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?

twitter.com/thelastpersont2/status/1294174504210575362?s=21

@Pepperwort

With the lawmakers and police on it, they'll probably sort it out. Hopefully.

The problem is the proper time for their involvement was before a bill is passed - ideally in the drafting stages so they can contribute their expertise.

This way it looks exactly like it is. An arrogant won't-listen-to-anyone-government determined to ram it's ideology through the legislative process and damn the torpedoes.

So basically Scotland has another Tory government on top of the one in Westminster.

A lot of parents with children who were due to do a levels and gsces this year are in the age group who swung from labour in 2017 to Conservative in 2019.

And the children themselves will be able to vote at next GE. Will this be a 'tuition fees' level of anger and 'never forget how we were shafted'?

And this might be one to watch

(((Frances "Cassandra" Coppola)))
@Frances_Coppola

I imagine EHRC will have something to say about this. The moderation process appears to disproportionately downgrade students from BAME backgrounds. Unlike socioeconomic background, race is a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act.

Quote Tweet

ESOLallstars
@ESOLallstars
· 52m
Replying to @inthesedeserts
I've just seen that my old school, which is a majority non white school in an area with one of the highest rates of child poverty in the country, but still gets good results, has had one of the worst downgrades mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/devastated-level-students-uks-child-22516341.amp?__twitter_impression=true

If the algorithm has discriminated against BAME students because they tend to go to poorer-performing schools, the Government has broken the law.

EHRC has already said it is investigating. If it concludes there was discrimination, that will open the door to legal action by the BAME students affected.

@prettybird

Yes: unicameral is the adjective that means there is just one legislating chamber.

It's a bit if a shame that's never taught in schools.

The UK is bicameral - as is the US federally.

However I think some states are unicameral - Pennsylvania possibly as Ben Franklin (who wrote it's constitution) was quite a big wheel in Paris as ambassador when the French were looking at their constitutional arrangements and were thinking unicameral.

And you then read stuff like this

twitter.com/gingergeekcraig/status/1293915547533365250?s=21

EHRC has already said it is investigating. If it concludes there was discrimination, that will open the door to legal action by the BAME students affected.

That's nice dear.

Quite aside from the fact that we haven't sorted out prisoners votes in what - 10 years - what redress is available, apart from a badly worded note from HMG saying Soz about the results ?

There's an added problem in that the parents of kids who haven't been fucked over are not only not going to support such measures. They are very likely to oppose them. Or at the very least be amenable to government persuasion that they system is fine.

New Zealand far more aware of UK shortcomings than Bozo it seems www.thetimes.co.uk/article/winston-peters-says-uk-not-match-fit-for-trade-talks-with-new-zealand-hqc5xzd5h?utm_content=buffer60c69&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR0iqa7aS3sh9ehM7f6q2B0NHFCX73hUE5QMBocRM-ZciA20CWk_95XwUYM

Well DGR - I don't think my Dnephew has been particularly hard done by (the marks required by Cambridge and Oxford always make it a bit of a lottery) because of the furore over exam marks he is very angry. Smacks of entitlement me.... but hey , I love my sister but have always had issue with some of her parenting choices. But they seem to be buying in it.
But they did vote Tory - so hey.... they knew what they were getting(because I kept in harping one about it)

[quote JeSuisPoulet]New Zealand far more aware of UK shortcomings than Bozo it seems www.thetimes.co.uk/article/winston-peters-says-uk-not-match-fit-for-trade-talks-with-new-zealand-hqc5xzd5h?utm_content=buffer60c69&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR0iqa7aS3sh9ehM7f6q2B0NHFCX73hUE5QMBocRM-ZciA20CWk_95XwUYM[/quote]
Admittedly I can only see the start but it sounds like he's blaming Theresa May for being a remainder for the lack of progress?

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/14/punishment-by-statistics-the-father-who-foresaw-a-level-algorithm-flaws

Peregrina
You might want to keep a beady eye on events in France. I know your DS is in PACA, not sure where, and that you are planning a trip soonish.

Bouches-du-Rhône have been identified as a zone where the virus is actively circulating, which means the Préfet can take specific local measures, including not allowing people and vehicles to circulate.

The anger on Facebook and Twitter over the exam gradings is visceral. Between this, the travel bans and the Cummings saga, the Government is doing it's level best to ensure it's not forgotten - for all the wrong reasons.

@TheABC

The anger on Facebook and Twitter over the exam gradings is visceral. Between this, the travel bans and the Cummings saga, the Government is doing it's level best to ensure it's not forgotten - for all the wrong reasons.

Oscar Wilde ?

Thanks Auld - we are keeping an eye on the situation. We were talking about it only half an hour ago. If the flight got cancelled, the decision would be made for us.

DGR I read that article - scary how bang on this guy's prediction was.

And it's all going to happen again next week, with a far larger number of young people. I wonder how this 'second wave' is going to hit the government?

Winston Peters is a Wiley old individual. He is in bed with Aaron Banks to help him with the election- he is NZ's Nigel Farage ..... I can't stand him.
But his observations about the UK not being match got - when it comes to negotiating trade deals is bang on - and his rational behind it.

@pointythings

DGR I read that article - scary how bang on this guy's prediction was.

And it's all going to happen again next week, with a far larger number of young people. I wonder how this 'second wave' is going to hit the government?

Statistics are an incredibly powerful tool ("Freakonomics"). But like all science, you have "good" and "bad".

Bad being to point out that simply using the stats that it must be pure sexism that sees 7 women in a team of 12 simultaneously made redundant.

Good statistics is that 50% of the country think Boris is brilliant. Which we get to be discarding the clearly anomalous polls showing otherwise.

God I am tired.

Maybe you need a tiny respite from the news. It gets overpowering sometimes. I hope it's less hot where you are now.

[quote DGRossetti]www.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/14/punishment-by-statistics-the-father-who-foresaw-a-level-algorithm-flaws[/quote]
Yes I read this earlier.

This fiasco was all entirely predictable. Did no-one in government twig that if grades were calibrated by school - bright state students could be unfairly penalised while independent students could feasibly be upgraded? (And indeed we’ve seen a rise in A*s and As). Or did they just not care?

This is devastating for all students unfairly downgraded because of a dodgy algorithm

The algorithm aimed to get national results just a tiny bit better than last time

• governments always like to show an increase, as with house prices -

but was grossly unfair at an individual level

A very bright student in a big comprehensive in a deprived area has this one main chance to escape the poverty trap.
High grades leads to uni, leads to the good career - that was my route out
They may have little support to appeal or resit - I was constantly told that Uni was "ideas above my station"

The privileged mc parents with sharp elbows can push their school - which will be wealthier - into an appeal
and if that doesn't produce the desired grades, then they can afford tutors for a resit and supporting their kid to study for months at home

Race may be the legal means to overturn all this shambles, but it is kids of all colours who have been disadvantaged

It is only the very wealthiest who can just shrug off a downgrade that loses their uni place this year

There is no time for all the thousands of appeals - in fact that may be one way out ?
with say ¼ million appeals, the whole process would implode and that might force a U-turn

I grudgingly have to respect NS and the SNP in that they admitted they totally screwed up over exams
and they then U-turned, rather than put their dignity ahead of the futures of so many kids
I don't expect politicians to get it right all the time, but I do expect an apology and a correction of the action.

He's taking the piss surely ...🤯

Gavin Williamson:

“Increasing the A Level grades will mean a whole generation could end up promoted beyond their abilities”.

In unrelated news, the Cabinet contains Gavin Williamson, Priti Patel, Liz Truss, Grant Shapps .....

I agree race may be the angle to challenge this shitshow, but what does it say about this government that class/socio-economics don’t count.

I also agree that multitudinous appeals may overwhelm the boards - which is a good reason for everyone to appeal who can.

“Increasing the A Level grades will mean a whole generation could end up *promoted beyond their abilities”

What absolute horseshit. And from such a government - the irony.

This is devastating for all students unfairly downgraded because of a dodgy algorithm

Actually it's an incredibly valuable life lesson. It should certainly innocculate them against the blandishments of the political machine in future.

Our government may have unwittingly just minted a generation they will never be able to reach.