FlyTheNest

Morning all.

The day Chuka Umunna becomes leader of the Labour Party is the day I hand my membership back. Watt's article has Progress written all over it.

Great use of public money here, but then it involves an academy, so it get's excused from the usual scheme of things.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mi ... ng-4142041" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Morning folks,
Talk about unintended irony. I was getting dressed this morning listening to the Toad pontificating about education (I believe in teacher, not child led education. It's important that children are told facts - the 5 continents, the seven seas, the kings and queens of England...). I went out of the room to clean my teeth, and came back just in time to hear the start of the next programme, with the words, "So, Sir Ken Robinson, in what way do schools hinder creativity?"

Edited to remove unwanted repeat post.

Was it just me ? The site became unavailable for a few minutes.

http://labourlist.org/2014/09/labour-wi ... e-lib-dems" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Morning all. Reeves on good form.

yahyah wrote:Was it just me ? The site became unavailable for a few minutes.

Me too, problems with Chrome.

Hmm, we appear to be having DNS issues, causing people not to be able to connect to the site. I am looking at it (around my day job). Please bear with us.

StephenDolan wrote:

yahyah wrote:Was it just me ? The site became unavailable for a few minutes.

Me too, problems with Chrome.

Me too, more than a few minutes too, back now anyway.

Anyways, the always very readable McBride on Dave's latest grandstanding, he calls it as he sees it, bullshit!

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

Glad we're back.

Here's one I posted over at the old place.


As ever an interesting piece from Paul Mason

Something incredible is happening in Scotland. And if the result is a yes vote the shock to the UK will be extreme
The Scots may vote no to independence this time. But history shows these movements intensify until something gives
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/31/scottish-independence-yes-vote-turnout-polls

This (in bold) seems to absolutely nail it. I don't think I've read such a neat summary of what I and many many others feel in our bones is so wrong and creates the simultaneous sense of powerlessness and anger.

If it happens there'll be a lot of finger pointing, but it's obvious in advance where the biggest problem lies: it's become impossible to express opposition to free market economics via the main Westminster parties.

Interesting Ofsted report out this morning.

The Greenwich Free School whose chair of governors -also head of education at Policy Exchange - wrote a report about how Ofsted needed to be reformed and along with others was deeply critical of them being graded Requires Improvement, had a s.8 inspection.

They also had a new HT start last term. So...

The headteacher and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas relating to leadership that were identified at the section 5 inspection.

Senior leaders and governors are not taking effective action to tackle the areas relating to teaching that were identified at the section 5 inspection

A bit mixed then.

My visit left me in no doubt whatsoever that you have taken very swift action during your first six weeks in post. You have carried out a thorough evaluation of your school; you have commissioned two independent whole-school reviews and a number of subject reviews; and you have used these to help you form the view that not only was the inspection judgement accurate, but also that key aspects of provision have not improved sufficiently in the past six months.

and

Members of the governing body have listened to your analysis, accepted your findings, and have given you their full support. They have accepted that the school’s performance has not been good enough and they expect significant improvements.

Oh, so that Ofsted report you didn't believe turned out to be right then?

refitman wrote:Hmm, we appear to be having DNS issues, causing people not to be able to connect to the site. I am looking at it (around my day job). Please bear with us.

Ah, it seems to have been an issue with GoDaddy (our hosting company) themselves, affecting lots of sites, not just ours: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/01 ... ns_outage/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good Morning
You would think that even Populus themselves would be asking questions about their ridiculous polling figures. No body can take their Friday figures seriously apart from CIF's Nick!

Mike Smithson ‏@MSmithsonPB 8m
LAB back in the lead with Populus online - which had CON ahead on Friday.
Con 32 (-3) Lab 36 (+2) LD 9 (+1) UKIP 15 (+2)

Andrew being back at the other place today brings home that the run-in to the GE is effectively starting now.

Its going to be a hectic nine months - are you sitting comfortably?

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Andrew being back at the other place today brings home that the run-in to the GE is effectively starting now.

Its going to be a hectic nine months - are you sitting comfortably?

No, actually I'm not, it's going to be a dirty, stinking campaign, I am not confident where it will go and what the result will be.

letsskiptotheleft wrote:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Andrew being back at the other place today brings home that the run-in to the GE is effectively starting now.

Its going to be a hectic nine months - are you sitting comfortably?

No, actually I'm not, it's going to be a dirty, stinking campaign, I am not confident where it will go and what the result will be.

It will be a Labour Landslide

LibDems better pull their finger out, on second thoughts, why bother?!

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/09/l ... andidates/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you AAW, I will take your optimism on board. X

The best days of the miraculous Osborne led recovery may have passed, funnily enough it passed by around here too, so bloody fast we all missed it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... -over.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

letsskiptotheleft wrote:The best days of the miraculous Osborne led recovery may have passed, funnily enough it passed by around here too, so bloody fast we all missed it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... -over.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Who's going to give the bad news to Spinning Hugo or whatever he's calling himself these days ?

yahyah wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:The best days of the miraculous Osborne led recovery may have passed, funnily enough it passed by around here too, so bloody fast we all missed it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... -over.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Who's going to give the bad news to Spinning Hugo or whatever he's calling himself these days ?

I haven't seen any 'Actual news' for a while so I don't think he's calling himself anything.

There's a few others missing too -critias/mona4/whatever, yourhavingalaugh/something with three words. Maybe they've just given up.

I have to say I am genuinely shocked that (again) we have naked pictures of famous actresses on the internet. Shocked I tell you.

I am therefore extremely grateful that an event that would otherwise have gone unnoticed has been brought to our attention (repeatedly) by the Guardian, Indy and Telegraph. I mean without this public service millions of people would have been blissfully unaware and would not now be searching the web to see for themselves just how outraged they should be.

Seriously - what was wrong with the headline "Cloud photo storage provider hacked - some dodgy pictures published." Oh yes it doesn't sell papers or give the usual suspects a subject to repeatedly write about.

TechnicalEphemera wrote:I have to say I am genuinely shocked that (again) we have naked pictures of famous actresses on the internet. Shocked I tell you.

I am therefore extremely grateful that an event that would otherwise have gone unnoticed has been brought to our attention (repeatedly) by the Guardian, Indy and Telegraph. I mean without this public service millions of people would have been blissfully unaware and would not now be searching the web to see for themselves just how outraged they should be.

Seriously - what was wrong with the headline "Cloud photo storage provider hacked - some dodgy pictures published." Oh yes it doesn't sell papers or give the usual suspects a subject to repeatedly write about.

It does seem seedy, particularly those papers who have used pics of the celebrities, presumably to remind readers if they fancy them so they can search online and find see them sans culottes.

But, as a woman, I do roll my eyes at how many of my sex somehow think posing for naked or half naked 'selfies' is empowering. So, if you are going to be a naked narcissist don't complain if the pics get out and newspapers report it.

Nice guy. Champion of women. World leader?
His promises of free nursery care, cheaper university tuition and a Cabinet that has 50% women get our vote, even if he’s not as smooth as the opposition. But, as Janice Turner discovers, Ed Miliband’s ‘charisma of imperfection’ might just be his secret weapon…

http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/in ... d-pictures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RogerOThornhill wrote: There's a few others missing too -critias/mona4/whatever, yourhavingalaugh/something with three words. Maybe they've just given up.

The latter stuck it's head above the parapet, very briefly, this morning and was swiftly cut down by the mods.

AngryAsWell wrote:Nice guy. Champion of women. World leader?
His promises of free nursery care, cheaper university tuition and a Cabinet that has 50% women get our vote, even if he’s not as smooth as the opposition. But, as Janice Turner discovers, Ed Miliband’s ‘charisma of imperfection’ might just be his secret weapon…

http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/in ... d-pictures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But the peculiar thing about Ed Miliband is that in the flesh he is rather attractive.
At over six-feet tall in his well-cut blue Savile Row suit, Miliband looks lean; his hair is thick and shiny; his brown eyes are kind and warm; he has clear olive skin.

Agree with that, but it does sound a little like the opening chapter of a racy novel -

AngryAsWell wrote:

AngryAsWell wrote:Nice guy. Champion of women. World leader?
His promises of free nursery care, cheaper university tuition and a Cabinet that has 50% women get our vote, even if he’s not as smooth as the opposition. But, as Janice Turner discovers, Ed Miliband’s ‘charisma of imperfection’ might just be his secret weapon…

http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/in ... d-pictures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But the peculiar thing about Ed Miliband is that in the flesh he is rather attractive.
At over six-feet tall in his well-cut blue Savile Row suit, Miliband looks lean; his hair is thick and shiny; his brown eyes are kind and warm; he has clear olive skin.

Agree with that, but it does sound a little like the opening chapter of a racy novel -

Hope you didn't mind me posting the link over on the Sparrow's blog, I thought it made for the perfect comparator to Alex Andreou's "Dave Pointing" theme.

letsskiptotheleft wrote:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Andrew being back at the other place today brings home that the run-in to the GE is effectively starting now.

Its going to be a hectic nine months - are you sitting comfortably?

No, actually I'm not, it's going to be a dirty, stinking campaign, I am not confident where it will go and what the result will be.

I will be more confident after Sept 18, assuming our Scottish friends don't have a collective emotional spasm

Cap'n U Turn is back.

Tom Newton Dunn ‏@tnewtondunn 7m
Breaking: Government bringing back relocation powers for terror suspects, PM - a major U-turn, as they were scrapped with Control Orders.

Retweeted by BBC Politics
Dominic Casciani ‏@BBCDomC 8m
PM confirms plans to create a new power to forcibly relocate terror suspects in the UK - power dropped three years ago in TPim reforms.

TheGrimSqueaker wrote:

AngryAsWell wrote:

AngryAsWell wrote:Nice guy. Champion of women. World leader?
His promises of free nursery care, cheaper university tuition and a Cabinet that has 50% women get our vote, even if he’s not as smooth as the opposition. But, as Janice Turner discovers, Ed Miliband’s ‘charisma of imperfection’ might just be his secret weapon…

http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/in ... d-pictures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But the peculiar thing about Ed Miliband is that in the flesh he is rather attractive.
At over six-feet tall in his well-cut blue Savile Row suit, Miliband looks lean; his hair is thick and shiny; his brown eyes are kind and warm; he has clear olive skin.

Agree with that, but it does sound a little like the opening chapter of a racy novel -

Hope you didn't mind me posting the link over on the Sparrow's blog, I thought it made for the perfect comparator to Alex Andreou's "Dave Pointing" theme.

Not at all, re-post anything from me and agree the pointing link matched perfectly

AnatolyKasparov wrote:

letsskiptotheleft wrote:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Andrew being back at the other place today brings home that the run-in to the GE is effectively starting now.

Its going to be a hectic nine months - are you sitting comfortably?

No, actually I'm not, it's going to be a dirty, stinking campaign, I am not confident where it will go and what the result will be.

I will be more confident after Sept 18, assuming our Scottish friends don't have a collective emotional spasm

Rest assured Anatoly, I read my tealeaves this morning and it's going to be a Landslide in 2015 (you heard it here first)

Ah, I see why Dominic Grieve was shuffled out (from AS):

Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general, says he is concerned about plans to stop jihadists returning to the UK. That would not only be against international law; it would be against common law too. It is much better to prosecute these people here, he says.

Cameron says he broadly agrees; he would like to see people prosecuted. But the government also needs to look at any gaps in its capabilities, he says.

(My bold)

RogerOThornhill wrote:Interesting Ofsted report out this morning.

The Greenwich Free School whose chair of governors -also head of education at Policy Exchange - wrote a report about how Ofsted needed to be reformed and along with others was deeply critical of them being graded Requires Improvement, had a s.8 inspection.

They also had a new HT start last term. So...

The headteacher and governors are taking effective action to tackle the areas relating to leadership that were identified at the section 5 inspection.

Senior leaders and governors are not taking effective action to tackle the areas relating to teaching that were identified at the section 5 inspection

A bit mixed then.

My visit left me in no doubt whatsoever that you have taken very swift action during your first six weeks in post. You have carried out a thorough evaluation of your school; you have commissioned two independent whole-school reviews and a number of subject reviews; and you have used these to help you form the view that not only was the inspection judgement accurate, but also that key aspects of provision have not improved sufficiently in the past six months.

and

Members of the governing body have listened to your analysis, accepted your findings, and have given you their full support. They have accepted that the school’s performance has not been good enough and they expect significant improvements.

Oh, so that Ofsted report you didn't believe turned out to be right then?

Hope Tom Shinner's not been allowed out early from the DfE to attend to this.

refitman wrote:Ah, I see why Dominic Grieve was shuffled out (from AS):

Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general, says he is concerned about plans to stop jihadists returning to the UK. That would not only be against international law; it would be against common law too. It is much better to prosecute these people here, he says.

Cameron says he broadly agrees; he would like to see people prosecuted. But the government also needs to look at any gaps in its capabilities, he says.

(My bold)

Indeed. can't have anyone who knows what they're talking about in a position of any importance.

Scrapbook informed.

Chris Cook has written a piece questioning Nicky Morgan's desire to have schools enter all of their pupils into the EBacc subjects at GCSE.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29016948

According to the DfE the EBacc is made up of:

English
mathematics
history or geography
the sciences
a language

But it just occurred to me that the national curriculum isn't mandatory for the following at KS4:

Modern Foreign Language
History
Geography

There you go - you have an Education Secretary trying to push schools into entering subjects at GCSE which aren't mandatory at KS4. That's the national curriculum which is operational as of...today. So that makes them...mandatory after all.

Absolutely clueless.

yahyah wrote:

TechnicalEphemera wrote:I have to say I am genuinely shocked that (again) we have naked pictures of famous actresses on the internet. Shocked I tell you.

I am therefore extremely grateful that an event that would otherwise have gone unnoticed has been brought to our attention (repeatedly) by the Guardian, Indy and Telegraph. I mean without this public service millions of people would have been blissfully unaware and would not now be searching the web to see for themselves just how outraged they should be.

Seriously - what was wrong with the headline "Cloud photo storage provider hacked - some dodgy pictures published." Oh yes it doesn't sell papers or give the usual suspects a subject to repeatedly write about.

It does seem seedy, particularly those papers who have used pics of the celebrities, presumably to remind readers if they fancy them so they can search online and find see them sans culottes.

But, as a woman, I do roll my eyes at how many of my sex somehow think posing for naked or half naked 'selfies' is empowering. So, if you are going to be a naked narcissist don't complain if the pics get out and newspapers report it.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. And even a computer dummy like me knows nothing is 100% safe.

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/09/mike-hancock-hangs-up-on-bbc-reporter-in-comeback-interview/

Don't know whether PorFavor has seen this about Mike Hancock.

Steve Reed MP ‏@SteveReedMP 9h
Are the Tories falling apart? @BBCRadio4 says up to 100 of their MPs intend to write their own manifestos rather than endorse Cameron's

Just read the above. What a bloody shambles. In other words they can say and promise anything they like just to get elected

Words fail me. You can't run a country like that.

ohsocynical wrote:Steve Reed MP ‏@SteveReedMP 9h
Are the Tories falling apart? @BBCRadio4 says up to 100 of their MPs intend to write their own manifestos rather than endorse Cameron's

Just read the above. What a bloody shambles. In other words they can say and promise anything they like just to get elected

Words fail me. You can't run a country like that.

It's like in the 90s where loads of them took money from Paul Sykes to oppose John Major's Euro policy- which was perfectly sensible, and about which nobody cared.

ohsocynical wrote:Steve Reed MP ‏@SteveReedMP 9h
Are the Tories falling apart? @BBCRadio4 says up to 100 of their MPs intend to write their own manifestos rather than endorse Cameron's

Just read the above. What a bloody shambles. In other words they can say and promise anything they like just to get elected

Words fail me. You can't run a country like that.

Yes, and still you get elements in Labour who would rather hark back to Gordon rather than attack the shambles that govern us.

RogerOThornhill wrote:Chris Cook has written a piece questioning Nicky Morgan's desire to have schools enter all of their pupils into the EBacc subjects at GCSE.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29016948

According to the DfE the EBacc is made up of:

English
mathematics
history or geography
the sciences
a language

But it just occurred to me that the national curriculum isn't mandatory for the following at KS4:

Modern Foreign Language
History
Geography

There you go - you have an Education Secretary trying to push schools into entering subjects at GCSE which aren't mandatory at KS4. That's the national curriculum which is operational as of...today. So that makes them...mandatory after all.

Absolutely clueless.

Yeah, utter nonsense.

They accept that combined science is right for some who can't do single sciences. Why not combine history and geography too?

Marvellous. US military helicopters flying over Cardiff and Newport this afternoon.

On the train from London yesterday afternoon, passing Cardiff was like something from Apocalypse Now, why not have it London in the first place?

Nonsense.

letsskiptotheleft wrote:

ohsocynical wrote:Steve Reed MP ‏@SteveReedMP 9h
Are the Tories falling apart? @BBCRadio4 says up to 100 of their MPs intend to write their own manifestos rather than endorse Cameron's

Just read the above. What a bloody shambles. In other words they can say and promise anything they like just to get elected

Words fail me. You can't run a country like that.

Yes, and still you get elements in Labour who would rather hark back to Gordon rather than attack the shambles that govern us.

Labour Uncut?

Doubtless they want a referendum on EU membership now- when that wing would have had us in the Euro.

ohsocynical wrote:

yahyah wrote:

TechnicalEphemera wrote:I have to say I am genuinely shocked that (again) we have naked pictures of famous actresses on the internet. Shocked I tell you.

I am therefore extremely grateful that an event that would otherwise have gone unnoticed has been brought to our attention (repeatedly) by the Guardian, Indy and Telegraph. I mean without this public service millions of people would have been blissfully unaware and would not now be searching the web to see for themselves just how outraged they should be.

Seriously - what was wrong with the headline "Cloud photo storage provider hacked - some dodgy pictures published." Oh yes it doesn't sell papers or give the usual suspects a subject to repeatedly write about.

It does seem seedy, particularly those papers who have used pics of the celebrities, presumably to remind readers if they fancy them so they can search online and find see them sans culottes.

But, as a woman, I do roll my eyes at how many of my sex somehow think posing for naked or half naked 'selfies' is empowering. So, if you are going to be a naked narcissist don't complain if the pics get out and newspapers report it.

Yep. Couldn't agree more. And even a computer dummy like me knows nothing is 100% safe.

I'm frankly amazed that anyone puts sensitive documents or images on "the Cloud". You're giving whichever company owns that online storage space access to your stuff (in some cases it's even in the terms and conditions that they'll go through your files looking for anything they can use commercially) and you're opening yourself up to having those files stolen, as happened in this case.

ohsocynical wrote:http://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/09/mike-hancock-hangs-up-on-bbc-reporter-in-comeback-interview/

Don't know whether PorFavor has seen this about Mike Hancock.

I was expecting that item to be a funny one Ohso - but it's actually quite creepy. Hancock was speaking to the BBC to express his concern / views about his constituents who are in the news for taking their very sick child away from the local hospital to seek treatment abroad ....

All I can say is that he's possibly one of the last people I would want enquiring after and expressing concerns about my welfare.

I see they're not allowing any comments on this item.

Huge new Israeli settlement in West Bank condemned by US and UK
British foreign secretary urges Israel to reverse decision to seize 990 acres of Palestinian land near Gvaot to create new city
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/israeli-settlement-west-bank-gvaot-condemned

Didn't we have just have Regev - Israeli media spokesperson - telling us time after time that Israel hadn't appropriated any new territory and had in reality withdrawn from Palestinian lands?

This statement is beyond logic ...

Naftali Bennett, who visited the Gush Etzion settlement in the occupied West Bank on Monday, applauded Sunday's decision as an "appropriate Zionist response to murder". Bennett said: "What we did yesterday was a display of Zionism. Building is our answer to murder."

To be fair, I can imagine that Israel story might get besieged by anti-Semites.

Tubby Isaacs wrote:To be fair, I can imagine that Israel story might get besieged by anti-Semites.

I see the Indy piece hasn't got a comments facility either. I understand why they have decided not to allow comments. I also worry that genuine criticism of the Israeli government / authorities actions is being suppressed when there is a blanket ban of comments on the basis they might be anti Semitic.