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.

BCF: (Re schools) Maybe copy the German plan ... 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 ?

The UK government don't seem to use hard thresholds, have you noticed? It's all 'more' 'less' 'higher' 'fewer' without saying 'how much' more etc. The vagueness is presumably deliberate, since SMART objectives have been around for decades.

This is a depressing read
www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/19/its-a-basic-equality-issue-home-learning-gap-between-state-and-private-schools

And every week that theme parks are open but schools are not
it will get worse

Why would a cabinet full of privately educated politicians whose first act on being a parent is to shove their progeny into a private school give two shits about the education your kid gets ?

Especially when the form of question for advancement to the front row is not "What did you get for your masters ?" but "Did you know Squiffy when you were at Balliol ?".

Or am I being unfair ?

I recall Corbyn being mocked for the proposal of a roll out of free broadband. It doesn't seem quite such an outlandish idea now.

Well DD is going in 3 days next week - she is at a private school, online learning has been great - but socially she needs something.
The schools classrooms aren't actually that great - but have massive ground so have said they are going to do as much as possible outside - teacher/student ratio 1:4

The government needs to put its hands in its pockets, and start putting a plan together - but it won't.
They could put it in the hands of the local authorities- to find spaces , recruit staff - but they won't....... and if you were in teaching training, after seeing with they have done to the nurses - you wouldn't put ever on hold to help out.

It's makes me fucking depressed and blindingly angry all at the same time.

A friends daughter who is year 12 at an academy has had some time back at school - to be told that the very possible situation for sept is each year group just back 1 day per week ..... which would be fine (through gritted teeth) if it's alongside a proper online learning program - but it won't be.

This government is so fucking useless it is unbelievable- latest estimate for track and trace I saw was Oct/nov!!!

DS went in for his first day yesterday. He said it wasn’t really proper teaching, more like in person supervision of the set work as none of his usual teachers were there. Still, he did get maths, English and science sessions, so at least it’s a start. Fortunately, between me, DH, big brother and grandparents we can cover most subjects to A level standard, and what we can’t cover he is way ahead in anyway.

That Guardian article is certainly depressing. You might think that the Tories would be concerned, since it's likely to affect the constituents of those new MPs from the once Red Wall, more than it is the naice middle class children of Surrey.

Ds1 (Y12) has had very very patchy provision.

Particularly in 1 subject.

He had only had online lessons/supervision in the last 3 weeks.

We got an e mail last night and he will get a session of online 1-1 with his tutors next week.

He breaks up on friday....

But I don't think all Tory voters have their kids at private school. I have lots of friends with kids at state school. (We have great ones around me - including, but not exclusively grammars - all fab as long as you don't have a child with SEN) When I talked about how Boris shouldn't be trusted , looked at me like I was some weirdo and used some version of "but Corbyn " . And they may all be well educated, but are all struggling now to keep jobs, or keep their struggling businesses limping along.....

But I don't think all Tory voters have their kids at private school.

But they still vote Tory. Ironic, isn't it ?

It is now. I really hope their eyes have been opened.
I really hope that the term Tory becomes so poisonous that it keep them out of power for decades ..... and that is Boris's legacy

DH was just saying he thought they were useless but has been shocked to the core by the level of Gross incompetence with the way everything around the pandemic has been handled. He didn't vote Tory either - but thought they might get something right....

@ListeningQuietly

TBH the economy will be fine - we now live in a forest of magic money trees

Children on the other hand should be the priority
and in the UK the needs of children who are too young to vote, funny that are being utterly ignored.
It should not have taken a footballer to highlight summer food poverty.
Catch up tutoring should not be handled by a dodgy private company.

The teaching unions should seize the initiative by saying what they think WILL work
just ignore the garbage from whitehall
and work with their LEAs to implement it.
for the benefit of the children

Most schools are outside the control of LEAs. They are all private enterprise now - "academies"

I really hope their eyes have been opened.

Unlikely. Even on a thread today asking if they are fit for purpose, the very first reply (whether real or not) was "...but Corbyn ..."

It's not impossible that todays hardcore Tories actually started off (as many on this thread) trying to care for their fellow man, and make life better for everyone. Then, after years of encountering a steady parade of people who insist on voting against their own interests, they figured "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" and became more Tory than Tory.

I don't know, I really don't know. It's hard to imagine another four months of this, let alone four years.

Honeysuckle
Indeed, hence my point that one of the big academy chains should take the leap.

"It is 9.30am in the staff room at Manchester grammar school (MGS) and the head of chemistry, Fay Roberts, is settled in the windowless cupboard where she now does much of her teaching. All of her year 12s have turned up online to learn about the acid-catalysed elimination of an alcohol. “They’re pretty good at getting out of bed, but they’re 17-year-old boys,” she says. “If one is missing, I get one of their friends to text them and they soon turn up.”

From an article in the guardian today. See this hasn't even been happening in our area.

See this hasn't even been happening in our area.

It hasn't been happening in that area either. MGS is an independent school.

Oh! I saw grammar - and assumed it was state.
Sorry

Sorry, page didn't refresh, missed loads. Ignore me.

Education and Health are 2 sectors that would do well to break from govt's regulation and go it alone IMO. There may be an apparently hatred of experts that the govt is using to privatise by stealth but now people have had the process sped up (thanks to COVID) the stealth aspect isn't as subtle and more people are putting 2 and 2 together...whether they come up with 4 is another question, however.

The trouble with both is the have been cash starved and wouldn't last long if they went rouge in the interests of the public.

I actually had a response within 2 hours from dd's primary teacher today! Not emailed him for about a month but thought I'd send a few bits she has done today and ask for the cirriculum for Eng/Maths/Science. He sent them far quicker than he used to (and he's meant to be teaching FT atm) so something must have changed. I don't actually want dd to be back in school, but I do want the school to be able to do teaching online rather than links to outside sources.

Education and Health are 2 sectors that could be run better by teams of primary school kids doing an "apprentice" style competition.

Indeed DGR

Also showing the lack of joined-up legislation and regulation are these cruise ships which, unlike our airplanes, have been stuck in harbour for months www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/19/uk-port-authorities-board-cruise-ships-amid-welfare-fears-for-crew-coronavirus Another example of how Cummings (I won't bother pretending it's Bozo at the helm any more) is led by the news. Very Trumpian.

Poulet
The Cruise ships are moored up and down the coast.
Their poor crew are trapped on board
They berth up once a fortnight to take on food but do not let crew ashore and then go back out to the Dorset coast to sit.

Then gain the planes are lined up at Bournemouth airport in significant numbers

And the unsold cars are filling redundant runways up and down the land

such a clusterfuck

Responding to another poster (about wine ) I had a sudden something-in-eye moment, seeing the EU flag on a vineyards website - they had benefited from a development fund.

I might stop writing about wine, and start drinking it

It's like seeing a playground vandalised or something. Sad, senseless, and totally heartbreaking.

The Cruise ships are moored up and down the coast. Their poor crew are trapped on board They berth up once a fortnight to take on food but do not let crew ashore and then go back out to the Dorset coast to sit.

So a trial run for prison hulks ?

Each of the ships in UK waters on here
www.cruisemapper.com/
has a couple of hundred crew trapped
unable to go home
unable to send money to their families