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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Betting on whether or not we’ll have another EU referendum bef

SystemSystem Posts: 11,003
edited January 2017 in General

imagepoliticalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Betting on whether or not we’ll have another EU referendum before 2019

Paddy Power have a market up on whether we’ll have a referendum on a UK-wide referendum on in/out EU membership or on acceptance of new membership terms. Must offer option of membership terms. I’m backing the No side of this bet.

Read the full story here


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  • Options
    JackWJackW Posts: 14,787
    Good Morning. :smile:
  • Options
    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,187
    Second.
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    surbitonsurbiton Posts: 13,549
    Don't think the US government can administer this efficiently. Remember, two of the 9/11 terrorists had their visa to stay in the US approved six months after they were dead.
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,570
    Good morning Number 1!

    No, there won't be another referendum. Not unless the Tories lose a GE to a Labour Party promising one. Which given our friends in the EU will be saying "this deal take it or WTO it" after article 50.
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,834
    Morning. If that's a referendum offing any sort of 'stay in' option ("Membership Terms" must mean we are members, right?) in the next 23 months (before 1/1/19), then that 1/5 is great value.

    As it's written, it's awfully ambiguous though, and I'd bet that Paddy won't be accepting substantial wagers on it either.
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    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891
    edited January 2017
    I can see scenarios where it should happen. For instance the wheels continue to fall off the present arrangements. Dr Strangelove in Washington get's so unpredictable that even this desperate government can't deal with him. China enters a trade war with the US and Trump's new best friend and mentor decides to retake the Crimea.

    At which point it becomes clear we either sink without trace or we rejoin the only viable and politically stable block in the world.

    The only snag is that we'd still have to have another referendum and there's no reason to suppose that even as we visibly go to Hell in a handcart the good folk of Hartlepool will feel any better disposed to foreigners than they did last time

    So NO. Not a good bet
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    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,879
    Sandpit said:

    Morning. If that's a referendum offing any sort of 'stay in' option ("Membership Terms" must mean we are members, right?) in the next 23 months (before 1/1/19), then that 1/5 is great value.

    As it's written, it's awfully ambiguous though, and I'd bet that Paddy won't be accepting substantial wagers on it either.

    Morning, Mr Sandpit.

    Off-topic but have you seen the Hyperloop tests that are going on this weekend? I think they'll be livestreamed later.

    Some competitors:
    http://uk.businessinsider.com/spacex-hyperloop-competitions-teams-2017-1?r=US&IR=T

    As you can imagine, I'm finding this both technologically fascinating and hilarious at the same time ...
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    SimonStClareSimonStClare Posts: 7,976
    Morning all.

    No is by far the more likely option, however on Paddy’s past record they may pay out on both.
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,834

    Sandpit said:

    Morning. If that's a referendum offing any sort of 'stay in' option ("Membership Terms" must mean we are members, right?) in the next 23 months (before 1/1/19), then that 1/5 is great value.

    As it's written, it's awfully ambiguous though, and I'd bet that Paddy won't be accepting substantial wagers on it either.

    Morning, Mr Sandpit.

    Off-topic but have you seen the Hyperloop tests that are going on this weekend? I think they'll be livestreamed later.

    Some competitors:
    http://uk.businessinsider.com/spacex-hyperloop-competitions-teams-2017-1?r=US&IR=T

    As you can imagine, I'm finding this both technologically fascinating and hilarious at the same time ...
    That's bloody fantastic, practically all the engineering schools in the US have entered a vehicle in the competition - how much fun would that have been as a final year or MEng project?
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,834
    Oh, and 10,000th :D
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    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,879
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Morning. If that's a referendum offing any sort of 'stay in' option ("Membership Terms" must mean we are members, right?) in the next 23 months (before 1/1/19), then that 1/5 is great value.

    As it's written, it's awfully ambiguous though, and I'd bet that Paddy won't be accepting substantial wagers on it either.

    Morning, Mr Sandpit.

    Off-topic but have you seen the Hyperloop tests that are going on this weekend? I think they'll be livestreamed later.

    Some competitors:
    http://uk.businessinsider.com/spacex-hyperloop-competitions-teams-2017-1?r=US&IR=T

    As you can imagine, I'm finding this both technologically fascinating and hilarious at the same time ...
    That's bloody fantastic, practically all the engineering schools in the US have entered a vehicle in the competition - how much fun would that have been as a final year or MEng project?
    Yep. Even better, as well as designing something, they actually got to construct it and test it. In some cases the teams had to negotiate sponsorship deals or technical partnerships with outside companies. It'd be great experience of real engineering for all the team members.
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    rkrkrkrkrkrk Posts: 7,905
    Sandpit said:

    Oh, and 10,000th :D

    Congratulations!

    Makes me wonder.... - Does anyone know the poster with the highest number of posts?
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,570
    Roger said:

    Trump's new best friend and mentor decides to retake the Crimea

    Finger on the pulse eh Roger?
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    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,187
    Roger said:

    Trump's new best friend and mentor decides to retake the Crimea.

    I thought this had already happened on Obama's watch?
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,834
    rkrkrk said:

    Sandpit said:

    Oh, and 10,000th :D

    Congratulations!

    Makes me wonder.... - Does anyone know the poster with the highest number of posts?
    TSE has over 40k, Pulpstar and Morris over 30k and Scott about 25k. There's been a few incarnations of Plato that probably put her in the top 5 too.
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    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,570
    tlg86 said:

    Roger said:

    Trump's new best friend and mentor decides to retake the Crimea.

    I thought this had already happened on Obama's watch?
    Oh well, that's alright then......let's wait for the furore when Trump orders someone killed with a drone....
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,834

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Morning. If that's a referendum offing any sort of 'stay in' option ("Membership Terms" must mean we are members, right?) in the next 23 months (before 1/1/19), then that 1/5 is great value.

    As it's written, it's awfully ambiguous though, and I'd bet that Paddy won't be accepting substantial wagers on it either.

    Morning, Mr Sandpit.

    Off-topic but have you seen the Hyperloop tests that are going on this weekend? I think they'll be livestreamed later.

    Some competitors:
    http://uk.businessinsider.com/spacex-hyperloop-competitions-teams-2017-1?r=US&IR=T

    As you can imagine, I'm finding this both technologically fascinating and hilarious at the same time ...
    That's bloody fantastic, practically all the engineering schools in the US have entered a vehicle in the competition - how much fun would that have been as a final year or MEng project?
    Yep. Even better, as well as designing something, they actually got to construct it and test it. In some cases the teams had to negotiate sponsorship deals or technical partnerships with outside companies. It'd be great experience of real engineering for all the team members.
    Yep, would have been a great experience for all of them. The closest similar project in the U.K. Is probably Bloodhound SSC, who are doing loads of work in schools and universities in the process of building a land speed record car. Fingers crossed they go for it this winter, and a donation makes a great present for someone who's got everything. http://www.bloodhoundssc.com
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    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,903
    JackW said:

    Good Morning. :smile:

    Good to see you up and about Mr W!
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    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,903
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Morning. If that's a referendum offing any sort of 'stay in' option ("Membership Terms" must mean we are members, right?) in the next 23 months (before 1/1/19), then that 1/5 is great value.

    As it's written, it's awfully ambiguous though, and I'd bet that Paddy won't be accepting substantial wagers on it either.

    Morning, Mr Sandpit.

    Off-topic but have you seen the Hyperloop tests that are going on this weekend? I think they'll be livestreamed later.

    Some competitors:
    http://uk.businessinsider.com/spacex-hyperloop-competitions-teams-2017-1?r=US&IR=T

    As you can imagine, I'm finding this both technologically fascinating and hilarious at the same time ...
    That's bloody fantastic, practically all the engineering schools in the US have entered a vehicle in the competition - how much fun would that have been as a final year or MEng project?
    Yep. Even better, as well as designing something, they actually got to construct it and test it. In some cases the teams had to negotiate sponsorship deals or technical partnerships with outside companies. It'd be great experience of real engineering for all the team members.
    Yep, would have been a great experience for all of them. The closest similar project in the U.K. Is probably Bloodhound SSC, who are doing loads of work in schools and universities in the process of building a land speed record car. Fingers crossed they go for it this winter, and a donation makes a great present for someone who's got everything. http://www.bloodhoundssc.com
    There was something around this at Rockinghamn last year year. One of my grandsons (age 13) was involved. IIRC it was around an electirc car and there are age categories
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    felixfelix Posts: 15,124

    Roger said:

    Trump's new best friend and mentor decides to retake the Crimea

    Finger on the pulse eh Roger?
    News travels very slowly in the south of France - Who's gonna tell him about Vichy?
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    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    @afneil: Federal judge stays deportations of travellers detained at U.S. airports after Trump order on refugees and migrants
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    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    The state of California is suing President Trump over his executive order suspending visas and immigration benefits without the approval of Congress.

    The lawsuit was filed on Saturday which is a day after the president signed the executive order.

    The document states Trump violated the Constitution as well as laws and treaties of the United States. The lawyers claim Trump did not do his job by protecting the civil rights of those living in the state of California, but also the United States.


    http://kron4.com/2017/01/28/california-lawyers-sue-president-trump-to-repeal-immigration-order/
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    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,879
    Sandpit said:

    Yep, would have been a great experience for all of them. The closest similar project in the U.K. Is probably Bloodhound SSC, who are doing loads of work in schools and universities in the process of building a land speed record car. Fingers crossed they go for it this winter, and a donation makes a great present for someone who's got everything. http://www.bloodhoundssc.com

    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.
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    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,964
    Good morning, everyone.

    I agree with Mr. Eagles on this bet.
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    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891
    edited January 2017
    it would make a great clip in a film but i'm not a fan of this sort of amateur psychoanalysis


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN9tde-x2nw
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    GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,077
    edited January 2017
    Arguably Trump won't care that his ban has been (temporarily) overturned. It just all feeds into his narrative...
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    Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    A second referendum would leave us where we are now, only exponentially more so. just imagine another set of arguments about what the Accepters (or Rejectors) said about the nhs and sovereignty and fom andxgod knows what Elsa and whether the result is binding or advisory. If we need a vote on the terms please let it be via a snap election because we all know what the rules are about manifesto commitments.

    Incidentally there is a theory that when Wilson offered an in out vote he meant via a general election because he never expected a proper majority in the second 1974 GE. A bit like Cameron if you think about it.
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    Roger said:

    it would make a great clip in a film but i'm not a fan of this sort of amateur psychoanalysis


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN9tde-x2nw

    Thanks for the video. Always a pleasure to see the Sophia Loren like beauty of the First Lady. Pure class.
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,834

    Sandpit said:

    Yep, would have been a great experience for all of them. The closest similar project in the U.K. Is probably Bloodhound SSC, who are doing loads of work in schools and universities in the process of building a land speed record car. Fingers crossed they go for it this winter, and a donation makes a great present for someone who's got everything. http://www.bloodhoundssc.com

    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.
    Yes, that's a common complaint. We see it a lot in IT, people who maybe be brilliant at building a server or developing software, but lacking in many of the other vital skills required of someone working in corporate IT - whether it be communication, troubleshooting, soft people skills or the standard office-worker skills of turning up on time, having had a shower and being appropriately dressed!

    Now a large company might be able to keep a genius in their IT team who can't talk to people, but unless there's a load of others keeping between him and the business, it's not going to work out. Schools teaching Comp Sci and the like need to concentrate on employable skills as much as the technical ones, else their graduates are going to struggle in the real world.
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    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,879
    I can't see any realistic scenario where there'll be a second referendum in that sort of timescale.
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    CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    Sandpit said:

    rkrkrk said:

    Sandpit said:

    Oh, and 10,000th :D

    Congratulations!

    Makes me wonder.... - Does anyone know the poster with the highest number of posts?
    TSE has over 40k, Pulpstar and Morris over 30k and Scott about 25k. There's been a few incarnations of Plato that probably put her in the top 5 too.
    How many @Scott_P posts demonstrate orginal thought vs cut'n'paste of others' tweets?
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    RogerRoger Posts: 18,891

    Roger said:

    it would make a great clip in a film but i'm not a fan of this sort of amateur psychoanalysis


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN9tde-x2nw

    Thanks for the video. Always a pleasure to see the Sophia Loren like beauty of the First Lady. Pure class.
    I was thinking more Humbert Humbert and Lolita
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    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Yep, would have been a great experience for all of them. The closest similar project in the U.K. Is probably Bloodhound SSC, who are doing loads of work in schools and universities in the process of building a land speed record car. Fingers crossed they go for it this winter, and a donation makes a great present for someone who's got everything. http://www.bloodhoundssc.com

    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.
    Yes, that's a common complaint. We see it a lot in IT, people who maybe be brilliant at building a server or developing software, but lacking in many of the other vital skills required of someone working in corporate IT - whether it be communication, troubleshooting, soft people skills or the standard office-worker skills of turning up on time, having had a shower and being appropriately dressed!

    Now a large company might be able to keep a genius in their IT team who can't talk to people, but unless there's a load of others keeping between him and the business, it's not going to work out. Schools teaching Comp Sci and the like need to concentrate on employable skills as much as the technical ones, else their graduates are going to struggle in the real world.
    Are there any schools out of here where IT is taught by someone with a Computer Science or equivalent degree?
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    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,688
    In the unlikely event Brexit doesn't go ahead, I think a Royal Commission more likely than a referendum. It's the British way of dealing with muck ups and of putting controversial issues into the long grass.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    I'd need a lot longer odds than 3/1 to tempt me to back a fresh referendum before then.
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    What I mean is this seems to something for university, not school.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    UKIP drifting in both Betfair by-election markets.
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    On topic, I'm with Mr Eagles on this one: in fact I would be amazed if there were another national (as opposed to local) referendum in the U.K. in my lifetime.
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    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,964
    Mr. Teacher, if the EU split and there were an invitation to join a small group outside the eurozone, strictly for trade, there might be one for something like that. Likewise a change to the voting system.

    But I agree recent events will have put parties off them.
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    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,903

    What I mean is this seems to something for university, not school.

    What about what us old un’s call the VIth Form?
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    JackWJackW Posts: 14,787

    Good morning Number 1!

    JackW said:

    Good Morning. :smile:

    Good to see you up and about Mr W!
    Thank you.

    It's my duty to tour the dungeons early in the morning to assess levels of live occupancy before any essential cull of yellow perilists straying onto the estate.

    I also have to put new audio on the loop for these residents. Today it's "Speeches of Jeremy Corbyn on Cuba and Venezula" .... President Trump isn't the only one to believe in torture !!

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    Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,964
    King Cole, I'm not old, and I refer (when necessary) to the Sixth Form.
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    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,318


    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.

    One of the ways I keep fed is to give seminars to Chinese groups about How Sttuff Works in the UK, and a couple of weeks ago I did one on entrepreneurship training in Britain (and the EU). Researching this, it still seemed very much a work in progress, interpreted differently in different universities (and in some not at all, though 90% now claim to have a business incubator). There are a few schemes to teach it in schools, even primaries (give kids £5 and ask them to set up a profitable business, e.g. packing bags of sweets and reselling at a small profit), but it's split between two areas of the National Curriculum. Some of the schemes sounded quite good, but unsurprisingly the proportion of working age people in the UK who have ever been involved in starting a business is, at 6%, only half the US level.
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    No politician is going to call a referendum on a subject which they care about passing: if is popular then there will be no problem getting it through Parliament (and last week we learned that that has to happen anyway) and if it isn't they wouldn't dare. I expect significant constitutional changes will be enacted by putting them into manifestos and claiming a mandate after a General Election.
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    SquareRootSquareRoot Posts: 7,095
    best interest rate at 3% ?? WHERE?
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    Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,060
    edited January 2017

    What I mean is this seems to something for university, not school.

    What about what us old un’s call the VIth Form?
    i
    In schools the subject is rarely, if ever, taught by teachers with industry experience. Why would an IT graduate want to work in a school (except to manage the network)?

    Edited to add: I'm including sixth-form as part of school here. Sixth Form colleges may be different.
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    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,095

    What I mean is this seems to something for university, not school.

    What about what us old un’s call the VIth Form?
    My school still called it the sixth form until last year, and most of us - staff and students - haven't got our heads round its new name yet. 'Sixth form college' is still standard rather than the official 'FE college' - which sounds like something you would send a young Biggles to anyway.
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    not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,341
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    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,318
    Sandpit said:


    Yes, that's a common complaint. We see it a lot in IT, people who maybe be brilliant at building a server or developing software, but lacking in many of the other vital skills required of someone working in corporate IT - whether it be communication, troubleshooting, soft people skills or the standard office-worker skills of turning up on time, having had a shower and being appropriately dressed!

    Now a large company might be able to keep a genius in their IT team who can't talk to people, but unless there's a load of others keeping between him and the business, it's not going to work out. Schools teaching Comp Sci and the like need to concentrate on employable skills as much as the technical ones, else their graduates are going to struggle in the real world.

    Novartis, where I used to work (lovely, patient, tolerant employers in my experience) did have a grumpy, arrogant genius in IT, and an insane manager put him into customer support, where he would say things to callers like "Have you even switched your computer on, you moron?" He was hastily taken off that but still stayed on for a while, until he greeted a delegation of directors visiting the IT centre by asking "Don't these arseholes have anything better to do than waste our time?" A polite enquiry to IT management as to whether this was typical and whether his presence was really essential led to his early retirement...

    (Personally I thought being rude to hapless users seeking help was actually worse than being rude to directors.)
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    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,903


    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.

    One of the ways I keep fed is to give seminars to Chinese groups about How Sttuff Works in the UK, and a couple of weeks ago I did one on entrepreneurship training in Britain (and the EU). Researching this, it still seemed very much a work in progress, interpreted differently in different universities (and in some not at all, though 90% now claim to have a business incubator). There are a few schemes to teach it in schools, even primaries (give kids £5 and ask them to set up a profitable business, e.g. packing bags of sweets and reselling at a small profit), but it's split between two areas of the National Curriculum. Some of the schemes sounded quite good, but unsurprisingly the proportion of working age people in the UK who have ever been involved in starting a business is, at 6%, only half the US level.
    Intersting thought. I have three grandchildren being educated in an English-language school in Bangkok, and the elder one has been in such a project .... suspect the middle one’s coming up for it. I also have a grandchild at at private school in Kent, and she had some complicated project about making and selling pencil cases (I think..... we paid out for something, anyway!) However the other schoolage grandchild, now in a State secondary has never, so far as I know done anything like that.
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    JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 38,879


    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.

    One of the ways I keep fed is to give seminars to Chinese groups about How Sttuff Works in the UK, and a couple of weeks ago I did one on entrepreneurship training in Britain (and the EU). Researching this, it still seemed very much a work in progress, interpreted differently in different universities (and in some not at all, though 90% now claim to have a business incubator). There are a few schemes to teach it in schools, even primaries (give kids £5 and ask them to set up a profitable business, e.g. packing bags of sweets and reselling at a small profit), but it's split between two areas of the National Curriculum. Some of the schemes sounded quite good, but unsurprisingly the proportion of working age people in the UK who have ever been involved in starting a business is, at 6%, only half the US level.
    I'm generally in favour of such schemes, but they're not for everyone. I also like it when they're collaborative, and kids can fulfil various roles that might best fit their skills. It also teaches how to work with people you may not particularly like. ;)

    However my main complaint isn't about entrepreneurship: it's about people having the skills they need for the job. A software engineer leaving university not understanding source control is like a surgeon who has never held a scalpel: they might manage, but they're missing a fundamental and massively transferable skill.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,095

    Sandpit said:


    Yes, that's a common complaint. We see it a lot in IT, people who maybe be brilliant at building a server or developing software, but lacking in many of the other vital skills required of someone working in corporate IT - whether it be communication, troubleshooting, soft people skills or the standard office-worker skills of turning up on time, having had a shower and being appropriately dressed!

    Now a large company might be able to keep a genius in their IT team who can't talk to people, but unless there's a load of others keeping between him and the business, it's not going to work out. Schools teaching Comp Sci and the like need to concentrate on employable skills as much as the technical ones, else their graduates are going to struggle in the real world.

    Novartis, where I used to work (lovely, patient, tolerant employers in my experience) did have a grumpy, arrogant genius in IT, and an insane manager put him into customer support, where he would say things to callers like "Have you even switched your computer on, you moron?" He was hastily taken off that but still stayed on for a while, until he greeted a delegation of directors visiting the IT centre by asking "Don't these arseholes have anything better to do than waste our time?" A polite enquiry to IT management as to whether this was typical and whether his presence was really essential led to his early retirement...

    (Personally I thought being rude to hapless users seeking help was actually worse than being rude to directors.)
    You sure he retired? Sounds very like the Head of Repayments at the Student Loan Company to me. He got really quite shirty with me when I made a very angry complaint over the minor failing that his staff didn't know July was the month before August.
  • Options
    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548
    Roger said:

    Roger said:

    it would make a great clip in a film but i'm not a fan of this sort of amateur psychoanalysis


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN9tde-x2nw

    Thanks for the video. Always a pleasure to see the Sophia Loren like beauty of the First Lady. Pure class.
    I was thinking more Humbert Humbert and Lolita
    Tbe #freemelania tag has some interesting stuff, but when even the Daily MIl picks up on it:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4164486/Trump-president-history-not-wait-wife.html
  • Options
    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300
    edited January 2017
    Roger said:

    it would make a great clip in a film but i'm not a fan of this sort of amateur psychoanalysis


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN9tde-x2nw

    To give the Donald the benefit of the doubt, there is not much there that cannot be explained by first night nerves. Trump might just have said to Melania there are billions of people watching. Who (aside from those standing next to her) knows? Barack and Michelle Obama have been round the block: this is their third inauguration and their umpteenth presidential ceremony, so of course they are comfortable to the point of being laid back.

    I'm with you: this is bad amateur psychoanalysis.
  • Options
    not_on_firenot_on_fire Posts: 4,341


    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.

    One of the ways I keep fed is to give seminars to Chinese groups about How Sttuff Works in the UK, and a couple of weeks ago I did one on entrepreneurship training in Britain (and the EU). Researching this, it still seemed very much a work in progress, interpreted differently in different universities (and in some not at all, though 90% now claim to have a business incubator). There are a few schemes to teach it in schools, even primaries (give kids £5 and ask them to set up a profitable business, e.g. packing bags of sweets and reselling at a small profit), but it's split between two areas of the National Curriculum. Some of the schemes sounded quite good, but unsurprisingly the proportion of working age people in the UK who have ever been involved in starting a business is, at 6%, only half the US level.
    I'm generally in favour of such schemes, but they're not for everyone. I also like it when they're collaborative, and kids can fulfil various roles that might best fit their skills. It also teaches how to work with people you may not particularly like. ;)

    However my main complaint isn't about entrepreneurship: it's about people having the skills they need for the job. A software engineer leaving university not understanding source control is like a surgeon who has never held a scalpel: they might manage, but they're missing a fundamental and massively transferable skill.
    I also don't think they cover any of the essentials of modern IT project management, e.g. Agile, comms tools like Slack etc
  • Options
    ydoethur said:

    What I mean is this seems to something for university, not school.

    What about what us old un’s call the VIth Form?
    My school still called it the sixth form until last year, and most of us - staff and students - haven't got our heads round its new name yet. 'Sixth form college' is still standard rather than the official 'FE college' - which sounds like something you would send a young Biggles to anyway.
    Sixth Form rolls much more trippingly of the tongue than "years 12 and 13" and I haven't heard anyone refer to "key Stage 5" in the wild.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,303
    edited January 2017
    surbiton said:

    Don't think the US government can administer this efficiently. Remember, two of the 9/11 terrorists had their visa to stay in the US approved six months after they were dead.

    It is highly debatable as to whether there is any intention of efficient administration. Chaos and conflict are the point.
    Here's a post by a notable conservative security hawk who makes that case:

    https://lawfareblog.com/malevolence-tempered-incompetence-trumps-horrifying-executive-order-refugees-and-visas
    Put simply, I don’t believe that the stated purpose is the real purpose. This is the first policy the United States has adopted in the post-9/11 era about which I have ever said this. It’s a grave charge, I know, and I’m not making it lightly. But in the rational pursuit of security objectives, you don’t marginalize your expert security agencies and fail to vet your ideas through a normal interagency process. You don’t target the wrong people in nutty ways when you’re rationally pursuing real security objectives.

    When do you do these things? You do these things when you’re elevating the symbolic politics of bashing Islam over any actual security interest. You do them when you’ve made a deliberate decision to burden human lives to make a public point. In other words, this is not a document that will cause hardship and misery because of regrettable incidental impacts on people injured in the pursuit of a public good. It will cause hardship and misery for tens or hundreds of thousands of people because that is precisely what it is intended to do....</>
  • Options
    SquareRootSquareRoot Posts: 7,095
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,095

    ydoethur said:

    What I mean is this seems to something for university, not school.

    What about what us old un’s call the VIth Form?
    My school still called it the sixth form until last year, and most of us - staff and students - haven't got our heads round its new name yet. 'Sixth form college' is still standard rather than the official 'FE college' - which sounds like something you would send a young Biggles to anyway.
    Sixth Form rolls much more trippingly of the tongue than "years 12 and 13" and I haven't heard anyone refer to "key Stage 5" in the wild.
    I hate 'key stages' with a passion. Sounds like a weird approach to transposing music rather than something to do with education.
  • Options
    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...
  • Options
    Scott_P said:

    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...

    Terrible question:

    Because David Cameron thought it would be a good idea to put our EU membership to the public.

    Next inane question please.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,095
    Scott_P said:

    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...

    Are you saying we should get Corbyn or Trump to do it? :wink:
  • Options
    Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    Scott_P said:

    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...

    Not so much a good question as a new benchmark for whataboutery.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,318

    No politician is going to call a referendum on a subject which they care about passing: if is popular then there will be no problem getting it through Parliament (and last week we learned that that has to happen anyway) and if it isn't they wouldn't dare. I expect significant constitutional changes will be enacted by putting them into manifestos and claiming a mandate after a General Election.

    The third category is things that Governments don't really care about but many people do. The option to let local councils hold referenda on how to spend their money and what council tax rates to set is an example. You can hear the Minister: "Surrey wants to vote on their care budget? Why not, dear boy?"

    I agree that the fourth category, referenda that the Government thinks important but feels sure to win, has been killed for the forseeable future by Cameron's Doom.

    The Swiss system allowing referenda every three months if a significant proportion of the electorate wants them works quite well most of the time and it does draw people into taking a more active interest in the pros and cons of proposals. But it carries a significant risk that the voters will sometimes decide something the Government thinks awkward...
  • Options
    John_MJohn_M Posts: 7,503
    edited January 2017


    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.

    .
    I'm generally in favour of such schemes, but they're not for everyone. I also like it when they're collaborative, and kids can fulfil various roles that might best fit their skills. It also teaches how to work with people you may not particularly like. ;)

    However my main complaint isn't about entrepreneurship: it's about people having the skills they need for the job. A software engineer leaving university not understanding source control is like a surgeon who has never held a scalpel: they might manage, but they're missing a fundamental and massively transferable skill.
    I also don't think they cover any of the essentials of modern IT project management, e.g. Agile, comms tools like Slack etc
    I picked a terrible time to do my software engineering MSc with the OU. They were coming to the end of the course lifecycle, so it was horrendously, horrendously out of date (this is back in the days of M880).

    Given developing software was my day job at that time, I endured endless cognitive dissonance between giving the right answer (per the course) and the right answer (as we did it in real life). In fairness to the OU, that's the only course where I felt they were really out of step with the zeitgeist.

    You've piqued my interest; I shall have to have a look at some of the current degree courses and see what they purport to teach.
  • Options
    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453

    Terrible question:

    Because David Cameron thought it would be a good idea to put our EU membership to the public.

    Next inane question please.

    You didn't answer the question, but did prove my point :smile:
  • Options
    edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,141


    I also don't think they cover any of the essentials of modern IT project management, e.g. Agile, comms tools like Slack etc

    Slack was created in 2013, students would be lucky if it's still the thing people are using by the time they've graduated.
  • Options
    Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    Scott_P said:

    Terrible question:

    Because David Cameron thought it would be a good idea to put our EU membership to the public.

    Next inane question please.

    You didn't answer the question, but did prove my point :smile:
    You don't actually know what "outrage" means, do you?
  • Options
    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453
    @JolyonMaugham: Brexit drives us into the arms of the nicest people, doesn't it? And we suck it up because we're out of alternatives.
  • Options
    Ishmael_Z said:

    Scott_P said:

    Terrible question:

    Because David Cameron thought it would be a good idea to put our EU membership to the public.

    Next inane question please.

    You didn't answer the question, but did prove my point :smile:
    You don't actually know what "outrage" means, do you?
    Scott P's a head banger. His brain's scrambled grey and white matter.
  • Options
    CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,570
    Ishmael_Z said:

    Scott_P said:

    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...

    Not so much a good question as a new benchmark for whataboutery.
    Or indeed when there is an "r" in the month. Or not....
  • Options
    foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548
    edited January 2017
    JackW said:

    Good morning Number 1!

    JackW said:

    Good Morning. :smile:

    Good to see you up and about Mr W!
    Thank you.

    It's my duty to tour the dungeons early in the morning to assess levels of live occupancy before any essential cull of yellow perilists straying onto the estate.

    I also have to put new audio on the loop for these residents. Today it's "Speeches of Jeremy Corbyn on Cuba and Venezula" .... President Trump isn't the only one to believe in torture !!

    I am sure that those chained up in your little dungeon would enjoy this little clip:

    https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/825428234141581312

    Snell and Jezza seem to have buried the hatchet, and seem to have quite a fired up ground game.

    Shadsy's 8/1 on UKIP less than 20% looks much better value than TSE's tip.
  • Options
    There's an interesting piece in The Sunday Times this morning on the prospect of the strongly anti EU Thierry Baudet linking up with Geert Wilders' VVD party to form a possible coalition government in The Netherlands after their General Election in just two months time.

    Now that might really stir things up as regards the UK's Brexit plans.
  • Options
    DecrepitJohnLDecrepitJohnL Posts: 13,300

    Sandpit said:

    Yep, would have been a great experience for all of them. The closest similar project in the U.K. Is probably Bloodhound SSC, who are doing loads of work in schools and universities in the process of building a land speed record car. Fingers crossed they go for it this winter, and a donation makes a great present for someone who's got everything. http://www.bloodhoundssc.com

    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.
    On source control and similar. Going back a few years, one reason for the success of Joel Spolsky as a pundit was that he introduced Windows programmers to concepts like source control, makefiles and all the rest that came far more naturally to Unix users. Nowadays, plagiarism is the big bogeyman at universities so this may be why students are once more working alone rather than in groups. (For actual engineers, of course, there was King's Unwritten Laws of Engineering.)
  • Options
    mattmatt Posts: 3,789
    Scott_P said:

    @JolyonMaugham: Brexit drives us into the arms of the nicest people, doesn't it? And we suck it up because we're out of alternatives.

    Cut and paste. Cut and paste. Repeat for 2 million posts.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,810

    Arguably Trump won't care that his ban has been (temporarily) overturned. It just all feeds into his narrative...

    He has achieved his goal, met his campaign promise only to be thwarted by those liberal lefties, win win for him.
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,572
    Top bloke on Marr's sofa this morning!
  • Options
    John_MJohn_M Posts: 7,503

    Ishmael_Z said:

    Scott_P said:

    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...

    Not so much a good question as a new benchmark for whataboutery.
    Or indeed when there is an "r" in the month. Or not....
    We have long had elements of the SNP who feel a stiff breeze justifies a second independence referendum. We now have the English subspecies, where every geopolitical or economic frisson demands Brexit be reconsidered. We just have to accept that this will remain the state of affairs ad nauseam.

    I went to bed extremely exercised by Trump's idiocy. This morning, I'm more inclined to think he's already running up against the constitutional limits of government via XO.
  • Options
    JonathanDJonathanD Posts: 2,400

    There's an interesting piece in The Sunday Times this morning on the prospect of the strongly anti EU Thierry Baudet linking up with Geert Wilders' VVD party to form a possible coalition government in The Netherlands after their General Election in just two months time.

    Now that might really stir things up as regards the UK's Brexit plans.

    What would an anti EU Netherlands do though? There isn't a majority within the country to leave, even if they vote in Wilders, and as euro members they'd do huge damage to themselves if they did try to leave. And they are too small to affect the direction of the EU through their MEP / council votes.
  • Options
    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,903
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    What I mean is this seems to something for university, not school.

    What about what us old un’s call the VIth Form?
    My school still called it the sixth form until last year, and most of us - staff and students - haven't got our heads round its new name yet. 'Sixth form college' is still standard rather than the official 'FE college' - which sounds like something you would send a young Biggles to anyway.
    Sixth Form rolls much more trippingly of the tongue than "years 12 and 13" and I haven't heard anyone refer to "key Stage 5" in the wild.
    I hate 'key stages' with a passion. Sounds like a weird approach to transposing music rather than something to do with education.
    Just outside Southend there’s a college called SEEVIC, South East Essex VIth Form College. Been called that since establishment 40 years or so ago.
  • Options
    Ishmael_ZIshmael_Z Posts: 8,981
    matt said:

    Scott_P said:

    @JolyonMaugham: Brexit drives us into the arms of the nicest people, doesn't it? And we suck it up because we're out of alternatives.

    Cut and paste. Cut and paste. Repeat for 2 million posts.
    I sometimes think it would be better if he added commentary. Then he adds commentary and I think maybe just bare cut n paste is better.
  • Options
    alex.alex. Posts: 4,658
    malcolmg said:

    Arguably Trump won't care that his ban has been (temporarily) overturned. It just all feeds into his narrative...

    He has achieved his goal, met his campaign promise only to be thwarted by those liberal lefties, win win for him.
    The ban hasn't been overturned has it? Just the subsequent deportations. So anyone not in the country still can't come, and anyone already there is stuck in limbo.
  • Options
    mattmatt Posts: 3,789
    John_M said:

    Ishmael_Z said:

    Scott_P said:

    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...

    Not so much a good question as a new benchmark for whataboutery.
    Or indeed when there is an "r" in the month. Or not....
    We have long had elements of the SNP who feel a stiff breeze justifies a second independence referendum. We now have the English subspecies, where every geopolitical or economic frisson demands Brexit be reconsidered. We just have to accept that this will remain the state of affairs ad nauseam.

    I went to bed extremely exercised by Trump's idiocy. This morning, I'm more inclined to think he's already running up against the constitutional limits of government via XO.
    I suspect that he's going to run into the difference between acting as a private company CEO and a President pretty quickly. "Make it happen" has very defined limits.
  • Options
    Nigelb said:

    surbiton said:

    Don't think the US government can administer this efficiently. Remember, two of the 9/11 terrorists had their visa to stay in the US approved six months after they were dead.

    It is highly debatable as to whether there is any intention of efficient administration. Chaos and conflict are the point.
    Here's a post by a notable conservative security hawk who makes that case:

    https://lawfareblog.com/malevolence-tempered-incompetence-trumps-horrifying-executive-order-refugees-and-visas
    Put simply, I don’t believe that the stated purpose is the real purpose. This is the first policy the United States has adopted in the post-9/11 era about which I have ever said this. It’s a grave charge, I know, and I’m not making it lightly. But in the rational pursuit of security objectives, you don’t marginalize your expert security agencies and fail to vet your ideas through a normal interagency process. You don’t target the wrong people in nutty ways when you’re rationally pursuing real security objectives.

    When do you do these things? You do these things when you’re elevating the symbolic politics of bashing Islam over any actual security interest. You do them when you’ve made a deliberate decision to burden human lives to make a public point. In other words, this is not a document that will cause hardship and misery because of regrettable incidental impacts on people injured in the pursuit of a public good. It will cause hardship and misery for tens or hundreds of thousands of people because that is precisely what it is intended to do....</>

    That sounds very plausible. Is it too much to hope that someone in Downing Street is taking proper notice of what is going on here?

    On Thursday Theresa May talked of a new era of US and UK global leadership. Does anyone seriously think that what we have seen since indicates this will be the case?

  • Options
    RoyalBlueRoyalBlue Posts: 3,223
    JonathanD said:

    There's an interesting piece in The Sunday Times this morning on the prospect of the strongly anti EU Thierry Baudet linking up with Geert Wilders' VVD party to form a possible coalition government in The Netherlands after their General Election in just two months time.

    Now that might really stir things up as regards the UK's Brexit plans.

    What would an anti EU Netherlands do though? There isn't a majority within the country to leave, even if they vote in Wilders, and as euro members they'd do huge damage to themselves if they did try to leave. And they are too small to affect the direction of the EU through their MEP / council votes.
    They could veto Turkish entry.
  • Options
    John_MJohn_M Posts: 7,503

    Nigelb said:

    surbiton said:

    Don't think the US government can administer this efficiently. Remember, two of the 9/11 terrorists had their visa to stay in the US approved six months after they were dead.

    It is highly debatable as to whether there is any intention of efficient administration. Chaos and conflict are the point.
    Here's a post by a notable conservative security hawk who makes that case:

    https://lawfareblog.com/malevolence-tempered-incompetence-trumps-horrifying-executive-order-refugees-and-visas
    Put simply, I don’t believe that the stated purpose is the real purpose. This is the first policy the United States has adopted in the post-9/11 era about which I have ever said this. It’s a grave charge, I know, and I’m not making it lightly. But in the rational pursuit of security objectives, you don’t marginalize your expert security agencies and fail to vet your ideas through a normal interagency process. You don’t target the wrong people in nutty ways when you’re rationally pursuing real security objectives.

    When do you do these things? You do these things when you’re elevating the symbolic politics of bashing Islam over any actual security interest. You do them when you’ve made a deliberate decision to burden human lives to make a public point. In other words, this is not a document that will cause hardship and misery because of regrettable incidental impacts on people injured in the pursuit of a public good. It will cause hardship and misery for tens or hundreds of thousands of people because that is precisely what it is intended to do....</>

    That sounds very plausible. Is it too much to hope that someone in Downing Street is taking proper notice of what is going on here?

    On Thursday Theresa May talked of a new era of US and UK global leadership. Does anyone seriously think that what we have seen since indicates this will be the case?

    God no. I'll happily recant any thoughts I had in that direction. America has (apparently) had enough of leading the world. It just wants to bellow at it.
  • Options


    Going off-topic: many moons ago I used to be responsible for recruiting graduates. One of my pet hates was the number of young people who, whilst technically competent, had no idea about the business processes; in some cases even source control was a stranger to them.

    It's a failure by the (sometimes good) universities they studied at.

    I remember one guy who was recruited by a hardware dept who had never touched a BOM (Bill Of Materials). He was aware of the concept, but had no idea how to use or manipulate one. He was notable because another guy who started at roughly the same time had not only done BOMs at university; he had had to phone around suppliers trying to get free samples for a uni project, create a BOM and then fix it when problems arose.

    From what I heard, he got up to speed much more quickly than the first guy, and was a better engineer.

    I'd rather hire someone from a so-called 'poor' university that had been trained in such processes than an otherwise-equivalent person from a 'good' one who had not. Too often universities concentrate on the less-expensive academic side than the more expensive practical side.

    This is particularly relevant for small companies where employees often have to have broad skills.

    One of the ways I keep fed is to give seminars to Chinese groups about How Sttuff Works in the UK, and a couple of weeks ago I did one on entrepreneurship training in Britain (and the EU). Researching this, it still seemed very much a work in progress, interpreted differently in different universities (and in some not at all, though 90% now claim to have a business incubator). There are a few schemes to teach it in schools, even primaries (give kids £5 and ask them to set up a profitable business, e.g. packing bags of sweets and reselling at a small profit), but it's split between two areas of the National Curriculum. Some of the schemes sounded quite good, but unsurprisingly the proportion of working age people in the UK who have ever been involved in starting a business is, at 6%, only half the US level.

    I am not sure you can teach someone to be an entrepreneur. You can teach people who want to be entrepreneurs certain skills, but either you have it in you or you don't. My lucky break came when I teamed up with people who had the gumption to put their money on the line to back the ideas that I had, and the ability to see it through. They were the entrepreneurs - they saw how to turn something that worked on paper into a proper business. It wasn't VC money, there was no playing the percentages, they took me and the ideas and all of a sudden something was created.

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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Paul Lewis has picked up on something else weird that Donald Trump has done: declare his intention to run in 2020. This has legal consequences.

    https://twitter.com/paullewismoney/status/825633530730467334
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    CornishBlueCornishBlue Posts: 840
    edited January 2017
    matt said:

    Scott_P said:

    @JolyonMaugham: Brexit drives us into the arms of the nicest people, doesn't it? And we suck it up because we're out of alternatives.

    Cut and paste. Cut and paste. Repeat for 2 million posts.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie#Goebbels.27s_use_of_the_expression

    "The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous."

    - Goebbels (see also: Remoaners)
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    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,303
    John_M said:

    Ishmael_Z said:

    Scott_P said:

    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...

    Not so much a good question as a new benchmark for whataboutery.
    Or indeed when there is an "r" in the month. Or not....
    We have long had elements of the SNP who feel a stiff breeze justifies a second independence referendum. We now have the English subspecies, where every geopolitical or economic frisson demands Brexit be reconsidered. We just have to accept that this will remain the state of affairs ad nauseam.

    I went to bed extremely exercised by Trump's idiocy. This morning, I'm more inclined to think he's already running up against the constitutional limits of government via XO.
    I don't think that's the case. As the article I cited below points out, the immigration ban is failing because it was incompetently drafted, not because the president lacks very broad powers in this area. I agree with its conclusion:
    it’s a very dangerous thing to have a White House that can’t with the remotest pretense of competence and governance put together a major policy document on a crucial set of national security issues without inducing an avalanche of litigation and wide diplomatic fallout. If the incompetence mitigates the malevolence in this case, that’ll be a blessing. But given the nature of the federal immigration powers, the mitigation may be small and the blessing short-lived; the implications of having an executive this inept are not small and won’t be short-lived.

    And Trump just appointed self professed Leninist Steve Bannon to the NSC. Scary times.
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    JonathanJonathan Posts: 20,901
    SeanT said:

    alex. said:

    malcolmg said:

    Arguably Trump won't care that his ban has been (temporarily) overturned. It just all feeds into his narrative...

    He has achieved his goal, met his campaign promise only to be thwarted by those liberal lefties, win win for him.
    The ban hasn't been overturned has it? Just the subsequent deportations. So anyone not in the country still can't come, and anyone already there is stuck in limbo.
    Trump's (temporary) ban is clumsy, messy and possibly counterproductive. But there's a lot of liberal overreaction. Carter banned all Iranians, I think. And Shia? Obama banned Iraqis. And of course Obama has been bombing and droning Muslims for eight years. A drone on your head is a LOT messier than a 90 day wait for a visa.

    Yet I don't recall Le tout Manhattan marching on the White House when Obama hit the drone button time and again.
    Trump is discovering the difference between governing and campaigning. Will the malignant narcissist adapt?
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    chestnutchestnut Posts: 7,341
    edited January 2017
    JonathanD said:

    There's an interesting piece in The Sunday Times this morning on the prospect of the strongly anti EU Thierry Baudet linking up with Geert Wilders' VVD party to form a possible coalition government in The Netherlands after their General Election in just two months time.

    Now that might really stir things up as regards the UK's Brexit plans.

    What would an anti EU Netherlands do though? There isn't a majority within the country to leave, even if they vote in Wilders, and as euro members they'd do huge damage to themselves if they did try to leave. And they are too small to affect the direction of the EU through their MEP / council votes.
    I would imagine they would resist further eurozone integration, push against Schengen and so on.

    The key point is that anti-Euro parties are now becoming mainstream in 'old' Europe. Five Star in Italy, Le Pen in France - even Fillon is saying that integration has gone as far as it should.

    Throw in the batch of Eastern EU states who are doing the same as Trump and who are you left with in favour of free movement, closer integration, the reduction in autonomy in nation states and so on.

    Germany (so long as no one actually makes them pay for their cheap currency), Brussels eurocrats and ???
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    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,903
    SeanT said:

    alex. said:

    malcolmg said:

    Arguably Trump won't care that his ban has been (temporarily) overturned. It just all feeds into his narrative...

    He has achieved his goal, met his campaign promise only to be thwarted by those liberal lefties, win win for him.
    The ban hasn't been overturned has it? Just the subsequent deportations. So anyone not in the country still can't come, and anyone already there is stuck in limbo.
    Trump's (temporary) ban is clumsy, messy and possibly counterproductive. But there's a lot of liberal overreaction. Carter banned all Iranians, I think. And Shia? Obama banned Iraqis. And of course Obama has been bombing and droning Muslims for eight years. A drone on your head is a LOT messier than a 90 day wait for a visa.

    Yet I don't recall Le tout Manhattan marching on the White House when Obama hit the drone button time and again.
    To be fair, IIRC neither Carter nor Obama’s bans affected people in transit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-38786119
    Certainly not at a moments notice.
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    Scott_PScott_P Posts: 51,453

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie#Goebbels.27s_use_of_the_expression

    "The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous."

    - Goebbels

    https://twitter.com/MichaelPDeacon/status/747000584226607104/photo/1
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    SeanT said:

    alex. said:

    malcolmg said:

    Arguably Trump won't care that his ban has been (temporarily) overturned. It just all feeds into his narrative...

    He has achieved his goal, met his campaign promise only to be thwarted by those liberal lefties, win win for him.
    The ban hasn't been overturned has it? Just the subsequent deportations. So anyone not in the country still can't come, and anyone already there is stuck in limbo.
    Trump's (temporary) ban is clumsy, messy and possibly counterproductive. But there's a lot of liberal overreaction. Carter banned all Iranians, I think. And Shia? Obama banned Iraqis. And of course Obama has been bombing and droning Muslims for eight years. A drone on your head is a LOT messier than a 90 day wait for a visa.

    Yet I don't recall Le tout Manhattan marching on the White House when Obama hit the drone button time and again.

    Trump is a golden opportunity for a smart UK. Technology companies and universities in the US will be particularly affected not only by the specifics of the ban, but also by the atmosphere it creates on campuses, where many staff members are immigrants. If we can frame an immigration policy that stands in contrast to the one that Trump is promoting, as the world's second biggest English-speaking country we have the potential top attract a lot of talent and investment. Unfortunately, the leaden-footed, supine reaction to events we have seen from May and her team indicates that they do not possess the flexibility to think in this way. I suspect that it will be Canada that benefits instead.

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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    SeanT said:

    John_M said:

    Ishmael_Z said:

    Scott_P said:

    Good question

    @jimkillock: Why on earth would anyone sane trigger Article 50 in the midst of this emerging global diplomatic motorway pile up?

    Cue outrage from the headbangers...

    Not so much a good question as a new benchmark for whataboutery.
    Or indeed when there is an "r" in the month. Or not....
    We have long had elements of the SNP who feel a stiff breeze justifies a second independence referendum. We now have the English subspecies, where every geopolitical or economic frisson demands Brexit be reconsidered. We just have to accept that this will remain the state of affairs ad nauseam.

    I went to bed extremely exercised by Trump's idiocy. This morning, I'm more inclined to think he's already running up against the constitutional limits of government via XO.
    For those criticising Theresa May I'm really not sure David Cameron would have done anything differently re Trump. Brexit or no Brexit. The UK always has to accommodate the USA. America is the leading military power in the world, the biggest economic power in the world (alongside China). It's our chief intelligence and security ally. It's the arsenal of the West. The guarantor of European freedom.

    Short of an American Mao becoming POTUS, British PMs, Labour or Tory, will go to Washington looking for close friendship. And offering flattery and praise.

    TMay did what she had to do and she did it well.
    I don't criticise Theresa May. She did what she had to. But she had to do what she had to do because of Brexit. Britain is in a strategically awful position and she's out of options.
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    JobabobJobabob Posts: 3,807

    On topic, I'm with Mr Eagles on this one: in fact I would be amazed if there were another national (as opposed to local) referendum in the U.K. in my lifetime.

    There will be no more UK wide referendums - the one good consequence of the Brexit vote. We are a representative democracy, and the EU referendum should never been allowed to happen.
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    JonathanJonathan Posts: 20,901
    SeanT said:

    SeanT said:

    alex. said:

    malcolmg said:

    Arguably Trump won't care that his ban has been (temporarily) overturned. It just all feeds into his narrative...

    He has achieved his goal, met his campaign promise only to be thwarted by those liberal lefties, win win for him.
    The ban hasn't been overturned has it? Just the subsequent deportations. So anyone not in the country still can't come, and anyone already there is stuck in limbo.
    Trump's (temporary) ban is clumsy, messy and possibly counterproductive. But there's a lot of liberal overreaction. Carter banned all Iranians, I think. And Shia? Obama banned Iraqis. And of course Obama has been bombing and droning Muslims for eight years. A drone on your head is a LOT messier than a 90 day wait for a visa.

    Yet I don't recall Le tout Manhattan marching on the White House when Obama hit the drone button time and again.
    To be fair, IIRC neither Carter nor Obama’s bans affected people in transit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-38786119
    Certainly not at a moments notice.
    Yes, that's one area where the ban was clumsy. Deliberately? Who knows.

    Almost certainly. He wanted to turn the outrage dial up to 11 and give his support some meat. The problem is this time, outside of the campaign, real innocent people get squished.
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    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,914
    SeanT said:

    alex. said:

    malcolmg said:

    Arguably Trump won't care that his ban has been (temporarily) overturned. It just all feeds into his narrative...

    He has achieved his goal, met his campaign promise only to be thwarted by those liberal lefties, win win for him.
    The ban hasn't been overturned has it? Just the subsequent deportations. So anyone not in the country still can't come, and anyone already there is stuck in limbo.
    Trump's (temporary) ban is clumsy, messy and possibly counterproductive. But there's a lot of liberal overreaction. Carter banned all Iranians, I think. And Shia? Obama banned Iraqis. And of course Obama has been bombing and droning Muslims for eight years. A drone on your head is a LOT messier than a 90 day wait for a visa.

    Yet I don't recall Le tout Manhattan marching on the White House when Obama hit the drone button time and again.
    I think that's fair. I also wonder if he knew it was likely unconstitutional in parts (i.e. those people issued valid US visas), and he wanted it to get struck down by the Supreme Court, so he could turn to his base and say "fucking elites, stopping me from protecting our country".

    On the other hand, there's a steady drip-drip of him alienating a few of his supporters at a time. There will be thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people who voted for him and have a friend who falls under these categories, and think "whoahhh... that's a bit much".

    The thing that may come back to haunt him on this, of course, is that the countries terrorists who have attacked the US come from are:

    Saudi Arabia (2,369 US citizens killed)
    UAE (314)
    Egypt (162)
    Lebanon (159)

    While the number of terrorist attacks carried out by Iranians (0), Yemeni (0), Sudan (0) and Libya (0).

    It looks awfully like the US ban is more about business interests than preventing actual terrorists from going to the US.

    (On the other hand, in Toulouse they must be high-fiving. That $17bn order for Boeing planes is surely soon going to be going to Airbus instead.)
This discussion has been closed.