大象传媒

CONSTITUTIONAL DUM AND DEE

The fool/knave quality of the Westminster politician is never more apparent than in the institutionalised confrontation of our governance.

We are - supposedly - in dire straits, locally and globally. Indeed, one of the buzz words is 'choppy'. We are also at (never-ending) war with Terror. Yet BumBoat Britain (the only serviceable vessel left in the Navy) is run on the required basis that officers and men are at permanent loggerheads. It beats deckchairs by a nautical mile.

Oh - it's all going awfully down - with all hands.

look at that front bench...all multi millionaires..how could they know austerity, be without the rent this weekend, kids to feed, elderly parents to care for...they will never ever know what most of us have to deal with on a regular basis....so why should listen to them for one nano second?

From today's FT 'Late decisions: Treasury saves a few surprise goodies'
it sounds like the 大象传媒's Mark Thompson really did get stuffed by Jeremy
Hunt in those late night talks on Monday described by Michael Crick?! It
now transpires (according to the FT) that while Hunt "was putting immense pressur on Mark Thompson, director-general of the 大象传媒, to
take responsibility [NB from FCO - not Hunt's department DCMS] for
funding the World Service, saying he was under pressure from the Treasury to find more savings' (sic), HM Treasury had built up 'a
contingeny reserve of almost 拢1bn to redirect to good causes'. The
outcome seems to have been a last minute reprieve for The Royal Train
and a rebate for FCO to fritter on the useless British Council - paid
for, no doubt, in due course by further consequential cuts at the 大象传媒?

Smug statement fron British Council on the Spending Review outcome attached:

Newsnight's recent survey of the 'Big Society' activities of Cabinet Members mentioned Jeremy Hunt's 'Hotcourses Foundation' but forgot to
mention that 'Hotcourses' used to fund his parliamentary office and is
a principal contractor involved with The British Council's websites:

An interesting post from Hawkeye_Pierce in post 24 on Paul Mason's blog suggests more are picking up on the bigger picture at last. I'll quote something form the link he provides in order to get some more of you more interested:-.

"The game was to move money under a scheme of deceit and fraud.
First sell the bonds and collect the money into a pool. Second take your fees, third take what鈥檚 left and get it committed into 鈥渓oans鈥�
(which were in actuality securities) sold to homeowners under the same false pretenses as the bonds were sold to investors. By controlling the flow of funds and documentation, the middlemen were able to sell, pledge and otherwise trade off the flow of receivables several times over 鈥� a necessary complexity not only for the profit it generated, but to make it far more difficult for anyone to track the footprints in the sand.

If the loans had actually been securitized, the issue would not arise.
They were not securitized. This was a mass illusion or hallucination induced by Wall Street spiking the punch bowl. The gap (second tier yield spread premium) created between the amount of money funded by investors and the amount of money actually deployed into 鈥渓oans鈥� was so large that it could not be justified as fees. It was profit on sale from the aggregator to the 鈥渢rust鈥� (special purpose vehicle). It was undisclosed, deceitful and fraudulent"

Now, bear in mind the massive demographic changes taking place in the USA (by 2050 about half the population will be non White American) and what the earlier links I've posted say about the 'poor' people who have been taken in by fine print of libertarians. Do the same for here in the big cities, especially London to see the dark picture. The point to see here is that the so-called left-wing liberal equalitarian movement was no such thing, it was right-wing libertarians after naive consumers all along, cleverly vilifying the left who would have regulated and thus stopped them abusing people, and importing/breeding them in unmanageable numbers in the first place - see China

Will Newsnight be mourning the demise of yet another of 'our' cultural
(Ari Up), tonight? With all the talk of 'transparency' in recent times one might have thought more would have seen how the nihilism and served a libertarian agenda. Note how it then went New Romantic in the early Thatcher years? Good for the rag and make-up trade no doubt. As a nation we are so gullible.

" Matt Prodger is in Blaenau Gwent, one of the most deprived areas of Wales, to meet the community and gauge how they will be affected by the new measures."

That sounds interesting .... on last night's 'Newsnight Scotland' optout Gordon Brewer pressed Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland on what the welfare cuts would mean for deprived areas of Glasgow and
he did not have a clue ... rabbit caught in the headlights ..........

The increasing militarisation of the 'ring-fenced' UK DfID budget should also give huge cause for concern .... counter-insurgency loonies seem to
have taken over at UK DfID and back-office (ie auditing?) functions will
it seem be chopped back thus allowing corruption and incompetence a free
rein on these military-civilian joint operations in Afghanistan and Iraq

The Lib Dems who are allowing this to happen should all be expelled from Oxfam!

'CJ' LIVES! "I DIDN'T GET WHERE I AM TODAY BY DOING THE OPPOSITE."

"Nick and I did not come into politics to do this." (Destiny Dave referring to cuts.)

Any chance you can get a FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST to probe these two worthies as to EXACTLY WHY THEY DID come into politics? Whatever you do, don't ASK them - I'm feeling quite well lately. My guess is they were driven by a NEED to feel they are superior/powerful/admired/special - in a word 'somebody'.

We have a Parliament of wannabe nobodies - and it shows.

SPOILPARTYGAMES

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS - LOGIC'S DEMISE (#10)

I would expel them from the human race - preferably with a huge cannon. Nick, feudal Lord of LibDemmery, sold out to maximise personal aggrandisement, and his fawning feudal aspirants backed him on the same principle (or lack of).

Now they maintain that they had a mandate for coalition. And Huhne is so bereft of argument he just resorts to flippancy - "what ya gonna do about it eh? I'm here for 5 years."

Oh - it's all going awfully honourably.

According to John Curtice writing in today's 'Scotsman' about the You Gov
poll released today: 'The Liberal Democrats did badly at the last Holyrood election in 2007, winning just 11 per cent of the regional list vote. Many in the party believed that, as a result, it had little to lose from its coalition with Tories when MSPs face the electorate next May. Our poll shatters that illusion. It puts the Lib Dems on just 8 per cent in the battle for regional list votes. The party is on the same figure on the constituency vote too - only half of what it achieved on that ballot in 2007. Such an outcome could leave the Lib Dems with just nine seats at Holyrood, well down on its current tally of 16.' He then goes on to speculate about the additional impact of yesterday's CSR review on the Lib Dem vote .... one argument is that it cannot get any worse .... ie all the nice Liberals have left already ... a second tack is that Lib Dems saved the aircraft carriers no-one will ever use .....
and that there might be a revolt on tuition fees ... but it looks grim!!

The slashing of the universities in England may have so-called 'Barnet Formula consequentials' for Scotland too ... all very awkward for Ming
Campbell who is Chancellor of St Andrews University and for Charlie Kennedy who is Rector of Glasgow Uni ....

3 lords suspended. Those suspensions are the toughest since 1643. but temporary. what confidence can we have of a law making system that allows such 'honourables' to return? what other 'job' would allow that? most normal people would be sacked for similar 'omissions'. the lords raise the race card rather than admit guilt. Why isn't the conclusion of "did not act in good faith" and 'were utterly unreasonable and demonstrated gross irresponsibility"' not the same as deception and fraud?

/news/uk-politics-11597922

WHO WILL TELL SUSAN WATTS? (#13)

Not me. I never get a reply.

KNOW YOUR PLACE (#16)

Try all the bogus watchdogs jaunty - you will find they are all configured to honourably thwart you. I am still pursuing "THE CONSERVATIVES MUST WIN HERE TO STOP 5 MORE YEARS OF GORDON BROWN". Even the Woolas judgement will not help me - the action has been brought under section 106 (defamation) whereas a blatant lie would be section 115 (Representation of the People Act). Democracy is a wonderful thing - I hear.

I have not yet begun to fight.

11. At 3:40pm on 21 Oct 2010, barriesingleton wrote:

"Any chance you can get a FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST to probe these two worthies as to EXACTLY WHY THEY DID come into politics?"

Finding out why they came into politics won't help any of us better understand anything useful. It's irrelevant. That's not what forensic psychologists do either. The first step towards getting a better understand of what's going on is to stop asking the wrong questions, i.e to stop using the wrong language.

17

you know the govt have a 'Department for Energy and Climate Change'

its state backed. remember who owns the carbon exchanges and the links to uk political class

The official tub thumping goes on. Climate talks must ensure carbon trading: WBank official



meanwhile there has been an interpol meeting about climate fraud as carbon trading churns through more than $300 billion worth of transactions.

..80 percent of carbon trading houses in Denmark were fronts for tax fraud...

"16. At 4:42pm on 21 Oct 2010, jauntycyclist wrote:
"what other 'job' would allow that? most normal people would be sacked for similar 'omissions'.

It's not fair at all is it, but then you are too taken in by the rhetoric.

This is all libertarian economics. Now all the others who shouldn't be there (for all sorts of reasons mainly dubious given population frequency, democracy, and ability) will feel they can rest assured that they're safe. No point suggesting Ks & Ps can be bought for donations, no point highlighting abuses of status to product endorse highly suspect initiatives.

All one need ever do when something goes wrong is 'apologise' and all will be well. Oh, and play the race card.

While on the subject of oddities, do you notice anything at all odd ? Why would Lenin have urged Sylvia Pankhurst to toe the Labour Party line and to abandon her child-like anarchism? East London, hotbed of immigration and anarchism early last century.

Liberating women - can you see what that did to the birth-rate to the economy?.

What more need to do is open their eyes to a level of abuse so brazen as to make it inconceivable.

18

if only we had the level of democracy rights as afghans have. but we are not good enough to have the same rights. we have 3rd class democracy. No voting for head of state or upper chamber, no national oath or song that represents the nation.

A portion of the article referred to at .....

16. At 4:42pm on 21 Oct 2010, jauntycyclist wrote:


Quote ...

Racism concern

But some concerns were raised in the House of Lords that the only three peers referred to the Committee for Privileges and Conduct were Asian - Labour peer Lord Alli asked Lord Strathclyde to look into whether "there has been inconsistency on the basis of race or otherwise". .... Unquote.

Note ........ Lord Ali asked ....

Is now the suggestion that the error(s) occurred because the miscreants are asian?

Or is the implication that they should be excused because they are asian?

No?

Then perhaps the 鈥榦utcome鈥� is because the upper house is institutionally racist?

Or is it that they 鈥榯ried it on鈥� and got caught?

I have mentioned before the story of the supervisor working for an international supermarket chain whom was sacked for eating two grapes from a bunch that was just about to be thrown away .....

What would have happened to him had he misappropriated 拢194,000 .... Beulah?




And .... Oh yes!


Proof that even a Big Con conference speaker can say something honest!

But then she isn鈥檛 a politician ..... yet!



Although that doesn鈥檛 mean that anything will come from it. Except possibly, having now left her employment, she might be available for an 鈥榓dvisory鈥� post!

Assuming she knew the risk she was taking by appearing at the conference that could be, for her, 鈥榓 preferred outcome鈥�.

Having worked almost ten years in education I can say that her fundamental premise is - for the greater part - true, particularly regarding the 鈥榮idestepping鈥� of poor behaviour leading to poor ethnic minority male achievement.


Perhaps there鈥檚 鈥榓 piece鈥� in the making Nn?

So it would appear that the message from the Tories to all intelligent school leavers is to make sure you get a soft job where there is no potential danger to your health. Likewise avoid any jobs where your health may significantly deteriorate as your approach retirement. There would appear to be no point for any school leaver to take up a trade apprenticeship if the said job involves any danger to your person. It would appear that those who take potentially dangerous jobs are to be expected to urinate everything they earn up the wall or spend it on junk consumer gadgets. No incentive to work extra hard to make money to save if there is any chance that you might become chronically sick or injured as a result.

17. At 4:47pm on 21 Oct 2010, barriesingleton wrote:
WHO WILL TELL SUSAN WATTS? (#13)

Not me. I never get a reply."

Ah, but hen you don't listen either do you? Why is this so common?

In Susan's case, she has a team to work with/to and they decide what's newsworthy, nobody else. It doesn't matter what's going on, it's what they think's going on which matters.

Women and their thinking - guaranteed The anti Road to Serfdom brigade. They can't help. God made them that way.


IS IT A COUNTERFACTUAL OR IS IT REAL?

Imagine schools and hospitals etc being turned into 'trusts'. Then imagine these being Then imagine the people running these SPVs (financial wizards of course co-opted form the local community) receiving local or central tax money into their coffers. Then imagine those running the SPVs borrowing money on the international money markets and/or investing their tax receipts etc to 'grow their assets'.

Then imagine something goes 'wrong', some bad returns on those investments, a world credit crunch etc. Suddenly the trustees say, "oh dear, we'll have to let some of the staff go, or sell off the playground, car parts, MRIs etc"

See how it works? See how it has worked?.

Remember the Local Authorities and Iceland?

Stick an I in SPV and what do you get?


23. At 6:53pm on 21 Oct 2010, JAperson wrote:

Note, it's two Muslim peers and one Hindu (Paul). Note they put it as 'Asians'.

As to the schools issue, be careful, this is a way of clobbering teachers for not being able to do what is beyond their human ability.
They are not alchemists, as I'm sure you must well know.

I seem to remember that JadedJean was also a computing expert putting links under text and BOLD type ?

Re the sell-off of the states assets

'He won, Russia lost' Roman Abramovich, Britain's richest man - how he made his billions.


'In fact, little of substance is known about Abramovich's wealth other than that he is one of 23 Russian entrepreneurs who took advantage of the privatisation of Russia's state assets in the mid-1990s. This exclusive group now controls 60% of the Russian economy, and their combined wealth amounts to 拢44.6bn.'

" 鈥淚f children in the poorest parts of the world can learn how to read and write 鈥� as well as do maths and science in schools with dirt floors and tattered textbooks 鈥� there is no excuse for the way British children are being failed by well-resourced schools.

鈥淲e must not stifle the growth of the brightest.鈥�

Mr Murdoch鈥檚 company plans invest in academies in London to try and tackle the problem of inadequate teaching."

Insidious incarnate.

Can everyone here now understand why? If not take a look to the quality of the product he sells and then ask, "what is reading, what is writing?, what age level is it pitched to?" If the kids in those places he refers to can do such wonderful things, why are their entire countries regarded as Third World economic/health basket cases?

It's time people started to wake up and stopped talking in an
language. Until they do, .

As it is at the moment, most people can't see just how ridiculous what they're being fed is, because they've become so damned used to it!

So to sum up the spending review, money for bankers bonuses (many of whom have committed fraud see post number 7), money for wars, money for bribes for people to be on the governments side in those wars (DFID), money for spying on the citizenry (emails, phone calls etc with a budget the size of a Stazi agents wet dream), while those in this country that need real help (and many have already paid hefty amounts in tax for it, like the elderly) get left in the gutter. History tells us this won't work and will create what in the 'Intelligence (sic) Community' is called blowback, how long before Combat 18 2.0 becomes more of a threat than AQ and the rebranded Real nee Provisional IRA?

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it. -- Mark Twain

...So this is a tax to make banks pay for the support they receive and the risks they impose on others. In that perspective it looks decidedly timid. Andrew Haldane of the Bank of England estimates the subsidy to British banks at an average 拢59bn over the last three years. The proposed levy will raise one-twentieth of that.

Banks鈥� predictable cry of despair will really be a sigh of relief.....



the bankers will be backslapping?

28

..why are their entire countries regarded as Third World economic/health basket cases?..

like the uk?

third world is a western materialist pejorative if not rcist term. it doesn't reflect education nor economy which as we know is a fixed game of currency manipulation and product dumping destroying local markets. Mervin King said the world economy is a zero sum game which means for one state to be rich they must make another state poor. Currently china has most of the world by the throat.

one study of poverty said people in africa are better off than in the uk because they have no personal debt. if one removed everything from every street [cars, homes, furnishings, services from the uk funded by debt how 'third world' would we be?

24

the uk is designed for and run for and by those who inherit wealth. always has been. its the norman monarchy model of power. which is why the 4 bill a year subsidy to the inner empire of landowners hasn't been touched. why the finance industry has 'got away with it'.

anyone who 'has to work' is, historically, of the dispossed landed class [from the enclosures]. Once the link to common land was broken people became beggars at the rich mans table. The philosphy changed from community to individuality. This week micheal wood's programme demonstrates what happened to such people.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Britain and British Council is rotten to the core - believe me!!!!

If they can get lots of polyclinics and schools to hold local tax money in trusts (SPVs) instead of being managed by Area health Authorities and Local Authorities, it will increase the chances of creative accounting and those who can profit from investing the money in the schools and doctors' best interests...... cough.

If you think that doctors and teachers are smart/canny enough to see through this scam you just don't understand how these relatively good people just don't see the bad things that many people do! Hence the ring fencing of these gold mines?

And just when I thought that things could not get worse the Newsnight Scotland optout has on some greasy, long-haired former Labour advisor
to comment on the CSR and argue that the SNP should cut The Borders
Rail Link that we have been waiting for since Beeching back in 1966
just because Gordon Brown has bankrupted Britain and the Labour Party's plans for trams in Edinburgh (which had a perfectly decent bus service)
have ended up as almost a bigger financial and technical fiasco than
the construction process for The Holyrood Parliament under Mr Dewar!!

I have now had enough .... as the 大象传媒 has finally got round to switching the Tay Bridge transmitter to digital and I have now got got Freeview I
am off to CNN and Al Jazeera ...... GOODBYE NEWSNIGHT! GOODBYE ENGLAND!

Comment #35 clearly got a little too close to the bone, eh?!

What does it say about the ideology of Newsnight when optouts mean that we in Scotland are denied the 'bon mots' of 'the thinking man's crumpet'
(aka Joan Bakewell)? Is Freeview not sophisticated enough for a solution?

I viewed the discussion of universal benefits for the elderly with ever increasing despair at the bias shown - first by inviting 2 people so manifestly of the opinion that there should be more means testing of benefits for the elderly and second at the lack of challenge from Gavin Esler.
Are the Newsnight team aware that the 大象传媒 may well be in need of more rather than fewer friends among those who, as recognised in the disucssion, tend to vote (and also know how to lobby)? And that creating (many would say perpetuating) the impression you are longing for the return of Big Government may not be clever? It also seemed to me hard to reconcile with the editorial guidelines.
If space permitted I would expand briefly here a few of the well-known disbenefits (sic) in principle and in practice of means testing Mr Esler and guests failed to address). But you have my e-mail address if you want more about administrative costs, benefit traps, disincentives to work/save, and the prospect of poor provision if provision is only for the poor.

But before I go: whatever happened to Jaded Jean? (see #26)!

#42 But before I go: whatever happened to Jaded Jean? (see #26)!

= tabblenabble01, tabblenabble02, DeadZeb amongst many other names Neil.

Tonight Paul Mason will explain how the IFS reached its conclusion.

Eminently qualified, no doubt.

Matt Prodger is in Blaenau Gwent, one of the most deprived areas of Wales, to speak to people there about their reaction to the Spending Review.

The subject of of getting folk to articulate what other folk feel needs to be heard by yet more folk (relative numbers of each being also of note) being a topical subject:

/blogs/aboutthebbc/2010/10/new-bbc-editorial-guidelines-l.shtml

One is presuming heading to a place where folk might shrug and accept that, when there is no money, cuts are going to be necessary , and painful, especially when they are being cut whilst still paying, will not serve newsworthy narratives?

17. At 4:47pm on 21 Oct 2010, barriesingleton wrote:
WHO WILL TELL SUSAN WATTS? (#13)

The subject of 'who tells, controls'.... especially in terms of authority figures, was rather brought home to me last night.

My kids are revising currently for some serious exams that do count.

One brought in this book, which forms part of the curriculum: AQA GCSE Science Core Higher Ed. Graham Hill. Pub: Hodder Murray

He wanted some advice on a question. From a series including sections such as 3.3, entitled 鈥楬ow do humans affect the environment?鈥� and 3.5 鈥楪lobal Warming鈥� (other aspects of global warming and the greenhouse effect also covered in Section 6.4, Air Pollution), and 3.6 鈥榃hat can be done to reduce human impact on the environment?. Here it is, as posed, under 6.4, p113:

21. Which of the following three do you think will actually happen? Write a paragraph to explain your answer.

a) We鈥檒l worry and blame ourselves for climate change for thousands of years.

b) Fossil fuels will run out and renewable energy will save us.

c) The oceans will evaporate as the Earth heats up and humans will die.

His face, when I opined that 鈥榥one are very coherent, accurate, or suggest definite answers that are sensible, at least as posed鈥�, was a heartbreaking picture. He just wanted... needed to provide the 鈥榬ight鈥� one as the system demands it to be one of them. Sighing at the 'will happen', I therefore attempted to assist based on the hope that the paragraph of explanation would be rewarded if well argued and having a basis in fact and scientific interpretation.

Forget a), which is facile and shows a poor grasp of even basic climate science terminology, though maybe does reflect the 鈥榳orry鈥� mindset being churned out in some quarters.

If you have to choose, choose b) as fossil fuels will run out. They are finite. As to whether 鈥榬enewable鈥� energy 'will' 鈥檚ave鈥� us, that rather depends on how many of 'us' there are, and from what. It seems, currently, optimistic to presume renewable sources can meet all current and projected energy demands.

As for c), well, yes, as the sun goes supernova in a few billion years. But humans may be in a different place by then.

THIS鈥� is what they are being served????!

More touching still was his further plea to me NOT to get in touch with the school with my now serious reservations about the way this information was laid out and the questions posed鈥� as he just wanted to pass the unit and not get in trouble.

If this is the state of education, at least in this area (I now wonder about history, etc), I am seriously troubled not only by the course structures, but the mindsets prevalent in our educational establishment.

#43

It's good to see it confirmed who the 'clown' is, Ecolizzy.

mim

an example of an indicating 'joke': bold print = a bold man

TAKEN (A)BACK (#45)

THAT IS BEYOND WORDS TO DECRY Junkk.

So many matters encompassed. School INSTITUTIONALISES the child to the point of preferring conformity to reality, and SCHOOL POWER is demonstrably greater than parent power. I met EXACTLY the same idiocy in the 1980s. One's child is terrified at being made 'different' in the massed grey safety of school conformity.

Those who 'succeed' in terms of schooling, later become 'leaders'. The cycle repeats and the rest is not silence but sound and fury - signifying nothing.

And no buses run to Wisetown, whatever IDS might dream, with a child-like tilt of his head.

What a tragic mess.

"45. At 10:12am on 22 Oct 2010, JunkkMale wrote:

My kids are revising currently for some serious exams that do count."

You can see how effective the teaching of comprehension has been over the decades, as we now have bloggers here who are far more interested in the identity of anonymous bloggers than they are in what the bloggers are actually writing about. If that isn't evidence of poor comprehension and dumbing down, what is?

The QCA/NAA has even managed to dumb down maths SATs and GCSE in recent years. This has been in aid of hiding the real genetic dumbing down in the vain belief that if people think they are clever, they are clever.

It just doesn't seem to occur to them that their getting nearly everything wrong most of the time, and rarely, if ever, producing anything which is worth anything (Dyson's magic fan hides the fan out of site!) is patently obvious in the GDP data.

As to the kids, just tell them that at that level, the task is to show that they can do as you are told by teachers. It doesn't matter is any of it is true. It's just like learning to act a part in a play. None of that is true either. It just shows that one can give a good performance.

Learning what is true comes much later in life, probably after university if they ever go into doing scientific research. Until then, tell them to learn to do as they are told. Engineers do that, doctors do that, they don't argue back, or imaginatively create. So why not GCSE students?

47. At 11:09am on 22 Oct 2010, barriesingleton wrote:
48. At 11:13am on 22 Oct 2010, tabblenabble02 wrote:

I was prepared to be told, and if necessary concede that my science was flawed, my interpretations poorly reasoned, but so far I sense my fears are at least founded in empathy.

'As to the kids, just tell them that at that level, the task is to show that they can do as you are told by teachers. It doesn't matter is any of it is true. It's just like learning to act a part in a play. None of that is true either. It just shows that one can give a good performance.

Having arrived, with heavy heart, at that very conclusion, mostly by the wisdom of a 14-year old who knows 'what it takes', I am damned to agree, and comply. But it rankles. A lot. I can only imagine how it feels to be a teacher who cares, and has to inflict this upon fresh, bright minds.

Thank you for at least being amongst those who understand. It helps when you see certain windmills are, for the sake of others dear to you, best not tilted at.

so the quiet man admits they would be doing all this even if there was no bankers debt because they believe in it. IDS clearly isn't one to kowtow to the official narrative designed to perpetuate the hayekian darkness.

the fuel allowance is just a subsidy to foreign energy multinationals who extort money from the uk. Anyone seen the correlation between european gas price and your fuel bills. There is none or rather only when the gas goes up.

egalitarian?

if everyone doesn't have something then people feel shame? So free sky for everyone then? Free 4 x 4 cars? Free holidays in Aspen? Tax money is for the poor and needy not the rich and greedy. All benefits must be judged by what competitors in the zero sum game world economy are doing?

Law of the Jungle Book?

The idea man is only an animal where might is right is a false belief.

A SMALL THING BUT MINE OWN (#49)

Hang in there Junkk.

I feel it necessary to repeat that my instinctive REJECTION of school, from day one (literally) - I stress SCHOOL, not learning - left me less 'focused' than those of 'thorough schooling' (with whom I debate often). I have found great satisfaction in the freedoms thereby accrued.

My business, reliant wholly on my expertise, was profitable for 35 years; not easy to achieve with only 'counterfactuals' at one's disposal. (I might, of course, be a DOUBLE genius!)

LAW OF THE JUNGLE BOOK ('50)

Nice!

But equally false is the idea that we really function as high-minded beings. Animal imperatives are nine-tenths-plus of the 'law' of every-day 'gentility'. And ten-tenths of of brutal warfare, waged by what our politicians insist on calling: 'the best of the best'.

Not only an animal, agreed, but still the Ape Confused by Language I reckon.

#47

It鈥檚 a tragic mess but at whose behest
Singie? Do you think you鈥檙e playing a part
And do you know when it had its start?
I see that you鈥檙e planning to take over the running of Britain.
May I ask you, therefore, what exactly is your plan
And can you spell for us the likely timescale?
Methinks, however, you鈥檙e going to fail.

mim

51. At 12:49pm on 22 Oct 2010, barriesingleton wrote:

"My business, reliant wholly on my expertise, was profitable for 35 years; not easy to achieve with only 'counterfactuals' at one's disposal."

You've got to be joking. We are an 80% Service Sector economy and most of what you and I have seen bought and sold in recent years has probably been fraudulent (see Hawkeye_Pierce's posts) or 'value added' guff. We have truly become a nation of snake-oil hawkers thanks to the likes of Alan Sugar and his Apprentice lark

Seriously now, what makes you think that you weren't one of them (other than possibly a lack of insight plus a large dollop of over confidence, aka business acumen, perhaps?)

What about that chap selling bomb-detectors? There are surely millions like him. They run degrees in that *(marketing, business studies and MBAs) stuff you know.....

#50

Some people ARE MIGHTY alrighty.
And would the Earth do without the Sun鈥檚 might
Do you then reckon it would be all right?
It seems to be not only vital to its very existence
But also to poets and artists persistence
In praising its, the Moon鈥檚 and the stars鈥� influence
On creation of the best of the best masterpieces
Like flowers and trees, music and paintings,
Books, poems and dances.
True love also does spurn us on
Rather than some silly, greedy and idiotic clone.

mim

HAVE TO ADMIT - NEVER VIEWED IT LIKE THAT TAB (#54)

We manufactured material products, requiring judicious application of Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering.

We held a small inventory of Snake Oil, but only up until we built on the wild land at the rear. There were then no more snakes requiring its application.

Ah - degrees. I have heard about them . . . Why do you waste your time with me tab? I am incorrigible. It has served me well. I shall die uncorrected.

mr educating table

I'm not sure whether you have contact with Duncan Smith but if you do, could you please kindly let him know that if I do find a job, it'll be on my bike rather than by going on a bus.

Plus, let me be absolutely clear that if I do cause anybody any harm it's purely in self-defence, 'OK'?

Does 58 have something to do with fate?
When I was just a little girl I didn鈥檛 ask my mum what I will be
And whether I鈥檒l ever be rich.

mim

#45 Junk

My heart goes out to you.

Even at University education (2 sons) and adult higher ed (me - OU) It is simplistic (dumbed down - oh how dare I) and 'repeat after me - in your own words please'.

Where are the free thinkers being grown? Where is the need to challenge such statements as this question and not be locked up or worse perhaps ignored for being a trouble maker. Where is the incentive to stand up and ask questions and not be afraid of the answers. Where the incentive to seek out the right and the good.

If anyone finds it, please point the way.

I don't post on here much these days. Seems a bit pointless. But I read, often despairing. I am not clever enough to counter some clever dicky's but know we is in trouble deep.

#56

Snakes, you say, singie?
Isn't tab involved in the cobra project/experiment as announced a few months ago by Pete Mandelson?
I wonder where it's supposed to lead on.

"56. At 2:12pm on 22 Oct 2010, barriesingleton wrote:

We manufactured material products, requiring judicious application of Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering. "

The cosmetics industry does EXACTLY that. It's classed 'cosmetic' because it has no known medicinal effect. I assume you've seen the BS adverts which tell women all sorts of nonsense. It isn't just the cosmetic industry either. The food industry is full of chemicals too.

Chemicals I say, people eat chemicals. Whatever next! What do they do to children? One graduate women I know was very strict about her kids not drinking diet drinks because of all the sugar in them!

Why do I bother? Someone has to get you to try to see sense and to stop corrupting the innocent with your silvery keyboard. ;-)

'59. At 2:49pm on 22 Oct 2010, LC2 wrote:
#45 Junkk

My heart goes out to you.

Appreciated. As is what you have kindly shared. Except perhaps, the curse of being reminded of the word 'troublemaker'.

To gain access to the book long enough to copy down what I quoted, I had to promise not to drop my sons 'in it', with peers, or teachers. That has meant, essentially, no option to raise this at the school.

I am awaiting their return now to, I hope, regain their trust such that I can 'help' more in future, but not 'meddle'. I am parent enough to understand the rules of the playground... and classroom.

But I can't simply allow what I believe to be flawed science, and flawed science teaching, to go unremarked, if only 'to do what it takes'.

Hence, with Paster Neimoller whispering in the back of my head, I am pursuing a bit of left-field thinking and deploying a bit of a fudge.

I have written to my MP, but have insisted on confidentiality, asking what is being concocted between the Depts of Energy and Climate Change and Education to arrive at this juncture.

Plus, of course, sharing this dilemma in worthy arenas such as here. They have proven good venues to gain insight, but also to act to distribute little acorns which, if with merit, can be picked up and scattered in all sorts of places that may be positive and proactive.

Maybe, even, via the 大象传媒?

59. At 2:49pm on 22 Oct 2010, LC2 wrote:

"!If anyone finds it, please point the way."

In the science subjects students don't argue. They learn. It's only because these students/subjects are now in such a minority that this is not de rigueur. To be franks, most degrees are rubbish these days. Those running them get naive people to argue and 'think' because they have actually have nothing worth-while to teach!

Clever, or just more experienced? Blogs can be very deceptive. People are not all equals in age and expertise. Why would anyone thing otherwise?

DEMOCRACY AT WORK (#62)

I hope you can put the odd paragraph of the MP letter on here Junkk. And if you get a reply, try to find a matching paragraph, and post that too.

I have taken to numbering paragraphs in letters to officialdom, with a note asking for numbered responses. Of course, you get the usual stuff, but I just could not stand the trick of 'them' ignoring any difficult parts.

ALL MADE UP AND NOWHERE TO GO (#61)

You used to be so rigorous tab - what happened?

I propose the generation of saleable chemical products, made and processed to my unique specification, as an indication of competent function in the unlettered, and you end up wearing lip-stick and vilifying an obsessive graduate. (Bit of a liberty that.)

I know it is full moon, but environmental magnetism is no excuse.

Are you going for my incorrigible crown?

#62

You can carry on whispering, junk, but I don't think it's going to take you very far.

62. At 3:45pm on 22 Oct 2010, JunkkMale wrote:

A lot of what kids are taught in school (and even university) is how to go about collecting and analysing evidence, presenting it and so on. It doesn't matter what the content is a lot of the time, and much that's taught to 14 year olds will be technically wrong in one way or another through lack of detail. The same is the case even at university, say, in philosophy where purposely contrived, most peculiar examples will be used to show clearly that the form or validity of a logical argument is independent of its empirical content. You need to look at the Natural Curriculum targets to see what the subject is trying to teach and assess at each LEVEL. Don't second guess teachers. The content is often just a vehicle to teach and assess processes

"65. At 4:38pm on 22 Oct 2010, barriesingleton wrote:

"I propose the generation of saleable chemical products, made and processed to my unique specification, as an indication of competent function in the unlettered, and you end up wearing lip-stick and vilifying an obsessive graduate. (Bit of a liberty that.)"

In simple English, what did you sell? Everything is made of chemicals.