Westminstenders: Where are we now?

[RedToothBrush]

Twenty thousand people
Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead

Where are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you know

Just that.

Don't really want to reflect more than that right now.

'Suck it up', especially when long-term health and actual death is what you're being asked to suck up, only really works in war situations and radicalised cohorts.

It might initially work - but as BCF points out, it's a huge gamble.

If the death toll starts rising, people can get quite grumpy.

Don't forget, schools closed because teachers became sick and parents started keeping their beloved offspring at home.

Schools are open. They're open right now. The reason they are providing limited access is because of the government's own guidelines.

Those guidelines will have to be relaxed across all sectors, or only in schools if access to schools is to be widened.

And that's a gamble. Because, while it might prove initially popular, if the sickness statistics then rise ... it suddenly becomes unpopular.

People are very illogical. They can be very in favour of 'suck it up' in the abstract but very pissed off when they, personally, have to start sucking stuff up.

As BCF says, it's a gamble. Which is why we're seeing the government remain immobile on this, hiding behind the straw man of 'Union intransigence'.

The government could change the guidelines in schools tomorrow if it wished. It could tell teachers and parents to 'suck it up'.

It has an 80 seat majority. There would be no meaningful opposition in Parliament.

But the government is currently choosing not to.

So, on we wait.

I do find it strange that people still think teachers and schools have any say at all in this. 🤷‍♀️ I really think that, in a way, it comes down to a subconscious acceptance that Johnson's government is truly awful and impervious to accountability. So people end up projecting blame and calls for action at other (completely inappropriate) groups.

Weird.

If people want their children back at school, they need to write to Tory MPs, demanding government guidelines be changed.

And that will be very awkward for the government, who are all too aware of how fickle the public will be on this issue if the death figures rise again.

I agree that the situation in France is a little different because of the hardcore lockdown and lower figures.

France has relaxed the rules in the knowledge that there are 2 weeks of school left and many kids won't return because no one was expecting school to be obligatory so lots of parents have made other arrangements. The last week of primary is never taken very seriously anyway : in the South here it is often far too hot to do actual work and lots of parents take their kids out early to send them to grandparents'/ head off on holiday before the roads are gridlocked.

DS2's head said he would not be reporting absences. He knows he can't take all the kids back even if the families wanted him to, as at least one teacher won't be working before the summer due to the death of her son.

A22 says "No person shall be elected to the office of President for more than two terms..."

Exactly ... one interpretation is that it doesn't prevent a candidate from standing. After all, a candidate who stands and loses is - by definition - not elected.

This isn't trivial anymore. It's entirely possible there could be an almighty SCOTUS ruling that states the constitution does not prevent anyone from standing for election on the basis they have been previously elected twice. Certainly not in the same way it explicitly limits who can stand on other grounds. It's worryingly vague. And it's worth noting it was only bought in after Roosevelt tore up the unwritten convention of serving two terms that old George Washington set and the founding fathers assumed anyway.

With all of that at stake, it would be much better for Biden to win outright in November. Although the only thing worse than an outright Trump win would be a tie. Because (no, I am not making this shit up) it can happen.

Teaching unions have seized the initiative, ListeningQuietly.

The NEU, for example, have a 10 point plan, which includes curriculum changes, procuring extra space, etc.

It's been published since lockdown began.

But ... no-one knows about it because a.) there is little 'cut-through' at the moment and b.) the government is picking and choosing which sector professionals it engages with - and unions are not the chosen ones - so, in terms of meaningfulness, the unions' views are just so much writing. There's hardly any point in covering those ideas in depth. 🤷‍♀️

The bottom line is that whatever the case, Trumpy ceases to be Prez on Inauguration Day 2021, unless he is lawfully reinaugurated and sworn in, and Chief Justice Roberts is the Grown-Up-In-Chief.

Honestly, it's hard to overstate the significance of that 80 seat majority.

This really is a government that can pretty much do what it wants.

The response to Coronavirus really does belong to this government.

When you look at the response to Coronavirus, what you are looking at is this government.

It's ... worrying.

ThecatfromJapan
OK, I was unaware that the Teaching Unions had a plan.
which is scary as my news feeds follow Education A LOT

I'm dealing with public sector bodies every day who are finding ways to do the right thing
often very much to the spirit rather than the letter of the regulations.

A professional discussion contained the view
its not legal yet, it will be soon, if we end up in JR next year, so be it
and funnily the guidance a few weeks later came to match the existing practice

yup there might be JRs next year
but lives have been saved by that law breaking spending public money outside the rules to support the vulnerable

If the Schools and the LEAs and the Unions turned round and said
sorry but we know a LOT better than the Ed Sec
who would sue them ?

PS
anybody else read MD in the current Private Eye?

Well, one problem with that is, ListeningQuietly, is that it might involve taking over a lot of buildings and breaking safeguarding and Health and Safety regulations regarding other people's children.

Can you imagine?

You need a clean DBS to work in a school.

By definition, people who work in schools don't overlap with urban guerrillas. Yes, some of us have read Boas - but that tends to be as far as it goes.

I actually think that, by the time we get a teaching workforce who are sufficiently revolutionised to take over property and institute an abandoning of the national curriculum in favour of the education of praxis, the UK will be in a place where children's education is actually lower on your list of priorities than basic survival.

(Am laughing at idea schools should take it upon themselves to 'liberate' buildings. I kind of like it as an idea but ...)

Actually, I kind of love it.

Maybe the 'Do Something' brigade can form a revolutionary wing?

It would be hilarious to watch parents squatting golf clubs and setting up informal summer learning groups on the sweeping green.

I doubt if it would be politically acceptable / survivable for British kids not to be in ft school if German kids are ....

A few days ago,
Merkel and the leaders of the 16 German states agreed that ft schools would return after the vacation
(providing COVID risk does not rise v sharply)

This was only decided after much consulation, including with educational experts and unions,
consultation instead of confrontation.

Education will be prioritised, so measures will taken to reduce the risk of infection coming in from outside

• which requires some continuing restrictions on adults

These measures include keeping:

. the ban on all large events - including Oktoberfest until at least end October
. the 1.5 meters in public unless cases drop a lot more
. mandatory masks in public transport and in shops,
. contact limits - currently 10 people can meet, more in a couple of states
. automatic local lockdowns when new cases reach 50 / 100,000 pop in 7 days, (or proportionately, to lock down just care homes etc)

Note:
Education & children were also prioritised when schools were reopened pt on 4 May as the 1st stage of relaxing lockdown,
2 weeks before non-essential shops > 800m2

Maybe copy the German plan (the govt has seemed to copy other ideas - not v well - from Merkel & Macron earlier) as the basis for a Uk plan,

but say ft only to start after certain threshholds on cases & deaths are reached in that region of the Uk ?

thecatfromjapan it's been done before, leading to the longest strike in British history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burston_Strike_School

thecatfromJapan
If one of the big academy chains turned round and said
we are opening on 1m distances, masks compulsory in corridors etc etc - in agreement with our union shop stewards
what would the Government do?
nothing
it would, about two weeks later, pretend it was their idea

I see it ALL THE TIME in the public sector
people with good ideas start doing them
they are quietly adopted left right and centre
then the law is amended to match the reality

Also, staff & kids here manage well with masks

If they were optional - or even mandatory - in UK schools, that might compensate for starting from higher infection levels

I'm finding it horribly fascinating, BCF.

You're spot on (as always).

It's going to be terrible to have UK children not in FT school when other European countries have children back.

But it's hard to see how it can work until deaths/cases reach an acceptable threshold.

And there's still no functioning track and trace here.

There's a huge elephant in the room about public trust.

I, personally, am desperate for schools here to be back FT. But ...

Confession: Honestly, I have so much sympathy with the 'Do Something' brigade. I share the desperation.
But I'm also realistic. 🤷‍♀️

Listening It would all be fine so long as the death figures didn't climb.

If they did, the public would be furious and be looking for people to blame, and the government would serve them up the Head of that Academy.

People get really emotional about death. 🤷‍♀️

And there's the whole sticky issue of who, exactly, is responsible when Health and Safety legislation is violated.

Especially when issues arise from that violation.

Thecat One issue is that enabling ft schools means keeping restriction on adults, at least as seen from Germany

That's only politically acceptable if the leaders and country as a whole agree that education is priority #1 in relaxation,
not adults having more fun

However, imo this is not the case in the UK, or pt schools would have been the very 1st stage as in Germany, instead of shops etc and then bloody pubs

Yes, BCF.

Yes.

Education is clearly not valued when the choice was made to keep cutting budgets and staff for the last decade

To sell off school playgrounds

No cuts here
There is wide agreement here to pay sufficient tax to enable continuing improvement in school facilities and resources every year;
same for hospitals and other public services

I mean, there's a whole issue there about government.

It's quite possible to argue that an approach like that is just not possible in the UK because it relies on government through consensus, communication built on bringing the country together, cohesion ...

And we have a government that achieved power precisely through fracture, and a populism based on fracturing the electorate into (opposed) groups.

When you govern through that style, a strategy based on bringing people together, with a (discusses) set of aims, isn't possible.

And I agree with your last post, too, BCF.

The blame-shifting towards unions hides a massive fact that education is not, in fact, a priority.

It's not a political hive mind here:

The SPD would certainly have spent more on education & health,
but the CDU have been in power for decades and imo their minimum standard for public services is pretty high

What are your thoughts on Scotland having a longer lockdown and going slower on easing than England right now? FYI the stats yesterday here were about 25 new cases, about 20 of which in care homes (rolling 7 day average). It's been creeping down slowly but steadily for the last couple of weeks.

Source: www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-scotland-52009463

Personally I'm incredibly frustrated about the school situation - I'm in an authority which has said primary kids will go back 4 days over 3 weeks in August and that may continue all year (though the situation is very politically fluid due to the backlash).