FlyTheNest

Very hard to guage. The Tories are the culture warriors, and there's an unfortunately large rump for that, everywhere. So Labour doing OK.

It is large, but also mostly comprised of groups in long term decline (indeed, that's an important reason *why* culture wars appeal to them)

Like old people? Do we just have to wait for them all to die?

That's right.

I don't think it's an election-sized number. But I may have said that once before.

That an wait for kippers to reform when they find they are not getting the Brexit they pine for - and Green & LibDem to go back to Labour - *hides ->

Of course it isn't as simple as that, but equally what we might euphemistically call "attrition" *will* be part of the solution.

(and this perhaps applies most of all to newspaper sales)

https://policysketchbook.wordpress.com/ ... ssion=true


Toby Young and the power of education

Brilliant update on the blue passport story.

After the Times claimed the "mock up" was a joke because the previous passports were black not blue, the Home Office published a blog saying UK passports had "never been black".

Unfortunately, someone spotted that when you apply for a new passport, there is guidance for those whose last passport is an old "black or blue" one.

The Libdems round my way were never Labour, for the most part, they were originally Liberals, and won seats locally through the 90s and 00s with some help from Labour tactical voters. The Coalition put paid to the Labour tactical votes on the one hand whilst mellowing the Liberal Libdems to the Tories on the other and thus the Libdem vote here went blue. Hopefully only temporarily, they've already won Bath back, but as long as it remains a two horse race, it seems likely many once South West Libdem seats could remain Tory, as they were before the 90s.

In which case the key for Labour is presumably going to be winning back those SNP seats in Scotland, just as wining back Libdem seats in the South has paid off for the Tories currently. Labour will need to win more seats directly from the Tories by converting Tory voters otherwise, I would have thought, and I have no idea how feasible that may be.

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“Find a nice, self sufficient hilltop, and fortify it.” - The Kraken Wakes

Are there two sorts of Liberals, the Orange Bookers and the more traditional variety ?

Has anyone seen the new HSBC advert with Richard Ayoade?

Before it came up with HSBC at the end I was convinced this was a "This is why we should stop Brexit" ad...

_________________
FTN's supplier of tedious, pedantic education policy waffle; and Pedant-in-Chief generally.

I'm thinking more of the merger between the SDP and the old Liberal party rather than subsets of liberal ideology. All the candidates for the Libdems who won seats in Bath and the surrounding areas (where I am) in the 90s were formally members of the Liberal party rather than the SDP. It's areas where the SDP were dominant that opportunities for the current Labour party are strongest. Thinking back, the south coast was more SDP than Liberal. David Owen represented Plymouth, I think. Didn't Labour just get that constituency (or its modern equivalent) in the last election? There could be similar opportunities at the next election too - places like Southampton. I was mostly just pointing out that the Libdems were born from the SDP-Liberal alliance and constituencies that were built on previous Liberal support aren't going to "go back" to Labour like some of the more SDP inclined ones like Southampton might because they have never been Labour.

_________________
“Find a nice, self sufficient hilltop, and fortify it.” - The Kraken Wakes

I know this is old news but he is quite mad isn't he?

_________________
FTN's supplier of tedious, pedantic education policy waffle; and Pedant-in-Chief generally.

Shame they didn't bring that out during the referendum campaign

'Self-proclaimed Nazi' goes on trial over rallies in northern England
Defendant is charged with stirring up racial hatred at far-right demonstrations in Blackpool and North Yorkshire

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... rn-england

BusinessGreen‏
@BusinessGreen

Reports: Greg Clark under threat in cabinet reshuffle - PM is reportedly considering offering job of BEIS Secretary to Boris Johnson, in an effort to give the current Foreign Secretary a beefed-up role in Brexit negotiations

https://twitter.com/BusinessGreen/statu ... 4073274369

That's this BJ

I can’t stand this December heat, but it has nothing to do with global warming
We may all be sweating in the winter air, but remember, we humans have always put ourselves at the centre of cosmic events

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather ... rming.html

Have we done this? If so, apologies - I'm not too bright today.



https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/02/doubts-cast-on-dfe-claims-of-toby-youngs-qualifications-for-watchdog-post

http://www.24housing.co.uk/news/specula ... r-housing/


Speculation suggests creation of Secretary of State for Housing

Faisal Islam‏Verified account
@faisalislam
Faisal Islam Retweeted Home Office
Home Office went to trouble of rebutting Times reporting that many people assessing their own old passports concluded that they were black, not “iconic” blue... BUT 1/2

https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/ ... 3451450370
Thread.

LOL! WHY oh why do they take these things so seriously? Do they not realise how childish it make them look?

Faisal Islam‏Verified account
@faisalislam

Oh dear. The official new Government online passport application service also refers to a picture of the old passport as “black” or blue - it is truly Orwellian to suggest “never been black” - it’s literally on the form.

My friends know only too well that they're used as cheap labour to teach undergrads but would never be on the staff list. Getting paid was a real issue - never mind the hours of preparation they had to put in.

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FTN's supplier of tedious, pedantic education policy waffle; and Pedant-in-Chief generally.

"No - it wasn't black - it was white," says Government spokesperson.

And if Toby didn't have enough problems, he's now defended by Anthony Seldon...



I've seen a vigorous defence by, of all people, someone who used to run Labour Teachers - I can only think that it's a "Any chum of Gove's is OK with me no matter what."

_________________
FTN's supplier of tedious, pedantic education policy waffle; and Pedant-in-Chief generally.

Dumping down rain here at the moment

Ah, this explains Seldon's support...

Sir Anthony Seldon is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham


just happens to be where Toady is a visiting fellow...at a private university remember.

And this:

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/exclusive-dfe ... p-college/

Shocked etc.

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FTN's supplier of tedious, pedantic education policy waffle; and Pedant-in-Chief generally.

RoT a few figs on a very expensive Free School --

"" Bottom line, all govt. grants, incl the General (DfE) Grant, Local Authority Grant and, (for some reason only separated out in 2016), the capital grant is £53,506,076.00.

Divide by 5 for a per annum average figure = £10,701,215.20

Divide by 600 for a per pupil per annum figure* – £17,835.36

(Although I think it has only been past 2 years that they have had full capacity of 600, so I was being ultra-generous to Toby in my assumption there). ""

No response from Toby Young when tackled by my friend ...

I wouldn't say the soon to be replaced were "burgundy"....

Very windy here - oh, and the torrential rain has just arrived.

I notice Dennis Sewell (Spectator writer and free school opener) has joined in too.



It is actually quite surprising that he was offered a place for a PhD with only an undergrad degree - might be an old thing but certainly wouldn't be allowed now - you have to have a Masters which demonstrates the ability for higher level independent research.

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FTN's supplier of tedious, pedantic education policy waffle; and Pedant-in-Chief generally.

More a sort of maroon.

Murgundy

Certainly a totally different shade to my "burgundy" bin for recycling,I was comparing them earlier.

Which used to be a blue box.

Fuck me, look at this scumbag.



Twitter's taken Fargle's hint. As he knows it will. Note how cuts to the Mayor's budget from central government get a pass.

Did no-one stop to ask you why you were showing your passport to a recycling bin?

Note how nothing is said about finishing the PhD.

Having finished the Bailey's the other night, I'll start on the Burgundy now and compare it.
Will let you know shortly how it goes......

Then on to the Blue Chartreuse. (You must have some in the back of the cupboard.) Strictly for research purposes on the new\old blue passport, of course.

Isn't it funny?

Trump has pop at Asian guy. Asian guy responds. It's the Asian guy at fault.

Much more murder where Trump is. Why is that different?

Oh, Khan's not white.

Night night.

This train about VC pay isn't heading where you want to go. It's part of a war v Universities. Your salaries and status aren't going up when that hots up.

I mean, I'm sure they've grievances, but we've seen this with the war on LEA "fat cats". How has that ended up?

Are you sure about this when he was at university? - I know higher degrees have changed since my day but when I did my PhD there was no requirement for a masters....the ones who did masters first where usually ones who had struggled for funding and used is as a holding place

There were some universities that asked for masters to be submitted at end of first year but it was rare and actually pretty pointless as well unless you were a weak candidate that was not going to complete the degree

It may have been different depending on the subject done, and now more universities seem to be by-passing bachelor degrees to go straight to masters as the first degree

you don't think they are overpaid?

Universities are a racket now - seem more interested in acting like 'businesses' rather than educating

I do a lot of collaboration with UK universities - or used to. Wouldn't give most of them the time of day now - bloody arrogant in a lot of cases

All these high-profile academics who are never seen anywhere near the lecture theatre and hardly ever present in the research labs either - some of the post-graduate students I have looked after never saw their nominated supervisor....they reported into a post-doc

PfY knows this area more in-depth than me so if I am wrong and just had some bad experiences then I am happy to be corrected - and there are still some brilliant academics out there who are a joy to work with and produce some very well-educated young people - but my experience is they are becoming rarer

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/brazil- ... ign=social


Brazil announce purchase of HMS Ocean for £84 million

It's not my area of expertise, but it's a very difficult job, with a rare combination of skills, and America will swoop if they're paid much less. I've read a few academics I rate, like David Blanchflower and Pat Sturgis on Twitter, who I'm taking my cue from. Both very annoyed with Adonis when he went for this.

I suspect that the problem with universities is the taxpayer not contributing enough. I'd keep more of fees than some here would, but I reckon we do a deal on this!

I just think that the UCU need to watch populist backlashes. The next thing won't be the VC, it'll be "lefty remainer professor get £X". That's what I think Toby Young is there for.

Mike Smithson
‏@MSmithsonPB

Latest YouGov Brexit tracker. In hindsight was referendum outcome or wrong?
Right 42% -2
Wrong 45% =
"Right" hasn't led since August

https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/ ... 0213768192

Not as high a lead for Wrong as it should be. We Soft Brexiters have a lot of work to do.

Why is criticising the massive pay of the VC and others dismissed as 'populist'? It is being criticised because VC pay seems to rise at a much higher rate than everyone else whilst the academic staff (apart from the ones who are on tv a lot) get their pay frozen or small increases

We hear this 'if we don't pay them more then they will go to the US' all the time from the private sector and now it seems to be prevalent in this sector - I think this is probably one of the weakest arguments with very little to back it up - and are we so pisspoor at succession planning that we cannot replace these self-identified ubermenschen?

It may be a difficult job (although I am not convinced it is as difficult as you make it sound), but so are many others and they do not get large pay increases

It is possible that requirements have changed over the years - one of the most outstanding academics in my field went from BA > PhD but he's in his late 70s now.

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FTN's supplier of tedious, pedantic education policy waffle; and Pedant-in-Chief generally.