Discuss The Archers #108: Has Ed & Emma’s ship sailed? Will Alice stick her oar into Kate's love life? Can Shula walk on water? Come and discuss whatever floats your boat in The Archers.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @QuaterMiss for the title of this thread. For reasons of space had to cut out the bit speculating about Oliver and Tracy pairing off. Surely not!

Off now to give blood, something nobody in Ambridge ever does. See you all later.

Does she have a degree? We've never been told. I am seething about this when I remember.

I've never understood how Phoebe got into Oxford. She is a wet blanket and I don't think that I have heard her say, think or do anything remotely noteworthy.
Would an Oxbridge PPE really base their project on what Pip thinks? Surely Phoebe has better sources than that.

lLadyR It may be a class thing, but to me it's just a commonsense thing. I've never understood why people who can't afford them buy all new babystuff either.

I think it's also to do with having experienced not having enough. I have extended family who have been proper, bones-of-their-arse poor who are now comfortably off and are baffled by my love of a charity shop bargain for example. I've never been in a situation where second hand was my only option financially. They have, and they don't see why anyone would choose it.

I read somewhere that Oxford PPE results come out next week. No idea if it's true.

yet her presentation was awful

To be fair the SW might not have an Oxford PPE! (They probably hope we’ll accept the script as a mere sketch and fill in the more substantial/persuasive details ourselves.)

As regards reading from notes - I attend a fair few Oxford, and other, research conferences, and everyone reads from notes. Usually on their laptop.

Could be interesting if the competition judges ask Pip why the rewilding scheme is better than the Brookside scheme, or vice versa.

Do we know what the schemes are yet? Phoebes is Brookfield’s something with methane? Adams ? And there’s one other?

I would have thought Peggy would have spotted that Pip is involved both applications and have said something by now.Maybe that’s why she was looking for her the other day? It does seem unfair as Pip would technically gain if either wins

Would Oxford PPE not include stuff on giving presentations?
I think you are mistaking an Oxbridge degree as training for anything but carrying out research, reading fast and arguing for your ideas.
When I was at Oxford as a Grad student, I was the only one who gave talks at our monthly seminars without notes - in fact most people used cards. I had perfected my note free method whilst studying at another Ancient University in Scotland (almost certainly not the one you are thinking of).

This isn't an academic conference, though, it's a project competition. I would expect no notes.

Phoebe and Rex are rewilding Ambridge.
Brookfield is low methane dairying.
Adam is the soil academy.
Tom and Gnasher was for the orchard village, which we haven't heard about.

Kate's mates with the shoddy proposal which didn’t get through was for vegan farming of some sort.

Did Kirsty say there would be an entry for the Wildlife Trust?

I work with fresh Oxbridge and other graduates all the time. Very few are accomplished presenters in a business context, even the ones who have done well in moots and debating and the like and been thoroughly tested during the job application process. It’s not generally taught on degree courses and generally comes with practise and experience. I haven’t listened yet to Feebs present so can’t say how she stacks up by comparison, interesting that Alice is always portrayed of making such a meal of it, since she is both a bright postgrad and has a fair few years of work under her belt.

To be honest it’s slightly lazy plotting to have people constantly worried about presenting rather than content or other aspects of a job/task- presenting is a fairly common thing that needs to be done in the world of work and it is silly to build up presenting as being the major challenge that people face in this sort of context.

Re Pip and the two projects- I’m not sure it matters, does it? The prize is an investment in the project, not cash in the pocket of the winning team, which they can then go and blow on a Ferrari. So if it’s all about identifying the best project for the future of Ambridge, does it really matter if the same person is behind more than one idea?

Exactly Argumentative I completely agree Though both Pip and Feebs seemed a mite annoyed with one another. Rex playing referee, what was that about?

I wondered what the point of Rex trying to get a video to play was. I know it was meant to be part of the presentation, but it just seemed like filler. What's his role in this pitch? He also seemed to be siding with Pip all the time, like a people pleaser, even though Feebs had a point.

Poor Jim, having to sit through reality TV with Lil. I don't see why he needs to know about pop culture, if they're playing as a team. I'm sure the others won't be brushing up on their Greek Mythology, or other classics subjects.

I thought that Lilian was creating a nice neutral area forJim, he sounded happier than he has for ages, being needed for his old intellectual self, and being challenged by watching crap on the telly.

Speaking of academic elite, is anyone going to this? Or will anyone be making their presentation using notes from their iPad?
Academic Archers 2020 Conference in Reading

I am planning on going.

It seems very expensive (or I'm just a lot broker - unsure of money this year), which is a pity as its local to me and MERL is a great location.

I haven’t looked at the prices. But I am currently sat in an RG2 postcode.

Oh, that's a shame, MollyButton - could you not be a Day Tripper on the Saturday? Oh, wait, have checked the prices, yes, that is expensive! I'm guessing the organisers may have been out of pocket in the past so have had to increase prices to be sure of breaking even this time.

EBearhug - I am rubbish with names, I was surprised when I read you were going - I must have you confused with someone else whose name begins with E but who lives in the Antipodes.

They were financially very out of pocket last time.

I guess I could answer an annoying email at work and see if there is any chance I could wangle them to agree to me giving a talk and maybe they could fund some of it. Or I ask my DS for a very expensive Christmas present.

whilst studying at another Ancient University in Scotland (almost certainly not the one you are thinking of)

Aberdeen was founded in 1495. St. Andrews in 1413. Glasgow was 1451.
Edinburgh is a baby at 1582.

I bet you think we would think of St. Andrews but it was Glasgow or Aberdeen.

Shame it will only be those with money who can attend. £75 for the day tripper ticket? No thanks! I didn't bother looking at the other prices.

I suppose they think the working class would rather watch Eastenders or Corrie, than listen to TA. It would be interesting to see how diverse the audience is.

Shame it will only be those with money who can attend.

Now I feel even more like the lumpen proletariat, Motoko!

I went to the first AA con and would love to go again. But, as someone who’s already spent the price of a summer holiday on conference registrations, transport and accomodation this year, I’m having to be hard-hearted about it.

I'm sure Tracey would know a lot about popular culture.