Saturday 31st October (Halloween) & Sunday 1st November 2015

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 7:46 pm

Well worth a read (came to it via Alistair Campbell).

leece
‏@leecepops
I am a boss in the emergency services, I feel alone and I need help! https://boomicony.wordpress.com/2015/10 ... -need-help" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

seeingclearly · Post by **seeingclearly** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 8:09 pm

More red carpets:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... calisation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TobyLatimer · Post by **TobyLatimer** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 8:17 pm

ohsocynical wrote:
seeingclearly wrote:
TobyLatimer wrote:On a different note, I had a nice chat with Virgin customer services earlier. I haven't been keeping top side of my paperwork for the last few weeks, feeling I'll has that 'can't be arsed' effect. So it came as a great shock that Virgin have scrapped my 'customer loyalty' bonus of £10 per month off of my bill , and to raise the cost of the package to £48.00 a month from 37.00. I would be lost without the internet, and phone - I would have to use one of the leeches anyhow, and as I don't have a BT landline it would incur yet more expense to change. Upon hearing my pleas, the Virgin chap reduced the cost back to £37, reinstated the loyalty bonus, and waived the next two months bills as a goodwill gesture. It pays to complain sometimes.

I've been with Virgin forever, and the longer you are with them the more you seem to have to pay. I need to be able to use my phone anytime and pay through the nose for the privilege, and like you would be lost without the internet. I haven't used a tv or accessed scheduled programmes by any other device for over two years, tried to drop that part of the package which they said would lose me the package so I'd have to buy evening and weekend phone only plus Internet for more than I now pay.When I quibbled and pointed out advertised packages was told I not eligible because I not a new customer! So I'm still paying for tv I don't use. And through the nose.

Shouldn't there be some rules about this stuff? I stick with them because it's a good internet service but await the day when more people use Internet telephony instead.

Darn it you were lucky.
I've tried four or five times to get someone to reduce my package - I have TV, Broadband and phone. I never get the right person. We want to get rid of the TV line. I'll have to have another go shortly....My bill keeps creeping up too.

I guess i can be quite adamant or stubborn even if I try, I just told them I had very little income and no way could I afford it, I said "I don't want to leave but have no choice, if you could offer me some sort of loyalty discount that would be great" Followed by some creeping after he gave it to me, "That's brilliant ! are you sure ? don't want to get you into trouble, blah blah blah yada yada you've made my day etc" Patronizing little sod I am.

Hobiejoe · Post by **Hobiejoe** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 8:22 pm

TobyLatimer wrote:
ohsocynical wrote:
seeingclearly wrote:
I've been with Virgin forever, and the longer you are with them the more you seem to have to pay. I need to be able to use my phone anytime and pay through the nose for the privilege, and like you would be lost without the internet. I haven't used a tv or accessed scheduled programmes by any other device for over two years, tried to drop that part of the package which they said would lose me the package so I'd have to buy evening and weekend phone only plus Internet for more than I now pay.When I quibbled and pointed out advertised packages was told I not eligible because I not a new customer! So I'm still paying for tv I don't use. And through the nose.

Shouldn't there be some rules about this stuff? I stick with them because it's a good internet service but await the day when more people use Internet telephony instead.

Darn it you were lucky.
I've tried four or five times to get someone to reduce my package - I have TV, Broadband and phone. I never get the right person. We want to get rid of the TV line. I'll have to have another go shortly....My bill keeps creeping up too.

I guess i can be quite adamant or stubborn even if I try, I just told them I had very little income and no way could I afford it, I said "I don't want to leave but have no choice, if you could offer me some sort of loyalty discount that would be great" Followed by some creeping after he gave it to me, "That's brilliant ! are you sure ? don't want to get you into trouble, blah blah blah yada yada you've made my day etc" Patronizing little sod I am.

Well, you know what they say - once you can fake sincerity you've got it made.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 10:29 pm

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... ash-crisis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cash crisis ‘could close 50% of UK care homes’
Government urged to protect the elderly as providers face financial squeeze from falling fees and rising wages

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:08 pm

Could be an interesting Sunday morning on the politics front ...

: Iraq War The Cover Up.jpg (78.04 KiB) Viewed 9543 times

Nick Sutton ‏@suttonnick 2h2 hours ago
Mail on Sunday front page:
'Burn it' - Iraq War: The Cover-Up
#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:09 pm

HindleA wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... ash-crisis

Cash crisis ‘could close 50% of UK care homes’
Government urged to protect the elderly as providers face financial squeeze from falling fees and rising wages

That masterpiece Budget again!

Four Seasons, the focus of this article, have 20,000 residents. If they went under, that would be a hell of a problem. Like about 600 free schools going under. The LAs can't have anything like that spare capacity.

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:14 pm

rebeccariots2 wrote:Could be an interesting Sunday morning on the politics front ...
Iraq War The Cover Up.jpg

Nick Sutton ‏@suttonnick 2h2 hours ago
Mail on Sunday front page:
'Burn it' - Iraq War: The Cover-Up
#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers

Quick, get tax credits out of the news!

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:17 pm

Had never heard of this woman before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Chubb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A whistleblower in social care and campaigner for whistleblowers. Strangely unMBE-ed.

Interesting contrast with Julie Bailey?

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:20 pm

Tubby Isaacs wrote:
HindleA wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... ash-crisis

Cash crisis ‘could close 50% of UK care homes’
Government urged to protect the elderly as providers face financial squeeze from falling fees and rising wages
That masterpiece Budget again!

Four Seasons, the focus of this article, have 20,000 residents. If they went under, that would be a hell of a problem. Like about 600 free schools going under. The LAs can't have anything like that spare capacity.

Yup. It's crumbling around Osborne. Some of the largest employment and business sectors are basically saying they can't cope with even the paltry first rise to the minimum wage. The lowest paid working households won't be able to cope with the proposed cuts to their tax credits. The local authorities have even more cuts coming their way so can't step in and make up any differences.

And then there's the Joe Halewood article - which makes perfect sense to me - in which he says cutting tax credits is going to result in a massive rise in the welfare bill as people start to claim the other benefits they haven't claimed so far when they have been entitled to them ... or because with a reduction in their income they then become entitled to them. Housing benefit is a particular danger ... it could end up massively escalating.
https://speye.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/ ... fare-bill/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So Osborne has problems / gaping holes in the - lower welfare bit of his proposals - in the higher wage bit of his proposals - and the low tax bit? We shall see - I wonder if he'll postpone increasing the personal allowance.

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:24 pm

I find that Halewood thing implausible. Tax credits are the most complicated benefits. If people are claiming those, why aren't they claiming other benefits?

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:30 pm

New Lords showdown over right-to-buy threat to rural areas
Campaign to Protect Rural England demands countryside to be exempt from plans, claiming families will be forced out of communities
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... ural-areas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yet another aspect Osborne didn't consider - or refused to consider - which is going to cause aggro with a lot of Tory MPs.

I'm very glad the Welsh government seems to have some say over what happens here. It might be able to mitigate some of the worst effects.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:39 pm

Tubby Isaacs wrote:I find that Halewood thing implausible. Tax credits are the most complicated benefits. If people are claiming those, why aren't they claiming other benefits?

Because they are going to have such a drop in income they are damn well going to make sure they check out what they are and aren't entitled to. I can imagine the stampede to CAB and the like once those letters start to arrive. And the other point he makes is that the very same drop in income may make them eligible for housing benefit for the first time ...

Universal credit ... when it comes in more widely ... is going to be a minefield because it automatically rolls several benefits up and assesses once for entitlement ... and, of course, part time and self employed workers are going to be caught up in UC at some time.

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Sat 31 Oct, 2015 11:47 pm

I don't think they'll discover a load of stuff they haven't claimed for before. A friend of mine gets tax credits and housing benefit. I think the cut in tax credits is not made up entirely by housing benefit.

I think there was something about Universal Credit and these tax credit cuts the other day. IIRC, even if it works as designed, the tax credit cuts will mean the clawback from earnings is a lot quicker than before.

I don't think it'll get that far though, luckily.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 12:03 am

FWIW UC not available in my area at all.

Tubby Isaacs · Post by **Tubby Isaacs** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 12:23 am

Did we have this the other day?

http://schoolsweek.co.uk/complaint-abou ... -confirms/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Government about to get in trouble with the ASA, by the look of it.

Claimed teachers can earn up to £65k. That's only in Inner London, and only ones on the "leading practitioners" scale- not many.

seeingclearly · Post by **seeingclearly** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 12:57 am

Well here's another layer to the tax credits story.nprivate debt collectors to fetch back payments made in error. Not years ago. As far as I could see 2013-14.....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 16391.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I just had a flash of the MC in Caberet singing about money.....

seeingclearly · Post by **seeingclearly** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 1:04 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:
Tubby Isaacs wrote:I find that Halewood thing implausible. Tax credits are the most complicated benefits. If people are claiming those, why aren't they claiming other benefits?
Because they are going to have such a drop in income they are damn well going to make sure they check out what they are and aren't entitled to. I can imagine the stampede to CAB and the like once those letters start to arrive. And the other point he makes is that the very same drop in income may make them eligible for housing benefit for the first time ...

Universal credit ... when it comes in more widely ... is going to be a minefield because it automatically rolls several benefits up and assesses once for entitlement ... and, of course, part time and self employed workers are going to be caught up in UC at some time.

It does that on a household basis too. So couples still housing their under-25s in low paid work or claiming what would have been JSA are suddenly going to have their incomes assessed in a completely different way. Then the benefit cap is invoked.

seeingclearly · Post by **seeingclearly** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 1:17 am

Tubby Isaacs wrote:I find that Halewood thing implausible. Tax credits are the most complicated benefits. If people are claiming those, why aren't they claiming other benefits?

Tax credits have not been pushed as a welfare benefit, so they aren't claimed in the same way as social security benefits. HMRC just sends you the form. It's more that up till now people have been eligible for them. If you are outside of PAYE then it's likely you'll have an accountant and they might be the person who lets you know that you are eligible. Calling it welfare is a very recent thing.

Judging by the Indy article they must still be an administrative mess, otherwise there wouldn't be such huge overpayments.

seeingclearly · Post by **seeingclearly** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 1:49 am

Oh those evil council workers, stealing everyone's hard earned money.

http://money.aol.co.uk/2015/10/30/how-m ... -yourself/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hobiejoe · Post by **Hobiejoe** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 2:20 am

Another little gift for the (especially this particular eve) people of the night - Julian Fellowes getting a right good kicking btl in The Graun. Apologies if repeating a post.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... w#comments

G'night

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 7:59 am

HindleA wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... ash-crisis

Cash crisis ‘could close 50% of UK care homes’
Government urged to protect the elderly as providers face financial squeeze from falling fees and rising wages

Closing loads of hospitals for mental health patients; social rent decrease leading to cancellations of planned 'specified accommodation' including sheltered-housing, domestic violence refuges, close-care housing, etc., by HAs and Councils; massive closures of private care-homes; registered district/visiting nurses having vital nursing work taken from them and passed to un-qualified general personal and/or domestic care-workers; NHS England to find 20% 'efficiencies' with only a couple of % 'increase' in funding; and there's more that's slipped my mind. All this news hitting in the past few days whilst the Government itself talks with the other fork of its tongue about the importance of joining up health and social care, increasing mental health provision, and the rest of their 'caring Conservatives' schtick. Sickening

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 8:05 am

Morning.

More worries for Redcar workers:

Police probe as £3million steel workers' pension fund missing.
Bosses at Redcar have been accused of taking staff contributions to settle other debts
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/po ... rs-6744547" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lovely to see you popping in last night LetsSkip .
Hope all is well with you, and hope to hear more from you.

TobyLatimer · Post by **TobyLatimer** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 8:17 am

Dankzuc up to his usual spiel in The Mail. He gets worse. He says;

Labour is the 'nasty party' now

Apols in advance http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nczuk.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

LadyCentauria · Post by **LadyCentauria** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 8:21 am

Tubby Isaacs wrote:I find that Halewood thing implausible. Tax credits are the most complicated benefits. If people are claiming those, why aren't they claiming other benefits?

A lot of people don't claim all the benefits that they would qualify for because they don't know they exist (its not as if the HMRS or the DWP tell you about things you haven't asked about, even these days) or do know about other benefits but assume they wouldn't qualify for them. When their already-tight budgets are squeezed even more tightly they are more likely to ask for advice on whether or not they're entitled to anything else - especially if the major newspapers start suggesting a check on turn2us, at the CAB, at/from local council(lors,) or from MPs. And people who get tax credits often don't think of themselves as being in the Social Security (Welfare) benefits system at all.

Edit to add: Sorry @rr2, I hadn't seen your reply which covered this. And g'day all. 'Tis deeply foggy here with visibility down to about fifteen yards, earlier, after violet-coloured skies last eventide!

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 8:23 am

Ignore him, he just wants attention.
Still, thankfully he isn't like his wife, at least he's spared us shots of himself in his knickers, so far at least. He'll do anything for money and a name check in the media.

yahyah · Post by **yahyah** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 8:26 am

As I've recommended ignoring the troublemakers I won't mention Liam Byrne opposing Corbyn's economic plans in the Mirror

TobyLatimer · Post by **TobyLatimer** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 8:44 am

If any of the other three candidates had won the leadership, I wouldn't constantly be making remarks about how crap they are or creating splits to scare off floating voters, not for one second. He must be goading so if the whip is withdrawn he can go running back to his mate Dacre and say 'I told you so'

Byrne should know better too.

ephemerid · Post by **ephemerid** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 8:46 am

Re. Joe Halewood - he's very good on this stuff, and I think he's right about this.

The Housing Benefit spend has increased since 2010 - from £16.94BN in 2010/11 to £23.8BN in 2014/15. Despite the bedroom tax deductions, the total benefit cap, and other "reforms", the spend has gone up significantly. (ONS and DWP figures)
In 2010, the average weekly HB award was £87, now it's £93 - that's an increase of about 15%, but rents have not risen by as much. So people are claiming more in HB than they were, and I think that's because of the changes to other benefits.
There have already been changes to tax credit entitlement, plus cuts/sanctions in other benefits - as HB is means-tested, when claimant's income falls, their HB award increases. There are more nil-income HB claims than ever before.

Joe is right to say that as income is removed from claimants, their entitlement to means-tested benefits changes - and that's what is happening now, and will continue when/if the new tax credit cuts come in.
Currently, there are 4.9 Million people claiming HB - in 2008 it was just under 4 Million, and thy weren't claiming as much. Half of them are on out-of-work benefits, a quarter of those are pensioners.
The remaining quarter are in work - and the latter group has increased from 485,900 in 2009/10 to 1,058,569 by May 2014. So clearly, Joe's right about cuts in one place turning up as a payment somewhere else....

Joe has not accounted for is UC sanctions and the one-claim-per-household rule. In theory, he's right to make the point that some claimants will find they have entitlement to more than they did before - but under UC they will be subject to the same sanctions as the unemployed and sick are now, plus they will lose out if they have any other income (eg. a pensioner in the household) as the whole household's income is means-tested.

Basically, despite all the attempts to cut the social security spend, the spend just keeps on rising. Individual claimants (of all benefits including tax credits) may be suffering due to cuts, changes in entitlement, new charges/fines/bedroom tax, sanctions, etc. - but overall, more is being spent than ever because Osborne has not thought this through.

Tax credits were not seen as "benefits" until recently (even though that's pretty much what they are) mainly because most of the people who claim them are working and they are administered by HMRC so didn't get lumped in with the DWP spending figures.
The £30BN spend on them now is largely due to Brown's reforms which abolished various child-related benefits and included them in the tax credit system - Osborne tries to make out that people are getting more cash but they're not.

It's all a mess.

Solution? Citizens Income, rent controls while a massive home-building programme gets under way, then a fair rents system (like Germany's)

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 8:58 am

TobyLatimer wrote:Dankzuc up to his usual spiel in The Mail. He gets worse. He says;

Labour is the 'nasty party' now

Apols in advance http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nczuk.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can't go there and look. I've vowed not to give him eye scanning time. Have to say that that seems to be possibly the lowest thing he's said for a while though if he's branding the whole party in that way ... what will he have to do and say to make his core vote realise it's not acceptable? Anyone know what, if anything, has happened about the complaint that was put in about his and his employees behaviour by local Labour party members?

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 9:00 am

Morning all.

I won't link to the ST article since it's behind the paywall but the opening bit says this.

TOUGH new tests and assessments for England’s primary school children may be scrapped in a wide-ranging review after opposition from unions and head teachers in what many will see as a significant government U-turn.

The change is expected to be announced by the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, this week and will be seized on by critics as a reversal of one of her predecessor Michael Gove’s key reforms.

Concerns have been expressed that the proposed regime, which involved assessments of children at the age of five and seven, followed by demanding tests at 11, would cause undue stress to pupils and teachers.

In a speech at the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange on Tuesday, Morgan will announce that the framework for testing children in primary schools is to be reviewed.

And the comment from a former insider...

Sounds to me like they've just realised that getting rid of Levels has consequences both for progress between KS1 and KS2 (if you get rid of levels, how can you track for 2 leavels of progress between KA1 and 2?)for inter-school comparisons.

And yes, they should have thought about this before...and not blame others when they realise they might have screwed up.

IIRC the majority of schools went for baseline tests that weren't easily translated into scores that you could then measure progress to KS2.

But the best news is that there's another Working Group!

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 9:12 am

Nic Dakin ‏@NicDakinMP 37m37 minutes ago
Nic Dakin Retweeted john spellar
This is becoming quite common. Saying one thing & doing another. Great speeches are welcome but votes change law.

john spellar
‏@spellar
Croydon Tory MP tells local paper her supports zero rate on tampons, but votes with Osborne to keep tax ! http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Croy ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 9:15 am

john spellar ‏@spellar 35m35 minutes ago
Tory Chief Whip Mark Harper under fire as petulant spoilt brat Cameron throws tantrum http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... Lords.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 9:20 am

The Economist ‏@EconEurope 47m47 minutes ago
British influence in the EU is fading. Britain only has itself to blame http://econ.trib.al/8IrmM0O" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

: Not What It Was.png (65.45 KiB) Viewed 9398 times

Their record and performance should be thoroughly checked out prior to any referendum campaigns really kicking off.

TobyLatimer · Post by **TobyLatimer** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 9:28 am

RobertSnozers wrote:
rebeccariots2 wrote:
TobyLatimer wrote:Dankzuc up to his usual spiel in The Mail. He gets worse. He says;

Labour is the 'nasty party' now

Apols in advance http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nczuk.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I can't go there and look. I've vowed not to give him eye scanning time. Have to say that that seems to be possibly the lowest thing he's said for a while though if he's branding the whole party in that way ... what will he have to do and say to make his core vote realise it's not acceptable? Anyone know what, if anything, has happened about the complaint that was put in about his and his employees behaviour by local Labour party members?
How is this not 'bringing the party into disrepute'? - a transgression he allegedly had several people thrown out of the party for.

How he managed to avoid being disciplined over contributing to that ridiculous Sun story accusing Corbyn of giving money to an IRA man, I'll never know.

My thoughts entirely, he mentions the IRA again today, plus Fisher is hateful and divisive (written without a drop of irony) Milne is an apologist for terrorists who hates America, Corbynistas are trolls, you get the picture.

rebeccariots2 · Post by **rebeccariots2** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 9:41 am

Kezia Dugdale has made a fine start. Now she needs policies
The leader of Scottish Labour has an excellent relationship with Jeremy Corbyn, the approval of the unions, and growing respect in Holyrood and Westminster. Now she must begin the hard parthttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... s-policies

... So she has already amassed a personal war chest that her predecessors could only dream of: an excellent working relationship with a leader who “gets” Scotland, approval by the unions and a growing respect within the party in both Holyrood and Westminster. Now all she needs is policies. The one that will be unveiled today is a small step in solving the attainment gap in education which, after eight years in office, has been beyond the abilities of the SNP.

Labour will propose a fair-start fund under which a cash sum for all pupils entitled to a free school meal will go directly to the headteacher for the purpose of closing the attainment gap. The initiative carries obvious benefits for schools in less advantaged areas, but it also has a degree of innovation and creativity, which has thus far been lacking in the SNP’s education solutions...

Isn't that rather, or very, similar to the 'pupil premium'? (Very glad to not be hearing that phrase spouted all the time as the Lib Dem answer to everything - bit of a welcome break for the ears.)

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 9:45 am

rebeccariots2 wrote:
Kezia Dugdale has made a fine start. Now she needs policies
The leader of Scottish Labour has an excellent relationship with Jeremy Corbyn, the approval of the unions, and growing respect in Holyrood and Westminster. Now she must begin the hard parthttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... s-policies

... So she has already amassed a personal war chest that her predecessors could only dream of: an excellent working relationship with a leader who “gets” Scotland, approval by the unions and a growing respect within the party in both Holyrood and Westminster. Now all she needs is policies. The one that will be unveiled today is a small step in solving the attainment gap in education which, after eight years in office, has been beyond the abilities of the SNP.

Labour will propose a fair-start fund under which a cash sum for all pupils entitled to a free school meal will go directly to the headteacher for the purpose of closing the attainment gap. The initiative carries obvious benefits for schools in less advantaged areas, but it also has a degree of innovation and creativity, which has thus far been lacking in the SNP’s education solutions...
Isn't that rather, or very, similar to the 'pupil premium'? (Very glad to not be hearing that phrase spouted all the time as the Lib Dem answer to everything - bit of a welcome break for the ears.)

Yes it's the same as PP. Both LibDems and Tories claimed it as there...and they were both right since it was in both manifestos in 2010.

Pupils on FSM aren't a perfect measure of under-performance but no-one yet has come up with one that targets those pupils in a better way.

HindleA · Post by **HindleA** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 9:51 am

Ahh

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/o ... ar-old-fan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sonny Bill Williams gives Rugby World Cup medal to stunned 14-year-old fan

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 10:03 am

I might do a full comparison of tax receipts at some point but like I did for Corporation Tax the other day, here's the figures for income tax and NI for the year 2014/5...

Income tax
Budget 2010.........£189.3bn
Budget 2015.........£162.6bn

NI
Budget 2010.........£120.9bn
Budget 2015.........£108.7bn

I make that £38.9bn short of where they thought they would be 5 years ago. Total receipts are £53bn lower than was forecast.

Obvious as to why the deficit hasn't been cleared yet and also the effect of those 6m workers paid below living wage.

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 10:12 am

Good to see that the new post-political correctness world where people can say or do anything without others taking offence is working out well...

Sienna poppy storm

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... poppy.html

SIENNA Miller has been blasted for failing to wear a poppy on Graham Norton’s BBC chat show.

The actress, 33, was a guest with Burnt co-star Bradley Cooper who did display the red flower of remembrance.

Norton, Dame Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings also paid respects on their lapels. Twitter fans slammed Miller and the Beeb over Friday’s show.

And if that wasn't enough...

Tory former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth stormed: “There should be no excuse for not wearing one so we can honour the war dead.”

It's a TV chat show not a bleedin' service of remembrance!

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 10:32 am

Of course, Ms Miller was one of those who sued over phone hacking - so the Currant Bun couldn't *possibly* have any agenda there

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 10:32 am

Well indeed Roger.

And why should there be any pressure on anyone to show publicly what they are remembering? For me, remembrance is a profoundly individual act and I don't believe anyone can understand what I really feel about those who have died. Those who want to share in remembrance are of course free to do so, but I won't be wearing a poppy.

tinyclanger2 · Post by **tinyclanger2** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 11:05 am

To cheer myself up I think of Les Dawson saying, on his first episode of Blankety Blank:

[straight to camera with high-level curmudgeonliness]

"I want everyone to know I'm only on here because I owe money".

ephemerid · Post by **ephemerid** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 11:08 am

Poppies.

Every year this nonsense about poppy-wearing comes up; every year we get slebs being denounced for not wearing one; every year people get all het up about this - and it makes me so cross.

My father, who flew in Lancasters during WW2, took the view that if the Legion made a bit of cash to help veterans or whatever, fine - but he didn't wear a poppy himself, as he felt the whole thing was turning into a circus. He died in 1993, so even back then this was an issue.
He told me once that it took years for him to stop having nightmares and flashbacks; he reckoned this was normal, and what he and his fellow crews went through was bad enough without glorifying the deaths of the ones who didn't make it home.

My daughter, who was serving in the RAF until recently, and her fiance who's in the Navy, both wear their poppies and both attend services of remembrance; they've both lost friends in more recent conflicts, and feel it's a solemn duty for them to show up and show respect.

I wear a poppy; if I'm well enough, I go to our local memorial when our ex-servicemen lay their wreaths. This is not because I believe that the poppy thing is right, necessarily; but because I think that a public demonstration of appreciation and gratitude for our armed services and the work they do is a good thing, and for me that's a part of what remembrance is about.

People die in war because the powers that be choose to start wars and send citizens off to fight them - a lot of the time, there is nothing noble about this (despite occasional acts of heroism) and I do get a bit pissed off when people insist that all veterans/war dead are heroes and failing to wear a poppy means that you disrespect them. It's nonsense, obviously.

I am sick of this constant media crapola and naming/shaming of famous people who "fail" to join in what has become quite a nasty jingoistic affair.

tinyclanger2 · Post by **tinyclanger2** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 11:36 am

On poppies, anthems, and self-righteous indignation in general. Am thinking an adaptation of the Pet Shop Boys' "Sexy Northerner[s]" as the National anthem of the future independent Britannia inferior.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_Inferior" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 11:57 am

Good morfternoon.

Cameron falters but Canada understands: we need Keynes
William Keegan

George Osborne’s come-uppance in the Lords and Trudeau’s victory in Canada suggest austerity may be losing its grip on the popular imagination (Guardian)

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... es-trudeau

(Just in case anyone is wondering, though, I'm still reeling from Ed Miliband's defeat.)

Eric_WLothian · Post by **Eric_WLothian** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 12:14 pm

ephemerid wrote:Poppies.

People die in war because the powers that be choose to start wars and send citizens off to fight them - a lot of the time, there is nothing noble about this (despite occasional acts of heroism) and I do get a bit pissed off when people insist that all veterans/war dead are heroes and failing to wear a poppy means that you disrespect them. It's nonsense, obviously.

I suspect that the majority (though not all) military personnel (on both sides of the war) were more interested in getting out in one piece, rather than fighting for a cause. When it came to close quarter fighting:

The Reverend Dr Giles Fraser, who lectures on morality and ethics at the academy of the British Ministry of Defence, says there is a deep human reluctance to kill other people.
"Killing in combat for a psychologically normal individual is bearable only if he or she is able to distance themselves from their own actions.
"SLA Marshall found that only 15-20% of combat infantry were able to fire their weapons on the enemy and there were 80% that were de facto conscientious objectors when it came to the point of firing their weapon."

(And I'm not in any way intending to denigrate the people who took part).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13687796

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 1:15 pm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 14001.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Millions of pounds in British aid money is being used to subsidise public services in overseas tax havens, The Independent can reveal.

I missed this earlier in the week. I just picked it up on twitter. Cameron's commitment to foreign aid always seemed suspicious, given the lack of altruism in all his other policies. It's certainly interesting, to say the least, to read a bit about where some of this money is spent.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 1:17 pm

PorFavor wrote: (Just in case anyone is wondering, though, I'm still reeling from Ed Miliband's defeat.)

Aren't we all?

ohsocynical · Post by **ohsocynical** » Sun 01 Nov, 2015 2:05 pm

RogerOThornhill wrote:Good to see that the new post-political correctness world where people can say or do anything without others taking offence is working out well...

Sienna poppy storm

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... poppy.html

SIENNA Miller has been blasted for failing to wear a poppy on Graham Norton’s BBC chat show.

The actress, 33, was a guest with Burnt co-star Bradley Cooper who did display the red flower of remembrance.

Norton, Dame Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings also paid respects on their lapels. Twitter fans slammed Miller and the Beeb over Friday’s show.
And if that wasn't enough...

Tory former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth stormed: “There should be no excuse for not wearing one so we can honour the war dead.”
It's a TV chat show not a bleedin' service of remembrance!

Years ago the poppy acknowledged you'd put some money in the box to help those who'd survived but needed help. Exactly the same as any lapel sticker for any charity when you donate on the street.

Making the poppys used to make work for the war wounded disabled if I remember correctly.