Westministenders: Don't forget to stockpile. Again.

[RedToothBrush]

The government is telling pharmacists and drug manufactures to stockpile drugs ahead of the end of transition on 31st December.

In the middle of a pandemic.

What could go wrong?

DGR I don't much care, I was just whining like POTUS. (He'd freak at my shower, it's currently providing a trickle of either v hot or cold water and given the heatwave I've been having cold showers. My hair isn't perfect though it's a damn sight better than his.)

I'm just curious about how the filters work, if one post with a word in gets wiped asap and another doesn't.
Or maybe in the interim they have tweaked the system because enough PP pointed out that there is as little connection between the s-word and their target word as there is between silk and ilk.

I'm more alarmed at the randomness of the exam results than of MN's policies.

In France, almost 96% passed the Bac. Creating an influx of 10 000 extra students, who haven't had any lessons since March, into an already badly creaking HE system, and a minister who announced last week all campuses would open for onsite teaching in Sept, with face masks "recommended". Can't see what can possibly go wrong.

@AuldAlliance

I used the s-word some time ago and my post was erased almost instantly. Now I want to know why DGR hasn't suffered the same fate.

I'm tempted to type it and see.

This is what I meant - I remember this happening. It presumably wasn’t removed by a human moderator, but more likely by an automatic filter of some sort. (Is that feasible, but otherwise why would a human being have removed a perfectly innocent word?) So male privilege is presumably not the answer, but perhaps they have adjusted something to prevent ludicrous deletions of this sort.

Anyway, sorry that your BIL is being a pillock (not a pollock, fucking autocorrect), mrslaughan, but well done to your nephew on those results!

What are we coming to when no high street shop has the part I need to repair my washing machine.
I order online and pay loads extra for "next day delivery"
and three days later still cannot wash clothes ....

@ListeningQuietly

What are we coming to when no high street shop has the part I need to repair my washing machine. I order online and pay loads extra for "next day delivery" and three days later still cannot wash clothes ....

And that's before 1/1/2021 ....

Patel working hard at bringing the country together.

@Steven_Swinford

"Patel Patel told Tory MPs the asylum system is ‘broken’ and said she will be bringing forward new laws that will ‘send the left into meltdown’

She said the system is being exploited by ‘leftie-supporting lawyers’ and also criticised ‘judicial activism’
Patel plans asylum shake-up ‘to send left into meltdown’
Priti Patel told Tory MPs that the asylum system was “broken” as she promised to introduce laws that would “send the left into meltdown”.The home secretary said that the system was being “exploited by
thetimes.co.uk

Priti Patel told Tory MPs she is working on new laws to reform the asylum system which will be met with strong opposition

The ‘fair borders bill’ is intended to stop cases being drawn out

‘She it’s going to be difficult, the left are going to have a meltdown’

Priti Patel also made clear that Britain will not pay extra money to France* to help stem the flow of migrants until it agrees to take back more of them

She said Britain has already given France significant sums to tackle crisis & said it needs to use existing resources"

*I bet we do.

"to send the left into meltdown"

Seriously? This is how senior ministers present their policy now, is it?
FFS.

Argh, got to get back to work...

Things generally have never ended well for England when it takes that tone with France.

Good news from @Sostenueto on the results thread I believe - DGD has place at KCL and got her Bristol insurance place too.

The asylum system IS broken in a lot of ways, but being even tougher on applicants isn't going to address any of them.

I am curious to know how reforms designed to "send the left into meltdown" are going to square with all the promises the Home Office civil servants have been making about never allowing a racially motivated scandal like Windrush to happen again. It would be nice to see someone in the media ask Patel that.

The asylum system IS broken in a lot of ways, but being even tougher on applicants isn't going to address any of them.

Depends what your end goal is. Try turning the sound off, blanking out the shite they'll write and look at the results.

In fact, on that basis, I doubt they'll do much beyond change a few acronyms. Seems to me the asylum system is ticking over exactly as intended.

Tatiana - he can appeal , but we are still trying to work out what that means for his second choice - which is still an amazing uni.

There's also a thorn of the policy with regards to the appeal process .... if what I am seeing reported is correct (appears to include photos of info from Ofquol website), if a child at a school wins the appeal and has their grade revised up, another child at that school will have their grade revised down. Doesn't really encourage the school to appeal on behalf of a student....
It seems the subject that dnephew needed the a⭐️ in - quite a few had their predicted grades downgraded. It's a subject the school is usually exceptionally strong in.

It's a shambles.
Yes I was wondering how Sos dgd got on.

if a child at a school wins the appeal and has their grade revised up, another child at that school will have their grade revised down.

I can't believe anyone thought this "cohort from each school" system was a workable solution. These are exam grades, not a finite amount of quantifiable items like apples to be shared amongst a set number of people.

if a child at a school wins the appeal and has their grade revised up, another child at that school will have their grade revised down.

I saw that being mooted last night, with Ofqual warning that appeals were not going to be as straightforward as The Boy Gav was making out (wonder if Gav had actually consulted with Ofqual before announcing his latest fudge?), but it would be brutal if results were downgraded after being awarded because of someone else’s appeal.

In further you-really-couldn't-make-it-up news, it seems that Priti Patel wants to (re)legalise poppers (amyl nitrate) a psychocative drug used by gay men.

It would be childish of me to think this is because the whole country is going to need a very loose sphincter given what the Tories are planning to do it. So I will.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-poppers-legal-sex-drug-home-office-law-a9668221.html

meanwhile, poor Alfie Dingley - for whom the law was changed - is still waiting patiently for his medicine.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/01/anger-at-nhs-failure-to-prescribe-cannabis-oil-medicines

I have no skin in the Scottish game, BUT just loves watching Nicola Sturgeon handing Ruth Davidson her arse this morning

Hopeless - forgot the link
🤦‍♀️

twitter.com/dougchapmansnp/status/1293543742197161984?s=21

Just stepping in on the quote re downgrade if someone else is successful - it’s being quoted everywhere but is an extract of a much larger paragraph : “you cannot challenge your school or college under the appeals process on the centre assessment grade(s) it submitted or your rank order position(s). Any appeal would have
to be undertaken by someone better placed than your teachers to judge your likely grade
if exams had taken place – in the unique circumstances of this summer, we do not believe there is such a person. Also, because of the role of the rank order in grading this year, such an appeal would affect other students in your cohort: if one student successfully appealed against their position in the rank order, it would have negative implications for other students who would, in turn, need to be given an opportunity to appeal ...”

The document then goes on to explain what action can be taken. So this is specifically on excluding a challenge to your school/centre - it is possible to ask if a mistake has been made, here is the link:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/907925/Information_for_students_about_malpractice-7-8-2020.pdf

Meanwhile, in a batshit parallel reality just over the other side of the Atlantic:

Donald Trump on Thursday tore into Kamala Harris and other Democrats, saying the presumptive vice presidential nominee is a “mad woman” and claiming her party wants to get rid of “any kind of animals” and tear down New York’s famed Empire State Building.

www.independent.co.uk/us-election-2020/trump-twitter-kamala-harris-biden-democrats-animals-empire-state-building-2020-election-a9668526.html

I did snigger yesterday when he said Harris was "very mean and nasty to Sleepy Joe". (Just testing the waters here...)

MrsL
That speech is a CRACKER

I would divorce my wife and marry Nicola in a heartbeat

Auld
The Donald is not clever enough to realise that Biden and Harris will stick tightly together
because she was friends with his late son Beau

Its also interesting that Biden comes from working class Pennsylvania
and Harris' parents were an Emeritus Professor and the head of a big research lab and her grandad was a diplomat ....

As someone living in Scotland, I was keener on NS before 1) her legislation started defining "a woman" as anyone who calls themselves a woman, 2) she started bringing in legislation which means that if you say to your DC in the privacy of your own home that (just an example) you think that believing in Christianity is silly you can be arrested for a crime which allows for imprisonment for up to 7 years. And if an actor says the same on stage because it's written in the script, they can be arrested for the same crime.

LQ
The Donald is not clever enough to realise that Biden and Harris will stick tightly together because she was friends with his late son Beau

Fixed that for you.

Congrats to any mini westminstender who got what they needed or wanted in their a levels. Heart breaking for those who's results are so out of whack with their mocks and predicted grades though