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

Knowing how a cohort of students does against their peers can be hugely important. We track comparable achievement of middle class kids vs poor kids, white kids vs kids from minorities, boys vs girls, kids from grammar schools vs kids from comprehensive schools, etc, etc at GCSE level. Testing early gives a baseline so you can see how much closer together or further apart they get over the course of their education and, potentially, helps as a diagnostic tool for good practice in some cases.

To give an extreme example again, the NCAAP in the US has always been in favour of standardised tests because they demonstrate that there's not much of a racial disparity at a young age but that grows over the course of an educational career in a lot of school districts as the effects of poverty and disparities in investment between schools kicks in. Failing to understand and document that means failing to hold political authorities who make decisions about funding, and are responsible for oversight, accountable.

The reason teachers are (arguably understandably) dead against testing is because the data is frequently used as a blunt instrument with the government only looking at % pass rates and not at the underlying circumstances in which children are being taught. There are pedagogical arguments in favour and against but they're largely secondary. That is a problem with the government and not with the concept of assessment though.

I can see that. But if the way that diagnostic testing is administered ends up being detrimental to the learning and the wellbeing of *all* kids then surely there's an argument that the cure is worse than the disease?

Absolutely but the case for it being harmful is not clear and is primarily being made by people with a separate non-pedagogical reason.

There are no wrong or right answers but you have to show your working.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/15/therell-always-be-an-england-tristram-hunt-labour-patriotism

But more than that, what these tales from the 2015 campaign expose is Labour’s need to shed its metropolitan squeamishness about England. It needs to express its admiration and love for the people and culture of this great country.

depressing that people were talking this oaf up as a potential Labour leader a few months ago. Dan Jarvis seems to gesture towards this reheated Blue Labour stuff a lot of the time, I guess this us likely to form a significant part in the eventual coup attempt when it comes?

can't imagine voters seeing all this waffling about how much Labour loves England as anything other than a patronizing con, and when he gets into stuff like how Labour needs to respect voters' legitimate "cultural concerns about changes in language, dress and social norms" due to immigration - what is he actually proposing that Labour do to tackle these perceived problems aside from affirming that they are 'legitimate'? surely Labour tried doing this pandering to immigration hostility for most of the last decade or more and it just left voters cynical, as well as being indefensible anyway?

A failure to appreciate the value of Englishness played an important role in our 2015 defeat and nothing Corbyn has done as leader has changed this. Indeed, his cosmopolitan views on immigration, benefits, the monarchy and armed forces are likely to have exacerbated the disconnect.

like, is he proposing to curb immigration, or just to badmouth and stigmatise it while letting it carry on as before in the hope that will be enough to appease bigots?

also, the implication in that quote that anything other than support for hacking away at benefits is not only unpopular, but somehow antithetical to "Englishness", I mean really

Does Boris J fall foul of Godwin's Law, or is that 'only the internet'?

Hitler themed lols from ILX lurker Boris

Fuck's sake

Like, the most 'metropolitan' thing anyone could do is this kind of mouthing along with down to earth bigots to try and show you're one of them

If I were an aspiring PM who was virtually guaranteed to win the next election provided I could secure the nomination I might be inclined to be a bit more circumspect about a massive supranational entity that I would need to deal with regardless once in power.

and, Matt DC, is why you are not lol a legernd

He so is.

Natalie Bennett to step down as Green Party leader. Pretty much hopeless from start to finish.

I was flicking through the Sunday Telegraph yesterday and happened across this which seems worth sharing:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2016/05/15/BOB150516-large_trans++eo_i_u9APj8RuoebjoAHt0k9u7HhRJvuo-ZLenGRumA.jpg

a lot to unpack here, probably needs its own thread/poll

ban foreign government

more like BFJ

idgi

the middle word is profane

no idg cartoon

There is a suitcase of jars, one of which is labelled "sovreignty", which a floppy-haired giant has unpacked and is contemplating, for some reason

.... has unpacked from a suitcase labelled 'dreams' - but labelled in the inside because otherwise you wouldn't be able to see that it is labelled 'dreams'.

TBF there's no way the suitcase could be closed with those jars in it anyway so it might as well be labelled on the inside.

Also the jar he's contemplating has the door to 10 Downing Street, not a switch that says in/out, which confused me for a bit.

I thought it was a signed copy of 10 Little Indians :(

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_W1zTZKL45w0/TMHIqxpcskI/AAAAAAAAAzM/DyB7KssFNjg/s400/brant2.png

Has he been playing hurling or something?

I'm slightly concerned about the perceived need to drag Twitter personality Ed Balls out of his voter-imposed exile.

Neil S totally OTM

I refuse to believe I'm the only person in the sweet spot between being old enough to have read the BFG as a child and being young enough to have retained the faculties required to remember the plot.

apparently the home office has banned people in immigration detention centres from access to social media. not sure if there is any plausible explanation that isn't v shady

https://medium.com/@TheRehn/the-uk-home-office-has-just-officially-banned-access-to-social-media-and-instant-messaging-to-6f46ba798d0#.1550qmnyv

The detention system is all kinds of fucked up. Detainees are allowed phones but not if they have cameras, for instance.

If I was a conspiracy theorist I might be just beginning to think Boris is a Remain plant, sent in to sabotage the Leave campaign. I've just watched him give a speech, on the same day that Cameron and Osborne have ratcheted up the post-exit economic doom and gloom, where he actually brought up the EU Want to Straighten Our Bananas story - and it wasn't a joke or an aside. Has he lost it or what?

He never had it. But I'm fine with him fucking up the Brexit tbh.

... and his political future, yes, bring it on.

I was getting slightly concerned while looking at the voting intentions of the over 50s who are much more likely to turn out than any other demographic but the current Trump-narrated campaign against the Nefarious Turk suggests Leave are beyond desperate at this point.

Complacency on the Stay side is the enemy. I don't know what the answer is, though.

If I was a conspiracy theorist I might be just beginning to think Boris is a Remain plant, sent in to sabotage the Leave campaign. I've just watched him give a speech, on the same day that Cameron and Osborne have ratcheted up the post-exit economic doom and gloom, where he actually brought up the EU Want to Straighten Our Bananas story - and it wasn't a joke or an aside. Has he lost it or what?

it's p much all he's got isnt it? can't do immigration, as he doesn't want the campaign to lean that way and anyway he's already stated he's pro, can't do brexit policy, because er there isn't one (other than "out"), economic argument is on its last legs, not cos of crap In campaign but bcos it's rapidly running out of any support whatsoever, all you've got left are

STRATE BANANAS

and phosphorus in washing powder of course

Good choice to lead the Leave campaign.

Breaking news:

Boris Johnson: "I was wrong about bananas..."

grim lols http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/22/labour-activists-in-2015-were-like-middle-class-ryanair-passengers

In the forthcoming work, edited by the backbencher Tristram Hunt

I imagine he travels on Ryanair all the time.

Leaving aside the bigger problems with the Cruddas / Hunt campaign to patronise the working class, it is nagl to trash volunteers who gave up time to help candidates who had failed to build up their own local support base.

Pretty sure Boris has no strong feelings about the EU and is probably, at heart, in favour of remain. The only motivation he has for running the Brexit campaign is to enhance his prospects of becoming next leader of the Tory party, and those prospects won't be harmed by losing the referendum. It's pretty obvious his heart's not in this.

lol just looking up soups in my delia smith cookbook because - well, see the dentist thread and

"Since EC regulations took effect our delicious Fenland celery is not allowed to be called that, so my local greengrocer refers to it quite affectionately as 'dirty celery'..."

http://www.fenlandcelery.com/

Fenland celery is part of an exclusive club of quality British foods that have earned Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status from the European Commission.

There will be punch-ups in the Tory party for years afterwards, whatever happens.

standard operating procedure for the Tories since at least Thatcher. if BJ anticipates an increased majority in 2020 he might well think it worthwhile to at least court the country bumpkin contingent

Yeah Boris's position in the Leave campaign is a posture I think, it's unlikely that he actually wants to leave the EU. Assuming he wins the Tory nomination and becomes PM (a big if) he just doesn't strike me as the sort of politician who would want to lead the country through a messy and uncertain EU exit.

OTOH if Remain wins and Boris does become PM, then the cries of betrayal from thwarted leavers would be so loud that it might bounce him into calling another referendum anyway.