大象传媒

'Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has said that the English riots of early August forced the middle classes to acknowledge the plight of people living on inner-city council estates'

With some experience of and interest in various folk forcing others to 'acknowledge things', I am interested in the scope and support for that.

There is a slight chance he, as others before have also tried, may not be 'speaking for' all claimed.

So any looking at may involve a fair bit of looking past and only where some fancy, and nowhere else.

'1. At 13:10 15th Sep 2011, brossen99 wrote:


Not sure 'good points' are necessarily newsworthy these days, especially if they don't tick the correct boxes.

Education and informing is all well and good, but at least editorial can control when agenda trumps integrity.

Or it may just be science and engineering don't register in some quarters enough to sink in, in which case it is simply incompetence.

I think it was here I learned that there are but 2 out of the entire Parliament who may be qualified to grasp such things. Unsure what the % in media who take their cues from the former is.

#3 Junk

I was wrong!

There's only one.

Only scientist in Commons 'alarmed' at MPs' ignorance

WHERE DID IDS LEARN ABOUT 'NO-HOPERS' - SANDHURST?

When my life bottomed out, in my 20s, I did a five month stint labouring in Woodside Brickworks (SE25). It taught me a lot about basic labour and those trapped in it. Does IDS have 1% of my experience? Does he talk WITH and UNDERSTAND anyone who does?

I suspect Sandhurst teaches the value of DISCIPLINE for 'the scum of the earth'; we seem to keep hearing the D-word from the elite froth.

I still want to see IDS grilled over his starry-eyed capitulation to Charisma-Tony, in that small matter of war in Iraq. Let's set Humphrys on him. Humphrys demolished Tony's charisma, and had him lamely pleading 'I didn't know' over rendition. (Yeah right. Maybe torture is called DISCIPLINE in the manual.) One thing is sure: in IDS

WE GOT OURSELVES ANOTHER ONE.

4. At 14:35 15th Sep 2011, museV wrote:
Only scientist in Commons 'alarmed' at MPs' ignorance


Well, I guess 'we' knew that, like so many 'representative' establishments, the composition of Parliament was skewed, but I'd love to hear that one explained.

Especially as 'we' seem now to be depending on the talents of science in industry, and there's a bit less than a 700 to one chance of any making decisions having the slightest clue on the topics.

I notice this travesty seems not to be troubling our media 'elite' much either, possibly for fear of being shown up as pure complements to their political brothers and sisters.

Explains, if not excuses, much.

LOGIC BEFORE SCIENCE (#4 link)

Science makes little sense if pursued without logic.

You will remember my MP has declared me 'illogical' and is now, thereby, on a non-frat. Some of you will have viewed the Liar Flyer upon which our spat is based. Confronted with the series of lies in that flyer, no one is able to, LOGICALLY, claim it to be stating truth.

Before we tutor MPs in science, would it not be more fruitful to teach them logic; OR IS IT A CRASH COURSE IN INTEGRITY THEY NEED?

'7. At 14:55 15th Sep 2011, barriesingleton wrote:
LOGIC BEFORE SCIENCE (#4 link)

Maybe a bit of both, with a dash of common sense, is not too much to ask?

With commitments being made for vast amounts and over huge periods (not allowing ease sea changes), it would be nice to feel that questions are asked on how stuff will work with a hope of the answers being interrogated sensibly on the basis of actually delivering on spec. and budget.

At the moment it seems more 'It will play well in the media', 'The EU guys will like us', 'The lobbyist promises they'll build a factory in the constituency', 'It will show subsidies can produce more lovely subsidies' or... 'Dad has called to say today's cheque arrived so he's buying another set of gold doorknobs'.

The IDS article today in the Times says :

...unaware of the true nature of life on some of our estates. This was because we had ghettoised many of these problems, keeping them out of sight of the middle-class majority."

" ... to restoring discipline and autonomy in our classrooms and schools, we have to ensure that young people have the support networks .."

"For too long, the political class has understood that we have a social problem, but considered it a second order issue".

Careful reading of the above, indeed the whole article reveals that the 'we' in 'we' is actually referring to the whole political class - NOT the rest of our society, whom IDS or any other politician had better not blame for all the crazy social engineering experiments that their political class has inflicted on us English people down the decades.

The damned cheek of them!

I think IDS can be the only person who didn`t notice how our political class and their accomplices in the media ignored the people who marched in support of Enoch Powell and the real message that Mrs Duffy was trying to get over during Bigotgate.

He`s a truly good hearted person, but what ambitious fellow politician would associate themselves with him,except the equally doomed Frank Field?

Wall Street has deliberately flooded us with people and shipped out our industry and destroyed our trades union institutions. Thatcher gets the blame, but the global financiers use so called left of centre globalist parties like Labour and the Democrats to administer the coup de grace.

"a quarter of those charged over the riots had committed more than 10 past offences, while three-quarters had a previous caution or conviction".

I'm sure that's correct, but I doubt it's the whole truth: those with "previous" would have been more easy to identify, I'd have thought?

AH - CORRELATION AND CAUSALITY SASHA? LOGIC LAND AGAIN. (#11)

Did it not all start long ago with bowler hats and intelligence?

In passing, a slightly oblique point: Our 'school-mad' (advisedly) 'leaders', insist that drafting two year olds into institutions of learning, can be SHOWN to improve intelligence, by later reference to performance in - er - INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING.

Nuff sed

CRINGEWORTHY JINGO-DAVE - NOT IN MY NAME

Dave says we are all behind the Libyans. Did he check?

Come to think of it - were we not ONLY above the Libyans?

(Not cowards are we? Only Johnnie Foreigner breeds cowards.)

What a pathetic spectacle.

This blogger does not begrudge Cameron and Sarkozy their sunny day in Libya.

They took significant political risks in this venture and now rightly reap the rewards.

As do the free people of Libya.

This is one of the planets better days.

I DIDN'T THAT SEE I ONLY HEARD

At a recent Urban Base Jumpers' Convention, a number of the jumpers were nicked. Police found many had been nicked before, FOR URBAN BASE JUMPING!

Is it me?

WILL ANYONE DO A FINAL TALLY OF OVERALL LIBYA-DEAD, COMPARED TO 鈥楴ATO-UNDEAD鈥� IN BENGHAZI? (#14)

I might grudgingly honour Dave and Sarko IF THEY HAD RISKED LIFE AND LIMB for Libya (not just political discomfort).

Dave has the book, the lecture tour, and the financial security, all tied up - for everything else there is the secret handshake. Risk?

You canNot be serious man!

@12, 13 Barrie. On the one hand, I have seen intelligent and liveminded kids from "disadvantaged" backgrounds underperform by the standards measures of schooling, but later become functioning and contented adults, often successful too.

On the other hand, looking at our leaders from well-heeled backgrounds (I deliberately do NOT use the word "privileged"), I wonder whether some of them have not been schooled beyond their abilities. In May 2010, Oxford's Vernon Bogdanor described his ex-student David Cameron as "brilliant", no doubt wishing to bask in reflected glory. Unfortunately, Dave's utterances have not provided evidence of anything beyond the most pedestrian of minds. If his background had been even slightly more ordinary, I doubt we'd have ever heard of him.

Slightly off at a tangent, megalomania manifests itself in all walks of life. One local primary school head recently told parents of prospective pupils: "If I'd had as good an education as we provide here, I'd be Prime Minister by now." Most of the parents were too shocked to be amused, but the head was totally oblivious of the negative effect created, both at the time, and when the comments percolated into the wider community. (I was told by two of the parents present.)

@14 JC. I hope the "Free People Of Libya" prove to be better off than those of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Perhaps in five years time we will begin to know the answer. One thing which annoys me greatly is 大象传媒 (and no doubt other) pundits saying that Libya hadn't had free and fair elections for 42 years, implying that things were different before then.

In fact, Libya has NEVER had a free and fair election, and such limited will of the people which was expressed in the only ever general election, in 1952, was ignored and suppressed.





Ah well, off to sing with my choir now, and forget about the troubles of the world. :-)

'victory'

Camerkazy look silly in libya.

like bush on the aircraft carrier saying iraq was 'won' these two are making the same kamakaze mistake.

INCREDIBLE DAVE (#17)

Dave is such a gift to the 'Freudian slip' way of thinking. His magnifying adjective of choice, is INCREDIBLE. Well - if his intention is to remind us of flyer fibs, photo falsehood and nastiness to Nick, all of which were Dave鈥檚 excursions into the INCREDIBLE, he is doing a creditable job.

How did Dave become Prime Minister? Safe seat (they voted for the rosette). Political 鈥榩erformer鈥�. Rewarded in Westminster for segue, elision, fudge, avoidance, non-answers and put-downs. Elevated by similarly bizarre associates, who see worth in iniquity. Voted leader of Cons by the same bizarre associates. Lost the election but used all his skill to bamboozle 'No Contest Clegg' - formed coalition - Queen had no choice.

Did you spot any evidence of aptitude for STEWARDSHIP OF A NATION above?

DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER - SPOILPARTYGAMES - NO MORE INCREDIBLE PMs

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

@20

Never mind Barrie,when "democracy day" comes and British Prime Ministers are really in charge of UKplc it will matter!

Until then I imagine "segue,elision,fudge,avoidance and being bossy,sanctimonious,condescending and smug, (while selling your fellow Britons down the river)" will be the qualities they need!

DISMANTLE GLOBAL CAPITALISM

END SERFDOM IN THE FEUDAL AMERICAN EMPIRE

BRING BACK MONOCULTURALISM

BRITISH SINK ESTATES FOR BRITISH PEOPLE

Sorry that should have been BRITISH SLUMS FOR BRITISH PEOPLE and

BRITISH UNEMPLOYMENT FOR BRITISH PEOPLE and

FREEDOM FOR THE ENGLISH..... ON THE SAME TERMS AS THE IRISH AND ISRAELIS AND GEORGIANS AND LIBYANS AND EGYPTIANS....AND ANY OTHER PEOPLE WHO WANT IT!

23.At 19:46 15th Sep 2011, woosterjim wrote:

In England everyone has human rights but the 'English' - perhaps we should call ourselves Saxons or Norman slaves or something and then be classed as a minority culture - as anything is better than trying to pretend you're 'British'?

Then we can ask the UN to come in and defend us from the various forms of discrimination that many English are now subjected to in their own country?

nautonier @ 24

The political solution for the English is to vote for virtually any party except the three mainstream ones, all of whom are 'Unionist' parties.

However, quite unlike, for example, your average Scot, the English seem almost completely disinterested/only-dimly-aware of their pitiful political situation vis-a-vis the other 'home' nations, all of whom have their own exclusive Governments.

On current trends, the English are only going to have their own Parliament by virtue of the Scots and the Welsh actually leaving the Union (NI won't because the enormous cross-subsidy from Southern England is too lucrative to lose).

It is frustrating but an English Spring may have to be sprung by the others, which is why this blogger supports Alex Salmond and the SNP - the true English patriots political friend against the Westmonster 'Brits'.

25.At 21:43 15th Sep 2011, JohnConstable wrote:
nautonier @ 24

>
I like that very much & hope we get a referendum on this on both/all sides of the border(s) very soon.

The only thing the Coalition govt are taking up with any gusto is suing the ECB for restricting certain share trading outside of Eurozone.

Our Westminster govt is not taking this Union break up matter seriously & seems more interested in Libya & in protecting city spivs than with this vital constitutional issue as of massive importance to all in the UK.

A STRANGE PARALLEL

We have long known that America is loud and brash in everything it does, by comparison with English subtlety and understatement.

I have just watched the struggle for engagement with the State, of the bereaved 'Jersey Women', after 9/11,



and realised that OUR 9/11 has been a SLOW IMPERCEPTIBLE IMPLOSION OF OUR CULTURE, followed by an identical refusal by Westminster, its officers and offices, to address ANY VALID CHALLENGE.

Where these two heinous iniquities meet, is at the door of the 大象传媒. Were they to engage with the 9/11 deception, FULLY DOCUMENTED ON THE WEB, many times over, a service like none before could be afforded the distraught Jersey Women, wider America, AND THE SLEEPING ENGLISH.

We are witnessing an insidious treachery that Shakespeare would have blanched at.

FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH ALL THAT IS REQUIRED IS THAT GOOD MEN DO NOTHING.

@25

The British Isles are part of the American Empire administered increasingly from Brussels but still firmly under US control.

The Americans have a loyalty to Ireland so they have the IRA co-running Ulster and a Free State paid for by EU taxpayers in Germany and Britain.

Americans have GCHQ and military bases and the City of London and their Westminster puppet regime while the CIA control security, so they will use their influence to keep the UK intact rather than see their possessions fall into nationalist hands.London is a global city and not English at all.

We can vote how we like but you have only to see how the English nationalists are persecuted by the Americocentric 大象传媒 and Westminster to see that we don`t stand a chance.

I feel so angry about all this manipulation I would cheerfully join a "none of the above" balloting campaign and shame them if I didn`t know the voting figures in EU elections put them beyond shame!

Perhaps we should all adopt foreign names and promote ourselves? Or leave and claim asylum on the grounds that we are hostages in our indigenous homeland?Or all cork up like the Mitchell minstrels or adopt the hijab for men and women?

Barrie have you wondered why the Establishment spent trillions on an inquiry into Bloody Sunday and the death of one Brazilian illegal worker, but seemed mighty slow and resistant to inquiring into 7/7?

What a fool Charlotte Vere has shown herself to be. "Men find feminism an attack on men". No we do not. Feminism is neither outdated nor threatening; it's as relevant as it's ever been as the inequalities these days are more concealed, and as such harder to remedy. In fact many men consider themselves feminists. What this entails is a commitment to the empowerment of women - not at the expense of men, but to the level which gives true equality.

Vere parroted the tired and stupid line that feminists demand equality of numbers instead of equality of opportunity. She, along with so many other anti-feminists, deliberately distorts the debate, suggesting that you're either in favour of equality of numbers or equality of opportunity. It's more complex than that. Equality of numbers if often required to change people's perception of certain career choices. How many girls are attracted to politics when it seems to be so publicly something of an old boys club? Surely insisting that a certain percentage of MPs are women would go a long way to changing this. Then there'd be no need for such measure to be taken in future years.

As you can tell, I'm not a fan of Vere or her opinions. Not at all.

The stats on the rioters previous convictions and geographical clustering are a bolt of laser light on the problem - for there to be such a high proportion of serial offenders from discrete geographical areas potentially tells you many things:

1. There are clear common statistically significant factors here - so there must be a causal relationships which could explain what led up to the rioting events and the social pressures which sparked them, otherwise the rioters would be much more randomly distributed in the population and so would the riot locations.

2. One presumes that social traits are distributed in the population on some statistical basis - therefore if there is a clear pattern to the data associated with multiple repeat offenders and thier locations and ithis cannot be explained by evidence of a concious conspiracy - the "gang" nonsense Starkey et al trotted out and has since been dispproved by correlating convictions against intelligence on gang membership - then there must be macro social forces at play - this cannot sinply be "bad individuals" - the statistical probability of that is close to zero on this data.

3. Clearly the criminal justice system doesn't work - prison isn't a deterrent, it doesn't rehabilitate offenders and it doesn't protect us from those willing to riot - so without fundamental change in that system, the probability of more riots happening will not decline - indeed it may well rise as attitudes are influenced by the outcomes of the criminal justice process in dealing with the last series of riots: "familiarity breeds contempt", a sense of injustice and/or revenge.

3. We know quite a bit about these geographical areas in terms of social indicators from a wide range of sources and what screams at you is multiple deprivation - poor housing, overcrowding, low educational attainment, low incomes, single parent families, higher levels of unemployment and crime, low birthweight babies, lower life expectancy - the list goes on.

4. We know a lot about repeat offenders - the typical pattern is of a male from a one parent familiy involved in petty crime from a young age, poor educational attainment, zero job prospects whose only career option appears to be crime.

So - what sholud we do about it?

Break the cycle of poverty - cracking down on those on benefits will simply drive yet more young males into this lifestyle because it is closely correlated to low income and unemployment.

Break the cycle of unemployment - if the private sector can't take these young men on, the state should do%2

RESPECT WOMEN, REVERE MOTHERS, AND RESTRAIN WOE-MEN (#31)

WoeMen use the 'front' of 'feminism' to attack men and oppress women. They are aberrant. Sadly, WoeMen are over-represented in Westminster, almost certainly because women cannot breath that fetid air.

I love the company of women - I shrink away from WoeMen.

32 CONTINUED

So - what sholud we do about it?

Break the cycle of poverty - cracking down on those on benefits will simply drive yet more young males into this lifestyle because it is closely correlated to low income and unemployment.

Break the cycle of unemployment - if the private sector can't take these young men on, the state should do so in something worthwhile that pays a reasonable wage, gives skills and a sense of worth and value - this would be a lot cheaper than policing, prisons, social services and riots.

End the "University of Crime" - better known as the prison system. Prison clearly doesn't work in terms of protecting the interests of society - but it does work very well in deed in terms of the interests of criminals once they incacerated - inexperienced criminals learn to be better criminals from their older peers, they network and build criminal connections, get stronger, fitter and mentally tougher too - society is in effect investing in produicing better criminals - and the perennial cry for tougher prisons would simply breed tougher criminals, as all who have gone down this road have found.

Economic growth, more jobs and rising incomes would help lift many out of the danger zone - the opposite will push many more into the "feral uinderclass". I respect IDS for at least pointing out the multiple deprivation dimension and he's right to try and mentor individuals to help them pull themselves out of the cycle - I just doubt there are the jobs, the second chances or a willingness by private employers to take on the challenge.

If the Uk is to go into a prolonged period of recession, sharply falling living standards, inflation and rising unemployment, the only job opportunities I can see will be for the substantial expansion on police numbers which will be needed as riot events become more frequent - and more serious.

Those who see this as an issue of welfare dependency are wrong - they are about to find welfare staves off crime rather than causing it, as they bear down hard on the level of benefits whilst the cost of living is rocketing - and that the feral underclass as just that - a socioeconomic class which operates in a feral way outside the norms and values of society because it has little or no choice but to do so because there is no alternative on offer.

A society which countenances this at the bottom of the economic distribution also allows the feral rich class to blackmail the rest of society at the top to wallow in offshore tax avoidance and owe no commitment of%2

"ORDINARY DECENT PEOPLE" (Kenneth Clarke)

"The looting was quite extraordinary" says our Ken. What I find extraordinary is that a Tobacco Baron has no understanding that supply of an addictive State Sanctioned Poison, LOOTS both health, income and ULTIMATELY LIFE (after a long, painful decline) from those ensnared by its pernicious, wilful sale.

I assert that no ORDINARY DECENT PERSON would take income from such activity. Those who do, should certainly not achieve any position of authority over those they exploit.

Dave of Libya seems to have no grasp of such things. We CAN go on like this, apparently.

@31

Yes Woody,and I want a debate about just how "liberating" feminist ideas are for men and women.What I see is a gormless attempt to copy men when surely it`s obvious most men are slaves anyway!

From my perception as a professional man who worked alongside women who juggled parenthood with a demanding professional job I can tell you that women came to work to socialise and "get away from the kids"(as we all do) but also spent lots of time "away from their desks" while this awful male answered their phones and tried desperately to do his own work with precious little thanks for it!

My kids got short shrift while theirs got much the same,but everyone bent over backwards to accommodate women`s needs while dumping on me!

We should consider reducing the birth rate and vastly improving the quality and variety of care children receive.

Kibbutz ideas had a lot going for them. And we should study so called primitive third world societies for ideas,because the parenting I see around me is abysmal and a disgrace to our evil Scroogist Gradgrind decadent society where children are treated like dolls and worst of all brought up by their parents.

No sane society hands child care to young women alone.They just aren`t ready or willing to do it in a society that sees child care as a pin-money low status activity for illegal immigrants.

They have children but then they are taken off them and cared for by older wiser and more sympathetic people.

Of course in our materialistic consumer society children are possessions of ghastly creatures who didn`t want them anyway and have moved on to the next "man in their life" who probably can`t stand the sight of another man`s children!

Week after week you folks think and talk far more sense than the lunatics at Westminster and the 大象传媒 either think or are allowed to speak.

Yet now I have the internet and RT and Max Keiser and others I listen and watch far less 大象传媒 and feel saner than I did when the Beeb was lecturing me from Hampstead and New York while studiously ignoring me and the slums of Britain.

Does QT ever come from a slum with real people on the panel? Do the presenters and production team of NN live in slums here in the Britain they casually overload with the world`s undesirables?

Of course not! They are Brownites who think we are all too "bigoted" and right wing and nationalist and populist (what an irony in a supposed democracy!) to deserve a hearing before aristocrats like the Dimbleby Dynasty or feminists like Jenny Murray and Ms Greer.

@34

Excellent as ever Richard,but please do realise that you talk far too much sense to have any sort of future in "public life"?

BTW Welfare doesn`t stop disaffection and riots. In fact it creates the disenchantment and provides the lifestyle that supported the London Bombers revolutionary activity.

Everyone is left in no doubt that they "should be supporting themselves" in our society,so if you can`t or aren`t you are expected to feel ashamed of yourself.

Welfare is sticking plaster to cover over the fact that that throughout the world there ARE PRACTICALLY NO ###### JOBS AVAILABLE and that the best rewarded jobs are of NO SOCIAL VALUE OR UTILITY AT ALL and those jobs go to CONFIDENCE TRICKSTERS AND CRIMINALS AND PSYCHOPATHS!!!

JINGO DAVE IS IN HIS HEAVEN AND ALL'S WELL AT HOME - APPARENTLY

The Today Programme reports ONE THIRD of our GPs were trained abroad (I guess that is PC code for: "they are Johnnie Foreigners"). In addition, those from the EU MAY NOT BE CHECKED FOR LANGUAGE COMPETENCE. Furthermore: their cultural bias can impinge detrimentally (surprise!).

This has happened over more than one colour of government; it illustrates the dynastic nature of Westminster and its perverse continuity of sleepwalking 'governance'.

Against this, rioters and travellers are merely symptoms.

DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER - INSTALL COMPETENCE

@35 I couldn`t watch the Establishment love in between Ken and our Gav Barrie so I steeled myself and ventured off into the Alice-in-Wonderland world of QT for a while until someone used the word "unhelpful" once too often and I had tired of watching murderers express themselves on morality and the sort of hypocrites who preach about public education then privately educate their own.

@41 Crikey Barrie,no wonder you spend your life in an hypertensive upper-case frame of mind if you still listen to "Today"!!

I use it momentarily as an alarm system to wake me and warn me that the evil 大象传媒 Dragon still reigns over us, and to remind me what evils I must fight before the sun goes down again!

Martha Carney and the World at One is sometimes listenable,but do you seriously start the day with Today?

#29 wj wrote:

"Perhaps we should all adopt foreign names and promote ourselves? Or leave and claim asylum on the grounds that we are hostages in our indigenous homeland?Or all cork up like the Mitchell minstrels or adopt the hijab for men and women?"

barrie!

This is the solution to your problem with regard to getting a response from the establisment about the lyer flyer.

Change your name by deed poll to Kweku Adoboli (or something similar), resubmit your complaint in writing and then see what response you get.

Here`s an idea! Why not have a version of Radio 4`s "More or Less" devoted entirely to Westminster`s utterances and revive TWTW and Spiiting Image, but this time let them loose on the "so liberal humanitarian" New Establisment tyrants who preside over the Media,including the 大象传媒?

And if the 大象传媒 can use four billion pounds a year of our money to dismantle Murdoch`s dubious empire why not have a fair and equally investigative look into the Byzantine 大象传媒 and its workings as well?

In Scandinavian countries children don't start school until aged 6-7.

Is five too soon to start school?

a plea for mercy #4

dear jim - i know no other way to emphasise on this blog than to use capitals

it also smokes out pedants

@42

Barrie could call himself Athanese Seromba and get the protection of both the 大象传媒 and "the" Church as well MuseV?

The Today Programme reports ONE THIRD of our GPs were trained abroad (I guess that is PC code for: "they are Johnnie Foreigners").

I thought all doctors were foreign. I have NEVER been treated by an English doctor....EVER. Never even seen one come to think about it.

WOMB SCHOOL (#44#)

If our children are to survive, in the brave new world we are diligently constructing, they will need all the Cortisol and dumb nihilsm they can muster.

"We are all soldiers now" (Low Zoo)

DAVE OF LIBYA

Libya mobs saviour David Cameron


Mr Cameron said the Libyan revolt could be a moment 鈥渨hen the Arab Spring could become an Arab summer and we see democracy advance in other countries too.鈥�

Doh!

LEARNING IS INNATE - EDUCATION IS SUBTLE FORCE - SCHOOL INSTITUTIONALISES.

Only those who find school anathema (for whatever reason) stay outside the lie - the lie that school is a 'GIVEN GOOD'.

The rest, over many generations, are habituated/indoctrinated into the CERTAINTY that SCHOOL is good, and that it should take - more or less - the form it does.

That storage and transmission of knowledge (would I could write 'wisdom' there) is now a long, long way from Victorian England, does not alter the mind-set of Govian Dinosaurs.

Those who 'excel' in schooling, needs must suffer severe damage to radical thought circuits. We even have a word for it: INSTITUTIONALISATION.

Wanna fight?

@44 Quite. Kids need to interact outside the home, but not be pressured and "assessed" so young. Let them have a childhood.

To quote from your link: "The origin of such an early start, introduced in 1870, had little to do with education .......... Entering full-time education at such a tender age meant reducing the malign influence of Victorian feckless parents - it was about child protection and social conditioning rather than learning. "

AND "One of the most intriguing statistics from international comparisons is the lack of relationship between hours in the classroom and educational achievement. .............the early bird doesn't necessarily become the bookworm."

Lord Maurice Glassman ('Red' Ed's policy guru) was on Radio 4's Today prog this morning.

He came across as a bit of a thicko imho.

I did smile though when he ended his piece by commenting on the Blair/Brown saga as bordering on psychopathy...at which point the presenter quickly interupted and moved onto the next story.

Meanwhile, as our "democracy" is "improved": "Shocked MPs told electoral plan could remove 10m voters"



It might occur to a "holistic"* government, that such a move will do nothing to combat the alienation at the root of the recent rioting and criminality. Nor is it really consistent, except in a sophistic sense, with the mantra of "take responsibility!"

To me, taking responsibility should mean providing for our own needs, including training enough medics, and not outsourcing support for local services to India when we have local unemployment.

BTW I have two Indian consultants, and I must say they are excellent, with excellent English. In his last years, my father preferred the Sikh doctor to the English ones. However, it is disgraceful that a so-called wealthy advanced nation is a net importer of highly qualified professionals from poor countries.

*I prefer that term to "joined up"

I NEED A MIRACLE!



"Mr Adoboli was educated at the 拢19,635-per-year Ackworth boarding school near Pontefract, West Yorks, and is described as a 鈥渃omputer whiz鈥� by friends. Mr Adoboli鈥檚 father John, a retired United Nations employee, said 鈥淚 brought them up to be God-fearing and to appreciate decency. Growing up and through to school days they were very brilliant and respectful.鈥� "

How did he bring his son up to be 'God-fearing' when he was packed off to a foreign boarding school?

To be fair to Adoboli, I understand that he reported his 'exposed' position to the bank before the police were alerted. In fact, the bank only became aware of the situation after he highlighted the 'problem' to them.

Traders are deliberately placed in these jobs at relatively young ages precisely because they they tend to take greater risks (for greater gain). I chatted with a Vice President of an investment bank on a flight to New York around 15 years ago, only to find out later he was only aged 32!

Over the age of 40, Goldman Sachs retires off it's 'silver-back' traders so that they can enter key US govt jobs. They can come in handy during a crisis.

Sasha,here`s a guess. if you were looking after those little ones and giving them much needed attention and gentle enabling I would agree.

But just watch Eastenders for a taste of the 大象传媒`s idea of ideal parents and perhaps you will see why the sooner kids get into an infant`s school environment,the better their chances are of physical and emotional survival.

Of course they soon move over to Grange Hill,but at least they are alive,unlike Baby Peter and Victoria Climbie.

'2. At 13:15 15th Sep 2011, You wrote:
'Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has said that the English riots of early August forced the middle classes to acknowledge the plight of people living on inner-city council estates'

Just wondering, but any reason (good would be a plus) why what was posted, and then served to comment upon, has been obliterated by a subsequent 'update'/edit?

It makes things a little disjointed. At best.

I very much doubt I imagined that cut & paste, as did others who also chipped in on an IDS basis, which no longer exists.

without an inner policeman policy having 10 social workers and 10 police per villain will change nothing.

but its the one thing the State won't do because State relativists deny there is any thing as the good so how can you 'choose' it because for them they have decided it 'doesn't exist'.

the inner policeman is not praised but across the media the external villain is.

Not such a clever banker.




Even I could predict that the Swiss National Bank couldn't let the CHF continue to appreciate against the rest of world's currencies. At one point in recent weeks, it was being reported that a Big Mac cost the equivalent of USD 17.19 in Zurich. Black swan event my鈥�



Note the inference in the piece written in ZH, it's as though they believed his strategy was logical/acceptable right up to the point of failure. UBS were actually in the process of making 3500 other bank workers redundant in order to save an equivalent amount of money.

Casino capitalism at its best.

Soros: Embrace Mass Centralization Of Power In Europe Or Face Another Great Depression

'4. At 14:35 15th Sep 2011, museV wrote:
...ignorance'

Sadly I am unsure if the direct to post #3/#17 facility with the 'new, cheaper, fairer, easier, better' blog system works as it does here, but check out the comments inspired here so far...

/news/science-environment-14936184?postId=110287327

@60 Musik to my eyes MuseV A mention of the architect of so much that is wrong with our world today.

Most people seem afraid of him or ignorant of the enormous power wielded by George "The man who broke the Bank of England" Soros.

But if you want to understand why we can`t escape the EU or stem immigration or why the 大象传媒 and Westminster`s opinions feel like they are beamed from another planet,George is your man!

He`s the perfect example of good intentions leading to disaster because he means well and believes in what Karl Popper called "open societies". But in a desperately unequal hard-nosed overpopulated capitalist extremist world he is a very dangerous and controversial person.

A good starter for understanding him is his "Underwriting Democracy" (1990) which explains so much about why Europe has developed as it has in the past twenty years and why it`s so undemocratic.

If only the 大象传媒 had guts we would know much more about George`s influence on our globalising world,but they are scared of him!

INNER POLICEMAN AND EXTERNAL VILLAIN (#58)

It was on that basis, in 1995, I formally approached Rowntree. I had, in terms of your post, formulated a scheme to develop the inner policeman through the medium of television. I had assembled a team of experienced media people with relevant skills, including a top cartoonist, ALL OF WHOM SAW MERIT AND VIABILITY.

Rowntree saw nothing worth taking up. Ho hum.

IS IT ME?

I Km = 3280 feet. A column of water 3280 feet exerts a pressure of (nominal) 1740 psi.

The chap I heard on the radio was talking bog standard reinforced (common or garden) hose. FOR 1740 PSI!

Is it April 1st on the Julian calendar?

POST-NICK TORY PLOTTERS' BOOK SAYS "NO NHS FOR FATTIES"

One can only presume that all those overflowing gutties on the Tory benches have private health plans.

Do we pay for those?

@63

Though I fancy myself as open minded and a free thinker I have always feared that with the very best of intentions our New Establishment "boundary pushers" in the liberal media will destroy our culture in a desire to improve it.

I think Mary Whitehouse was right,though possibly for the wrong reasons.

A good example is the serious attempts by Phil Redmond to blow away the hypocrisy and illuminate the dark corners of our decadent society.

Sadly, I see examples all around me of a copy-cat culture where my neighbours appear to be asking me questions "like" when they are just making statements.And of historians talking in an absurd present tense when the past tense makes more sense.

The evangelists for gritty "realism" will talk of drama imitating reality, but am I alone in thinking that soap operas can bring about situation where culture is imitating "art"?

American debased "culture" seeps into our lives via "the media" at every profitable opportunity!

'64. At 12:48 16th Sep 2011, barriesingleton wrote:
IS IT ME?'

Nah. Once it gets converted into twittunits it will all 'work'

Just you see.

At Uni (Civ. Eng, if with Brunel as opposed to at it), I drew a cartoon based on 'talk' of a cross-Channel bridge, where the mid-way ribbon-cutting ceremony was marred by a slight 'issue' between engineers our side and those on the French working on diverse units.

Folk then hailed it as 'amusing'.

But along came the NASA 'oops'.

Now I suspect the 'establishment' may have had it banned as some form of 'not being helpful' crime.

Women!

I watched that report of yours. What I want to know is why is that Labour MP Anglea Eagle such a self loathing shrill of a woman?
Is it because she's a Labour MP, loaded with self loathing, a hardfaced feminist with a shrill voice..is that the reason why.

Why is the Greek economy failing? Lets not be mealy mouth about it please. The Greeks are not renowned for hard work..most are on the state payroll -5 fat fellas to a light bulb, 2 holding the ladder..what did you expect from the Greeks..they nearly didn't get their Olympics roads tarmaced..very last minute dot com are the Greeks..do you know any Greek car mechanics, plumbers or brick layers? no, nor do I. They sit around all day long doing nothing. And I know, I've visited the place often enough. The Greeks were always gonna be the first casualty of the European economic collapse. If Ladbrooks had given odds on the first Euro country to fall off the economic project -and five years ago - the Greeks would've been favorite. And that advisor to the Greek PM you had on last night was shocking but she's probably the best they've got.

Re. the "Are the Tories anti women?" arguement, I would say that many women do not support the Tories because of the Tories policies, not because of any kind of oppression of right/jobs etc.

I think there are opportunities for the right women: Maggie Thatcher and Rebecca Brooks did it.

But would you consider them as 'typical women'? No such thing as a 'normal' person but most nurses, teachers, carers etc are women because that is what they choose and are suitable for.

Women are more compassionate, closer to home in life, mothers of the family. They largely do not share the burning desire for riches and especially power that men do.

Women see, feel and are destressed what the Tory policy is doing to the vulnerable of society - disabled, elderly - people unable to be used to make MONEY, so are useless for the Tories' capitalist policies and are being thrown on the scrapheap.

The Tories aren't particularly anti women. Women are anti Tory politics.

@69 "Women are more compassionate" Are they?

What I have seen suggests the truth of the old adage "the female of the species is deadlier than the male. In private or professional life, for tenacity in unpleasant vindictiveness, women can sometimes be equalled, but not beaten. Personally, I have always been able to charm/smarm my way out of trouble, but I have only pity for those, especially other females, caught in the firing line.

Just astounded by Tory Vile(?) Vere and her hatred of feminism, she seems to have missed the point about what feminism actually means (I'd recommend "How to be a woman" by Caitlin Moran for an up-to-date explanation) Angela Eagle made the point that the Government FORGOT to do a equalities audit on Osbournes last budget - that really sums it up - 'calm down dear, you know how much politics upsets you'

63

its the age of ignorance. no one will see any good in it. because they deny the existence of the good. many at the 'top' of society have no inner policeman. they are relativists.

69. At 14:32 16th Sep 2011, Jan-Ann wrote:
Women are anti Tory politics.

In the spirit of checking another possibly all too frequent presumption of inclusivity, I must run all that by the missus. She is also a woman, BTW.

@63 The Joseph Rowntree Trust lost my trust when they sold the confectionery business to Nestl茅: with predictable results despite "safeguards".

63 and 72

I am a relativist with an inner policeman. It`s a policeman with a provisional licence who has got fed up with inflexible dogmatists who dress up their rigidity as a virtue.

75

relativists deny there is a highest good. it is quite right that a relativist sees the idea of a highest good as an 'oppression'.

why can't the 'quiet man' of politics just be.....er, 'quiet'