Thanks for that, Mr.D. One thought - the closer Red Bull are to Ferrari, perhaps the better for Mercedes, as the two tend to be stronger on the same tracks (which are weaker for the German outfit). If they take wins off each other, it might stymie a title challenge. I'm assuming track suitability won't change massively from last season, which seems a reasonable starting assumption.
Mr. Sandpit, agree with that and would add that Mercedes have some doubts over how well they'll do on the softer compounds, which, of course, are more in use at street circuits. Australia won't be a full-blown outlier like Monaco/Singapore, but it may well suit Mercedes' rivals. It's also the sort of track where McLaren have to do well if they're going to achieve anything this year.
Yes, McLaren seem to have had a few teething problems with the integration of the new Renault PU, but hopefully they’ve worked through them now. Australia is somewhere they’ve traditionally done quite well. Note that the Mercedes wheelbase is slightly shorter this year, and Ferrari slightly longer, so Monaco and Singapore might not be the massive outliers they were in the past - although of course Lewis came in at 22/1 to win in Singapore last year
If the Mercs win comfortably in Australia, then it’s going to be 2014 all over again this year.
The Mercedes wheelbase is exactly the some as last year, isn't it ?
Mr. Sandpit, agree with that and would add that Mercedes have some doubts over how well they'll do on the softer compounds, which, of course, are more in use at street circuits. Australia won't be a full-blown outlier like Monaco/Singapore, but it may well suit Mercedes' rivals. It's also the sort of track where McLaren have to do well if they're going to achieve anything this year.
Yes, McLaren seem to have had a few teething problems with the integration of the new Renault PU, but hopefully they’ve worked through them now. Australia is somewhere they’ve traditionally done quite well. Note that the Mercedes wheelbase is slightly shorter this year, and Ferrari slightly longer, so Monaco and Singapore might not be the massive outliers they were in the past - although of course Lewis came in at 22/1 to win in Singapore last year
If the Mercs win comfortably in Australia, then it’s going to be 2014 all over again this year.
The Mercedes wheelbase is exactly the some as last year, isn't it ?
Publicly they’ve described the car as sticking with the long-wheelbase philosophy, but some people reckon from photos that it’s slightly shorter than last year. We’ll probably never know unless someone gets close enough to a car with a tape measure! Ferrari have said theirs is longer than last year, but it’s probably still shorter than the Merc.
Mr. B, possibly. If both those teams are better than Mercedes on street circuits, though, that'll push Mercedes down to 5th/6th.
It's better to be 1st and 3rd than 2nd throughout, but if Mercedes are the third fastest team on street circuits then they could have a tricky time even if they're the best on fast circuits.
On topic. I am against proxy voting for MPs. If it is to go ahead I suggest that, in order to maintain the MP/constituency link, the proxy should be the runner-up to the MP in the previous GE.
Isn’t that how the Vice-President used to be decided in the States?
Mr. Sandpit, agree with that and would add that Mercedes have some doubts over how well they'll do on the softer compounds, which, of course, are more in use at street circuits. Australia won't be a full-blown outlier like Monaco/Singapore, but it may well suit Mercedes' rivals. It's also the sort of track where McLaren have to do well if they're going to achieve anything this year.
Yes, McLaren seem to have had a few teething problems with the integration of the new Renault PU, but hopefully they’ve worked through them now. Australia is somewhere they’ve traditionally done quite well. Note that the Mercedes wheelbase is slightly shorter this year, and Ferrari slightly longer, so Monaco and Singapore might not be the massive outliers they were in the past - although of course Lewis came in at 22/1 to win in Singapore last year
If the Mercs win comfortably in Australia, then it’s going to be 2014 all over again this year.
The Mercedes wheelbase is exactly the some as last year, isn't it ?
Publicly they’ve described the car as sticking with the long-wheelbase philosophy, but some people reckon from photos that it’s slightly shorter than last year. We’ll probably never know unless someone gets close enough to a car with a tape measure! Ferrari have said theirs is longer than last year, but it’s probably still shorter than the Merc.
I thought Wolff had said in so many words it's unchanged ? Not that it matters massively.
I'm more interested to see if they've managed to regain the benefits of their suspension trickery which got banned last year (something that made the title chase relatively close).
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
That does give a clue as to where all the Romanians in South Yorkshire are working - Amazon sweatshops have been multiplying like amoebas along the M18.
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
Mr. B, possibly. If both those teams are better than Mercedes on street circuits, though, that'll push Mercedes down to 5th/6th.
It's better to be 1st and 3rd than 2nd throughout, but if Mercedes are the third fastest team on street circuits then they could have a tricky time even if they're the best on fast circuits.
Yes, I had considered that, but even in that case, its better for Mercedes if they are taking the wins off each other. FWIW, my guess is Mercedes out in front again.
Let's replace MPs with robots controlled by their constituents.
As each vote takes place the robot electronically seeks constituents views and votes accordingly. True democracy enabled by technology. Vorsprung Durch Technik. Government by the people, for the people.
I have a strong suspicion that this idea is already being piloted, and possibly at a very high level. Little else would explain the quality of many of the speeches.
Who is going to pay the tax on them, that’s what I want to know.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
That does give a clue as to where all the Romanians in South Yorkshire are working - Amazon sweatshops have been multiplying like amoebas along the M18.
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
On topic. I am against proxy voting for MPs. If it is to go ahead I suggest that, in order to maintain the MP/constituency link, the proxy should be the runner-up to the MP in the previous GE.
Isn’t that how the Vice-President used to be decided in the States?
Yes. Jefferson wasn't particularly keen on Burr having openly campaigned against him, though...
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
That does give a clue as to where all the Romanians in South Yorkshire are working - Amazon sweatshops have been multiplying like amoebas along the M18.
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Firstly, Corbyn has nothing to do with this, as Charles said it's a motion from a single CLP. Secondly, some very clever people are talking about this idea wrt AI.
It's more interesting that you think.
What’s most interesting is Labour’s knee jerk reaction is to tax.
Technological shifts and the impact on employment are clearly an issue that needs consideration. Increasing the running cost of (presumably) more productive capital is rarely the right answer
It is not just the impact on employment that is the problem, but also on the government's finances. People are taxed: their income is taxed; their spending is taxed; their jobs are taxed. Who will pay for schools and lampposts?
Profits and spending
Will there be profits to tax, or will the money taken in Britain all have been "spent" leasing robots from subsidiaries in tax havens?
That’s another topic but I’m fully in sympathy. I’m absolutely not a fan of tax dodging - I’ve been pitched every one of the schemes that seem to trip footballers and comedians up and rejected them all as unethical. ISAs and SIPPs is as racy as i get on the front!
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
On the subject of teacher workload: all schools’ leadership teams are terrified of OFSTEAD and will do anything to appease them. I teach at a school that has been rated outstanding in every category in all of the inspections it has had, and still a significant proportion of the policies that went past me when I was a governor were there ‘in case of an inspection’. (For those thinks that was why school was Outstanding, it is a grammar school so the results were good, and that is most of what they look at). Horror stories abound of schools rated badly for simple infractions. We have recently had a change of head and a mock inspection was arraigned because we are worried that this will trigger a real one. Ironically for many staff these are things of legend as our last inspection was about ten years ago and most staff haven’t been here that long. Ultimately these are very like the Key Stage 2 tests at the end of Primary school: a test of the school, but not something of any positive benefit to the education of our pupils.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
That does give a clue as to where all the Romanians in South Yorkshire are working - Amazon sweatshops have been multiplying like amoebas along the M18.
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
Let's replace MPs with robots controlled by their constituents.
As each vote takes place the robot electronically seeks constituents views and votes accordingly. True democracy enabled by technology. Vorsprung Durch Technik. Government by the people, for the people.
I have a strong suspicion that this idea is already being piloted, and possibly at a very high level. Little else would explain the quality of many of the speeches.
Who is going to pay the tax on them, that’s what I want to know.
The Maybot 1000 has had some considerable teething issues.....
On topic. I am against proxy voting for MPs. If it is to go ahead I suggest that, in order to maintain the MP/constituency link, the proxy should be the runner-up to the MP in the previous GE.
Isn’t that how the Vice-President used to be decided in the States?
Yes. Jefferson wasn't particularly keen on Burr having openly campaigned against him, though...
Given the way Burr's career developed while Vice President, that shows good judgement by Jefferson!
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
Yes, I think increases in health and social care spending are inevitable.
Am I alone in being slightly puzzled that the first policeman on the scene when Yulia and Sergei Skripal collapsed was a detective? Or was it a genuine coincidence?
Mr. B, possibly. If both those teams are better than Mercedes on street circuits, though, that'll push Mercedes down to 5th/6th.
It's better to be 1st and 3rd than 2nd throughout, but if Mercedes are the third fastest team on street circuits then they could have a tricky time even if they're the best on fast circuits.
Yes, I had considered that, but even in that case, its better for Mercedes if they are taking the wins off each other. FWIW, my guess is Mercedes out in front again.
I’m trying to decide whether to bet on Mercedes before or after Australia. Lewis is pretty much evens for the title on Betfair (1.97 last time I looked) but if they don’t run win the first race that price might go out a little.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
That does give a clue as to where all the Romanians in South Yorkshire are working - Amazon sweatshops have been multiplying like amoebas along the M18.
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
When a government is not doing overly well, there is always money for tax cuts. It is rather similar to how, during austerity, a quick billion could be rustled up to "engage" the DUP's support for C&S
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
The homeless issue has become much more visible in the last few years.
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
The homeless issue has become much more visible in the last few years.
The last time I saw homeless people in London, they were mostly professional pan handlers from Romania. I don't know what the situation is outside of London though.
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
When a government is not doing overly well, there is always money for tax cuts. It is rather similar to how, during austerity, a quick billion could be rustled up to "engage" the DUP's support for C&S
Late to the party again, but just to say that checkout staff aren't being replaced by robots, they are being replaced by the customers doing the job for free.
This is the case in many examples of so-called automation, from filling your car with petrol to paying a cheque in at the bank.
(Grammar moment - I'm never sure if it should be 'replaced by' or 'replaced with'.)
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
The homeless issue has become much more visible in the last few years.
The reality of it came out during the cold snap - people running shelters saying that they can't persuade some rough sleepers to stay at the shelter - they are choosing to sleep on the streets. Rather shattered the narrative.
Am I alone in being slightly puzzled that the first policeman on the scene when Yulia and Sergei Skripal collapsed was a detective? Or was it a genuine coincidence?
Detective sergeant as well. I’d assumed that he was walking past and assisted, it took until the following day that they realised this wasn’t a regular drug overdose. His car was at the hospital rather than the scene, which suggests he wasn’t immediately sick.
Late to the party again, but just to say that checkout staff aren't being replaced by robots, they are being replaced by the customers doing the job for free.
This is the case in many examples of so-called automation, from filling your car with petrol to paying a cheque in at the bank.
(Grammar moment - I'm never sure if it should be 'replaced by' or 'replaced with'.)
Cash withdrawal from banks has been available via ATM machines rather than bank tellers since the 1970s. "Automation" at the customer contact point is nothing new. The internet also started operating back in the 1970s.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
Late to the party again, but just to say that checkout staff aren't being replaced by robots, they are being replaced by the customers doing the job for free.
This is the case in many examples of so-called automation, from filling your car with petrol to paying a cheque in at the bank.
(Grammar moment - I'm never sure if it should be 'replaced by' or 'replaced with'.)
I believe that in some US states you still have to have an attendant fill your car for you. I assume the reason give would be ‘safety’, though I’m not aware of a significant number of accidents when filling up a tank of fuel.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Firstly, Corbyn has nothing to do with this, as Charles said it's a motion from a single CLP. Secondly, some very clever people are talking about this idea wrt AI.
It's more interesting that you think.
What’s most interesting is Labour’s knee jerk reaction is to tax.
Technological shifts and the impact on employment are clearly an issue that needs consideration. Increasing the running cost of (presumably) more productive capital is rarely the right answer
It is not just the impact on employment that is the problem, but also on the government's finances. People are taxed: their income is taxed; their spending is taxed; their jobs are taxed. Who will pay for schools and lampposts?
Profits and spending
Will there be profits to tax, or will the money taken in Britain all have been "spent" leasing robots from subsidiaries in tax havens?
Surely the leasing company will want the lease costs to be charged in the country with the highest tax rate to get the maximum benefit from tax relief to share with the operator?
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
That does give a clue as to where all the Romanians in South Yorkshire are working - Amazon sweatshops have been multiplying like amoebas along the M18.
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
On topic. I am against proxy voting for MPs. If it is to go ahead I suggest that, in order to maintain the MP/constituency link, the proxy should be the runner-up to the MP in the previous GE.
Isn’t that how the Vice-President used to be decided in the States?
Yes. Jefferson wasn't particularly keen on Burr having openly campaigned against him, though...
Given the way Burr's career developed while Vice President, that shows good judgement by Jefferson!
You should go see the Hamilton musical (although ticket prices are extremely steep). It is a brilliant piece of writing.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
The head of a school my son went to said parents should not expect good results of the school because the parents of many of the pupils were prison officers. We got him sacked.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
That does give a clue as to where all the Romanians in South Yorkshire are working - Amazon sweatshops have been multiplying like amoebas along the M18.
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
LOL. My 6ft (and large with it) Primary school teacher grandSON is, apparently, in a similar situation.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
LOL. My 6ft (and large with it) Primary school teacher grandSON is, apparently, in a similar situation.
And likely to be promoted to management, if he wants it...
Late to the party again, but just to say that checkout staff aren't being replaced by robots, they are being replaced by the customers doing the job for free.
This is the case in many examples of so-called automation, from filling your car with petrol to paying a cheque in at the bank.
(Grammar moment - I'm never sure if it should be 'replaced by' or 'replaced with'.)
I believe that in some US states you still have to have an attendant fill your car for you. I assume the reason give would be ‘safety’, though I’m not aware of a significant number of accidents when filling up a tank of fuel.
You don't want to spill fuel on your open carry assault weapon.
The Leavers were being restrained and keeping their criticisms private. Only the Remainers who decided to go blue on blue, because, I suspect, they know they don't have the numbers to archive anything now.
I see no problem uniting the party after Brexit. One or two back benchers always have a grievance about something; this issue will be no different.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
The head of a school my son went to said parents should not expect good results of the school because the parents of many of the pupils were prison officers. We got him sacked.
Aspiration is a many splendid thing.
Prison officers ? Unacceptable, of course, but it seems a strange thing to say.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
LOL. My 6ft (and large with it) Primary school teacher grandSON is, apparently, in a similar situation.
And likely to be promoted to management, if he wants it...
Doesn’t at the moment, apparently. Likes the challenge of his class.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
LOL. My 6ft (and large with it) Primary school teacher grandSON is, apparently, in a similar situation.
It does help that I’m the only teacher who knows how the timetable works.
Mrs C, don't forget, without us Grammar Nazis, the L33t War would've been lost.
For those like me not in the know.
Leet (sometimes written as "1337" or "l33t"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is another alphabet for the English language that is used mostly on the internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters. Hence
A, /-\ or /\ or 4 or @. B, |3 or 8 or |o. C, ( or < or K or S. D, |) or o| or |> or <|. E, 3. F, |= or ph. G, ( or 9 or 6. H, |-| or ]-[ or }-{ or (-) or )-( or #. I, l or 1 or | or ! or ][. J, _|. K, | < or /< or \< or |{. L, |_ or | or 1. M, |\/| or /\/\ or |'|'| or (\/) or /\\ or /|\ or /v\. N, |\| or /\/ or | \\| or /|/. O, 0 or () or [] or {}. P, |2 or |D. Q, (,) or kw. R, |2 or |Z or |?. S, 5 or $.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
The IFS shouldn't be making such proclamations, just another example of their continued politicisation of the numbers.
If it were me I'd push £350m per week into the NHS by 2022 and increase defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP. Both of those put together will cost ~£20bn per year extra compared to our current spending trajectory.
My forecast shows a balanced budget by 2021/22, the extra £17bn in spending would put the deficit at 0.7%, I think those two pledges together will win the 2022 election regardless of who the leader is.
However, at that low level our debt levels will start to fall quite rapidly, given 4% nominal growth.
Late to the party again, but just to say that checkout staff aren't being replaced by robots, they are being replaced by the customers doing the job for free.
This is the case in many examples of so-called automation, from filling your car with petrol to paying a cheque in at the bank.
(Grammar moment - I'm never sure if it should be 'replaced by' or 'replaced with'.)
I believe that in some US states you still have to have an attendant fill your car for you. I assume the reason give would be ‘safety’, though I’m not aware of a significant number of accidents when filling up a tank of fuel.
You don't want to spill fuel on your open carry assault weapon.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
LOL. My 6ft (and large with it) Primary school teacher grandSON is, apparently, in a similar situation.
It does help that I’m the only teacher who knows how the timetable works.
It’s the basic mathematics involved with physics that does it! A friend, a retired maths teacher, apparently designs timetables for schools on a contract basis.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
The head of a school my son went to said parents should not expect good results of the school because the parents of many of the pupils were prison officers. We got him sacked.
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
The IFS shouldn't be making such proclamations, just another example of their continued politicisation of the numbers.
If it were me I'd push £350m per week into the NHS by 2022 and increase defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP. Both of those put together will cost ~£20bn per year extra compared to our current spending trajectory.
My forecast shows a balanced budget by 2021/22, the extra £17bn in spending would put the deficit at 0.7%, I think those two pledges together will win the 2022 election regardless of who the leader is.
However, at that low level our debt levels will start to fall quite rapidly, given 4% nominal growth.
From whence do you get the figure of £350m a week for the NHS? Have you been looking at buses?
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school tea As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
LOL. My 6ft (and large with it) Primary school teacher grandSON is, apparently, in a similar situation.
It does help that I’m the only teacher who knows how the timetable works.
It’s the basic mathematics involved with physics that does it! A friend, a retired maths teacher, apparently designs timetables for schools on a contract basis.
Any idea what he charges? Could be useful to know...
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
The IFS shouldn't be making such proclamations, just another example of their continued politicisation of the numbers.
If it were me I'd push £350m per week into the NHS by 2022 and increase defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP. Both of those put together will cost ~£20bn per year extra compared to our current spending trajectory.
My forecast shows a balanced budget by 2021/22, the extra £17bn in spending would put the deficit at 0.7%, I think those two pledges together will win the 2022 election regardless of who the leader is.
However, at that low level our debt levels will start to fall quite rapidly, given 4% nominal growth.
From whence do you get the figure of £350m a week for the NHS? Have you been looking at buses?
The Leavers were being restrained and keeping their criticisms private. Only the Remainers who decided to go blue on blue, because, I suspect, they know they don't have the numbers to archive anything now.
I see no problem uniting the party after Brexit. One or two back benchers always have a grievance about something; this issue will be no different.
I still don’t understand why a group of people who all work in the same building feel the need to communicate in writing like this. In any group of people, someone will eventually get p1ssed off with something and leak the whole conversation to a friendly journalist. Stick with the smoke-filled rooms for plotting.
If I were Trump I would exempt the UK. Our steel exports to the US (even before tariffs) were de minimus, so why not, as it garners a little bit of good publicity.
The question is whether we should take the bait.
And my belief is 'no'. A rules based - i.e. WTO - system for world trade works in our favour in the long term. A 'might is right' system works for the US and China and (possibly) the EU. It doesn't work for any of the next 10 world powers, which is where we sit.
We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain.
Our long term interests are in telling the US, "yes, we'd like tariff free access to the US, but it needs to be in the context of a proper FTA," not at the whim of the current US President.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
The IFS shouldn't be making such proclamations, just another example of their continued politicisation of the numbers.
If it were me I'd push £350m per week into the NHS by 2022 and increase defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP. Both of those put together will cost ~£20bn per year extra compared to our current spending trajectory.
My forecast shows a balanced budget by 2021/22, the extra £17bn in spending would put the deficit at 0.7%, I think those two pledges together will win the 2022 election regardless of who the leader is.
However, at that low level our debt levels will start to fall quite rapidly, given 4% nominal growth.
From whence do you get the figure of £350m a week for the NHS? Have you been looking at buses?
Yes.
If you brought social care within the remit of the NHS you could say that you had increased NHS spending without actually increasing NHS spending.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
The head of a school my son went to said parents should not expect good results of the school because the parents of many of the pupils were prison officers. We got him sacked.
Aspiration is a many splendid thing.
Many splendoured thing, and "We got him sacked" is not an attractive boast.
The Leavers were being restrained and keeping their criticisms private. Only the Remainers who decided to go blue on blue, because, I suspect, they know they don't have the numbers to archive anything now.
I see no problem uniting the party after Brexit. One or two back benchers always have a grievance about something; this issue will be no different.
I still don’t understand why a group of people who all work in the same building feel the need to communicate in writing like this. In any group of people, someone will eventually get p1ssed off with something and leak the whole conversation to a friendly journalist. Stick with the smoke-filled rooms for plotting.
I agree, but having said that, there is nothing really explosive in these chats, suggesting the MPs were sensibly guarded in their comments. All that is really revealed is that they were deeply frustrated by arch-Remainers but acted responsibly and didn't retaliate.
"We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain." Like Germany and France and the 3% deficit rule of the Growth and Stability Pact.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates floated the idea of taxing robots, which is probably where Corbyn heard it.
Indeed, it's not as silly as you think, especially when you consider that humans are taxed for the same job and that warps the market.
You don’t know how silly I think it is. Very very very is the answer. He’d have banned electric trains because it put the firemen out of a job, or the bloke with a red flag walking in front of cars, the list is endless.
It’s crackpottery pure and simple.
Do you get The Week magazine? the long bit on the last 2 pages is an excerpt from a book by James Bloodworth, about working in an Amazon warehouse, and makes you think automation can't come quick enough. I am seriously thinking it isn't morally right to buy stuff from Amazon.
Incidentally, pretty much all 1200 workers at the warehouse are East European, to the extent a Romanian asks him what an English bloke is doing working there.
That does give a clue as to where all the Romanians in South Yorkshire are working - Amazon sweatshops have been multiplying like amoebas along the M18.
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
Evidence from Massachusetts and Louisiana shows that charter schools with strong accountability measures makes a huge difference to students performance for many years. And the biggest impact is on the poorest kids. A big problem in teaching is low expectations for poor kids.
If I were Trump I would exempt the UK. Our steel exports to the US (even before tariffs) were de minimus, so why not, as it garners a little bit of good publicity.
The question is whether we should take the bait.
And my belief is 'no'. A rules based - i.e. WTO - system for world trade works in our favour in the long term. A 'might is right' system works for the US and China and (possibly) the EU. It doesn't work for any of the next 10 world powers, which is where we sit.
We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain.
Our long term interests are in telling the US, "yes, we'd like tariff free access to the US, but it needs to be in the context of a proper FTA," not at the whim of the current US President.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
This is a good article about Success Academy in New York, which mainly has poor Hispanic and African American children. They have closed the gap between their students and middle class children in New York. So much for "feral kids will never achieve anything".
Wonder if there might be some indication of tax cuts in the spring statement. Given the continued growth of the economy, it would be a good time to make the case for how lowering personal taxation stimulates economic activity.
No, the government needs to balance the budget. We're 10 years into the economic cycle, the UK is due a recession and all signs point to a housing crash and consumer spending downturn, both of those can trigger a recession and before that happens the chancellor should be running a balanced budget or a small surplus.
Much more importantly, as the head of the IFS was pointing out yesterday, we have now got to the point that many public services are chronically underfunded after the best part of a decade of being squeezed. I expect some of the undershoot in borrowing to be ploughed into the NHS and Social Care as well as housing and some modest money on university fees.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
The IFS shouldn't be making such proclamations, just another example of their continued politicisation of the numbers.
If it were me I'd push £350m per week into the NHS by 2022 and increase defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP. Both of those put together will cost ~£20bn per year extra compared to our current spending trajectory.
My forecast shows a balanced budget by 2021/22, the extra £17bn in spending would put the deficit at 0.7%, I think those two pledges together will win the 2022 election regardless of who the leader is.
However, at that low level our debt levels will start to fall quite rapidly, given 4% nominal growth.
From whence do you get the figure of £350m a week for the NHS? Have you been looking at buses?
Just pouring money into NHS is stupid. The waste already is huge, sort it out first and manage it properly. They would be in crisis again by the following month. Defence is a black hole for willy waving Tories, again sort out the half witted leaders and their piss poor procurement. Far better things for money to be spent on.
If I were Trump I would exempt the UK. Our steel exports to the US (even before tariffs) were de minimus, so why not, as it garners a little bit of good publicity.
The question is whether we should take the bait.
And my belief is 'no'. A rules based - i.e. WTO - system for world trade works in our favour in the long term. A 'might is right' system works for the US and China and (possibly) the EU. It doesn't work for any of the next 10 world powers, which is where we sit.
We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain.
Our long term interests are in telling the US, "yes, we'd like tariff free access to the US, but it needs to be in the context of a proper FTA," not at the whim of the current US President.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
This is why we should join the Trans-Pacific Partnership first.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
Evidence from Massachusetts and Louisiana shows that charter schools with strong accountability measures makes a huge difference to students performance for many years. And the biggest impact is on the poorest kids. A big problem in teaching is low expectations for poor kids.
Poor economically (which is, after all the point of grammar schools) or poor in attitude to learning?
If I were Trump I would exempt the UK. Our steel exports to the US (even before tariffs) were de minimus, so why not, as it garners a little bit of good publicity.
The question is whether we should take the bait.
And my belief is 'no'. A rules based - i.e. WTO - system for world trade works in our favour in the long term. A 'might is right' system works for the US and China and (possibly) the EU. It doesn't work for any of the next 10 world powers, which is where we sit.
We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain.
Our long term interests are in telling the US, "yes, we'd like tariff free access to the US, but it needs to be in the context of a proper FTA," not at the whim of the current US President.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
This is why we should join the Trans-Pacific Partnership first.
We should have joined EFTA/EEA. It didn't have to be forever. Our entanglement with the EU lasted decades; we should have budgeted a decade to unwind that process.
My view is there's a certain amount of paranoia about Brexit being reversed (and that's not entirely unjustified when we look at the Constitution referendum shenanigans back in the day), which is causing indecent haste in rushing for the exits.
Apologies for flogging the dead horse once more. I shall try and resist the urge to refight 2016 .
Late to the party again, but just to say that checkout staff aren't being replaced by robots, they are being replaced by the customers doing the job for free.
This is the case in many examples of so-called automation, from filling your car with petrol to paying a cheque in at the bank.
(Grammar moment - I'm never sure if it should be 'replaced by' or 'replaced with'.)
The whole of banking has been an orchestrated move from paid cashiers doing the work in banks to customers doing their own paper shuffling on the net. With no wages costs or property costs to the banks. And if those customers get it wrong and lose a mass of their money - tough. Your problem. And the lack of branches now means you have virtually damn all alternatives unless you are in a city or a big town. In Dartmouth, for example, we will soon lose the last of our four banks. The nearest branches are a 15 mile drive to Totnes, or require a ferry journey to get to Torquay.
And cash is being massively squeezed out, so that soon won't be a problem for banks to worry about either.
Defence is a black hole for willy waving Tories, again sort out the half witted leaders and their piss poor procurement. Far better things for money to be spent on.
Tory defence policies are always defined by their anticipated reception by the deranged reactionaries of the Daily Mail comments section. Hence when Cameron decided to get rid of 5,000 RN ratings and officers (only 7% of the entire force, no big deal) the MoD didn't fancy the shitstorm that compulsory redundancies would provoke and so made it almost all voluntary redundancies. The people who took the voluntary redundancies weren't the ones the RN actually needed to get rid off but those who had the best civvie employment prospects. So we paid the most experienced personnel with niche technical skills to leave the service. The leads to the happy situation in which we now find ourselves where 10% of the escort fleet are tied up for lack of ratings and officers.
Regarding the Damian Hinds story which was supposed to have disappeared, but hasn't, just what does he mean by 'red tape' in this context ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43345857
I'm married to a teacher (HoF: English). They appear to be measured not only on outcomes (which is what I've been used to, both in the public and private sector) but on process compliance. It ain't just what you do, it's the way that you do it.
The result is system gaming of epic proportions, and I say that having 22 years of sales experience .
I’m the grandfather of a primary school teacher, who is about to marry a VI Form College teacher, and I’m also the grandfather of a secondary school teacher who has recently quit teaching for another education related profession. I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that. As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
I'm going to fall back on cliche 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. I agree that teachers have little control over their inputs; while many of the children at my beloved's school are well behaved, there are a sizeable minority who are almost feral.
My grandson teaches in a school in a ‘difficult’ area. His school is part of a ‘Group” of ‘academies’ and apparently comparisons are made with the results his school achieves with those in more middle class areas.
I often say that students have got the grades they deserve. Mind you, I’m a Physics teacher and so virtually unsackable...
Evidence from Massachusetts and Louisiana shows that charter schools with strong accountability measures makes a huge difference to students performance for many years. And the biggest impact is on the poorest kids. A big problem in teaching is low expectations for poor kids.
I’d like a reference, but I suspect that 'accountablity measures’ (a definition would be useful) make a difference to poor but bright children.
It would be really unfortunate if any of those Sheffield councillors could be shown to have had any links, direct or otherwise, to the firm undertaking that felling....
This is a good article about Success Academy in New York, which mainly has poor Hispanic and African American children. They have closed the gap between their students and middle class children in New York. So much for "feral kids will never achieve anything".
The KIPPs programme was one of the original movements in the US and has been incredibly successful at getting kids from terrible backgrounds into college.
To expand on my slightly flippant remark about ‘deserved’ results, one problem those of us who teach Year 13 face is that sometimes a student will be holding an offer from a university that doesn’t include the subject you are teaching. They will, entirely rationally, not spend much time preparing for it and so underperform. We, both as individual teachers and as departments will then be held to account over this. There are even an increasing number of students holding unconditional offers, issued by universities determined to get a firm acceptance. They can be a challenge to motivate...
If I were Trump I would exempt the UK. Our steel exports to the US (even before tariffs) were de minimus, so why not, as it garners a little bit of good publicity.
The question is whether we should take the bait.
And my belief is 'no'. A rules based - i.e. WTO - system for world trade works in our favour in the long term. A 'might is right' system works for the US and China and (possibly) the EU. It doesn't work for any of the next 10 world powers, which is where we sit.
We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain.
Our long term interests are in telling the US, "yes, we'd like tariff free access to the US, but it needs to be in the context of a proper FTA," not at the whim of the current US President.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
This is why we should join the Trans-Pacific Partnership first.
Questions. How far away is the UK from the nearest bit of the Pacific Ocean? Are we the furthest away of any country on earth?
We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain.
Our long term interests are in telling the US, "yes, we'd like tariff free access to the US, but it needs to be in the context of a proper FTA," not at the whim of the current US President.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
This is why we should join the Trans-Pacific Partnership first.
We should have joined EFTA/EEA. It didn't have to be forever. Our entanglement with the EU lasted decades; we should have budgeted a decade to unwind that process.
My view is there's a certain amount of paranoia about Brexit being reversed (and that's not entirely unjustified when we look at the Constitution referendum shenanigans back in the day), which is causing indecent haste in rushing for the exits.
Apologies for flogging the dead horse once more. I shall try and resist the urge to refight 2016 .
EFTA/EEA would still mean deciding where to place the customs border with Ireland... It wouldn’t have been a short cut to resolving the majority of the issues that have come up so far.
If I were Trump I would exempt the UK. Our steel exports to the US (even before tariffs) were de minimus, so why not, as it garners a little bit of good publicity.
The question is whether we should take the bait.
And my belief is 'no'. A rules based - i.e. WTO - system for world trade works in our favour in the long term. A 'might is right' system works for the US and China and (possibly) the EU. It doesn't work for any of the next 10 world powers, which is where we sit.
We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain.
Our long term interests are in telling the US, "yes, we'd like tariff free access to the US, but it needs to be in the context of a proper FTA," not at the whim of the current US President.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
This is why we should join the Trans-Pacific Partnership first.
We should have joined EFTA/EEA. It didn't have to be forever. Our entanglement with the EU lasted decades; we should have budgeted a decade to unwind that process.
My view is there's a certain amount of paranoia about Brexit being reversed (and that's not entirely unjustified when we look at the Constitution referendum shenanigans back in the day), which is causing indecent haste in rushing for the exits.
Apologies for flogging the dead horse once more. I shall try and resist the urge to refight 2016 .
EFTA/EEA became impossible when so-called moderate Leavers fell in behind xenophobic lies in the referendum campaign. Still they seem unable to realise what they did.
To expand on my slightly flippant remark about ‘deserved’ results, one problem those of us who teach Year 13 face is that sometimes a student will be holding an offer from a university that doesn’t include the subject you are teaching. They will, entirely rationally, not spend much time preparing for it and so underperform. We, both as individual teachers and as departments will then be held to account over this. There are even an increasing number of students holding unconditional offers, issued by universities determined to get a firm acceptance. They can be a challenge to motivate...
Very short term thinking by the students. What if they end up dropping out of the degree? It happens. They will have very poor A levels to fall back on.
If I were Trump I would exempt the UK. Our steel exports to the US (even before tariffs) were de minimus, so why not, as it garners a little bit of good publicity.
The question is whether we should take the bait.
And my belief is 'no'. A rules based - i.e. WTO - system for world trade works in our favour in the long term. A 'might is right' system works for the US and China and (possibly) the EU. It doesn't work for any of the next 10 world powers, which is where we sit.
We want a rules based system. We don't want bigger, stronger, countries to be able to rip up their treaty commitments for short term gain.
Our long term interests are in telling the US, "yes, we'd like tariff free access to the US, but it needs to be in the context of a proper FTA," not at the whim of the current US President.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
This is why we should join the Trans-Pacific Partnership first.
Questions. How far away is the UK from the nearest bit of the Pacific Ocean? Are we the furthest away of any country on earth?
We still have territory there. Pitcairn Island I think.
To expand on my slightly flippant remark about ‘deserved’ results, one problem those of us who teach Year 13 face is that sometimes a student will be holding an offer from a university that doesn’t include the subject you are teaching. They will, entirely rationally, not spend much time preparing for it and so underperform. We, both as individual teachers and as departments will then be held to account over this. There are even an increasing number of students holding unconditional offers, issued by universities determined to get a firm acceptance. They can be a challenge to motivate...
Very short term thinking by the students. What if they end up dropping out of the degree? It happens. They will have very poor A levels to fall back on.
Wouldn’t we all have done that. These students are 17-18, and they seemed to have jumped the hurdle. Arguably our friend Mr FT should be counselling them. of course.
To expand on my slightly flippant remark about ‘deserved’ results, one problem those of us who teach Year 13 face is that sometimes a student will be holding an offer from a university that doesn’t include the subject you are teaching. They will, entirely rationally, not spend much time preparing for it and so underperform. We, both as individual teachers and as departments will then be held to account over this. There are even an increasing number of students holding unconditional offers, issued by universities determined to get a firm acceptance. They can be a challenge to motivate...
Very short term thinking by the students. What if they end up dropping out of the degree? It happens. They will have very poor A levels to fall back on.
Yes, I’ve tried that argument. They don’t think it will happen to them, and the ones who don’t need Physics but do need the others (often medics, so very bright) are too worried about just missing their offers.
Ironically I was in a similar position myself at school, back in the days of Fourth Term Entrance, as I had a two E offer. I don’t remember busting a gut in those last two terms.
Defence is a black hole for willy waving Tories, again sort out the half witted leaders and their piss poor procurement. Far better things for money to be spent on.
Tory defence policies are always defined by their anticipated reception by the deranged reactionaries of the Daily Mail comments section. Hence when Cameron decided to get rid of 5,000 RN ratings and officers (only 7% of the entire force, no big deal) the MoD didn't fancy the shitstorm that compulsory redundancies would provoke and so made it almost all voluntary redundancies. The people who took the voluntary redundancies weren't the ones the RN actually needed to get rid off but those who had the best civvie employment prospects. So we paid the most experienced personnel with niche technical skills to leave the service. The leads to the happy situation in which we now find ourselves where 10% of the escort fleet are tied up for lack of ratings and officers.
Exactly and NHS is run in similar manner, they hose money down the drain. Pretty sure most government departments are the same , PFI and outsourcing are two scandals for sure.
Defence is a black hole for willy waving Tories, again sort out the half witted leaders and their piss poor procurement. Far better things for money to be spent on.
Tory defence policies are always defined by their anticipated reception by the deranged reactionaries of the Daily Mail comments section. Hence when Cameron decided to get rid of 5,000 RN ratings and officers (only 7% of the entire force, no big deal) the MoD didn't fancy the shitstorm that compulsory redundancies would provoke and so made it almost all voluntary redundancies. The people who took the voluntary redundancies weren't the ones the RN actually needed to get rid off but those who had the best civvie employment prospects. So we paid the most experienced personnel with niche technical skills to leave the service. The leads to the happy situation in which we now find ourselves where 10% of the escort fleet are tied up for lack of ratings and officers.
Exactly and NHS is run in similar manner, they hose money down the drain. Pretty sure most government departments are the same , PFI and outsourcing are two scandals for sure.
The Leavers were being restrained and keeping their criticisms private. Only the Remainers who decided to go blue on blue, because, I suspect, they know they don't have the numbers to archive anything now.
I see no problem uniting the party after Brexit. One or two back benchers always have a grievance about something; this issue will be no different.
I still don’t understand why a group of people who all work in the same building feel the need to communicate in writing like this. In any group of people, someone will eventually get p1ssed off with something and leak the whole conversation to a friendly journalist. Stick with the smoke-filled rooms for plotting.
It is bizzare.
Pick up the phone? Have a meeting? Nah, we'll chat on a permanently recordable medium....
If I were Trump I would exempt the UK. Our steel exports to the US (even before tariffs) were de minimus, so why not, as it garners a little bit of good publicity.
The question is whether we should take the bait.
FPT, I completely agree with this position, out Trump's supposed exception into the context of a free trade deal with the US.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
This is why we should join the Trans-Pacific Partnership first.
We should have joined EFTA/EEA. It didn't have to be forever. Our entanglement with the EU lasted decades; we should have budgeted a decade to unwind that process.
My view is there's a certain amount of paranoia about Brexit being reversed (and that's not entirely unjustified when we look at the Constitution referendum shenanigans back in the day), which is causing indecent haste in rushing for the exits.
Apologies for flogging the dead horse once more. I shall try and resist the urge to refight 2016 .
EFTA/EEA became impossible when so-called moderate Leavers fell in behind xenophobic lies in the referendum campaign. Still they seem unable to realise what they did.
Or it became impossible when so-called moderate Remainers started doing all they could to frustrate the result of the referendum....
Comments
One thought - the closer Red Bull are to Ferrari, perhaps the better for Mercedes, as the two tend to be stronger on the same tracks (which are weaker for the German outfit). If they take wins off each other, it might stymie a title challenge.
I'm assuming track suitability won't change massively from last season, which seems a reasonable starting assumption.
It's better to be 1st and 3rd than 2nd throughout, but if Mercedes are the third fastest team on street circuits then they could have a tricky time even if they're the best on fast circuits.
I'm more interested to see if they've managed to regain the benefits of their suspension trickery which got banned last year (something that made the title chase relatively close).
The irony is that Amazon aren't particularly cheap - you can buy the book for less on ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hired-Six-Months-Undercover-in-Low-Wage-Britain-James-Bloodworth/282866582134?epid=4015471524&hash=item41dc298276:g:xysAAOSw1p1al~EV
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hired-Months-Undercover-Low-Wage-Britain/dp/1786490145/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520679939&sr=8-1&keywords=hired&dpID=61kERzD0FuL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
People use Amazon because it is convenient.
FWIW, my guess is Mercedes out in front again.
Who is going to pay the tax on them, that’s what I want to know.
Oddly books is where it is less good.
No money for tax cuts I’m afraid.
Jefferson wasn't particularly keen on Burr having openly campaigned against him, though...
I’d concur wholeheartedly that they appear to be overloaded with process, as opposed to outcomes, but also there appears to be an assumption that if the outcomes are not satisfactory it’s the teachers who have ‘failed’. Anyone with business experience knows that there are times when the multi-faceted experience that is life just doesn’t behave in the way it’s supposed to, and teachers are not immune from that.
As well as the teaching descendants there were several teachers in my fathers family, and I’m married to an ex-teacher. Groups of children do not all behave in the same way, even though they are drawn from the same social and geographical areas, and expecting there to be the same result from the same process each year is even trickier than forecasting farming yields.
Ultimately these are very like the Key Stage 2 tests at the end of Primary school: a test of the school, but not something of any positive benefit to the education of our pupils.
Or indeed the likes of Home Bargains, BM and all those shops with the name PoundXXXXX.
Where Amazon does well is against all the 'mediocre middle' chains.
Desperate times -> desperate measures
This is the case in many examples of so-called automation, from filling your car with petrol to paying a cheque in at the bank.
(Grammar moment - I'm never sure if it should be 'replaced by' or 'replaced with'.)
The Grammar Nazis are out in force
It is a brilliant piece of writing.
Aspiration is a many splendid thing.
The Leavers were being restrained and keeping their criticisms private. Only the Remainers who decided to go blue on blue, because, I suspect, they know they don't have the numbers to archive anything now.
I see no problem uniting the party after Brexit. One or two back benchers always have a grievance about something; this issue will be no different.
Unacceptable, of course, but it seems a strange thing to say.
Leet (sometimes written as "1337" or "l33t"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is another alphabet for the English language that is used mostly on the internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters. Hence
A, /-\ or /\ or 4 or @. B, |3 or 8 or |o. C, ( or < or K or S. D, |) or o| or |> or <|. E, 3. F,
|= or ph. G, ( or 9 or 6. H, |-| or ]-[ or }-{ or (-) or )-( or #. I, l or 1 or | or ! or ][. J, _|. K, |
< or /< or \< or |{. L, |_ or | or 1. M, |\/| or /\/\ or |'|'| or (\/) or /\\ or /|\ or /v\. N, |\| or /\/ or | \\| or /|/. O, 0 or () or [] or {}. P, |2 or |D. Q, (,) or kw. R, |2 or |Z or |?. S, 5 or $.
If it were me I'd push £350m per week into the NHS by 2022 and increase defence expenditure to 2.5% of GDP. Both of those put together will cost ~£20bn per year extra compared to our current spending trajectory.
My forecast shows a balanced budget by 2021/22, the extra £17bn in spending would put the deficit at 0.7%, I think those two pledges together will win the 2022 election regardless of who the leader is.
However, at that low level our debt levels will start to fall quite rapidly, given 4% nominal growth.
Mr. Sandpit, I agree, but, then, I'm a cautious chap.
Mr. Alan, that's rather good
Like Germany and France and the 3% deficit rule of the Growth and Stability Pact.
The ardent pursuit of such an agreement with the US suggested the Howard government did not have a clear perception of Australia's national interest. Australia's opportunities for future trading growth were much more likely to be in Asia.
But it also represents a deeper misperception. Australia is a middle-level power whose prosperity is enhanced in a world where trade is free and governed by universal rules, rules that facilitate a level playing field and make trade between all nations easier.
A world in which bilateral trading agreements play a more central role favours the biggest countries, such as the US and China. Their power affords them superior bargaining leverage to win concessions favouring their domestic constituencies. Australia and most other countries have an interest in more global agreements.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/success-academy-charter-schools-eva-moskowitz/546554/
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/our-region/south-yorkshire/sheffield/sheffield-council-forced-to-reveal-target-to-remove-17-500-street-trees-under-pfi-deal-1-9056942
My view is there's a certain amount of paranoia about Brexit being reversed (and that's not entirely unjustified when we look at the Constitution referendum shenanigans back in the day), which is causing indecent haste in rushing for the exits.
Apologies for flogging the dead horse once more. I shall try and resist the urge to refight 2016
And cash is being massively squeezed out, so that soon won't be a problem for banks to worry about either.
That is all huge progress. If you are a bank.
There are even an increasing number of students holding unconditional offers, issued by universities determined to get a firm acceptance. They can be a challenge to motivate...
There’s a fun taxonomy of Brexit tribes here:
https://twitter.com/k_niemietz/status/968424171981197314?s=21
Arguably our friend Mr FT should be counselling them. of course.
Ironically I was in a similar position myself at school, back in the days of Fourth Term Entrance, as I had a two E offer. I don’t remember busting a gut in those last two terms.
Pick up the phone? Have a meeting? Nah, we'll chat on a permanently recordable medium....