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.

Leicester - where they have the space centre and museum
Newquay - where they have a dying airport hoping for a survival route

Read Private Eye and both those press releases are very old news

The Leicester ESA "news" is a just blatant attempt to cover up the government buying into the wrong type of (bankrupt) satellite company. If you search twitter or google for relevant search terms, you now come up with a bunch of far right websites and pro-Brexit commentators promoting the ESA/Leicester non-news.

It's utterly transparent and no coincidence that the local far-right cheerleader has popped up on here wanting to talk about this.

Misti

Obv. under instruction from minders

Mistigri
the local far-right cheerleader

Don't mind me - I'm just admiring my shiny new 'far-right' tattoo as I scoff a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel, guacamole dip on the side.

More from the UK's 'far-right' hub in Leicester;

"We recently shared positive news that our colleagues at SPRINT delivery partner, the University of Leicester, had secured a major £500,000 grant to create a new Deep Space Centre at its new Space Park Leicester facility."

"This has been swiftly followed by the announcement that Space Park Leicester has been selected as a new centre to offer the successful business incubation programme for start-ups in the UK, run by the European Space Agency (ESA)."

"The addition of Space Park Leicester marks the first ESA BIC UK location beyond the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) national sites, joining a UK-wide programme alongside the Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire, Sci-Tech Daresbury in the North West and the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh."

www.sprint.ac.uk/news-stories/esa-provides-a-business-boost-for-space-park-leicester/

"Work is well underway on the £100 million Space Park Leicester, which is going up close to the National Space Centre."

"Estimates suggest it could contribute £750 million a year to the economy, lowering the cost of the manufacturer and launch of satellites and a centre for processing the data they provide."

"Led by the University of Leicester, it could eventually lead to 2,500 jobs and attract other high tech businesses to the city."

www.business-live.co.uk/economic-development/new-deep-space-centre-help-18439236

Could, would, might, smashing.

eh up

2,500 new jobs "eventually" is good news, but doesn't touch the sides atm ...

The current jobless total is 2.8 million, with up to another million more feared after August,
when employers will be required to make contributions to the furlough scheme

Unemployment in the UK peaked at 3.3 million in 1984 under Margaret Thatcher.
Will BJ beat her record ?

We have had a Space industry for a long time though. As is happening with University Science departments, will leaving the EU mean that the UK is no longer as attractive and researchers will leave or not come. This is definitely something we need to keep watch on.

For all Johnson's blather about World beating etc. you have to make it attractive for people to come here.

Sunak needs to produce a "Back to Work" emergency Autumn budget
that helps employers who retain staff

Hopefully, the recession will be V-shaped, with 2021 regaining most of the lost GDP

I would imagine that they would be good quality science and technology jobs. The people who work in the gig economy delivering parcels and flipping burgers would need a lot of education and training for this. How does this square with Bojo wrecking the public education system?

The addition of Space Park Leicester marks the first ESA BIC UK location beyond the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) national sites, joining a UK-wide programme alongside the Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire, Sci-Tech Daresbury in the North West and the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh.

How misleading.

There is an existing ESA BIC at Harwell that managed by the STFC, and the new Leicester facility will still be part funded by the STFC. The Leicester BIC lead is currently the BIC lead at Harwell.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/28/only-13-of-uk-working-parents-want-to-go-back-to-the-old-normal

Just 13% want to go back to pre-pandemic ways of working, with most people saying they would prefer to spend a maximum of three days in the office.

A survey of 1,500 people carried out for Bright Horizons, the nursery provider,
suggests that many working parents realise that large parts of their jobs can be conducted remotely.
And they believe that their employers will agree.

Nearly two-thirds think their employers will be open to remote or flexible working in the future
as the widespread adoption of Zoom and other online tools has kept many businesses functioning even as physical workplaces have been shuttered.

Almost half – 48% – of those who worked in an office before lockdown said they were considering asking for some more remote working.

I would imagine that they would be good quality science and technology jobs. The people who work in the gig economy delivering parcels and flipping burgers would need a lot of education and training for this. How does this square with Bojo wrecking the public education system?

We'll import the skills we need. India has quite a burgeoning space sector for a start. As does China. Of course they also have their own GPS systems, so not quite sure what the attraction or reinventing the wheel for the UK would be.

If we can put aside for a moment the gender inequalities lockdown has highlighted, I was initially hoping that this would bring about flexi-working/work from home options. It seems that a lot of workers feel the same www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/28/only-13-of-uk-working-parents-want-to-go-back-to-the-old-normal.

Yesterday when we were saying how much of the housework etc was being done by the woman, I did think it didn't sound too far off the norm. I suspect a lot of women are making up hours they would have spent travelling/getting ready/having to be sociable (I hated office politics!) and finding they have more time? It be interesting to see the gender divide on this. I imagine female researchers are an exception as we noted they are submitting less and men more.

Snap BCF.

It's also a win for the business really as they aren't paying for season tickets, electricity, heating and office space. My wishful thinking was that instead of building new houses on greenland we might free up office spaces in town centers for families.

I also am hopeful that male suicide figures for this year will be dramatically lower, as the community spirit has rallied somewhat and men haven't had the chance to go out drinking in groups. We will wait and see, but I am hopeful. I guess the job situation may turn that around again though

The level of detail in British A levels is great - well - it used to be. You don’t really get the level of detail and close working in a humanities degree that you do at A level, for example, you don’t get to do that close working again until post-grad.

I am sorry but this is way off. A level marking is a tick box exercise, I know because my fellow masters students do it, and I have seen the way my DDs were taught to get their A*s. Original thinking does not get you the marks so teachers teach to the correct arguments and points to make to get the marks. I have sat in on plenty of undergraduate seminars where the arguments and thinking were equally a match for the Master’s seminars and often actually superior. Of course there is a learning gap in terms of articulating that thinking in an evidenced way in an essay after the way essay writing is taught at A level but original thinking is encouraged and nurtured at universities in a way it isn’t at A level . And of course the level of detail in a humanities degree is down to the level of an individual student’s reading.

How misleading.

This is why it's only been reported by far-right Brexit-cheerleading sites and their surrogates. What has been reported is fake news, as has been pointed out by knowledgeable people here.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/20/nhs-covid-app-developers-tried-to-block-rival-symptom-trackers

NHSX, the health service technology unit responsible for the government’s failed contact-tracing app,
attempted to block rival apps to protect its own, hampering efforts to track the early spread of the coronavirus.

Developers of several apps were urged to stop work by either NHSX or the Ministry of Defence, who told them their apps might distract attention from NHSX’s app when it was launched.

Last week the app was abandonedd^ after three months, with work beginning on an alternative design without any deadline.

Prof Tim Spector, of King’s College London, said that NHSX had treated his Covid symptom tracker research team as “the enemy”.

“We were hampered from the beginning, in March when we first contacted NHSX..
They were very worried about our app taking attention away from theirs and confusing the public.

“Lots of signals went to places like the universities, my university, the medical charities and the royal colleges not to back our app
because that would interfere with their one.”

Black teenager on London charity cycle ride injured during ‘aggressive’ arrest

The police may have been reasonable to detain this father & son if they fit the suspects' description,
but there is no justification for threats and assault on peaceful cyclists not resisting

Detaining a 13-year-old child should not require a stun gun or handcuffs

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/28/black-teenager-on-family-cycle-ride-injured-during-aggressive-police-arrest

I would add that that tick box exercise in the A level module in my area studies is way behind the curve in terms of current academic thinking, a very old fashioned western perspective on events that is verging on orientalist. Marking the A level essays you have to leave all that you have learnt at undergrad and graduate level out of it 😏

Poulet
I have been out and met and chatted to lots of people during lockdown all legal
interestingly its the men who suddenly realise that they hated the hours of travel every day
and the meetings about meetings
and the 6am alarm to get to a desk 50 miles away for 8.45
to do what can be 90% done at a table at the end of the bed

women always knew it was bullshit
and so did not go for those jobs - helping to perpetuate the glass ceiling

many highly paid city type men have just discovered how fractured the day is with kids at home
and although the women have picked up most of the tasks during lockdown
once it becomes permanent women will make things change

the improvement will not be rapid
but in 5 years we will look back and realise what a trigger it was

BCF