Psychoactive Substances: Rolling UK Politics in The Neo-Con Era

good old Lord Fox, whatever happened to him

boom boom iirc

undergrad teaching at oxbridge is on average much more intensive (and more expensive) than any other university in the uk. you get 2+ hours per week one or two on one with faculty (not postgrads). this is as true in science as it is in arts.

whether that means the education you get there is any better -- or whether succeeding in that environment is a signifier of greatness -- is another matter. the intimacy and structure make it basically impossible to fail. the amount of independence required to succeed as an undegrad there is not much. you could reasonably make the case that people who succeed in the oxbridge system merely demonstrate they had a pulse from the age of 18 to 21.

to be fair to PPE, to succeed in that, you have to have more than a pulse. it has a justified reputation as perhaps the most demanding degree at oxford in terms of workload, if not intellectually (that's physics and philosohpy, fuiud).

A Liberal quibbles

This is even better:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11949701/AEP-Eurozone-crosses-Rubicon-as-Portugals-anti-euro-Left-banned-from-power.html

Corbyn-like govt written about favourably in the Torygraph because its the Euro Union stopping them from power.

can't believe Portugal is flirting with totalitarianism

Bullough's Let Our Fame Be Great is really good but his politics are about as naive and nuance-free as Milne's.

Would like to read a proper article about the Portugal situation as my eyebrows rise when Corbyn fans on Twitter take AEP screeds as gospel.

Corbyn-like govt written about favourably in the Torygraph because its the Euro Union stopping them from power.

I'm not a fan of AEP but he has at least been more or less consistently anti-austerity, in the Eurozone at least. FFS he even wrote this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11869701/Jeremy-Corbyns-QE-for-the-people-is-exactly-what-the-world-may-soon-need.html

I'm not sure if the Barclay Brothers are that arsed if Portugal (or indeed any European country other than maybe Greece and France) elects a socialist government. They just don't want Britain doing so. I'm guessing their foreign reporters still have an element of free reign if it doesn't directly contradict the main editorial line.

What about Spain? Its contagion isn't it? That risk of Europe blowing up - or eventually groups forming within the European Union that will shift austerity politics out of the way, which would fall in line w/current Lab leadership.

Nothing on this in the front page of The Guardian. Useless.

This is something on the context that I'm skimming now: https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/joana-ramiro/good-student-of-europe-at-dead-end

Bullough's Let Our Fame Be Great is really good but his politics are about as naive and nuance-free as Milne's.

Right - because that was pathetic. Just picture him sitting at 3am considering as to whether he'd join Corbyn's Labour. All those weeks before and after the leadership vote, before Milne's appointment! Casting this as 'this is where something broke for good' is laughable.

This Portugal story does need more reporting, or maybe the lack of suggests there isn't much there...but given what happened to Greece...

Martin Amis, "a leading figure on the British Left" (have actually been laughing at this all morning) hates him, as he is uneducated.

Sunday Times headline! bizarre in so many ways.

Interesting letter from Paul Jenkins in the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/oct/25/international-law-and-the-ministerial-code?CMP=share_btn_tw

i was just reading that - easy to picture the intense irritation and equally easy to comprehend the way that's converted into handwaving 'nbd just cleaning up the language' by cameron. dismissiveness about detail -legal or otherwise - as pedantry is a hallmark of his PM rhetorical style.

xyzzzz__ - fairly well-publicised piece on Portugal here.

That's a great piece, cuts through a lot of the froth.

Martin Amis, "a leading figure on the British Left"

XD

"prominent socialist sympathiser Dennis Wheatley..."

Thanks Fizzles - that account mirrors this other one, except it criticises the President's speech in stronger terms.

Undemocratic institution defies elected government hilarity

i am absolutely loving this story tbh

The fuckers could have taken it upon themselves to reform the Lords at some point in the last four years but oh that would have been too terrible to bear.

When it comes to enjoying the public humiliation of a hubristic ARSE, Osborne even has Mourinho beat.

After months of attempts to block the reforms, Mr Duncan Smith lost his temper when he heard a member of his team rowing on the phone with a Treasury official, The Times reported. He grabbed the receiver and shouted down the line: ‘If you ever speak to my officials like that again I’ll bite your balls off and send them to you in a box.’

The newspaper also claimed Mr Duncan Smith cancelled the security pass of a Downing Street official to stop them entering his department. Sources suggested Mr Duncan Smith did not use the word 'bite' but aides refused to comment on the reports of the call which is thought to have happened in 2010.

I read that as 'apartment' and thought 'fair enough'..

Carry on..

How many puppets does Gideon need to get this through?

Desperately want to penalise the working poor? Send for Lloyd Webber!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/11957216/Jeremy-Corbyn-is-too-thick-to-be-Prime-Minister.html

Are kids doing 12 A Levels these days?!

xp
"he feels that it is important for democracy that the House of Lords should not override decisions made by the elected House of Commons" That reads about as true as someone saying "A lifetime Cats season ticket? Fuck Yeah!" or "Andrew Lloyd Webber? Fucking love the guy".

(xp) Here's hoping John Major doesn't read that.

After all, Amis has a first-class honours degree from Oxford. Which rather exquisitely proves the point.

this person is taking the piss, surely

also, John Prescott has a degree from the University of Hull

if we're going to start judging politicians on their education, let's not forget ian duncan smith's impressively bullshit-packed cv - didn't he claim he'd gotten a degree from a college which didn't offer degrees and that he'd gotten heavyweight qualifications from somewhere else based on a few days' training? at least corbyn's honest about being academically unaccomplished...

ian Duncan smith claimed he attended a university in Italy when in fact he'd taken a week of Italian classes at an unconnected language school in the same city iirc.

main hilarious thing about ian duncan smith is that his name is ian smith and he clearly insists on the use of his middle name at all times because it makes him sound posher, like he had a double barreled surname.

this person is taking the piss, surely

It's Angela Epstein, so, no.

(x-post)

And maybe to distance himself from the other, even worse, Ian Smith.

I think his surname is actually 'Duncan Smith'? his father was this bloke:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._G._G._Duncan_Smith

Hyphenate or gtfo, frankly.

reading IDS's wikipedia page, I had completely forgotten that he published a novel within weeks of being ousted as tory leader

Did anyone read it? (here or in general)

no

now very tempted.

One for ILB.

that telegraph article is full of mistakes and errors…and then that final poll! either epstein is taking the piss or the subeditors are

Possibly the latter, definitely not the former.

The Telegraph is barely even a newspaper any more.

PMs should either: have 12 As at A-level or be the type of person that can't wait to get out there in the Labour Party real world.

IDS' novel has never been published in paperback, so might be hard to find, I'll have a look for it in the British Library catalogue later... not promising I'll read it though!

there's an extract towards the bottom of this guardian article:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/05/fiction.conservatives

http://dl.book4you.org/foreignfiction/767000/0923776b0576ed9e7f7dace9b8b11197.txt/_as/[Smith_Iain_Duncan]_The_Devil's_Tune(Bokos-Z1).txt

You can read his magnum opus at this TXT link, he would require some improvement to get to the level of literary geniuses like say Jeffrey Archer or Morrissey.

you have c+p the link, clicking it wont work

are there any sex scenes in it