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Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 7:23 pm
by Eric_WLothian
AnatolyKasparov wrote:Well, if Scottish Labour becomes "self governing" I would expect the Welsh party to follow in short order - which leaves, if only by default.......
Scottish Labour have more important things to discuss:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/t ... -1-3811092

:lol:

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 7:23 pm
by tinyclanger2
letsskiptotheleft wrote:I woke up this morning to a WTF string of expletives, in the week that 12 billion worth of cuts are being soft soaped to the social security budget, the bulk affecting the working and fucking skint it was heartening to hear, via sychophantic BBC journos that Buck House is in need of 150 million quids worth of upgrades and new decor... Maybe Osborne & Co can give them cost price..

The establishment haven't just won, they are now rubbing people's noses in it.. Still keep feeding us religion, sex and TV and it's alright, not much changes eh?!
Indeed. What the blinking heck do we do about it?
It seems to be one of those things where facts don't work so we'll have to try something else.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 7:27 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
Queen's art collection:

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Royal_Collection" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical photographs, tapestries, furniture, ceramics, books, and other works of art
I wouldn't want anything sold on the open market, but something could surely be sold to the nation at a relatively low price as a compromise. The Duke of Sutherland did that with one of his Titians.

The Queen might do the same.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 7:31 pm
by PorFavor
Goodnight, everyone.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 7:56 pm
by Hobiejoe
Somewhat OT, but a quick, and literal, heads-up - strong chance of a good aurora from midnight onwards, especially from the Midlands northwards.

http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-forecast/

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 8:01 pm
by frightful_oik
Isn't ER getting a 6% pay rise as well? All in it together eh? Money only available for essential spending etc etc

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 8:24 pm
by HindleA
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/j ... CMP=twt_gu" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Business groups reject PM's plan to replace tax credits with higher pay
Industry organisations deny pay levels are linked to receipt of tax credit and warn small employers may not be able to afford salary increases

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 9:35 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
Looked at the Education debate from Monday. Tristram Hunt on good form.
Lucy Frazer (South East Cambridgeshire) (Con): Did the hon. Gentleman not hear the Secretary of State say that the definition of coasting would be based on pupil performance data?

Tristram Hunt: Does the hon. Lady mean the progress 8 data, the EBacc data, or the data relating to free school meals? Again, it is very unclear what the Conservatives are going for.
Lucy Frazer didn't come back from that.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 9:57 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/st ... id-5943577" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A headteacher has been sacked amid scandalous claims pupils' answers were CHANGED after their test had finished.

Maths results for 11-year-olds were struck out at a high-flying Birmingham academy following a probe into the 2014 test.

The annulment at St Patrick's CE Primary Academy is understood to have meant none of the 30 Year 6 pupils were given their received maths grades before starting secondary school.

St Patrick's confirmed that former head Stephanie O'Grady had been sacked because of the incident.
I'll only half gloat that this is an academy. The "one set of bad exams and you're sacked" culture doesn't help anyone.

She won't be the only one who's done it.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 10:26 pm
by Swarthlander
PorFavor wrote:
Swarthlander wrote:
AnatolyKasparov wrote:Well, if Scottish Labour becomes "self governing" I would expect the Welsh party to follow in short order - which leaves, if only by default.......
Then Labour will end up fighting itself (no change there then).
A fragmented Labour Party has no future, self-governing factions of the same organisation will be wide open to MSM charges of incohesion. And I am sure there will be some in all of the factions to supply the ammunition.

If there is a 'Scottish Labour Party' and a 'Welsh Labour Party' I want a 'Northern Labour Party' because the buggers down south are no good for us up here.

The left can not organise together, what hope for three or more 'Labour Parties'....

...cont. p94

:D

I hope you don't think (and you probably don't) that everyone "down South" is rich - or even comfortable. Plenty of underprivileged southerners. Very many of them living in London. The place I live in is often referred to as a northern town on the south coast. You probably don't mean to but you come across as rather dismissive of our problems. Divide and rule is alive, flourishing, and working a treat. Sorry to use you as a punch-bag!
No I don't mean everyone down south is rich or comfortable. I am well aware there are economically deprived areas, rural and urban, down south.

By 'those buggers' I mean London elite, politicians, Westminster, centralised control, journalists, etc, etc, ad nauseam.

Sorry you totally and completely misread my post.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 10:44 pm
by rebeccariots2
Zoe Gascoyne
‏@Zoe_Gascoyne
Joint Statement of Merseyside Solicitors and Barristers

Read: http://tl.gd/n_1smqhk4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
They're talking very tough on the additional 8.75% cut in legal aid fees as set out by Gove ... and other elements of his speech. They're not going to stand for it.

According to their statement other areas are having similar meetings to the Merseyside one resulting in this statement.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 10:45 pm
by HindleA
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... nical-poor" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Cynical about the Tories redefining child poverty? You should be

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 11:41 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
Quick, Osborne, put your hard hat on!

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... tment-plan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The catalogue of delay, missed targets and overspending at Network Rail is set to force ministers to admit that the vaunted biggest investment in the railway since Victorian times will not deliver the projects promised in a £38.5bn five-year plan.

The electrification of the Midland mainline linking London to Sheffield, described as “critical to maintaining a reliable railway”, is likely to be axed from the schedule as ministers attempt to get to grips with Network Rail’s soaring costs.
Northern Powerhouse!

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 11:46 pm
by HindleA
Oh dear.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 11:50 pm
by Hobiejoe
Is there some kind of lefty penance I can do to atone for watching Andrew Roberts doing his Napoleon thing on iplayer?

Other than a muttering grumpiness every time he tries to bend history to his agenda. Which I've tried, instead of hurling something at the telly.

Didn't work, but then again, the TV still does. So there is that.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 11:55 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
HindleA wrote:Oh dear.
Haven't seen an opinion poll for a while, but a few chickens are coming home to roost.

Transport budget unprotected before and massively cut. Money borrowed by Network Rail. Time to pay the fiddler now.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Wed 24 Jun, 2015 11:58 pm
by Tubby Isaacs
Hobiejoe wrote:Is there some kind of lefty penance I can do to atone for watching Andrew Roberts doing his Napoleon thing on iplayer?

Other than a muttering grumpiness every time he tries to bend history to his agenda. Which I've tried.

Didn't work, but then again, the TV still does. So there is that.
Don't know if Richard Evans has written on Napoleon. He doesn't rate Roberts.

http://www.theomnivore.co.uk/Book/4500- ... fault.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“This is not a new history of the Second World War in any meaningful sense of the word; it is not even an adequate history of the Second World War. It is certainly not a reliable one. It does both author and publisher a disservice, as well as the reading public... [A] deeply inadequate book”

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Thu 25 Jun, 2015 12:01 am
by Tubby Isaacs
Can't find the Evans review itself, but insight into it here.

https://sanseverything.wordpress.com/20 ... quotation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In the August 21 & 28, 2009 number of the Times Literary Supplement, the historian Richard J. Evans has a devastating review of Roberts’ latest book, The Storm of War: A New History of Second World War. As Evans notes, the new book and some of Roberts’ other recent works can be categorized as a “hastily written potboilers, widely criticized by reviewers for their inadequacies and inaccuracies.”



More specifically, Evans notes that Roberts relied heavily on book reviews, rather than actual scholarly studies; that the books Roberts did use were often general reference tomes, such as the Collins Encylopedia of Military History, rather than monographs; that these books in any case tend to be dated; that all of the sources Roberts relied on are in English (thus ignoring the massive and important historical literatures of Germany, France, Italy, and Russia, among other countries); that Roberts is overwhelmingly focused on the British role in the war, and downplays both the Eastern front and the Pacific War. Furthermore, the general tone of the book is juvenile (“Roberts approaches his topic in a kind of Boy’s Own spirit, filling his pages with acts of derring-do by heroic, almost invariably British troops, who win medals for exemplary bravery and are mourned by grieving relatives if they are killed in action.”). And of course, Evans has no trouble finding numerous inaccuracies, both large and small, in The Storm of War.



In sum, Evans concludes that “this is not a new history of the Second World War in any meaningful sense of the word; it is not even an adequate history of the Second World War. It is certainly not a reliable one. It does both author and publisher a disservice, as well as the reading public.”

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Thu 25 Jun, 2015 12:09 am
by HindleA
Ouch.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Thu 25 Jun, 2015 12:13 am
by HindleA
A bit late now but i've found the missing "d"

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Thu 25 Jun, 2015 1:22 am
by Hobiejoe
Tubby Isaacs wrote:Can't find the Evans review itself, but insight into it here.

https://sanseverything.wordpress.com/20 ... quotation/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In the August 21 & 28, 2009 number of the Times Literary Supplement, the historian Richard J. Evans has a devastating review of Roberts’ latest book, The Storm of War: A New History of Second World War. As Evans notes, the new book and some of Roberts’ other recent works can be categorized as a “hastily written potboilers, widely criticized by reviewers for their inadequacies and inaccuracies.”



More specifically, Evans notes that Roberts relied heavily on book reviews, rather than actual scholarly studies; that the books Roberts did use were often general reference tomes, such as the Collins Encylopedia of Military History, rather than monographs; that these books in any case tend to be dated; that all of the sources Roberts relied on are in English (thus ignoring the massive and important historical literatures of Germany, France, Italy, and Russia, among other countries); that Roberts is overwhelmingly focused on the British role in the war, and downplays both the Eastern front and the Pacific War. Furthermore, the general tone of the book is juvenile (“Roberts approaches his topic in a kind of Boy’s Own spirit, filling his pages with acts of derring-do by heroic, almost invariably British troops, who win medals for exemplary bravery and are mourned by grieving relatives if they are killed in action.”). And of course, Evans has no trouble finding numerous inaccuracies, both large and small, in The Storm of War.



In sum, Evans concludes that “this is not a new history of the Second World War in any meaningful sense of the word; it is not even an adequate history of the Second World War. It is certainly not a reliable one. It does both author and publisher a disservice, as well as the reading public.”
Now that's a review.

I appreciated the general overview - history not being my strong point - but the, well, spin being put on the story of Napoleon, son of the revolution, was just extraordinary. Apparently his success was down to meritocracy, this was his driving force and how he chose his generals was just the start of the story. It appears, as in more modern cases of "meritocracy", that it all depends on where you start from.

Re: Wenesday 24th June 2015

Posted: Thu 25 Jun, 2015 1:38 am
by Hobiejoe
Blimey! Is this the most overtly political act by Brenda yet? Or am I, as is so often the case, getting over-excited?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... pean-union

Hard to tell, and I do have previous re the latter. Especially as it's home-time for me.