like the queen this thread will never die: in which we ALL resign (ourselves to disgusting miseries to post-boris politics 2022)

so much so, there isn't really anyone who was like her.

I used past tense there, but if there was someone like her now - they also would be sacked or put on "the list" by the Graun

These numbers are horrifying https://t.co/99OTWCLXff

— Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) January 1, 2023

.@RMTunion has done deals in every part of rail network where DfT is not involved:

Eurostar - Mitie security: 10% (29% for lowest paid)

Scotrail: 7-9%

Transport for Wales: 6.6%-9.5%

Merseyrail: 7%

MTR Crossrail: 8.2%

Docklands Light Railway: 9.25%

London Underground: 8.4%

— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) January 2, 2023

damning

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/03/tories-how-labour-mayor-jamie-driscoll-north-east-devolution-deal

This will put food on the table.

There are even larger numbers out there, sad to say https://t.co/rQ9XA7QlJ8

— Thar Barr Superstar (@WildState) January 3, 2023

such a shit policy, some people are no good at maths and will never need it beyond a KS3 level anyway. also is obviously aping China once again, and as someone with plenty of experience of education in China this makes me want to bang my head against the wall, entire childhoods spent in rote memorization of useless shit, it's genuinely abusive.

but of course the labour response is "this lacks detail" fucking fuckers fuck right off.

A better way to improve numeracy would be to get 18 year olds to play Darts, not attend maths lessons that they will hate.

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) January 4, 2023

Labour MPs in the pocket of the betting industry should be talking about how betting shops could be a very effective mathematics learning zone for the 16-18's.

You joke, but....

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme taught in many international schools around the world requires all students to study maths and science up to 18, it doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. xps

the only C i ever got was in high school calculus. i even went to after school sessions with a friend who was good in it, to try to get better, but just never really grasped it. am pretty confident in saying it was a complete waste of time. i loved writing and theatre. at age 17/18 i should really have been allowed to do something more intensive with those things

There's a strong argument for increasing statistical literacy - trigonometry, not so much.

I learned maths working in the bookies and then in my next profession (lol) I had to learn ohm's law and how to transpose formulas which never had any practical use for the job other than giving you a better shot of passing the stupid pointless science exam for the qualification. Then after getting the qualification I was informed although I was "qualified" I wasn't "approved" because some sad JBL nerd hadn't watched me do it and beared witness to my competence!

Whenever we had standardised tests I was always second-highest in the class in maths aptitude but I hated higher maths in the classroom. I only kept my GPA high by taking something called Informal Geometry pass/fail in the last year maths were required for me - it was full of arty kids and football players, and taught by the school’s football coach.

I did ok in my maths GCSE and made the mistake of choosing to take maths A-level, a year of painful attempts to understand what differentiation and integration were, including private tuition, resulted in a score of 5% in the end of year exams, which was not even enough for an 'F' - thankfully I saw the light and switched to English Literature and two years later got an A. If I had been forced to continue maths I dread to think what would have happened.

Is it calculus or more accountancy style numbering? It's amazing that whatever problems the country is facing Sunak (like that exchange with the homeless bloke) comes out with something finance-adjacent.

economists use calculus a fair amount

i do actually feel a strong radical education would include the tools to convert many models and algorithms and user-friendly interfaces from mysterious obfuscatory black boxes into tools that can be turned to better use and explored for their bias and what they hide from us. however i suspect sunak does not have a strong radical education in mind

i also feel that ppl shd receive education towards their best skills and not merely wilfully or robotically against their worst psychological blocks -- but saying that, "learned incapacity" has come to be built into a lot of education as it currently exists, as a handy but inaccurate sorting tool, and we shd be as leery of truculent incuriosity beyond the arts as we are within them. tbh almost all maths is 10,000 hrs shit, the processing and internalisation and aggregation of many small tricks tackling very specific problems: and you can get p good at them w/o knowing why yr learning this. the difficult territory (for teachers) comes with when and the what of the incentivisation -- which is also where the politics comes in

This piece is mostly good though there is a conspiratorial tone to some of it. New Lab was laughable but I don't think there was a sale to mates attitude (correct if I'm wrong on this). And it is in British capitalism's interest to have a healthy workforce.

Healthcare has become a lot more complex in terms of diagnosis, range of treatments and so on. Factor in stuff like mental health, too. This is not to say a lot of money needs to be poured into it, and that there should be less consultancy, but there are more moving parts that need to be managed in certain ways.

Why isn't the NHS crisis a bigger scandal? Because the people in charge of what becomes a scandal are the people responsible. Me for the Independent.https://t.co/l4z9nINfjc

— Phil McDuff (@PhilMcDuff) January 4, 2023

xp

Bang on cue I got a phone call today about what I fondly imagined was a hospital appointment - but what was in fact a telephone appointment - begin postponed from 13 February to the 23rd March. To be fair my I only saw my GP about this particular problem in November, I've been waiting to see a consultant about a more serious problem since February last year and I'm finally seeing one on Thursday.

There's a decent summary of NHS privatisation history here: it's not an excuse to say that Blair seemed eager to ease the sale of it to generic rather than specific rich people - probably the same for Starmer (also he has no mates)

https://www.yournhsneedsyou.com/timeline/

re maths:

the vast majority of students in this country either pass their GCSE or are still having maths classes at age 18 in Further Ed so i'm not sure wtf Sunak is suggesting tbh

Most people in the UK attend state schools, of course he has no fucking clue what happens in them.

Lol

Heavy industry background for Keir Starmer at UCL Here East in the Olympic Park, east London pic.twitter.com/l51WyBsDZp

— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) January 5, 2023

10 out of 10 Labour photocall today. (Pics: Alamy) pic.twitter.com/tSI5doDggY

— Ben Riley-Smith (@benrileysmith) January 5, 2023

no viz vest nor a hard hat for Kieth? he shits on rules and regs! And when you are 4ft tall you don't bang your head on stuff so often.

Fascism, lads. https://t.co/4Le9rC2kUi

— S C A L L Y M A G (@ScallyMagazine) January 5, 2023

they are supposedly trying to encourage people back into the workforce .. dissolving workers rights seems like a solid tactic

Impoverishing people so they have to put up with any old shite just to survive is a good Tory tactic tbf.

https://i.imgur.com/6wPtLrW.jpg

oh that's a real pic then, lol I thought it was shopped

I just want to know who a photograph like that appeals to and induces faith in the subjects's political acumen

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/01/mick-lynch-anti-union-laws-enough-is-enough

"Yes. Democracy has decayed in this country. We have left it to a professional class and that has been to our detriment."

I can't see anything other than increasing militancy stopping this. Lab will sit in their hands.

in place of "in place of strife"

In place of strife more strife.

You've gotta laugh.

Labour has taken "Making Brexit Work" to a ridiculous extent. Now a "Take Back Control" bill parrots the language of a hard ideological right-wing Brexit. pic.twitter.com/rdUeV6ut5Q

— Gerry Hassan 🇺🇦 (@GerryHassan) January 5, 2023

would love to see a statistical analysis of how many FBPE types are still out there fingers in ears going "Kieth's just pretending"

love the cctv camera right in the centre of that photo

Nothing wrong in principle with with hijacking "Take Back Control", I think it's pretty smart actually. The issue is what that means, and I still fail to see the substance. It needs to be linked up explicitly to municipal power, which, along with unions - which are also under imminent threat - feels to me like the only potentially countervailing political power capable of bucking this miserable managerial Westminster bullshit.

one problem is the majority of Labour councillors are if anything worse than their Westminster heroes

Yeah, that “potentially” in my moan doing a lot of work there…

he's going to achieve wonders and shite blunders without a single policy announcement to counter or reverse 13 years of austerity cuts to local authorities and public services and yes, rotten Labour councils don't want communities to have any power. I hope the FBPEs all do their civic duty by falling out with him and voting LibDem or Tory like they did in 2019, lol

the idea that we can adopt far right slogans and symbols and rhetoric and make them mean something better is the kind of thinking that gave us lexit. all it does is ensure the right gets to dictate the terms of everything

the corbyn-did-brexit crowd is noticeably low energy these days, where did all the passion go? xp

lol PM roasting Starmer and Sunak both by playing snippets back to back to show how utterly banal they are

yeah, they could both do the voice acting for a Pathetic Sharks cartoon

xp

it was all downhill for them after a zillion people signed their stupid pointless petition

Apparently there’s a clip going around of James Obrien “challenging” mick lynch over his support for brexit so that’s one answer to how the biggest melt pricks are deciding to spend their energy atm

this week, purely on optics of course, Sunak has offered a more concrete set of "policies" than Kieth has managed

(of course this doesn't matter a jot because neither of them are in control of their media narrative at this point)