love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

My kid's school are looking at the possibility of him going back one day a week. He isn't happy that his usual activities including swimming baths and school have been curtailed since mid Feb and he does tend to deal with disappointment in a very violent and aggressive manner. It is a NAS private school with lots of space, but still doing social distancing with ASC students is practically impossible and he's very tactile and probably puts hand on his face or mouth about a thousand times a day whilst stimming. And also the school's staff all mainly come from Sheffield and Barnsley which are Rona hotspots. On the other hand I can deal with a few bad days in a row and a few torn t-shirts, even if it does drive me to smoking again! My partner's MS is really bad right now and she's on the strong painkillers again and even just one day of respite could be very beneficial.

― calzino, Sunday, 28 June 2020 08:07 (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this sounds great, i'm glad the school is finding a way to accom you and your family. i know that all the teachers I work with are really keen for the school to do the most it can. Lots of the families I'm talking about are living in small properties with parents and grandparents and kids in the same small flat. When you add a child with lots of behavioural issues stuck at home w/ siblings and everyones routines out of what, its impossible not to sympathise with everyone in this scenario, and teachers care a lot about kids. In SEN schools its understood that care IS a huge part of what schools do and so the idea that they're just daycare so parents can work isn't really controversial, its seen as a necessary and important component of the community function of the school.

its totally understandable that there will be behavioural issues and this is obviously 'part of the job.' I worked w. children with sever behavioural difficulties for years and I expected it and a large proportion of the children at the school i'm talking about have very severe communication issues and are very high need. but so little is being done to protect them. the school doesn't have enough bathroom facilities to protect their dignity, there is never soap in the bathrooms, important facilites around hygiene that get damaged are rarely repaired (toilets go out of action for months) basic things like gloves for changing are in short supply. money is always spent in ways that are eye-catching to ofsted etc. (play equipment that looks flashy but isn't appealing to the kids and gets ignored by them). while the teachers i know, all have deep concern for the kids in their class, senior management are nasty careerists who quite obviously do not like and are afraid of the children. the school is run at an executive level with all attention on what looks good. so getting kids in is all about ofsted and upping numbers and there is no plan about how this will work. Although as I understand it the union has been involved and forced some beneficial changes but could not get the school/local authority to provide any ppe.

its interesting how covid really brings out existing structural injustices and I think the appalling way senior management operate in this school is really emphasised in this moment.

also, re fines, its my experience that the schools can exercise a lot of discretion over whether or not to impose fines. its the nasty dickhead tory head teachers that do it and they are possibly even worse that the dickhead government ministers that scheme these things up bc unlike them, they actually see what people's lives are like.

I'm a lucky beneficiary (and very lucky really) of a postcode lottery where there is nothing in my area that caters for his age-group and the Local Authority have to stump up the fees for a shit hot private school, because otherwise all the woefully inadequate conditions for the staff and the students you've been posting about would make it impossible for me to send him back. I have been very lucky really.

i think the students and parents of the kids at this particular school are particularly unlucky but then i see so many TES opinions from headbangers with 'traditional' approaches to discipline or no-nonsense something else. there's that nut that Spiked likes that punishes kids when their parents are in arrears and makes them walk on lines in the corridor.

Rona has been a bloodbath for the learning disabled in the care system, that 93% spike in deaths last month really made lots of front page headlines as well. I get so depressed about this kind of stuff I have to block it out of my mind, because it is only going to get worse. We'll have Progressive Euthanasia within a fucking decade - I'm not joking.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbhmqsKWsAEQ7sK?format=jpg&name=large

lol!

We will have had two months of pubs, restaurants, hairdressers etc open by September - if the virus continues to decline for that whole period then opening socially distanced schools won't be seen as that big of a deal by the wider public. But if its come back in a major way then the government is going to have to ditch that fines policy because it will be massively unpopular and fuelling festering rage all over the country.

Also Scotland will have had them open for a month by then anyway so in theory the rest of the country should be able to learn from that - although they are probably ahead in terms of dealing with the virus it won't be gone for good.

Some talk about Scotland being Covid-free 'by the end of the summer'. How that's going to work when you have a border with England, I don't know.

Feels hubristic as hell to me.

could be a good time to start re-building the old wall!

It's not the Scottish government saying that btw, they're not that stupid.

Still we have INDEPENDENCE DAY to look forward to down here!

Beers gardens from the 6th and indoor boozing from 15th says we're going to undo all our good work (zero deaths reported since Wednesday) in jig time.

You never know, if England descends into booze fuelled anarchy on Independence Day that might be time a get out for the Scottish government.

It's weird to watch at the moment. We're really not a million miles from England in policies, legislation, guidance or timing (and we're arguably worse on care homes) but Nicola Sturgeon's handling of covid has massive support from everyone who isn't a screaming unionist.

Premier League fixtures for July 4th all look pretty sedate but that Derby Forest game is on Sky at 12.30 and is going to have people in the Midlands drinking at home early and then piling into pubs. They're not all going to be able to get in so if it's a hot day it'll just be loads of people drinking in parks.

Millwall vs Charlton is on the 3rd thank god.

oi we're the home team!

government not bringing back club cricket as 'the ball is a natural vector of disease' is the biggest load of shit btw given what they're allowing

You never know, if England descends into booze fuelled anarchy on Independence Day that might be time a get out for the Scottish government.

xp
a case of tories shielding tories!

Premier League fixtures for July 4th all look pretty sedate but that Derby Forest game is on Sky at 12.30 and is going to have people in the Midlands drinking at home early and then piling into pubs. They're not all going to be able to get in so if it's a hndence ot day it'll just be loads of people drinking in parks.

0_o at Derby v. Forest

https://ichef-bbci-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/590/cpsprodpb/6ECA/production/_113126382_mos-1.jpg

Joke country

ah finally a real pic of Boris when he was in ICU

What was the Mail's response to Corbyn and O'Donnell pledging to spend money on infrastructure projects to build sustainable growth?

McDonnell, sorry

God that press ups thing is embarrassing.

anyone with a minimum awareness of mid-life crisis jokes/themes would die of embarrassment

Boris Johnson has to be an entertainer, otherwise what's the point of him?

Not exactly putin doing karate is it?

Also Kate is showing some v poor manual handling technique there, whole country has gone to shit

hope the posh arsehole does her back in!

Only a matter of time I'm afraid

well obv the lazy brat doesn't get much practice with good lifting techniques when the cameras aren't there!

Observer covers the week's scandal by asserting: 'If you pick a fight with Starmer, you'll lose'.

He picked the fight. Others then avoided escalating it.

It all makes me feel even more that he is actually a bastard.

I think that Calzino was right.

I regret to inform you

I’m looking forward to your support of the West Papuan people who’s occupation started 5 years earlier. Where Journalists are not allowed to go. Any meetings held here are attended by the Indonesian Embassy

Very different to critism of the Israeli Government which is omnipresent https://t.co/0DzBbbOwuN

— Alex Sobel says stay home (@alexsobel) June 28, 2020

The first rule of politics is: don't express an opinion on Israel unless you absolutely fucking have to, as it's a sinkhole with no bottom.

you’d think someone who obviously cares so much about west papua would notice how the people who’ve fought hardest to bring the situation to mainstream attention for years almost universally support the palestinian struggle

scrolling down the replies to that BLM tweet is like gazing into the faces of all the fash social media ogres the uk has been regrettably saddled with since brexit got popular

generally, opining about israel is a terrible idea sure but they are annexing the west bank so idk special occasions

Actually it's good that Johnson is having to prove his fitness to work in ways a rona-free PM Corbyn would inevitably have also.

pm corbyn forced to prove fitness by launching a new airstrike every week

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/27/we-are-in-desperate-need-of-a-recovery-plan-but-the-treasury-has-gone-missing?CMP

Once again I'm struck by how much more substantive and useful Brown's interventions are than Blair's.

I'm guessing the don't mention Israel quips here are at least partly tongue in cheek and I understand where they're coming from but the UK has some historic responsibilities here (which is also why De Subjectivisten should release a statement on the Indonesia/West Papua situation asap).

going off topic here Daniel Rf, have you heard that latest Sara Serpa album, recognition? it's a soundtrack to an experimental doc about Portuguese colonial history in Africa and rather beautiful in places - just saying because I lack thread discipline!

Re: Scotland this is a good review of the possibilities:
http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.com/2020/06/where-in-scotland-going.html

TLDR: digging his heels in and saying "no" has only (short-term) upsides for Johnson, even if it inevitably pushes Scots even deeper towards indy in the longer term.

calzino, I learned about it from your post on the Jazz thread, don't think she's very well known in Portugal! It's lovely stuff.

that spoken part about Queen Nzinga is so powerful, wonderful album!

The battle on the blob is beginning, that’s Sedwill out.

See also

.@michaelgove delivered the annual Ditchley Lecture last night. It was one of the most compelling critiques in modern times of the British state and its ability to deliver reform to tackle inequality. This is the "hard rain" coming to Whitehall very soon.

Some highlights:

— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) June 28, 2020

(Apols for Payne editorialising)

Blaming the Civil Service for the Tories ten years of inadequacy mostly I guess