Wednesday 22nd February 2017

[refitman]

Morning all.

*checks spelling*

[NonOxCol]

Morning.

Scanning through yesterday's thread and late Monday night, I couldn't find this.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -reporters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The total failure of the British media to serve the public interest with regard to Brexit. In some obvious cases, wilful. In the notable case of the BBC, as pathetic and craven as we have sadly become accustomed to.

As a collective, second only to David Cameron in the blame stakes for me.

[NonOxCol]

Meanwhile:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -mp-jo-cox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I really don't feel comfortable about this *at all*, for a multitude of reasons.

[PorFavor]

Good morfternoon.

[HindleA]

Supreme court backs minimum income rule for non-European spouses
Highest UK court backs £18,600 threshold but acknowleges that rule has caused hardship for thousands


https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/fe ... an-spouses" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tinybgoat]

"UK not about to 'shut the door' on low-skilled EU migrants, says David Davis"

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... avid-davis

Davis said in a press conference in Riga, Latvia, that Britain wanted control over immigration but that it would only restrict free movement of people when it was in the “national interest”.
He said that it was not plausible that British citizens would immediately take jobs in the agriculture, social care and hospitality industry once the UK had left the EU and repeated comments made in Estonia on Monday that immigration restrictions would be phased in.
He said: “It will be a gradual process. That will take some time; yesterday I said it will take years.

Suspect this may not go down well with proponents of the people's swill.

[RogerOThornhill]

Morning all.

Was down the school early and have to go back so just popping my head round the imaginary door here...

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Toby YoungVerified account
‏@toadmeister

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12/ It's an example of 'churnalism' at its worst. When journalists regurgitate such a distorted, one-sided report, it becomes fake news.

Toby Young complaining about distorted one-sided journalism...

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... ss-figures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Statistics watchdog warns government over homelessness figures



https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/ ... tistics-3/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Willow904]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ing-people" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As inequality grows, the total number of the wealthy increases, to the point that there are more of them than there are elite positions, the number of political offices being fixed. This has an impact on the “social mood” – hyper-individualism taking the place of collective action, both in rhetoric and in fact. But it also leads these elites to look for new ways to influence politics, as they are edged out of the positions they consider theirs by right.

This can occur subtly over time – there is solid evidence in the US that huge inflows of money to thinktanks from high-net-worth individuals such as Newton and Rochelle Becker, and Richard Mellon Scaife, completely changed the way the US mainstream perceives and discusses Islam.

I found the reference to the disproportionate influence on recent political trends of big money from outside the direct political arena interesting.

[PorFavor]

Supreme court backs minimum income rule for non-European spouses

Highest UK court backs £18,600 threshold but acknowleges that rule has caused hardship for thousands
(Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/fe ... an-spouses

[HindleA]

https://geographicdatascience.com/2017/ ... erseyside/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Mark Green was interviewed on BBC Radio Merseyside on 21st February as part of Roger Phillips lunchtime show. Mark was discussing the findings from his latest paper on the sharp increases in mortality rates in 2015 that have occurred right across England and Wales.


WHY (AND WHERE) DID MORTALITY RATES SHARPLY RISE IN 2015?

https://geographicdatascience.com/2017/ ... s-2014-15/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... nsultation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Guidance
Heathrow Airport consultation: take part in the consultation

[HindleA]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofst ... -framework" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Press release
Ofsted launches new social care common inspection framework

[HindleA]

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolic ... fare-myth/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Our lives keep on changing – yet the welfare myth of “them” and “us” persists

[AnatolyKasparov]

Meanwhile:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -mp-jo-cox" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I really don't feel comfortable about this *at all*, for a multitude of reasons.

Nobody will be turned away? Including outright Nazis??

I know this is all very well meaning and laudable, but......

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... esty-warns" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Toxic political agenda is dehumanising entire groups, Amnesty warns

[Willow904]

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolic ... fare-myth/


Our lives keep on changing – yet the welfare myth of “them” and “us” persists

Yet voters must know they sometimes get made redundant or that they receive child tax credits, so I still don't really understand why they would think benefit cuts wouldn't effect them. You have to wonder how much the Tory vote depends on pensioners protected by the triple lock and how the money will be found to maintain it in the face of high inflation and stagnant wages. The balance of cuts and who they affect, especially cuts to services such as social care, must surely be becoming more finely balanced in terms of cushioning traditional Tory voters.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Yesterdays council byelection - in Basingstoke - is a Labour gain from Tory.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Morning all.

Was down the school early and have to go back so just popping my head round the imaginary door here...

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Toby YoungVerified account
‏@toadmeister

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12/ It's an example of 'churnalism' at its worst. When journalists regurgitate such a distorted, one-sided report, it becomes fake news.

Toby Young complaining about distorted one-sided journalism...

Christ.

"Churnalism" is writing up press releases, not reporting National Audit Office reports.

[GetYou]

Bored of no-one challenging the Tory rhetoric about what the previous Labour government did or didn't do. If you can't tackle this head on each time it's mentioned then give up and go home.

[GetYou]

Meanwhile May is claiming that her not answering a question means you can't ask it again. I give up.

[NonOxCol]

How can this possibly be happening, part umpteen in an infinite series....

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/st ... trade-deal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Sir Ivan Rogers: UK may wait until mid 2020s for an EU trade deal

[AnatolyKasparov]

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/st ... trade-deal


Sir Ivan Rogers: UK may wait until mid 2020s for an EU trade deal

I'm sure everything will just be fine and dandy in the interim

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/careers/201 ... are_btn_tw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



How to cope with disability at work – live chat

[HindleA]

https://thehousingblog.com/2017/02/21/i-am-the-walrus/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



The Housing Blog

Re Homeless Reduction Bill.

[HindleA]

https://www.unison.org.uk/news/press-re ... Qk.twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Give all councils greater share of business rates to fund social care, says UNISON

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://www.newschoolsnetwork.org/what-a ... nao-report" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Toby Young, Director of the New Schools Network, responded to the National Audit Office report on capital funding for schools saying:
“As the National Audit Office has said, free schools offer better value for money than previous school building programmes. They are the most cost effective way to create the 750,000 new school places we need between now and 2025. They are also more popular with parents and more likely to be rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted than any other type of school."

That's all of it.

[RogerOThornhill]

http://www.newschoolsnetwork.org/what-a ... nao-report

Toby Young, Director of the New Schools Network, responded to the National Audit Office report on capital funding for schools saying:
“As the National Audit Office has said, free schools offer better value for money than previous school building programmes. They are the most cost effective way to create the 750,000 new school places we need between now and 2025. They are also more popular with parents and more likely to be rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted than any other type of school."

That's all of it.

Yes, he appears to have spent more time doing "yeah but no but yeah but" on Twitter than he did on this.

And this:

They are the most cost effective way to create the 750,000 new school places we need between now and 2025.

Can't possible be proved one way or the other.

Not that he cares - he has a nice cushy little number with a hotline to the DfE.

[RogerOThornhill]

This is worth a read for a complete slapdown of Nigel Farage.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://www.newschoolsnetwork.org/what-a ... nao-report

Toby Young, Director of the New Schools Network, responded to the National Audit Office report on capital funding for schools saying:
“As the National Audit Office has said, free schools offer better value for money than previous school building programmes. They are the most cost effective way to create the 750,000 new school places we need between now and 2025. They are also more popular with parents and more likely to be rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted than any other type of school."

That's all of it.

Yes, he appears to have spent more time doing "yeah but no but yeah but" on Twitter than he did on this.

And this:

They are the most cost effective way to create the 750,000 new school places we need between now and 2025.

Can't possible be proved one way or the other.

Not that he cares - he has a nice cushy little number with a hotline to the DfE.

If 25% of them are being set up in areas with no problem with school place numbers, then that suggests they aren't the most cost effective method at all.

In fact, isn't that pretty much the "29% cheaper" than BSF pretty much gone?

Anyway, there's more to it than the up front cost. There are schools built cheaply, and cheap schools.

[RogerOThornhill]

If 25% of them are being set up in areas with no problem with school place numbers, then that suggests they aren't the most cost effective method at all.

In fact, isn't that pretty much the "29% cheaper" than BSF pretty much gone?

Anyway, there's more to it than the up front cost. There are schools built cheaply, and cheap schools.

And a fair number are in temporary accommodation anyway so not comparing like with like.

Have to admit to not having read the report yet so will check whether this has been picked up already.

[AnatolyKasparov]

This is worth a read for a complete slapdown of Nigel Farage.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He has been "destroyed" even more times than Trump, tbh.

If people want to believe, they will ignore the facts. What we need are not "alternative facts" but "alternative (and better) BELIEFS". But how?

[yahyah]

I've just found out what Doris is, now left wondering what a dab is, and why Tom Watson would do one.

[Tubby Isaacs]

If 25% of them are being set up in areas with no problem with school place numbers, then that suggests they aren't the most cost effective method at all.

In fact, isn't that pretty much the "29% cheaper" than BSF pretty much gone?

Anyway, there's more to it than the up front cost. There are schools built cheaply, and cheap schools.

And a fair number are in temporary accommodation anyway so not comparing like with like.

Have to admit to not having read the report yet so will check whether this has been picked up already.

Do we even know if Young's only including those in permanent sites?

[HindleA]

Private Eye article on Alan Barham,the scumbag assessor of PIP,on the Dispatches programme last year,the Health Care Professions Council decided he will face a disciplinary hearing over behaviour but no dishonesty or other charges,despite Crapita admitting that he lied in the case of complainants ;fell short of standards rather than misconduct or lack competence,makes you wonder what it would take.



Sales of Private Eye,the highest ever,apparently.I get mine free via years ago arrangement which is ongoing,I do mention it is ongoing in a soft voice to the generous benefactor,occasionally.

[Willow904]

This is worth a read for a complete slapdown of Nigel Farage.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He has been "destroyed" even more times than Trump, tbh.

If people want to believe, they will ignore the facts. What we need are not "alternative facts" but "alternative (and better) BELIEFS". But how?

Subliminal socialist messaging on free App games?
Left wing propaganda posters in McDonalds?
Wraparound pro-political correctness promotions in the Metro?
A C4 based-on-reality drama series called "Integrity" about honest jobseekers?

Joking aside, I can't think of anything which doesn't require money and influence, that's the thing, and the people who have money and influence have a pretty dark vision of how they'd like the future to be for the vast majority of us, unfortunately.

Locally, I think it's the social clubs, that are a hangover from the big factories that used to provide all the jobs but have long since gone, that keep the Labour fire alive. When they're gone, my village and other local Labour areas could well go Tory like the rest of the region.

Methodism and unionism underpinned not just the Labour party, but communities, in a way that is disappearing. How do left wing politics fit in the new community landscape? The best I can come up with is by solving problems and creating success stories within local communities from the bottom up. The best of local politics, creating better places to live and work through everyone coming together to make things happen. Damned difficult when facing cuts from central government, but it's still possible for Labour to show its worth by making better choices than the other parties at a local level.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is worth a read for a complete slapdown of Nigel Farage.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He has been "destroyed" even more times than Trump, tbh.

If people want to believe, they will ignore the facts. What we need are not "alternative facts" but "alternative (and better) BELIEFS". But how?

Yep.

His case was destroyed by the Buzzfeed article he's referring to as well.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Apparently Hammond's had a "windfall" which might help him do something about business rates.

Cut back on them and stick the proceeds on the national debt, that's the long and the short of it.

[PorFavor]

Met Police appoints first female chief Cressida Dick (BBC News website)

Super. (Well, Commissioner . . . )

(And I'm heartily sick of people being "humbled".)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39055696

[AnatolyKasparov]

This is worth a read for a complete slapdown of Nigel Farage.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He has been "destroyed" even more times than Trump, tbh.

If people want to believe, they will ignore the facts. What we need are not "alternative facts" but "alternative (and better) BELIEFS". But how?

Subliminal socialist messaging on free App games?
Left wing propaganda posters in McDonalds?
Wraparound pro-political correctness promotions in the Metro?
A C4 based-on-reality drama series called "Integrity" about honest jobseekers?

A part of the remedy (which also touches on your subsequent points) is having a large and active Labour presence on the ground - the surge in membership since the 2015 GE is surely the main (arguably the only) unequivocally good thing to emerge from the Corbyn leadership.

A major reason for the ultimate failure of Blairism (and "third way" politics more generally) is that it was fundamentally top-down and elitist, and combined too much reverence for "experts" and technocrats with a tendency to dismiss any grass roots action as "mob rule" and (that most terrible thing of all) "populism".

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... t-benefits" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


MPs launch official inquiry into universal credit as criticism grows



Written submissions until 20th March

http://www.parliament.uk/business/commi ... ess-16-17/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[SpinningHugo]

He has been "destroyed" even more times than Trump, tbh.

If people want to believe, they will ignore the facts. What we need are not "alternative facts" but "alternative (and better) BELIEFS". But how?

Subliminal socialist messaging on free App games?
Left wing propaganda posters in McDonalds?
Wraparound pro-political correctness promotions in the Metro?
A C4 based-on-reality drama series called "Integrity" about honest jobseekers?

A part of the remedy (which also touches on your subsequent points) is having a large and active Labour presence on the ground - the surge in membership since the 2015 GE is surely the main (arguably the only) unequivocally good thing to emerge from the Corbyn leadership.

A major reason for the ultimate failure of Blairism (and "third way" politics more generally) is that it was fundamentally top-down and elitist, and combined too much reverence for "experts" and technocrats with a tendency to dismiss any grass roots action as "mob rule" and (that most terrible thing of all) "populism".

I do like the scare quotes around "experts".

You and Michael Gove.

What killed New Labour, and hence Labour, in the UK were none of the subtle things you describe, but rather

1. Iraq

and

2. the 2007/8 financial crisis (caused by the US sub-prime failure and the failure to regulate UK banks properly).

Without either 1 or 2 Labour would be in power now, and it wouldn't be being 'led' by Jeremy Corbyn. We'd both be still in the same party, and you'd be extolling the virtues of Ed Miliband as a possible replacement for his less leftwing brother.

[AnatolyKasparov]

The scare quote is because they were keen on experts who just happened to agree with them, less so on those who didn't - Professor Nutt, anyone?

[SpinningHugo]

The scare quote is because they were keen on experts who just happened to agree with them, less so on those who didn't - Professor Nutt, anyone?

I like technocratic evidence based government. I don't like government driven by ill-informed but popular opinion.

I want a government that refuses to nationalise the railways, because it knows the evidence that this will improve things is wholly missing.

I want a government that takes popular control over monetary policy away, and gives it to the Bank of England.

i want a government that sets the minimum wage according to evidence of its economic impact, rather than according to what will be popular.

I want an NHS structured according to what is shown to be efficient and cost-effective, not according to either popular sentiment or what those involved in production (who have no relevant expertise) think.

etc etc

I don't like the triumph of ill-informed populist idiocy that we have in the modern era. Easy stupidity where no compromises with reality are necessary.

Trump, Brexit, Corbyn.

Give me the back the "experts" please.

Lucky France and Germany where, with luck, the 'third way' looks within striking distance of a return to power.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The scare quote is because they were keen on experts who just happened to agree with them, less so on those who didn't - Professor Nutt, anyone?

Right that was awful, and probably a boost to Lib Dems, but the "populism" was against what Nutt said.

New Labour had a few more people who weren't experts but got the ear of the government- Andrew Adonis on education, for one, though strangely he's much more a genuine expert on rail. But compared with now, it's a golden age of expertise. See for instance Simon Wren Lewis' comments on the Euro decision. This got written up as Brown indulging in personality politics v Blair.

[Tubby Isaacs]

i want a government that sets the minimum wage according to evidence of its economic impact, rather than according to what will be popular.

Or in McDonnell's case, to please conference.

I think £10 is going to look high, post Brexit. There'll be plenty to attack- dubious apprenticeships and fake self-employment will be used to shunt as many out of the £9 rate.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Bang on cue:

Telegraph OpinionVerified account‏@TeleComment 2h2 hours ago
We shouldn’t lose sight of the success of the free schools policy says @toadmeister

[RogerOThornhill]

Current Ofsted ratings:

All Schools........OS.. 21%...G 68%...RI 9%...I 2%
Free Schools......OS...28%...G 54%...RI 9%...I 5%

So should we compare at Outstanding or at Good and Outstanding?

Toby YoungVerified account
‏@toadmeister

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8/ The @nationalauditUK report also points out that vast majority of new places created since 2010 are in 'Good' or 'Outstanding' schools.

Well, that's settled then. What a weasel.

Oh, and one nasty fraud where there was no Chair of Governors and no Board meetings for a year. No one checking?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Hollande was pretty third way in France, overall. The problem was that he campaigned as a leftist.