised my a level had covered a lot more than a lot of my fellow students. I wonder how many of my GCSEs/A Levels covered less than others.

Why don't we have different driving tests then ? Or pilots exams ?

When O levels (technically GCEs) were dropped phased out for GCSEs, I idiotically imagined they were drawing together the disparate exam boards to streamline the situation.

(As noted before, I have a little too much common sense to be truly English).

AEB, Cambridge, Oxford, and JMB ring vague bells.

Thank goodness they all required the same syllabus. Imagine the chaos that could ensue if they didn't, and schools got mixed up ! Although it would have made a charming Ealing Comedy. With Alistair Sim playing 4 different exam board chairmen/women. Joyce Grenfell as the English Mistress ...

If BJ cared that much about the repression of women Nazanin would not be facing extra prison time because of him.

At least in Scotland we used to have separate Maths and Arithmetic "O" Grades - so there was a basic numerical exam that most people took. (We never had separate English Language and English Literature exams though). Not sure what happened when they made the transition to Standard grades though showing my age

Scotland seems light years ahead of England in education.

We exported Gove

The separate Arithmetic paper didn't service the change to S Grade but there were 2 parts to the exams. One part with short questions and one which was much more problem solving. So not quite the same split, but I suppose intended to give people a chance to do well where they could. Your final result was worked out from how you'd done in each part, but wasn't a straight average - I can't remember how it was worked out though.

And then there was the F/G/C split as well. So as a minimum you sat 2 papers in each subject with 2 parts to each paper. It made for some long days in sweaty exam rooms. Ive no idea how the New Exams work though

Remember Brexit was to allow us to "take control" of immigration ?

Seems we're not doing so bad, while still in the EU

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-45114152

Three members of a notorious grooming gang will be stripped of their British citizenship following a court ruling.

Abdul Aziz, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf were among nine men jailed for offences including the rape and trafficking of girls as young as 13 in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in 2012.

Theresa May, then Home Secretary, began the process in 2015 by ruling that the men should not remain British.

Court of Appeal judges rejected a legal challenge from the men.

(contd)

Thing is, we know the advice to avoid deportation is - and I am not making this up - to get a cat.

Homebase going ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45119606

What will happen, in the short term, is that customers that would have used will be forced to go to a rival.

Hence I suspect Debenhams will pick up a bit, as HoF customers dirty their shoes there.

However it's a false hope, against an ever-declining trend.

Does anyone know about the history of cod fishing from Newfoundland ? Cautionary tale and not just for fishermen ....

Dominoes deserve to go under for not having anchovies as an option.

I imagine the spectre of Boris leading UKIP is just why TM is tolerating so much from him.

Did that happen after Woolworths went under though?

Well, Wilko/Wilkinson seemed to thrive. But I'm getting a sneaking feeling about them too. Don't be surprised if they reorganise in the next couple of years. Maybe shrink stores a little, try and diversify, and close a couple of less well-trod stores ?

Calculus is back on the gcse syllabus now.
I think a restaurant chain will go next.
Anyone else having trouble negotiating down annual increases in insurance and broadband? I normally manage to get a bit off but nothing this year.

I don't know what GCSE Maths Paper I sat.

There was the standard high paper which the two top sets sat, then there was an A paper which just 12 of us sat. Except we couldn't get an A as they hadn't introduced it yet. We could just do the paper to get an A* (yes I know it makes no sense) with the highest mark you could get being an A but they'd tell you you'd got an distinction in it but it was otherwise meaningless. They were calling it the level 10 paper or some strange thing. Again there was no level 10.

My truly wonderful GCSE Maths teacher, used to take great delight in going, "You don't need to know this, but I'm going to teach you this anyway". Most of the class won't get it, but it didn't matter. It was the one (and only) class where being a 'swot' really wasn't an issue and everyone was cool about it. It was expected that those of us who could do stuff, helped everyone else who couldn't. We were stretched but also expected to stretch others. But you also weren't 'a failure' for not getting it too. It was just an interesting add on fact if you were interested and that was how it was presented to us.

In general my school ended up teaching the Curriculum to our year (we were the very first year to do it), but also bits on the side because they thought it was also important and had taught it for years previously. I suspect now we really benefited from getting something of a hybrid of the straight curriculum as well as our teachers going off pist.

I very nearly did maths and further maths for A Level but I also wanted to do Art and History and they couldn't timetable it to fit my weird combination. It was frustrustating at the time. I think I ended up picking something else, because only the shit maths teachers were doing it at A Level. I had no idea what I wanted to do and in the end all the subjects I picked were simply the subjects I liked the teachers most in. The ones who went off piste were definitely the most fun and enjoyable.

I don't know how teachers could continue to do that within the confines of a strict and much more rigid curriculum long term. I think I got a sense of it squeezing the joy and life out of teaching - and more to the point - learning. I'm not sure how teachers who came through afterwards could replicate that off pisteness.