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

thanks. i'm sure dealing with oversubscribed universities will be a huge challenge and students will still miss out through no fault of their own but it seems like less of a kick in the teeth than this debacle.

In till 2024 baby.

So far the Government has U-turned on face masks, the NHS migrant surcharge, income tax on COVID tests, free school meals...a Government that requires moments of national outrage to rein in incompetent, arrogant and stupid policymaking isn't a Government that's fit for office.

— Nandini (@_nmtr) August 17, 2020

Huge anxiety in non-Russell Group unis about financial implications of a) CAG reversion and b) lifting of the cap (assuming both happen which seems likely). Suddenly they may potentially be left with far fewer students including many 1000s they’ve obtained through clearing.

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) August 17, 2020

The gist of this is that if top universities can recruit thousands more learners, lower-ranking ones might go bust.

It is, and it's very important. Many jobs are now suddenly at risk - even more than they were before.

A lot of local economies will suffer if those places go.

And a lot of dedicated people will have their careers ruined or ended - if this pans out as badly as it looks.

With this government, most things do.

I don't have anything of use to add but this is looking like a disaster on almost every conceivable level.

Can someone explain the lifting of the cap in a little more detail?

75% of Britons - including 69% of Conservative voters - think the UK government have handled the situation regarding pupils’ exam results badly https://t.co/xzSZki0HOI pic.twitter.com/bBtnGsscHd

— YouGov (@YouGov) August 17, 2020

Have to say I have no idea what's going on in the head of the tiny minority who think the government is handling this well, especially the 2% of Labour voters, which might as well be a rounding error.

Universities are only allowed to recruit a certain number of English students - which, i think, is about 105% of the last year's intake. If they recruit more, they get fined heavily. This is partly to stop universities just taking everyone who'd want to go (as the government wants to control figures) and partly to share the students out across the system.

Using a completely made-up set of numbers, if Manchester had 10,000 English students in 2019, they can have 10,500 now. The problem comes if they send out 12,500 offers in the assumption that about 20% won't get their predicted grades. In a normal year, that group of 2000 would go to their second-choice university or into the clearing system. This year, everyone has their predicted grades. Manchester can't legally accept the 2000 but if they turn them away, the thing that everyone has been shouting about for the last week doesn't get fixed.

What the government can potentially do is say 'just go head and let them in, ignore the cap'. Manchester would get 2000 extra students, and the funds that go along with them, but the universities that those students would otherwise have gone to get nothing. A lot of those universities would be in a similar situation, where they've over-offered, and things might balance out a little, but you'd inevitably end up with a set of universities at the bottom that were few learners' first choice who ultimately end up screwed.

Cap officially lifted now.

Obvs the same people complaining about grades being downgraded are complaining about low-ranking universities facing financial ruin but idk how you square the circle. The government delaying everything by the best part of the week has made things worse but i have no idea what would have made them better.

good keith shade

Jeremy Corbyn
45m ·
This u-turn from the Government wouldn't have happened without the #Alevelprotests from so many young people, the important work of the teaching unions and everyone who spoke out.

My solidarity to all those who took a stand.

kieth shade, that's what they call him

Lads Corbyn is going to ask us to vote Labour. Ye know that, right?

Already? I only just voted

fluffed it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6-IQAdFU3w

Has Cronus been replaced with... a riding crop??

Photo du jour: Education Secretary @GavinWilliamson in his office at the Dept for Education today after announcing a change in the way A-Level grades will be awarded. By Stefan Rousseau/PA pic.twitter.com/yI3ICFEMBR

— Stefan Rousseau (@StefanRousseau) August 17, 2020

i presume nobody thinks williamson is indispensable as they clearly think that creepy guy who works for gove is, wonder if they think keeping him on is worth it for the implicit "fuck u everyone!"

Jenrick is still in position so yeah probably. Difference is that the public actually cares about this.

also firing jenrick might have signalled to potential donors that they weren't completely open to business for favours, not really sure what keeping williamson communicates aside from the obvious

Lads Corbyn is going to ask us to vote Labour. Ye know that, right?

― caută tu singur (gyac), Monday, 17 August 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Take a #chillPill

Dido Harding to run agency replacing Public Health England https://t.co/bVobVZmECe

— The Guardian (@guardian) August 17, 2020

Disaster at Talk Talk, disaster as head of the track and trace system, put in charge of the successor to Public Health England.

apparently the whip under the book in that gavin williamson pic ^^^ is some *very subtle* symbolic menace that he's got plenty of dirt from when he was chief whip and he ain't afraid to use it if he gets pumped.

Obviously Harding is a totally incompetent crook but it's annoying that we now have to pretend that public health England isn't a sham organisation itself a symptom of mismanagement of the NHS

Between this and the exam stuff we've had a whole week of partisan support for rubbish institutions

Gavin Williamson saying on sky he shouldn’t resign essentially because he’s always been right and it’s anomalies that’s the problem, so everyone can stfu. It’s fascinating how much they dgaf and Williamson has that look of not even really understanding why he has to be questioned on tv.

Would pleading the government to give this Department to Grayling be accelerationism?

expecting someone with the dynamism of a rusty sack cart to hasten the demise of capitalism? The only practical insurgent application of Grayling would be to strap a bomb to him.

Liverpool remains the best.

Social media attack tells 'Brylcreemed sh******e' Labour leader he and deputy Angela Rayner 'should be worried' https://t.co/yUgReSP4Bx

— Liverpool Echo (@LivEchonews) August 18, 2020

shitlorde?

shiteface imo

shtakhanovite

shitehole

Good on Sarah Morton obviously, but I've been struggling with that cryptic clue for a while now: shitehawk(e)? shiteheel(e)? Is this an esoteric Scouseism?

xp see ilx is already on the case

Sir Shittyarse having a bad day again

Cllr Morton wrote: "Watched the first 5 mins of ITV News and it wasn't a Tory that had me shouting at the TV, we know they are self interested, elitist sh***hawks. But Keir Starmer, the alleged leader of the opposition (Trading Standards should be having a word there) attempting to bask in the victory of a hard won U-turn by the thousands of students who took to the streets in the last few days to demand that the government treat them fairly."

she's wrong, it was a Tory that had her shouting at the TV

Shitehawke imo. Don’t understand the extra E but I’ll let it slide for such excellent scouseness.

its canon

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91I-TnVLnqL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

fuckin' hell, look at the height on matthew broderick's forehead

clearly the skull of a future double-murderer

i think the hawke is sat on the top of his head if you look closely

ladyshitehawke one of my fave bands

I've not been this impressed with a Labour Councillor since I saw one remove a dead rat that was lying in the middle of a ginnel, with her bare hands!

I've read a lot of good commentary on the lines of: no matter the crimes of Blairism, being soft to non-existent in opposition wasn't one of them.

so scotland’s schools have been open for a week, let’s check in and see how that’s going

Four more pupils at separate schools have tested positive for Covid-19.

Two of the cases are in Perth and Kinross, one in Renfrewshire and one in North Lanarkshire.

One pupil from Newhill Primary in Blairgowrie and another from Oakbank Primary in Perth are now self-isolating at home. The third attends Todholm primary in Paisley.

A fourth pupil, who attends St Ambrose High School in Coatbridge, has also tested positive.

Three other pupils from St Ambrose High had already tested positive, along with one from St Andrew's High in Coatbridge and one from Caldervale High in Airdrie. There are a further three linked cases, who are not staff or pupils, and 14 cases in north-east Glasgow.

That doesn’t on its own tell you opening schools was bad. Is four kids getting it in a week above what it was before they opened?

as I understand it none so far are suspected of getting the virus *in* school

this hasn't stopped shitty scare mongering headlines about outbreaks being "linked to schools"

what is the Scottish govt's stance on teachers wearing masks?

Do we know what the procedures are if a pupil gets covid and has gone to school?

All of this shit is in the hands of Gavin Williamson so good luck England.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/how-sweden-wasted-rare-opportunity-study-coronavirus-schools

This would have been helpful for virtually the entire world and unless they've started collecting some serious data since it appears that Sweden bungled it.