UKMT Long March 2016 - Beware the Iain Duncan Smith of March (am I doing this right?)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT Long March 2016 - Beware the Iain Duncan Smith of March (am I doing this right?)

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ookiimarukochan: Apr 4, 2011

Rakosi posted:

Japan has a very, very low average dwelling age of around 20 years, contributed to by a culture of earthquake risk prevention, and a dislike of buying second-hand things.

Japan has a very low average dwelling age because they are loving TERRIBLE at putting up buildings, and they expect them to literally fall apart after about 25 years. Their wiring is also worse than ours which lead to the government trying to ban all electronics more than 10 years old (with some exceptions for vintage collectables) a few years back for "safety reasons".

# ? Mar 15, 2016 14:10

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# ? May 11, 2024 18:27

communism bitch: Apr 24, 2009

quote:

A burglar who targets the homes of the rich and wealthy is being described by the Met Police as the most prolific in the UK and "possibly in Europe".

He is said to enjoy "the notoriety of targeting the wealthy" and has stolen jewellery worth �10m over 12 years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-35809611
:getin:

# ? Mar 15, 2016 14:17

Tesseraction: Apr 5, 2009

ookiimarukochan posted:

Japan has a very low average dwelling age because they are loving TERRIBLE at putting up buildings, and they expect them to literally fall apart after about 25 years.

Look, with average lifespan going up as it is over there, the only way to get ojiichan's inheritance is to put the fucker in a groverhaus.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 14:24

kecske: Feb 28, 2011; it's round, like always

baka kaba posted:

Cool I see 30 seconds of the news and they have a disabled person on saying cuts to his care are actually good because they taught him how to shop online.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 14:28

feedmegin: Jul 30, 2008

Pesmerga posted:

So, anyone read the story about the Blairs and their �27 million property portfolio?

I'm so shocked that Tony ''Tory' Blair is an ALAB.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 14:34

khwarezm: Oct 26, 2010; Deal with it.

Can I talk about how much I loving hate the Newstatesman? Because I loving hate the Newstatesman.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 14:50

Cerv: Sep 14, 2004; This is a silly post with little news value.

khwarezm posted:

Can I talk about how much I loving hate the Newstatesman? Because I loving hate the Newstatesman.

They've a large number of writers, so is there anyone in particular today who's written something bad?

# ? Mar 15, 2016 14:52

Wistful of Dollars: Aug 25, 2009

Oberleutnant posted:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-35809611

Modern day Robbin 'Ood.

Well, minus the giving to the poor part. We can work on that.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 15:19

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

Steals from the rich, fences to the poor.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 15:30

Rush Limbo: Sep 5, 2005; its with a full house

They got the Hatton Garden jewel thiefs, sadly, so here's hoping this guy stays at large.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 15:33

LemonDrizzle: Mar 28, 2012; neoliberal shithead

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/15/every-english-school-to-become-an-academy-ministers-to-announce

quote:

Every English school to become an academy, ministers to announce

Legislation to turn every school in England into an academy independent of local authority control will be unveiled in the budget on Wednesday.
Draft leglislation, to be published within days, will begin the process of implementing a pledge made by David Cameron in his conference speech last autumn.
The prime minister said his �vision for our schooling system� was to place education into the hands of headteachers and teachers rather than �bureaucrats�.
The move follows criticism of the government for going into stasis during the referendum campaign. Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne, are keen to show that they are in charge of a �reforming� government.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 15:43

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

Thank the lord for devolution I guess.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 15:45

khwarezm: Oct 26, 2010; Deal with it.

Cerv posted:

They've a large number of writers, so is there anyone in particular today who's written something bad?

Its more its ferocious attitude towards Corbyn. I know everybody complained about the Guardian about this but I found the Newstatesman to be way more absurdly hostile from the beginning and this hasn't gone away. Have you read anything by its political editor, George Eaton?

Jesus, any articles there regarding the Labour party seem to be either whinging about the direction its going, not too subtly pitching alternate leaders only a few months after the election or sniping Corbyn for every dumb thing.

Did you ever read it while the leadership election was going on? They had like one vaguely pro-Corbyn article for every 8 ranting about how he must destroyed. What a loving rag.

khwarezm fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Mar 15, 2016

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:00

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

I didn't see anything about last Friday's filibuster in here, but it's quite something.

Something being a still a tedious timewasting non-debate tactic regardless of how unlikely the PMB was to pass.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:13

Renaissance Robot: Oct 10, 2010; Bite my furry metal ass

LemonDrizzle posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/15/every-english-school-to-become-an-academy-ministers-to-announce

Correctly identifies that private schools spit out many more powerful people than state schools, [possibly deliberately] fails to acknowledge that this has nothing to do with privatisation and everything to do with a certain well known computing idiom. Spectacular.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:16

GaussianCopula: Jun 5, 2011; Jews fleeing the Holocaust are not in any way comparable to North Africans, who don't flee genocide but want to enjoy the social welfare systems of Northern Europe.

Taking control over schools out of the hands of local politicians sounds like a good move, as does giving teachers financial incentives to perform above average, so this sounds a pretty decent idea? Or are they going to use it to secretly cut funding?

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:20

Puntification: Nov 4, 2009; Black Orthodontromancy
The most British Magic; Fun Shoe

khwarezm posted:

Its more its ferocious attitude towards Corbyn. I know everybody complained about the Guardian about this but I found the Newstatesman to be way more absurdly hostile from the beginning and this hasn't gone away. Have you read anything by its political editor, George Eaton?

Jesus, any articles there regarding the Labour party seem to be either whinging about the direction its going, not too subtly pitching alternate leaders only a few months after the election or sniping Corbyn for every dumb thing.

Did you ever read it while the leadership election was going on? They had like one vaguely pro-Corbyn article for every 8 ranting about how he must destroyed. What a loving rag.

So you're saying you've found pissflaps' dayjob? Had the impression newstatesman was to the left of the guardian but haven't bothered reading it in ages anyway so that's probably why I don't care.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:22

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

Puntification posted:

So you're saying you've found pissflaps' dayjob?

Nah, can't be 'Flaps.

khwarezm posted:

pitching alternate leaders

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:25

Renaissance Robot: Oct 10, 2010; Bite my furry metal ass

GaussianCopula posted:

Taking control over schools out of the hands of local politicians sounds like a good move, as does giving teachers financial incentives to perform above average, so this sounds a pretty decent idea? Or are they going to use it to secretly cut funding?

Taking power out of the hands of politicians and putting it in the hands of whatever random unelected bourg wants to run a school: a decent idea - ukmt fash representative GaussianCopula

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:26

big scary monsters: Sep 2, 2011; -~Ｓｋｕｌｌｗａｖｅ~-

GaussianCopula posted:

Taking control over schools out of the hands of local politicians sounds like a good move, as does giving teachers financial incentives to perform above average, so this sounds a pretty decent idea? Or are they going to use it to secretly cut funding?

It's just privatisation by another name.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:27

Puntification: Nov 4, 2009; Black Orthodontromancy
The most British Magic; Fun Shoe

Guavanaut posted:

Nah, can't be 'Flaps.

Fair enough can't argue with that.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 16:28

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

ookiimarukochan posted:

Japan has a very low average dwelling age because they are loving TERRIBLE at putting up buildings, and they expect them to literally fall apart after about 25 years. Their wiring is also worse than ours which lead to the government trying to ban all electronics more than 10 years old (with some exceptions for vintage collectables) a few years back for "safety reasons".

I would guess maybe the earthquakes might have something to do with it?

# ? Mar 15, 2016 17:14

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

GaussianCopula posted:

Taking control over schools out of the hands of local politicians sounds like a good move, as does giving teachers financial incentives to perform above average, so this sounds a pretty decent idea? Or are they going to use it to secretly cut funding?

Well they won't cut funding to themselves.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35775458

Top executives at some of England's biggest academy chains are paid huge salaries while pupils are left to get poor results, Ofsted says.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 17:20

Tesseraction: Apr 5, 2009

GaussianCopula posted:

Or are they going to use it to secretly cut funding?

Ding ding ding ding.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 17:23

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

Does it count as secret if just nobody bothers to investigate it and it's not actually illegal if you're caught doing it?

# ? Mar 15, 2016 17:24

ookiimarukochan: Apr 4, 2011

OwlFancier posted:

I would guess maybe the earthquakes might have something to do with it?

Nah, massive massive corruption (Yakuza are big into the building trade) is far more of an influence

# ? Mar 15, 2016 17:35

XMNN: Apr 26, 2008; I am incredibly stupid

GaussianCopula posted:

Taking control over schools out of the hands of local politicians sounds like a good move, as does giving teachers financial incentives to perform above average, so this sounds a pretty decent idea? Or are they going to use it to secretly cut funding?

Lol

# ? Mar 15, 2016 18:00

Phoon: Apr 23, 2010

If academies don't have to hire qualified teachers and all schools are going to be academies does this mean there's no longer such a thing as a teacher qualification in England?

# ? Mar 15, 2016 18:03

namesake: Jun 19, 2006; "When I was a girl, around 12 or 13, I had a fantasy that I'd grow up to marry Captain Scarlet, but he'd be busy fighting the Mysterons so I'd cuckold him with the sexiest people I could think of - Nigel Mansell, Pat Sharp and Mr. Blobby."

You were all due to be replaced by suppression robots anyway.

And then by machines when they'd run our of ex soldiers.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 18:32

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

SNP are apparently going to abstain on the snoopers charter too.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 18:36

Darth Walrus: Feb 13, 2012

LemonDrizzle posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/15/every-english-school-to-become-an-academy-ministers-to-announce

Jesus, even the Beeb are being as openly critical as they possibly can about this.

quote:

Plans to force all schools in England to become academies will be outlined in the budget on Wednesday.

The Department for Education is expected to publish draft legislation as early as Thursday, BBC Newsnight has learned.

The move would end the century-old role of local authorities as providers of education.

An aide to the education secretary has declined to comment.

Back in October, David Cameron said he wanted "every school an academy� and yes - Local Authorities running schools a thing of the past". At the autumn statement, the official document stated that the government wanted: "The next step towards the government's goal of ending local authorities' role in running schools and all schools becoming an academy".

The proposals under consideration by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan owe much to a pamphlet by Policy Exchange, the Conservative-aligned think-tank, which proposes mass-converting the remaining local authority schools into academies. That document proposed the change for mainstream schools, but did not deal with the future of special schools.

Local authorities, in truth, have not "run" any mainstream schools since the early 1990s. They, instead, supervise them and offer them back-office services. The principal advantages to school leaders of academy status are that they are exempt from the national curriculum and the national pay regulations for teachers.

This report, in short, would mean the end of the national curriculum and national pay scales. By forcing the local authorities out of mainstream education, it would also finally unpick the local authority system of schools put in place in England by Arthur Balfour's Conservative government in 1902.

The changing academy programme

This would mark a third phase in the academy programme.

Before 2010, around 200 schools were opened as academies or converted into them. These were struggling schools that required fast turnaround or were opening in areas of educational weakness. These "sponsor academies" were given exemptions from the national curriculum and on teachers' pay to help them adapt to tougher-than-usual circumstances.

From 2010 to the present, however, schools have been allowed to become academies if they wish to do so. These are known as "converter academies" - and were Michael Gove's big change to the system. This was a popular programme (partly because academies got extra cash for converting). So at the last count, there were 3,381 state secondaries, of which 2,075 were academies.

Former education secretary Michael Gove set out his new vision for schools in 2010

There remains, however, a big rump of schools which remain conventional local authority schools - particularly in the primary phase of education, where the cash incentives to convert were much weaker. At the last full count, a year ago, there were 16,766 primary schools, of which 2,440 were academies. The remainder remain attached to the local authorities.

The think-tank report, Primary Focus, proposes that the government "convert all primary schools into academies, and then ask each school to join an academy 'chain' by 2020". The remaining LA secondaries, it proposes, should be encouraged along the same tracks (although there should be less pressure to join an academy chain).

The Policy Exchange piece proposes an end to the local authority as we know it, with its reduction to a rump provider of specialist services. It continues: "Any Local Authority that wishes to maintain a school provision service and run a chain or offer support to schools within a chain must spin out as a mutual or social enterprise and become a legally separate entity."

Finally, "in order for academies receive the most suitable support they require on an ongoing basis, academies should be able to switch between chains if certain criteria are met". The idea is that chains should be kept under pressure to be well run.

Practical problems

There are a few implementation issues here. The biggest of these is very simple - we do not have enough good academy chains as it is. There is plenty of demand for school support services at the moment and some existing school chains are extremely weak; Ofsted has recently started to worry more about them.

This proposal would also create a lot of work for the Department for Education which has struggled with its existing workload. Since 2010, its role has gone from being a strategic body to deciding on rules for individual schools. The skills of its employees have not kept up.

Indeed, even the two most important things a Whitehall department must do, keeping to its budget and being accountable for spending, have proved beyond it. The free school programme showed that even the simple task of opening new schools was extremely trying for them.

Furthermore, this sort of proposal would require the DfE to fix a number of funding problems - for example, at what level it ought to fund small schools or schools with expensive private finance deals, for example. At the moment, local authorities absorb those problems. "Academisation" would remove that buffer.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 18:41

DesperateDan: Dec 10, 2005; Where's my cow?

Is that my cow?

No it isn't, but it still tramples my bloody lavender.

Phoon posted:

If academies don't have to hire qualified teachers and all schools are going to be academies does this mean there's no longer such a thing as a teacher qualification in England?

Don't worry, I'm sure ofsted will keep an eye on things. Oh, wait, a school becoming an academy won't be inspected for 3 loving years so the next thing will be "oh well we don't really need all these inspectors anymore do we". gently caress.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 18:42

Metrication: Dec 12, 2010; Raskin had one problem: Jobs regarded him as an insufferable theorist or, to use Jobs's own more precise terminology, "a shithead who sucks".

I was surprised to find today reading through some literature for a huge new block of flats going up where I live that it's being sold off plan to foreign investors, even in a dismal outer south London suburb. The mayoral candidates are all arguing for measures against this like Sadiq Khan's 'first dibs for Londoners' policy, but how practical is it to stop this happening outside of central government? In Hong Kong I believe they specifically ban non residents from owning property. Could a mayor do the same? Or have to resort to some roundabout measure?

# ? Mar 15, 2016 18:57

Kaislioc: Feb 14, 2008

TinTower posted:

SNP are apparently going to abstain on the snoopers charter too.

Christ this is a loving poo poo show. Labour and the SNP have taken the great stand of admitting the bill is a rushed piece of poo poo but they will abstain anyway because ??? we need these powers P.S. please add lots of protections for MPs so we don't get spied on.

Going to copy + paste some stuff from the Telegraph's live blog here as well:

"The source, close to shadow home secretary Andy Burnham, told The Telegraph: "We're abstaining because we don't want to play politics and vote against or give the Government a blank cheque and vote for it.""

There are at least three levels of stupid in this statement alone. I can't even begin to comprehend it.

"She points out that the internet connection records do not provide details of web pages visited, so people should not feel concerned about police snooping on what they read on the internet. "

This is interesting as well. They either completely changed the bill or she is lying through her teeth. We know they didn't change the bill in any meaningful way whatsoever, so do we need to consider the possibility that Teresa May has absolutely no idea what she is talking about or how the law she so desperately wants actually works?

# ? Mar 15, 2016 19:13

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

There was a nice illustration a while ago of how not including the exact web page visited, only the domain name, does not even remotely prevent you from figuring out what people are using the internet for and deducing facts about their life from it.

Something like if someone visits the website of a solicitor's, single parent support group, NHS online, sexual health clinic, and HIV information website in that sequence, you can probably make an inference from that.

E: vvvvv That's the one.

OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Mar 15, 2016

# ? Mar 15, 2016 19:17

JFairfax: Oct 23, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

THEY ARE loving POLITICIANS IT IS THEIR JOB TO PLAY POLITICS WHAT HTE FUCKK

# ? Mar 15, 2016 19:18

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Always relevant explanation of metadata from the EFF:

They know you rang a phone sex service at 2:24 am and spoke for 18 minutes. But they don't know what you talked about.
They know you called the suicide prevention hotline from the Golden Gate Bridge. But the topic of the call remains a secret.
They know you spoke with an HIV testing service, then your doctor, then your health insurance company in the same hour. But they don't know what was discussed.
They know you received a call from the local NRA office while it was having a campaign against gun legislation, and then called your senators and congressional representatives immediately after. But the content of those calls remains safe from government intrusion.
They know you called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called the local Planned Parenthood's number later that day. But nobody knows what you spoke about.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 19:20

Gonzo McFee: Jun 19, 2010

jabby posted:

So William Hague has taken to the Telegraph and basically admitted more budget cuts make no goddamn sense but we should do them anyway. Some choice bits:

Or to put it another way, yes lots of economists are telling us that cutting is a bad idea. But we can ignore them because economics isn't one of those 'sciences' where cuts might actually affect things like businesses and individuals. No, the important thing is to maintain confidence that we have a 'plan' and that 'discipline' will be 'exerted'.

So yeah, government cuts are more about sending a message than being based on any economic evidence.

The thing about science brruuugggh Morty, is that sometimes it's more art than science Morty.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 19:38

Cerv: Sep 14, 2004; This is a silly post with little news value.

Metrication posted:

I was surprised to find today reading through some literature for a huge new block of flats going up where I live that it's being sold off plan to foreign investors, even in a dismal outer south London suburb. The mayoral candidates are all arguing for measures against this like Sadiq Khan's 'first dibs for Londoners' policy, but how practical is it to stop this happening outside of central government? In Hong Kong I believe they specifically ban non residents from owning property. Could a mayor do the same? Or have to resort to some roundabout measure?

the mayor is powerless so stop privately owned flats being sold to whoever. a HK style restriction would require central government to pass a law that they're definitely not interested in in the slightest.
Khan's First Dibs for Londoners only applies to properties being built on mayoral land for shared ownership schemes. so he can dictate who his own staff are selling to, and the (part-)owners are restricted from selling on anyway so they can't immediately flip it to an overseas landlord.

# ? Mar 15, 2016 19:39

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# ? May 11, 2024 18:27

communism bitch: Apr 24, 2009

I loving hate politicians

# ? Mar 15, 2016 19:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT Long March 2016 - Beware the Iain Duncan Smith of March (am I doing this right?)

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