Wednesday 19th August 2020

[refitman]

Morning all.

[frog222]

Rain !

"" Top story: Spy worked closely with Paul Manafort
Hello, Warren Murray here, let’s shine some morning light on the news.

A US Senate intelligence committee report lays out a stunning web of contacts between Donald Trump, his top election aides and Russian government officials in the months leading up to the 2016 election. It says a Russian national who worked with Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 was a career spy. The nearly 1,000-page bipartisan report identifies Konstantin Kilimnik as a Russian intelligence officer from the GRU, which poisoned the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK. Kilimnik worked for over a decade in Ukraine with Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager who is these days a convicted felon.

The report cites evidence – some of it redacted – linking Kilimnik to the GRU’s hacking and dumping of Democratic party emails. The Republican-controlled Senate panel said Kilimnik and Manafort used burner phones, encrypted chats and frequently changed email accounts, and messaged via a shared email draft. The striking revelations make it harder for the president and his supporters to go into the election repeating the claim that the Trump-Russia investigation was a “witch-hunt” or “hoax”. ""

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... -laid-bare" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RogerOThornhill]

Morning all.

Yes, that whip or riding crop on the desk was just a little odd...

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

[AnatolyKasparov]

Did other previous Chief Whips do the same thing? The answer seems to be generally not.

Draw your own conclusions.

[RogerOThornhill]

The DfE has published its first board minutes in over 2 years – here’s what we learnt

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/the-dfe-has-p ... we-learnt/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2. Exams weren’t discussed once at June’s board meeting
The most recent minutes relate to a board meeting in June. Given the uproar of the past few days over the now ditched grading system, it seems somewhat surprising exams weren’t discussed at all during that meeting.

This is despite another big issue caused by the coronavirus – how to reopen schools – getting a good airing.

[RogerOThornhill]

Schools Week
@SchoolsWeek
Breaking: The DfE has said it has "full confidence" in under-fire Ofqual - just a day after education secretary Gavin Williamson refused to do so

Haven't made a decision as to who the scapegoat will be then?

[AnatolyKasparov]

Ah, interesting - maybe GW isn't totally safe then?

[citizenJA]

Good afternoon, everyone.

[RogerOThornhill]

Is it just me that finds it just a little odd that Brexit Party people all seem to have "Former MEP" in their Twitter biogs - that's membership of something they didn't actually want to be a part of?

And the fact that they were only there for 8 months and spent their time jeering at the whole idea of an EP.

[RogerOThornhill]

Good grief...

Toby Young
@toadmeister
So what are Dido Harding’s qualifications for running the National Institute for Health Protection, apart from presiding over a huge data breach at Talk Talk and overseeing the development of NHSX's test-and-trace app which cost the taxpayer £10 billion and has now been scrapped?
4:33 PM · Aug 18, 2020·TweetDeck

...fancy having to agree with Toby Young!

[Willow904]

Good grief...

Toby Young
@toadmeister
So what are Dido Harding’s qualifications for running the National Institute for Health Protection, apart from presiding over a huge data breach at Talk Talk and overseeing the development of NHSX's test-and-trace app which cost the taxpayer £10 billion and has now been scrapped?
4:33 PM · Aug 18, 2020·TweetDeck

...fancy having to agree with Toby Young!

Although I have an uncomfortable feeling there is some misogyny behind the criticism from some of the more right wing sources - the silence on the equal lack of qualifications of similarly placed men is notable and depressing - I'm still glad to see some degree of limit being placed on what Johnson and Cummings can get away with. I was beginning to think there wasn't any.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Good grief...

Toby Young
@toadmeister
So what are Dido Harding’s qualifications for running the National Institute for Health Protection, apart from presiding over a huge data breach at Talk Talk and overseeing the development of NHSX's test-and-trace app which cost the taxpayer £10 billion and has now been scrapped?
4:33 PM · Aug 18, 2020·TweetDeck

...fancy having to agree with Toby Young!

Although I have an uncomfortable feeling there is some misogyny behind the criticism from some of the more right wing sources - the silence on the equal lack of qualifications of similarly placed men is notable and depressing - I'm still glad to see some degree of limit being placed on what Johnson and Cummings can get away with. I was beginning to think there wasn't any.

In the same way, whilst he is totally hapless and hopeless you still have a sneaking suspicion that *some* of the brickbats GW receives are due to his past as a "fireplace salesman". Contrast with how Cummings gets a free pass from many such people, as he is still "one of us" despite his faux-proletarian airs.

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

[AnatolyKasparov]

Where has everyone been this evening?

Looks like a total mess with the BTECs now.

[RogerOThornhill]

Oh dear...

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

Maybe we're not looking at an either/or of Williamson and the head of Ofqual but rather both of them.

[Willow904]

Where has everyone been this evening?

Looks like a total mess with the BTECs now.

Really quite extraordinary. People noted straight away the u-turn earlier this week didn't apply to B-tecs. I got an e-mail earlier from the school saying some of the B-tecs looked odd but the school would appeal them followed by another e-mail saying the B-tec grades were being withdrawn pending a review. So despite many months to sort this out, B-tec grades aren't going to be released tomorrow. What an absolute shitshow. This isn't a moving target like coronavirus, there was so much time to check everything was going to plan before going public it beggars belief how much they have ballsed it up. Unbelievable.