Westminstenders: How many Dead Cats Do You Get In A Thunderstorm?

[RedToothBrush]

It never rains. It only pours.

What I wouldn't give for a bit of old fashioned drizzle right now.

4 years on and we are facing a torment of calamities. Brexit, serious political instability in the USA ahead of an election that Trump will refuse to lose even if he does, trade deals with the rest of the world put on 6 week deadlines, anger within the commonwealth, a sick weak dependent PM on the back foot and ill briefed, rampant growing corruption in the Tory party, woke nut jobs out of touch with reality, councils on the brink of bankruptcy and the whole covid-19 crisis.

.

For the first time, more people think Starmer would make a better PM than BJ.

And people have changed their views because of lockdown.

Some members of the public have found a few silver linings in the Coronavirus crisis, with a third (33%) saying they have had more money to save or spend each month since the lockdown. Furthermore half (49%) have kept up with current affairs more since the lockdown, while 42% have been reading more books, 30% have been sleeping more, and 28% have been eating more healthy food.
A third (36%) say that when restrictions are lifted they will spend less on shopping. A similar figure (32%) say they will spend less in pubs and bars, and 36% say the same about eating out, once things return back to ‘normal’.

www.opinium.co.uk/public-opinion-on-coronavirus-25th-june/

And some Red Wall voters are rethinking their 2019 vote. Swinging back to Labour?

twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/1276969145423278081

I'm an all rounder and often wished I had a particular talent for something or particular interest in something, so a career path would have been clearer.

Those newspapers are depressing.

How's the Leicester lockdown going to work?

How's the Leicester lockdown going to work?

Badly?

Will be interesting to see.

Lairy Leicester lockdown.

ahem, about Dominic Raab's grasp of geography (this is a joke tweet, in case someone needs that explained).

egads, I didn't know that Leicester Lockdown was on the cards. My friend has relatives among the recently diagnosed cases there. Friend is livid bc family members went to BLM protests & that's how friend thinks virus ended up getting to her elderly parents.

White Rose Maths where we are apparently on a week in July although it jumps around just to keep parents on their toes
DDs school have done the same here, except someone not DD didn't read the instructions properly and carried on chronologically 🤦‍♀️. I ended up paying for it myself just to carry on. In fairness they did an offer so I got DS's year bundled in and he's doing it now chronologically as well. It's working out just over 50p a week per child and of all the things that's one we can afford at least.

I have done the baccalauréat.
The reality is that the idea of all rounders is a bit misplaced imo. I did the science baccalauréat and I, like many of my counterparts, also did well enough in French, foreign languages and even Ancient Greek and Latin. The reason is simple. The top pupils all did the science baccalauréat regardless of whether they enjoyed humanities/French better.
Of those who did humanities or languages, the top students also did well in maths and science (even though, it was Obviously not as hard as what those doing the science baccalaureate did).

What it means though is that people finished school, maybe not proper all rounders but with an idea of geography and history and science. Regardless of where their strengths were.

It also means that pupils who are struggling to decide what to do have more time to make their mind up. I know ds1 chose his subjects earlier this year for A levels. He is now regretting them but can’t change to the ones he really wants.
Ds2 chose his subjects for GCSE and is regretting at least one of them. It will restrict him when he is going to chose his A levels next year.
I don’t think that choosing that early is doing any favour to those kids who don’t really know what they want to do later on... especially those who are more like all rounders actually.

Aren’t local lockdown the same than having Wales in lockdown whilst England has more relaxed rules?? I seem to remember the story of a town street where the border between Wales and England is going through. One side of the street couldn't go out of the house and the other could. Everyone seems to have coped, even if it looked a bit weird.

The bac has been "reformed" in France and now students choose options for the last 2 years of lycée, rather than choosing a speciality "(science, literature, economics) and carrying through all subjects till the end of lycée with varying weightings depending on their speciality. They now take a narrower range of courses than before.
It will perhaps help those who have clear strengths and weaknesses and know what they want to do, but also risks shutting off possibilities for those who don't or are good across the board.

What it means though is that people finished school, maybe not proper all rounders but with an idea of geography and history and science. Regardless of where their strengths were.

This is exactly what I meant. Raab wasn't in the slightest bit embarrassed to admit that he had less of a grasp of Geography than a child in Junior school. Not that this is the only subject - just how many people boast that they are no good at Maths, as though it's something to be proud of? By contrast how many people would think that an adult having a reading age of a nine year old would have something to boast about?

As for doing 4 or 5 A levels - I don't think that's the case much more, thanks to Gove's 'reforms'. It was better when you had stand alone AS levels - you could start with 5 and drop one after a year and have something to show for it.

For the first time, more people think Starmer would make a better PM than BJ.

If you include survey respondents not registered to vote/not entitled to vote in UK general elections, e.g.

Total number of respondents: 2001
I am on the electoral register: 1833
I am entitled to vote in UK general elections: 1685
I am not entitled to vote in UK general elections but I can vote in local elections: 148

Other data tables, e.g.

Table V003 All likely GB voters: Best PM BJ 599 KS 589
Table V004 All entitled to vote: Best PM BJ 620 KS 600

Also from the report;
"However, the Conservatives do still hold a 4-point lead in terms of voting intention – 43% vs. 39% for Labour. Both parties are down one percentage point since last week."

I have said before it's not necessarily what is true which matters, but what people believe to be true. If the message gets around that people think Starmer looks like a PM in waiting, then the fact that it's a small sample will be forgotten. Although having been to a number of Counts on election nights when all parties do quick tallies at the verification stage, I have been surprised to see how a small sample can indicate the total result.

I predict that what will happen then is that the Tories will sharpen the knives and get rid of Johnson. It's too soon now though - the last blood letting was too painful, but let another couple of years elapse, and that should be just about right. This enables Johnson to take the rap for a botched Brexit, and is time enough to get the new chap installed as PM.

Just heard this question asked on LBC;

"The European Space Agency has just chosen Leicester to host its startup hub. Why has no one reported that?"

www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-do-we-so-rarely-hear-the-good-news-about-the-economy

[quote Clavinova]Just heard this question asked on LBC;

"The European Space Agency has just chosen Leicester to host its startup hub. Why has no one reported that?"

www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-do-we-so-rarely-hear-the-good-news-about-the-economy[/quote]
Those of us of a certain age or hairstyle will recall in the 80s, the evening news (certainly on ITV, I can't remember the BBC doing it although others might be able to help ?) had a round up of the employment situation.

(This was after the Tories had got in on the slogan "Labours not working" and the poster of the queue for the Job Centre.)

So you'd have reports of jobs lost, and (much much rarer) jobs created.

Anyway. "Spitting Image" did a absolutely note-perfect satire where they had their puppet news reader quietly announcing 5,000 jobs going in the North, with a tiny tiny little sticker. Then concluding with "...and a paperboy has been hired in Hull ..." with a star shaped sticker that was bigger than the map.

So it seems Clav and I both remember the sketch . But possibly from a different perspective ...

The ESA is a separate body to the EU. I wonder if May knew that, or just forgot to include it - seeing as they are talking about working more closely with the EU. Still I wonder if the Canadians being a partner makes it OK for the Brexiters? It would of course have been better for them if the USA had been a partner.

Those of us of a certain age or hairstyle will recall in the 80s

Speak for yourself!

So it seems Clav and I both remember the sketch

No, I don't.

So it seems Clav and I both remember the sketch

No, I don't.

Which makes it even funnier that you pretty much recreated it line by line ....

I am surprised that Clavinova doesn't remember the sketch, because we have seen quite a lot of her posts to the same effect over the last 4 years.

It would of course have been better for them if the USA had been a partner.

More space industry news here;

17 JUN
"British and American government ministers have signed a deal to power up the UK’s spaceports programme and boost tech exports."

"The UK Space Agency said today the agreement will allow US companies to operate and launch rockets and satellites from British spaceports, as well as support their participation in the UK space sector supply chain."

“This deal with the US takes us one step closer to seeing the first ever launch into space from British soil,” said science minister Amanda Solloway.

“This is a key moment for our commercial space industry, and I look forward to seeing companies from Scotland to Newquay benefiting, and the creation of highly skilled jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”

"The UK space sector now employs 42,000 people and generates income of £14.8bn a year.The government has awarded grants of almost £40m thus far, and plans to have the regulation in place to permit vertical and horizontal launches within the next five years."

"The agreement comes as the UK charted its first successful launch on Shetlands soil this week, testing out one of three proposed commercial spaceports in Scotland. Development of a major spaceport in Cornwall is still underway."

www.cityam.com/uk-space-agency-signs-us-deal-to-fuel-british-spaceports/

Yes, we have seen these joint ventures with the USA before. Remember the takeover of Cadbury's? It never seems to bode well for UK jobs.

The Leicester Space story is indeed good news, any organisation prepared to support startups is to be welcomed. I just hope that the startups exist to make use of the scheme.

The European Space Agency has just chosen Leicester to host its startup hub. Why has no one reported that?

Because it’s not really news? There’s been a hub at Harwell since 2011 and there are similar ones across Europe.

www.esa.int/Applications/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/Business_Incubation/ESA_Business_Incubation_Centres8

The ESA Business Incubation Centres just provide some office space and advice / support to new companies and are scattered all over Europe. Many of the companies moving into the new site were in Leicester already.

Plus it’s managed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council in collaboration with ESA, and still partly funded by STFC and the UK Space Agency.

stfc.ukri.org/news/stfc-welcomes-space-park-leicester-to-national-business-programme-for-start-ups/