Thursday 19th June 2025

[refitman]

Morning all.

[refitman]

The latest SpaceX test hasn't gone very well

[Frog222]

Space X 'incident'
It appears that someone located large numbers of fuel and other chemicals tanks just by the launchsite ...
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Some debate about whether the hospital was the target, and so that goes on !

One thing is guaranteed, nothing will stop the Israeli govty claiming victimhood !

[Frog222]

[Frog222]

Just good friends

[Frog222]

Better late than never ............... ?

He's right about the uselessness of the Electoral Commission and those wealthy foreign donors, for a start -

[RogerOThornhill]

Good afternoon.

I see the World's Greatest Headteacher is on the BBC again - QT tonight.

Almost tempted to watch (until I get fed up with her) just to see how deranged and shouty she gets,

As a reminder - 4FE (in terms of secondary schools that is pretty small) with a narrow curriculum. No ICT for example, so why they've asked her on is a bit of a mystery. Pretty sure she'll have a go at Labour for not banning phones even though individual schools can do this without any overarching legislation.

Fiona Bruce presents a special episode exploring the challenges of growing up in the 21st century.

On the panel are: Britain’s so-called strictest headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh; the co-writer of the Netflix drama Adolescence Jack Thorne; the YouTuber, comedian and author TommyInnit; the secretary of state for science and technology Peter Kyle MP; and from the Conservatives, Lord Willetts, the former universities minister and author of a book on intergenerational fairness.

[Frog222]

Thermometer in the shade behind the house ---- 28 ° !

Did some ride-on mowing, now for another siesta !

[refitman]

He is just an amazingly useless lump of grey in a suit.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I'm happy to say I'll be giving Birbalsingh a miss tonight, last week was bad enough plus it's a friend's birthday tomorrow which will undoubtedly involve stupid amounts of drinking so I'm giving my liver an extra day off in preparation.

It's a bit warm.

[gilsey]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Change of plans. My mate has decided he's going to spend his birthday with his ex which is a somewhat disturbing turn of events. Anyway learning this at late notice meant I could open some wine and scoot through QT just to check out Birbalsingh and I'm sad to say she was a great disappointment. Did she talk bollocks? Yes. For example she claimed 97% of schools have problems with kids using their mobile phones and it was impossible to change that without changing the law. Absolute crap. At my brother's school they have to hand them in at the start of the day and get them back when they leave. It's that simple and it works. The effect smartphones have on kids is a different matter. Birbalsingh started burbling on that it wasn't just phones it was also video games that were rotting our children's brains, I was almost waiting for her to bring up video nasties. When I was a kid it was TV that was rotting our brains, which almost seems quaint now. I'm sure there must have been studies done demonstrating how watching Rainbow or Fingerbobs caused the degeneration of child's prefrontal cortex. Though back then without MRI scanners they'd have to have dissected a kid's brain so maybe not. Smartphones aren't the problem, it's what they can be used for that can be, and it struck me as slightly ironic that such a prolific spouter of social media vitriol and attention seeking was advocating banning them for youngsters because it can addle their brains while she looks and behaves like someone you would actively avoid at the bus stop.

She also claimed that one of the 'small c' Conservative values her kids were taught was that they, 'Should be prepared to sacrifice something they like for the greater good of everyone'. Which is basically just ripping off Spock's, 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'. As far as Conservative values go it's a new one on me.

In short, she turned up, looked slightly crazed, talked bollocks, but as usual with these kind of freaks she toned it way down when faced with an audience both in the venue and on (brain rotting) TV.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Would you look at that. A Labour MP, and whip no less, with a conscience and a regard for the truth.

It's a shame there won't be enough of them to make a difference.