Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th June 2020

Post by **refitman** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 7:09 am

Morning all.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:44 am

Good morning all, anything to report?

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:50 am

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... cal-poetry" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bristol mayor: Colston statue removal was act of 'historical poetry'

It was, indeed, a very moving piece of performance art. Thanks to Banksy, provoking political debate through art has become somewhat associated with Bristol and this protest has taken that to a whole new level. The impact it had reflects the thought that went into it, literally the opposite of the mindless thuggery right wing voices attempt to paint it, as Marvin Rees articulates in this interesting interview, which is well worth reading if you have the time. A refreshing antidote to the moronic soundbites we are constantly subjected to these days from the conservative right.

frog222 · Post by **frog222** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 12:16 pm

Willow904 wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... cal-poetry
Bristol mayor: Colston statue removal was act of 'historical poetry'
It was, indeed, a very moving piece of performance art. Thanks to Banksy, provoking political debate through art has become somewhat associated with Bristol and this protest has taken that to a whole new level. The impact it had reflects the thought that went into it, literally the opposite of the mindless thuggery right wing voices attempt to paint it, as Marvin Rees articulates in this interesting interview, which is well worth reading if you have the time. A refreshing antidote to the moronic soundbites we are constantly subjected to these days from the conservative right.

"Moronic soundbites" -- that's your Prime Minister !

Marvin Rees knows his history better too --

" Rees is cautious about heralding what is happening in the US, Bristol and around the world as a crucial moment in race relations."

“I don’t know. We’ve had massive moments. World war one was a massive moment, the war to end all wars. Then we were in world war two. Then the cold war and nearly blew ourselves up. You’ve got the civil rights movement sweeping around the world, in the 80s you’ve got the riots, then the Macpherson report. We’ve had these seminal moments many times, they feel all encompassing, they feel in the moment, this is the time it’s going to change. Some things change but our political and economic systems, our social hierarchies have an incredible resilience.”

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 12:28 pm

Rees has impressed throughout this affair.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 2:04 pm

Good afternoon, everyone.

citizenJA · Post by **citizenJA** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 2:09 pm

Willow904 wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... cal-poetry
Bristol mayor: Colston statue removal was act of 'historical poetry'
It was, indeed, a very moving piece of performance art. Thanks to Banksy, provoking political debate through art has become somewhat associated with Bristol and this protest has taken that to a whole new level. The impact it had reflects the thought that went into it, literally the opposite of the mindless thuggery right wing voices attempt to paint it, as Marvin Rees articulates in this interesting interview, which is well worth reading if you have the time. A refreshing antidote to the moronic soundbites we are constantly subjected to these days from the conservative right.

thank goodness for this
wonderful read

Willow904 · Post by **Willow904** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 2:16 pm

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

Nick Reeves #FBPE #RuleOfLaw
@nickreeves9876
There's a big, very peaceful and socially distanced Black Lives Matter protest taking place now on the Brighton sea front.

Hats off to Brighton, one of the best socially distanced protests I've seen so far.

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 2:28 pm

Meanwhile, the self described "football lads" disgracing themselves in central London. Which will surprise few, I suspect.

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 2:45 pm

I went to Great Ayton (pop. c5k) this morning for bread and a paper, there's a demonstration on High Green to 'protect' the, quite recent, statue of James Cook as a boy, he went to school there.

As far as I know it's people in NZ and Oz making noises about Cook, I haven't seen anything in this country and can't imagine there's anyone within 100 miles who'd be interested in getting rid of it, so I found it amusing.

Then I saw this thread by Sunny Hundal.
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sunny Hundal
@sunny_hundal
·
22h
But BLM since protests have moved on statues - the far-right will too.

This weekend, you'll see gangs of far-rights youths turn up at statues across the country, hoping to spark confrontation and violence, and then sharing that on social media.
More anger = better for far-right

There wasn't anyone in Ayton I'd describe as a youth, but it makes you wonder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ayton" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

frog222 · Post by **frog222** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 4:06 pm

gilsey wrote:I went to Great Ayton (pop. c5k) this morning for bread and a paper, there's a demonstration on High Green to 'protect' the, quite recent, statue of James Cook as a boy, he went to school there.
As far as I know it's people in NZ and Oz making noises about Cook, I haven't seen anything in this country and can't imagine there's anyone within 100 miles who'd be interested in getting rid of it, so I found it amusing.
Then I saw this thread by Sunny Hundal.
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Sunny Hundal
@sunny_hundal·
22h
But BLM since protests have moved on statues - the far-right will too.
This weekend, you'll see gangs of far-rights youths turn up at statues across the country, hoping to spark confrontation and violence, and then sharing that on social media.
More anger = better for far-right
There wasn't anyone in Ayton I'd describe as a youth, but it makes you wonder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ayton" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hundal unrolled -- https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1271 ... 40864.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 5:51 pm

Afternoon all.

We had a nice surprise earlier - daughter who lives in Cambridge texted to say "expect a parcel between 12-2.30 - forgot to change the address."

So, around 2pm, knock at the door, and the "parcel" turned out to be herself.We haven't seen her since the lockdown - she thought she'd surprise us.

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 6:13 pm

Quite.

Richard Littler
@richard_littler
A stroke of genius cancelling the BLM protest. It gave the far-right centre stage to reveal who they are without any ambiguity of who was fighting who, who started what, and us having to hear about the 'good people on both sides' nonsense from leaders.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:26 pm

Excuse my absence, I've been testing my eyes and following my instincts and using my own judgement for a week.

Or in other words I broke the lockdown rules and went to visit my brother and his girlfriend after quarantining myself for the previous week.

Although if I were to do a Cummings becoming part of another household is allowed as long as it's not just an overnight stay as far as I can tell, so technically we did nothing wrong. But fuck it, we knew what we were doing, we're consenting adults and we didn't put anyone else in harms way.

Well except maybe the kids my brother was forced to go in and 'teach' but they're probably more of a threat to him than the other way round.

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:44 pm

[youtube]YA97kqlBBOI[/youtube]

Now look out, my country's patriots are hunting down below
What do they know of England who only England know.

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:45 pm

[youtube]yEZTZ3_cqHY[/youtube]

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:47 pm

[youtube]0rKC7ElkTUQ[/youtube]

I've got a cupboard with cans of food
Filtered water and pictures of you
And I'm not coming out until this is all over
And I'm looking through the glass
Where the light bends at the cracks
And I'm screaming at the top of my lungs
Pretending the echoes belong to someone
Someone I used to know

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:50 pm

[youtube]QUEjnE5sU8U[/youtube]

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:51 pm

Sky if you want an unlikely little taste of Goth can I recommend The Great British Sewing Bee on iPlayer at the moment?

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 10:55 pm

I am no longer off sick and am now allowed to be working from home again for the next fortnight before going in with a friend who lives here and is only going back because she has to at the end of her maternity leave, but she's been isolating pretty much as strictly as I have and I can walk to hers and then drive there and back. But she's leaving at the end of the year so me and school might have to have another interesting conversation in late August.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:00 pm

And talking of which I got to see how much effort teachers are putting in working from home and how much of a response at least his school was getting back from the pupils. My brother's a science teacher for 11 to 16 years olds and every day he was at home (he had to go in to the school two days last week) he was creating exercises from scratch and marking what he got in response for hours, even recording lessons that the kids would watch on Zoom.

I got to see what he got back from his pupils and some of it was brilliant, the best being a hand drawn cartoon strip describing the process of Eukaryogenesis drawn by a 12 year old girl with happy smiling bacteria cells which was a work of genius, but the most prevalent thing on the screen was a little red dot next to the students name which meant they'd not sent anything in. He reckoned on average half of his pupils didn't do the exercises he was sending them.

When I asked him why he thought he was getting this rather poor rate of return he just laughed and said their parents were dickheads. He teaches in a moderately deprived area of the North West and every effort has been made from sending out laptops to printing out lessons and teachers posting them through letterboxes, and yet still the best they can get is a 50% success rate.

And the majority of those pupils not doing the work are boys.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:08 pm

adam wrote:Sky if you want an unlikely little taste of Goth can I recommend The Great British Sewing Bee on iPlayer at the moment?

I saw it the other night but they were making flamenco dresses, evidently I must have missed something darker.

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:13 pm

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:And talking of which I got to see how much effort teachers are putting in working from home and how much of a response at least his school was getting back from the pupils. My brother's a science teacher for 11 to 16 years olds and every day he was at home (he had to go in to the school two days last week) he was creating exercises from scratch and marking what he got in response for hours, even recording lessons that the kids would watch on Zoom.

I got to see what he got back from his pupils and some of it was brilliant, the best being a hand drawn cartoon strip describing the process of Eukaryogenesis drawn by a 12 year old girl with happy smiling bacteria cells which was a work of genius, but the most prevalent thing on the screen was a little red dot next to the students name which meant they'd not sent anything in. He reckoned on average half of his pupils didn't do the exercises he was sending them.

When I asked him why he thought he was getting this rather poor rate of return he just laughed and said their parents were dickheads. He teaches in a moderately deprived area of the North West and every effort has been made from sending out laptops to printing out lessons and teachers posting them through letterboxes, and yet still the best they can get is a 50% success rate.

And the majority of those pupils not doing the work are boys.

I think it's been a lot like it is in class - one of the last conversations I had in school was with a Y7 boy, as I told the class how setting work to do at home would work and how they could ask me about it and send me things, and he grinned and said 'what if I don't do anything at all?' and I replied 'well, at the moment you're in set 2'. I haven't had a single thing from him.

On the other hand some of the students have done everything almost immediately, or have badgered me for help and then used the help to do everything instantly, but they're the ones who in class get everything done instantly and then ask for more.

I know how lucky I am in this shite - I have the worry of children with serious medical conditions but they're well, and I'm being paid, and I live somewhere nice with a garden and loads of places to walk off pretty much into the countryside if I chose to. A lot of the kids I teach live in tiny places, share bedrooms and have no outside space. I'm not surprised if some really crash and burn. Although I wonder what I would have done. I'd like to think I would have had a good busy few hours every day to do the work I had to but I think I'd probably have stayed in bed most of the time and read loads of bollocks.

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:15 pm

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:
adam wrote:Sky if you want an unlikely little taste of Goth can I recommend The Great British Sewing Bee on iPlayer at the moment?
I saw it the other night but they were making flamenco dresses, evidently I must have missed something darker.

The woman who made the dracula inspired flamenco dress mentions how being a goth comes into what she makes every week.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:27 pm

I don't know about wherever you are but it's still stupidly warm here in Yorkshire and my baldy head is throbbing after stupidly stopping for a walk this afternoon on Saddleworth Moor without a hat or suncream. Not a headache you understand, the veins in my scalp are literally throbbing as they try to cool me down. I have the windows wide open and let's have a look at the thermometer, hang on...18.2 degrees on the Celsius scale.

It was worth it though, lots of Skylarks and Meadow Pippets.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:29 pm

Bloody freezing.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:37 pm

Adam, are you at an academy or an LEA school? My brother is at a nominally C of E school but still under the auspices of the LEA and he's hearing horror stories from teachers he knows in academies.

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:37 pm

Warm here- walk this afternoon in a tshirt and a hoodie and I could have taken off the hoodie if I wasn't the sort of miserable sod who would rather wear an extra unnecessary item of clothing than carry it.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:39 pm

Between 15 and 16 degrees C.

Post by **adam** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:41 pm

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:Adam, are you at an academy or an LEA school? My brother is at a nominally C of E school but still under the auspices of the LEA and he's hearing horror stories from teachers he knows in academies.

Academy. I have no idea at all what's going on with other people at school. I think the arrangements they have in school are probably fine- they look basically fine on paper and they've been happy to listening to me say 'what about this...' but the issue has been that they are really pushing at getting sometjing going again. We're an 11-18 school and at the moment staff are supposed to be in twice a week to 'deliver' online sessions on Teams to Y10 and Y12 classes, or to be in supporting vulnerable and key worker children, and from next Monday Y10 and Y12 are supposed to be going in although with the way it's been cut back they will each have one day at school before the end of the year. How that helps more than just getting on with online stuff I'm not sur I strongly suspect that the kids who haven't been 'turning up' online just won't turn up in person either.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:43 pm

PorFavor wrote:Bloody freezing.

I'm beginning to suspect you'd go on holiday on the surface of the Sun then leave a review on Trip Advisor complaining it was'nt warm enough.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sat 13 Jun, 2020 11:55 pm

And how big is a desk in your school? It does beggar belief that our genius government didn't realise schools would have to double in size to accomodate students under social distancing, or perhaps dangle half the pupils from the ceiling. And even if you decrease the 2 metre rule to 1 metre that doesn't mean you can fit in twice as many kids. I would guess for a social distanced class using a desk each you might get another 3 or 4 into the classroom if you jam them in at the back.

Perhaps the Mail will turn on Euclid next.

Post by **adam** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 12:00 am

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:And how big is a desk in your school? It does beggar belief that our genius government didn't realise schools would have to double in size to accomodate students under social distancing, or perhaps dangle half the pupils from the ceiling. And even if you decrease the 2 metre rule to 1 metre that doesn't mean you can fit in twice as many kids. I would guess for a social distanced class using a desk each you might get another 3 or 4 into the classroom if you jam them in at the back.

Perhaps the Mail will turn on Euclid next.

I was wondering what the most stupid plan for returning might be that I had yet to see and the thing that occurred was 'mezzanine floors'.

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 12:00 am

Night night.

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 12:03 am

PorFavor wrote:Night night.

Where do you think you're going?

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 12:07 am

Sky'sGoneOut · Post by **Sky'sGoneOut** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 12:40 am

Yeah that actually sounds like a good idea.

But...

[youtube]CoEGsxUZ2F4[/youtube]

RogerOThornhill · Post by **RogerOThornhill** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 9:06 am

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

Otto English
@Otto_English
Only a desperate cynic would suggest that Farage is relaunching the Brexit Party because he's just been sacked by LBC

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 10:25 am

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:
And the majority of those pupils not doing the work are boys.

Some of whom will grow up to be dickheads like their parents, look at those 'protestors' yesterday, others will grow up.

It hardly needs saying that the BLM demonstrators demonstrate a healthy gender mix, unlike the far-right.

gilsey · Post by **gilsey** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 10:28 am

Paul
@PaulOnBooks
As the Mail prattles on about Boris Johnson taking charge of the 2 metre rule (he should just become PM and sort all of it out), I spot one lovely line:

"A government source said the move was recognition that 'there's more to life than the R number'"

frog222 · Post by **frog222** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 10:51 am

gilsey wrote:
Sky'sGoneOut wrote: And the majority of those pupils not doing the work are boys.
Some of whom will grow up to be dickheads like their parents, look at those 'protestors' yesterday, others will grow up.
It hardly needs saying that the BLM demonstrators demonstrate a healthy gender mix, unlike the far-right.

Talking of dickheads, the manipulation of, --

Now, this simply won’t do, having young, right-on people taking matters — or, at least, statuary — into their own hands and having a terrific time as they do so. Something must be done to manipulate, to distract, to incite, to create conflict, to promote ‘divide and rule’.

Enter the BBC…

What did we see in ‘the news’ the following Thursday (11 June)? We saw that the BBC-owned streaming service UKTV had withdrawn the sixth episode of the 1970s comedy series ‘Fawlty Towers’ on account of its supposed ‘racial references’.

No, I’m not ‘going too far’ in linking the two events: you’ll think I am, but that’s only because you haven’t been doing this for as long as I have. Trust me: as someone who can go through a newspaper with different coloured highlighters to show, line by line, the tricks that are being played on the reader, what I’m spotting here is child’s play.

Think about it. There was absolutely nothing in the way of even minority public opinion that had demanded the removal of the classic series’ Season 1 finale, no hint of any kind from anybody that, since ‘Black Lives Matter’ and slave-traders are not to be celebrated, a 45-year-old comedy episode in which some Germans get upset and in whose original, unedited version a foolish elderly character uses racist language needed to be suddenly hidden from public view. Pulling the episode, in fact, was absurd, unnecessary, and provocative.

Which is precisely why it was done.

(Pause, then read on…)

Consider what this apparent piece of lunatic ‘political correctness’ achieved.

First, the Tory-led, Tory-filled and Tory-serving BBC once again stood before the nation ‘unmasked’ as some kind of extreme ‘liberal left’ bastion — its actual right-wing and far-right sympathies invisible behind, well, an apparent piece of lunatic ‘political correctness’.

Secondly, what had been an important debate — about the literal life-or-death issue that is the physical and structural violence endured by Britain’s BAME population — was instantly replaced by a ‘culture war’: suddenly, ‘Black people are killed by police in the UK too, you know!’ became inaudible beneath ‘Now they’re trying to take away our TV comedy!’

And, of course, thirdly, this manufactured bun fight was a debate in which everyone could find something to be obediently triggered by: ‘Surely you don’t think restricting access to comedy is right!’; ‘Does anyone know what John Cleese thinks about this?’; ‘This is exactly what Jordan Peterson means by ‘cultural Marxism’!’; ‘Next thing, they’ll want a bonfire of the ‘Carry On…’ films!’; ‘I mean, this is Hitlerism, isn’t it. Or Stalinism. Or both. But it’s everything Churchill fought against!’; etc, etc, etc, etc…

Recced by BB on that twitter https://markdoran.wordpress.com/2020/06 ... e-the-poo/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

tinyclanger2 · Post by **tinyclanger2** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 11:02 am

Am back.

tinyclanger2 · Post by **tinyclanger2** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 11:02 am

(Though not from outer space)

tinyclanger2 · Post by **tinyclanger2** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 11:03 am

Hello!

tinyclanger2 · Post by **tinyclanger2** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 11:20 am

Emerged from a work extravaganza (online) into corona world
Rooting for scientists (cure/vaccine)

AnatolyKasparov · Post by **AnatolyKasparov** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 11:52 am

Hello there, and good morefternoon.

tinyclanger2 · Post by **tinyclanger2** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 12:44 pm

Starting to dream of a night in a hotel - even if it's just down the road.
Anything to be out of the house for more than a couple of hours.

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 2:20 pm

tinyclanger2 wrote:Starting to dream of a night in a hotel - even if it's just down the road.
Anything to be out of the house for more than a couple of hours.

One thing I've thought of doing is a house swap - as soon as it's allowed of course.

Post by **PaulfromYorkshire** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 2:23 pm

It was meant to be sunny here this afternoon and I was all set to mow the grass etc.

And now it's raining! Only lightly, but nevertheless......

PorFavor · Post by **PorFavor** » Sun 14 Jun, 2020 3:21 pm