Yeah the people that seem to attack London don't seem to actually live or work there.
I like its diversity and the fact it feels young and fast-moving. Of course if you don't like that kind of thing then you're free to move out. But a lot of elderly people seem to attack London despite not living there for years.
Personally I moved away from the countryside to London because there is sod all to do!
With all due respect, “the countryside” is not the only alternative to London.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
You might expect me to say this but from the sample of black professional people I've spoken to personally (not representative: all in my network, so all middle-class, and in their 30s to early 40s) they just want what the rest of us have: good careers, good schools, decent home to own, safe neighbourhoods etc.
Most of them are enthusiastic and practicing Christians as well, which I found interesting.
All of them are married with families.
The Tories miss a trick when they overlook this. I know a couple of Bangladeshi origin - came here in the 70s - who say that economicaslly their instinct tells them to vote Conservative as their family has small businesses and they think the Tories are better for low business taxes. They are long-standing members of the Labour Party because they feel the party sees them as normal people and the Conservatives traditionally do not - "unless we're millionaires they see us as a general problem rather than as individuals". They feel it's got a bit better with people like Sunak near the top, but still mistrust the instincts of the party as a whole.
The Christianity is not a surprise - immigrants make up a very large portion of the active church going cohort in the UK.
A surprising number of people are not aware that power in the Church Of England is in the process of moving from UK church men & women to those from Africa.
The CoE in the UK is going out of business, while it's booming in Africa.
The cultural gap is quite large. It will be interesting times when we get our first African Archbishop of Canterbury.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Okay, I don't live in London. Is it not true that the number of murders has significantly increased over the past few years, and in recent weeks there have been violent clashes and numerous injuries, while the police were kneeling in front of protestors rather than standing up to them?
I’ve lived in London 35 years (with periods abroad) It definitely feels edgier now than, say, ten years ago. But it still feels significantly better than 20-30 years ago.
So personal experience matches the statistics, which is unusual but pleasing.
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
I can't read much of his blog, because it comes across as if it's written by poor AI, and some of the stuff is beyond offensive - usually preceded with "I'm not making a judgement - just presenting the facts".
I do agree that a lot of the civil service doesn't work though. I read a quote last week - the gist of which was Cummings sitting in his office reading the headlines about "another Gove disaster", while watching the civil servant responsible walk to the lift, whistling happily, as they headed home at 3.30pm.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
You might expect me to say this but from the sample of black professional people I've spoken to personally (not representative: all in my network, so all middle-class, and in their 30s to early 40s) they just want what the rest of us have: good careers, good schools, decent home to own, safe neighbourhoods etc.
Most of them are enthusiastic and practicing Christians as well, which I found interesting.
All of them are married with families.
The Tories miss a trick when they overlook this. I know a couple of Bangladeshi origin - came here in the 70s - who say that economicaslly their instinct tells them to vote Conservative as their family has small businesses and they think the Tories are better for low business taxes. They are long-standing members of the Labour Party because they feel the party sees them as normal people and the Conservatives traditionally do not - "unless we're millionaires they see us as a general problem rather than as individuals". They feel it's got a bit better with people like Sunak near the top, but still mistrust the instincts of the party as a whole.
The Christianity is not a surprise - immigrants make up a very large portion of the active church going cohort in the UK.
A surprising number of people are not aware that power in the Church Of England is in the process of moving from UK church men & women to those from Africa.
The CoE in the UK is going out of business, while it's booming in Africa.
The cultural gap is quite large. It will be interesting times when we get our first African Archbishop of Canterbury.
I do agree that a lot of the civil service doesn't work though. I read a quote last week - the gist of which was Cummings sitting in his office reading the headlines about "another Gove disaster", while watching the civil servant responsible walk to the lift, whistling happily, as they headed home at 3.30pm.
But Gove accepted responsibility for his mistakes, right?
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Yes, it’s utter bilge. I also live in London, but I have travelled to Brazil frequently over the last 20 years (may be a while before I’m able to go again, though). Anyone who thinks London is unpoliceable should spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro, if they really want to know what being in an unpoliceable city feels like.
Absolutely. There's no comparison between the London of recent years and that of my youth. Even then it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't upset Reggie and Ronny.
As I have just said to Malc you reflect the way the Scots Nats dismissed every reasonable argument 70 years ago and it got then nowhere.
If and when another referendum is held serious questions will require serious answers, not insults and hyperbole
I think the point is you can’t make an economic case for independence. Salmond tried that several times and got rebuffed. The numbers simply don’t add up without epic fiddling.
The emotional case is the strong one. ‘Scotland is a grown up nation and deserves better than being run by the English’ is a powerful argument. Farage showed how effective it was on the far weaker emotional case for exiting the EU.
The question is whether it’s strong enough, on its own. At the moment such evidence as there is suggests not. That may change, of course.
Correct , it is impossible to know what the finances of Scotland would be if independent , given the arse the unionists claim to have made of it and continuously boasting of what a pig's ear they have made of it is bizarre. Would be hard to be any worse off and given we will have no debt and will implement policies to suit our own economy then it can only be better and bear little resemblance to the fiddled Westminster fake numbers.
Your last sentence falls as it is just the decades long nationalists hyperbole
I really do look forward to a referendum and these issues being openly discussed and of course the recent decision by Starmer, and no doubt Brown, determination to defend the union just raised the bar much higher
You are fighting WWI G if you think anyone gives a crap for Starmer , London millionaire peer or failed loser , Northern Britisher Brown. Both part of theestablishment of Westminster troughers. PS: Can you answer following, why is Scotland with all its natural resources poorer than every developed small nation of a similar size on every measurement, most of whom have little or no natural resources in comparison. Tell me how the union managed that success.
Hi Malc. I’m just getting a bit concerned about these comments.
An hour and a half and not a single turnip has been thrown yet,
Has the hot weather had a negative effect on stockpiles or are you saving them for phase 2 of lockdown?
"Hundreds of disturbing accounts are being set up every day which refer to both potential and prolific abusers as ‘MAPs’ – Minor-Attracted Persons – to escape the ‘stigma’ attached to the word paedophile.
The anonymous users have even created their own rainbow ‘MAP Pride’ flag – with some arguing they should be celebrated as a niche group alongside the LGBT community."
Sounds like PIE all over again, trying to normalise their perversions and illegal activities.
I thought the PC term was "cross-generational relationships."
They’ll be claiming they’re a “gender” next and that anyone criticising them is an “ist” of some kind.
And they would be wrong. Gender is a very personal thing that affects how you see yourself in the world. It does not inflict harm on others.
I quite agree. But paedophiles will claim that (a) they are not inflicting harm; (b) the child led them on; and / or (c) that it is a “loving” relationship from which the child benefits.
All 3 of these arguments have been put forward by paedophiles - or those arguing for them, such as PIE - at some time or other. I would not be surprised to see them repackaged in some other form and represented.
I would also take issue with your final sentence. In some cases, it can inflict harm on others. But I have other stuff to do. Off to help Daughter with her business.
She is currently alternating between tiredness and gloom at her prospects, not helped by very windy rainy days the last couple of days......
Astonishingly good figures for Sturgeon there, considering that this is a Great Britain-wide poll. She clearly has an awful lot of admirers in England. Rightly so.
The winner of the Next First Minister market depends largely on when Sturgeon decides to go.
There is of course the issue of what Ladbrokes and other bookies would do if the job title changes. That could be pre- or post-independence, or in conjunction with it. The office of First Minister of Norway was changed to Prime Minister of Norway 27 years prior to their successful independence referendum in 1905. On the other hand, even when independent, Scots could decide to keep the name of the office as First Minister, which has the advantage of familiarity. The job title is far less important than the substantive powers.
Norway and Sweden were in a personal rather than political Union under the crown of Sweden after 1873 (not 1878). That change was the reason why the title changed (and the location of the office, which was previously in Stockholm not Oslo). Scotland and England are in one United Kingdom. The parallel doesn’t work.
Or to put it another way, do you really think Boris Johnson or even Keir Starmer will be willing to put forward and pass legislation that would change the statutory office of First Minister established under Section 44 of the Scotland Act 1998, that would further the SNP narrative they both reject?
“one United Kingdom”
Ho ho.
I’m a big fan of the Johnson/Starmer Jock-bashing axis: they have both decided to simply keep building the dam higher and higher, as the weight of water behind the crumbling, ill-designed structure just keeps getting greater and greater. Tony Blair was no structural engineer, and his blueprint to “kill nationalism stone dead” has so enraged British Nationalists that they have set themselves on an irreversible course to destroying the thing they claim to love.
Are you saying Scotland is not part of the United Kingdom?
Intellectually: no.
Emotionally: no.
Technically: kind of.
Yet in 2014 55% of actual Scottish voters disagreed. And since then there is no metric other than a few MoE polls to suggest a substantial shift.
Try not to confuse wishful thinking from the safe(ish) distance of Sweden with reality.
55% of people resident in Scotland, which is not quite the same thing.
Personally, I’d prefer zero polling on this topic. The shock when the reality hits home as the dam collapses...
Umm, Scottish voters are ‘people resident in Scotland.’ That’s why they have, y’know, votes in Scotland.
The problem for Scottish independence is that while its supporters are becoming more strident the actual issues have, if anything, moved the fundamentals against them.
In 2014 there were serious doubts as to whether Scotland could remain in the EU, which was vital to the economic case for independence. Now, we know it wouldn’t be in the EU and would have to apply under article 49, a long process.
In 2014, there was a strong government with substantial Scottish representation in Westminster, which had worked effectively with the SNP to deliver a referendum that everyone agrees was free, fair and democratic, although some quibbles about the franchise and its extent remain. It was a government that could be expected to negotiate a divorce on a reasonable basis, in good faith. Now, we have a factional, divisive and populist English dominated government led by an unstable liar whose skills in negotiations are zero, and because of that, would not negotiate at all. His response would be, ‘independence? Fine. Sod off. Enjoy the border checks at Gretna.’
The oil price is on the floor and may never recover fully.
The pound, leaving aside its own serious issues, is being debased to support the government of the UK, and the Euro continues to be a mess, so the currency situation would still be unclear.
The SNP itself is divided and the Salmond saga is far from over. It may bring down Sturgeon. More likely it simply becomes a festering sore that taints a government noted for its patriotism but not for its executive ability.
Does that mean a referendum on independence would vote no again? Well, no, not for certain. Often these things are about emotion rather than reason (Brexit and perhaps more pertinently, the Irish Free State wave hello). And the mere fact the UK government is so unpopular in Scotland in itself does probably have an impact.
But there is no sign of a shift from 45-55 to the 60-40 that would probably be needed to call a referendum in the expectation of winning it. I strongly suspect, indeed, that if Sturgeon had thought May or Johnson would have granted her a referendum she wouldn’t have called for one, as a second ‘No’ really would kill independence and possibly the SNP stone dead.
Personally, I wonder if this all isn’t irrelevant anyway, as I think the age of the nation state (and there I include the EU) may be drawing to an end for other reasons. But I personally would be surprised if Scotland were to become independent in the next ten years. Not shocked, not dying of a heart attack, but surprised.
Ydoethur, your one weakness is your knowledge of Scotland , Independence, SNP etc. You don't half write a load of old bollocks on the topic. Apart from that keep up the good work. Might be worth reading some actual Scottish "real" news sites rather than the Times and Daily Mail.
The big difference from 2014 is that neither of the two big Westminster parties have any skin in the game from Scotland anymore. The Secretary of State for Scotland isn't even from a Scottish constituency anymore. This matters - there are no longer credible Scottish unionists figures from Westminster to oppose the movement to indepdendence - so it will only be a matter of time.
Only STV - or similar electoral reform for Westminster elections - can ensure that there are Unionist MPs elected in respectable numbers from Scotland.
The election of 80% SNP MPs on 45% of the vote completely distorts the political climate.
As I have just said to Malc you reflect the way the Scots Nats dismissed every reasonable argument 70 years ago and it got then nowhere.
If and when another referendum is held serious questions will require serious answers, not insults and hyperbole
I think the point is you can’t make an economic case for independence. Salmond tried that several times and got rebuffed. The numbers simply don’t add up without epic fiddling.
The emotional case is the strong one. ‘Scotland is a grown up nation and deserves better than being run by the English’ is a powerful argument. Farage showed how effective it was on the far weaker emotional case for exiting the EU.
The question is whether it’s strong enough, on its own. At the moment such evidence as there is suggests not. That may change, of course.
Correct , it is impossible to know what the finances of Scotland would be if independent , given the arse the unionists claim to have made of it and continuously boasting of what a pig's ear they have made of it is bizarre. Would be hard to be any worse off and given we will have no debt and will implement policies to suit our own economy then it can only be better and bear little resemblance to the fiddled Westminster fake numbers.
Your last sentence falls as it is just the decades long nationalists hyperbole
I really do look forward to a referendum and these issues being openly discussed and of course the recent decision by Starmer, and no doubt Brown, determination to defend the union just raised the bar much higher
You are fighting WWI G if you think anyone gives a crap for Starmer , London millionaire peer or failed loser , Northern Britisher Brown. Both part of theestablishment of Westminster troughers. PS: Can you answer following, why is Scotland with all its natural resources poorer than every developed small nation of a similar size on every measurement, most of whom have little or no natural resources in comparison. Tell me how the union managed that success.
Been under the SNP for too long Malc
That is utter and total crap G, best thing that ever happened to us, go and have a look at the respective record/ policies and then come back and apologise for talking absolute claptrap. You think they would be getting ever more popular if they were bad , some serious bias there.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
What is lacking amongst our leaders is not mathematical ability (or not just that) but emotional intelligence, above all. Plus good judgment and integrity.
Mathematical models are not the whole answer, though - properly understood and used - they will help. Many people in finance thought that a new brilliant model would help them eliminate or manage risk. They were hopelessly wrong because they neither understood the models or the risks they were meant to be managing but because they ignored the biggest risk of all - in any organisation or sector - people.
As in finance so in government and politics, as we are seeing on a daily basis.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions.
Point of order: other than the very simplest of issues, it’s actually much harder to identify a problem than to offer solutions. Public and private sectors are littered with failed projects where a solution was found before the problem was fully understood and agreed by all involved and a clear case had been made as to what it would be worth to solve the problem. If you need convincing, read the problem statement in the Lansley health reform strategy - less than a page long.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
You might expect me to say this but from the sample of black professional people I've spoken to personally (not representative: all in my network, so all middle-class, and in their 30s to early 40s) they just want what the rest of us have: good careers, good schools, decent home to own, safe neighbourhoods etc.
Most of them are enthusiastic and practicing Christians as well, which I found interesting.
All of them are married with families.
I would expect anyone to say this because it is indisputably the case.
(i) Micro. Every person is unique. There are vast differences between people.
(ii) Macro. People are the same. There is no difference between them.
These 2 statements are both true.
Anyone that did not know that is a dummy of the first order
On topic, if Dom C is going to continue reshaping Whitehall, I wonder whether Robert Buckland is worth a bet at 12/1 as the next one out. It seems to me like the Ministry of Justice would be an ideal target for Johnson to chop - seen as quite lefty, relatively new, prisons can be given back to the Home Office under a minister seen as hardline and sends a shot across the bows of meddling judges with courts either going back to a reconstituted Lord Chancellor's Department and / or a new Agency structure.
As the last government which tried to abolish the Lord Chancellor found, you need legislation to do so. It is not something you can simply announce on a Monday morning. OTOH if the Lord Chancellor is again made responsible for judges that would simply be going back to the old system.
And incidentally, the justice system - courts, judges etc - is not “quite new” but one of the oldest institutions around. Rather older and more venerable than the Tory party let alone the UKIP-lite shower we currently have in charge.
But if Buckland leaves or is sacked then I would not be surprised to find the Tories appointing some lamentable third-rater in his place in the dishonourable tradition of Truss, Grayling and co.
Hi Cyclefree, I was thinking more a return to the status ante quo of making the Lord Chancellor responsible for judges and an argument that having the Home Office taking over prisons etc would make a more "streamlined" process.
Going back to the old ways re the Lord Chancellor sounds good to me but then the Lord Chancellor should be a lawyer/politician - and one of some standing.
Re the Home Office and prisons, it seems to me that the former is so overwhelmed with stuff at the moment that adding yet more to the portfolio will do nothing for it or prisons.
What is lacking amongst our leaders is not mathematical ability (or not just that) but emotional intelligence, above all. Plus good judgment and integrity.
The left always claim their ideas would work, if only they were implemented properly.
Cummings and Gove seem to have convinced themselves the catastrophe at education would have been fine "if only the civil servants had done it right"
If that really is their mindset, we are in for a World of hurt.
Cummings reminds me of the protagonist in the movie Source Code, who wants to detonate a dirty bomb outside Chicago, because "if you want to rebuild from the rubble, first their must be rubble"
Their instinct is destructive, and i don't think they have any clue what might emerge instead.
Yeah the people that seem to attack London don't seem to actually live or work there.
I like its diversity and the fact it feels young and fast-moving. Of course if you don't like that kind of thing then you're free to move out. But a lot of elderly people seem to attack London despite not living there for years.
Personally I moved away from the countryside to London because there is sod all to do!
How long you been in London?
I have lived in London for decades. One thing that London has over many other cities around the world, is that it is a series of... planes of existence. Physically, the rich rub shoulders with the poor, cultures mix etc. This makes people feel nice and liberal.
In terms of actually society, you can be standing next to someone but be a million miles from them.
By this, I contrast with the places in the world where gating, policing and ghettos are combined to ensure that the undesirable (deplorables?) are physically separated from the... presentable?
For example, I have no fear of the small streets of Oxford Street. Lancashire Court is a place where I can get a semi-decent Old Fashioned for a long price, to me.
Yet for others with a different angle on life - not so. People have been stabbed to death yards away. I bear little or no risk - the way it works in London, is that too the people who are involved in such things, I am just another part of the street furniture.
On one occasion, I was helping a friend pick some things up at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepards Bush. I was waiting in one of the semi outdoor cafes in the pedestrianised "street" that runs through the site. A shout. A gang of young men ran through - pursing one other, young man. They vanished round the corner.
Though they ran through the crowd of shoppers, they were not there. We must have seemed like ghosts to them. Perhaps we are as unreal at Celebrity TV, to them.
I do agree that a lot of the civil service doesn't work though. I read a quote last week - the gist of which was Cummings sitting in his office reading the headlines about "another Gove disaster", while watching the civil servant responsible walk to the lift, whistling happily, as they headed home at 3.30pm.
But Gove accepted responsibility for his mistakes, right?
I don't know. Gove's communication skills are so surreal that I doubt anyone knows.
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
What is lacking amongst our leaders is not mathematical ability (or not just that) but emotional intelligence, above all. Plus good judgment and integrity.
Mathematical models are not the whole answer, though - properly understood and used - they will help. Many people in finance thought that a new brilliant model would help them eliminate or manage risk. They were hopelessly wrong because they neither understood the models or the risks they were meant to be managing but because they ignored the biggest risk of all - in any organisation or sector - people.
As in finance so in government and politics, as we are seeing on a daily basis.
This strategy is problematic because its difficult to challenge. You have to be a mathematician. Many senior figures in the banking industry clearly had zero idea what the exposure of their bank really was, because they could not understand the maths. Indeed, I understand that in a few cases the positions were so many and so complex, the mathematicians didn't either.
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
Astonishingly good figures for Sturgeon there, considering that this is a Great Britain-wide poll. She clearly has an awful lot of admirers in England. Rightly so.
The winner of the Next First Minister market depends largely on when Sturgeon decides to go.
There is of course the issue of what Ladbrokes and other bookies would do if the job title changes. That could be pre- or post-independence, or in conjunction with it. The office of First Minister of Norway was changed to Prime Minister of Norway 27 years prior to their successful independence referendum in 1905. On the other hand, even when independent, Scots could decide to keep the name of the office as First Minister, which has the advantage of familiarity. The job title is far less important than the substantive powers.
Norway and Sweden were in a personal rather than political Union under the crown of Sweden after 1873 (not 1878). That change was the reason why the title changed (and the location of the office, which was previously in Stockholm not Oslo). Scotland and England are in one United Kingdom. The parallel doesn’t work.
Or to put it another way, do you really think Boris Johnson or even Keir Starmer will be willing to put forward and pass legislation that would change the statutory office of First Minister established under Section 44 of the Scotland Act 1998, that would further the SNP narrative they both reject?
“one United Kingdom”
Ho ho.
I’m a big fan of the Johnson/Starmer Jock-bashing axis: they have both decided to simply keep building the dam higher and higher, as the weight of water behind the crumbling, ill-designed structure just keeps getting greater and greater. Tony Blair was no structural engineer, and his blueprint to “kill nationalism stone dead” has so enraged British Nationalists that they have set themselves on an irreversible course to destroying the thing they claim to love.
Are you saying Scotland is not part of the United Kingdom?
Intellectually: no.
Emotionally: no.
Technically: kind of.
Yet in 2014 55% of actual Scottish voters disagreed. And since then there is no metric other than a few MoE polls to suggest a substantial shift.
Try not to confuse wishful thinking from the safe(ish) distance of Sweden with reality.
55% of people resident in Scotland, which is not quite the same thing.
Personally, I’d prefer zero polling on this topic. The shock when the reality hits home as the dam collapses...
Umm, Scottish voters are ‘people resident in Scotland.’ That’s why they have, y’know, votes in Scotland.
The problem for Scottish independence is that while its supporters are becoming more strident the actual issues have, if anything, moved the fundamentals against them.
In 2014 there were serious doubts as to whether Scotland could remain in the EU, which was vital to the economic case for independence. Now, we know it wouldn’t be in the EU and would have to apply under article 49, a long process.
In 2014, there was a strong government with substantial Scottish representation in Westminster, which had worked effectively with the SNP to deliver a referendum that everyone agrees was free, fair and democratic, although some quibbles about the franchise and its extent remain. It was a government that could be expected to negotiate a divorce on a reasonable basis, in good faith. Now, we have a factional, divisive and populist English dominated government led by an unstable liar whose skills in negotiations are zero, and because of that, would not negotiate at all. His response would be, ‘independence? Fine. Sod off. Enjoy the border checks at Gretna.’
The oil price is on the floor and may never recover fully.
The pound, leaving aside its own serious issues, is being debased to support the government of the UK, and the Euro continues to be a mess, so the currency situation would still be unclear.
The SNP itself is divided and the Salmond saga is far from over. It may bring down Sturgeon. More likely it simply becomes a festering sore that taints a government noted for its patriotism but not for its executive ability.
Does that mean a referendum on independence would vote no again? Well, no, not for certain. Often these things are about emotion rather than reason (Brexit and perhaps more pertinently, the Irish Free State wave hello). And the mere fact the UK government is so unpopular in Scotland in itself does probably have an impact.
But there is no sign of a shift from 45-55 to the 60-40 that would probably be needed to call a referendum in the expectation of winning it. I strongly suspect, indeed, that if Sturgeon had thought May or Johnson would have granted her a referendum she wouldn’t have called for one, as a second ‘No’ really would kill independence and possibly the SNP stone dead.
Personally, I wonder if this all isn’t irrelevant anyway, as I think the age of the nation state (and there I include the EU) may be drawing to an end for other reasons. But I personally would be surprised if Scotland were to become independent in the next ten years. Not shocked, not dying of a heart attack, but surprised.
Ydoethur, your one weakness is your knowledge of Scotland , Independence, SNP etc. You don't half write a load of old bollocks on the topic. Apart from that keep up the good work. Might be worth reading some actual Scottish "real" news sites rather than the Times and Daily Mail.
The big difference from 2014 is that neither of the two big Westminster parties have any skin in the game from Scotland anymore. The Secretary of State for Scotland isn't even from a Scottish constituency anymore. This matters - there are no longer credible Scottish unionists figures from Westminster to oppose the movement to indepdendence - so it will only be a matter of time.
Only STV - or similar electoral reform for Westminster elections - can ensure that there are Unionist MPs elected in respectable numbers from Scotland.
The election of 80% SNP MPs on 45% of the vote completely distorts the political climate.
Who complained when those were Scottish Labour's figures?
Lots of people, I'm sure. STV would help to break the Labour stranglehold on inner cities in England, and the Tory dominance of rural areas, giving parties good reason to broaden their campaigning.
It would be a general good - but there's a very specific issue with Scottish politics that it would help to solve.
Think you mean would rig the election but trying not to say it, obviously your an average Tory grafter.
What is lacking amongst our leaders is not mathematical ability (or not just that) but emotional intelligence, above all. Plus good judgment and integrity.
The left always claim their ideas would work, if only they were implemented properly.
Cummings and Gove seem to have convinced themselves the catastrophe at education would have been fine "if only the civil servants had done it right"
If that really is their mindset, we are in for a World of hurt.
Cummings reminds me of the protagonist in the movie Source Code, who wants to detonate a dirty bomb outside Chicago, because "if you want to rebuild from the rubble, first their must be rubble"
Their instinct is destructive, and i don't think they have any clue what might emerge instead.
Is there really a catastrophe? if it hadn't been for Gove and Cummings England would have a system like Wales, with no independence or choice, bog standard comps only.
And Wales right now is the dunce of Britain, on its utterly shameful PISA scores. Talk about Manchester United budget Scunthorpe United results.
tyson hasn`t been active on the site for a month. Hope he`s ok.
I also fear for Gideon Wise, who had Covid and was last active on Vanilla on 20 April.
Same with Roger - it is concerning when people disappear. It's odd because over time you do come to feel that you "know" other posters but at the end of the day I could be talking to a bot factory in Moscow for all I know!
Tyson recently said he had been exchanging e-mails with Roger and he was well.
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
What is lacking amongst our leaders is not mathematical ability (or not just that) but emotional intelligence, above all. Plus good judgment and integrity.
Mathematical models are not the whole answer, though - properly understood and used - they will help. Many people in finance thought that a new brilliant model would help them eliminate or manage risk. They were hopelessly wrong because they neither understood the models or the risks they were meant to be managing but because they ignored the biggest risk of all - in any organisation or sector - people.
As in finance so in government and politics, as we are seeing on a daily basis.
This strategy is problematic because its difficult to challenge. You have to be a mathematician. Many senior figures in the banking industry clearly had zero idea what the exposure of their bank really was, because they could not understand the maths. Indeed, I understand that in a few cases the positions were so many and so complex, the mathematicians didn't either.
We want to avoid that.
The killer problems with derivatives were often deadly simple.
For example - mortgage backed instruments. These were an attempt to spread the risk by putting a bunch of mortgages in a bag. So only a small fraction might default etc.
The problem was:
(a) The possibility that the whole housing market might fall at the same time was ignored,
(b) Correlation between the mortgages. In one case i saw, the mortgages in the product had been created by/for a single developer (to be sold to the house buyers as part of the deal) - so every single one was from the same, just built hosing estate.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
Selling that to the public is an impossibility since all governments promises to clear things up and yet each government apparently faces the same problems with the service.
Very much so! Every government starts by saying they'll get rid of red tape and needless bureaucracy, the big challenge is in actually doing it against the howls of anguish from the blob. They've now got less than four years.
The bowls of anguish are not just from the blob, as you put it, but from the people whose interests those rules are there to protect eg homeowners not wanting to find some hideous badly built development blocking light and access springing up next door or built on flood plains without adequate drainage. Or those not wanting pesticides in their food. Or rules about the funding of schools so that taxpayers’ money is not trousered with little scrutiny. And so on.
It is easy to rail at “bureaucracy” in the abstract. Much harder to come up with specific examples and seek to address the underlying mischief in an intelligent and practical manner. If a government does that, hooray! Is that what this government is seeking to do? I have my doubts.
This is a government of hand-wavers. They just propose some high-level newspaper headline and airily wave away any objections. Something will turn up. These are the people who honed their skills for forensically fine detail on Brexit....
When you have a PM who seems happy to have his a*se photographed whilst he is lying on the the floor and then allows that photo to be splurged across the top of a leading daily.... well, to me that says a lot about his priorities.
To me he is just a watered down version of Trump. Self-obsessed, untrustworthy and out for the main chance IMO. The rest of us out here in the real world... I doubt we impinge on his consciousness at all.
Shadsy also has prices up for Next First Minister. Kate Forbes strikes me as being very short indeed at 4/1. Does Shadsy have some inside info? I know Forbes well (she represents an area I have strong connections with), and I admire her, but she is still young and relatively untested. 4/1 just strikes me as being far too short.
If you’re looking for a longer-odds tip, I like the look of Andrew Wilson at 33/1. An outstanding personality within the independence movement, the former MSP is (unusually for SNP figures) widely respected and admired throughout the Scottish establishment: business, finance sector, media, academia, civil society and even among the other political parties. But the key problem is that I am not aware that he is even standing next year? If he doesn’t, it’s very hard to see how he can build his internal base sufficiently in time to replace Sturgeon.
Looking at the top Unionist candidates, Richard Leonard (SLab) has shortened to 16/1, presumably on the back of the Starmer effect? But Leonard himself is universally regarded as a figure of ridicule, not least within his own party; and the SLD’s wouldn’t touch him with a bargepole. Jackson Carlaw (SCon) remains 25/1. That is way too short. The Scottish Labour and Liberal Democrat parties would implode if their leaderships ever tried to install the hapless Tory as first minister. Carlaw would be poor value at 50/1. Not quite sure why Shadsy is still listing Ruth Davidson at 20/1, shorter than her successor? She is retiring from parliament next year.
Stuart, Wilson is not even at the races.
I know, hence the 33/1. But I’m intrigued by Shadsy even listing him.
having Davidson as well, he has just picked some names he knows from the past. He is taking the piss having Leonard or Carlaw at anything under 1000-1
Does Cherry have a shout?
Yes.
Though she first has to get selected to stand as a candidate... If Robertson wins that battle would he not be a much more formidable leader than Cherry?
No he is a rat fink , wait till Salmond enquiry/book and see who is still standing after the dust settles.
Sooo surprised to see that real problem black people face is Israel. Right out of the Al Sharpton playbook.
As I said before, if you're obsessive about Israel and attempt to push a grievence into areas it doesn't belong it is a massive tell you're trying to whip up blood libel frenzy.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
Competent administration is the key to getting the governments policies implemented. It is far from obvious that Cummings idea of small groups of freethinkers* are effective at anything other than generating ideas. Implementation is a very different skill set.
Take the current abolition of DFID. It may or may not be a sensible idea, but is this really the moment to have a massive internal reorganisation of the FCO? Instead of Brexit deal and new trade deals, they are all scrabbling to reapply for their own jobs. No one has their eye on the ball.
*free to think whatever the Mekon himself tells them to think, of course...
As I have just said to Malc you reflect the way the Scots Nats dismissed every reasonable argument 70 years ago and it got then nowhere.
If and when another referendum is held serious questions will require serious answers, not insults and hyperbole
I think the point is you can’t make an economic case for independence. Salmond tried that several times and got rebuffed. The numbers simply don’t add up without epic fiddling.
The emotional case is the strong one. ‘Scotland is a grown up nation and deserves better than being run by the English’ is a powerful argument. Farage showed how effective it was on the far weaker emotional case for exiting the EU.
The question is whether it’s strong enough, on its own. At the moment such evidence as there is suggests not. That may change, of course.
Correct , it is impossible to know what the finances of Scotland would be if independent , given the arse the unionists claim to have made of it and continuously boasting of what a pig's ear they have made of it is bizarre. Would be hard to be any worse off and given we will have no debt and will implement policies to suit our own economy then it can only be better and bear little resemblance to the fiddled Westminster fake numbers.
Your last sentence falls as it is just the decades long nationalists hyperbole
I really do look forward to a referendum and these issues being openly discussed and of course the recent decision by Starmer, and no doubt Brown, determination to defend the union just raised the bar much higher
You are fighting WWI G if you think anyone gives a crap for Starmer , London millionaire peer or failed loser , Northern Britisher Brown. Both part of theestablishment of Westminster troughers. PS: Can you answer following, why is Scotland with all its natural resources poorer than every developed small nation of a similar size on every measurement, most of whom have little or no natural resources in comparison. Tell me how the union managed that success.
Hi Malc. I’m just getting a bit concerned about these comments.
An hour and a half and not a single turnip has been thrown yet,
Has the hot weather had a negative effect on stockpiles or are you saving them for phase 2 of lockdown?
It is the Irish effect from the Celtic Arc. Turnips are out. Potatoes are in
Our friends in Ireland will have us back in EU in a heartbeat.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
One interesting conversation I saw was between parents at a Free School - the black, well off, parent was discussing the being-followed-by-the-security-guard-through-the-store thing. The white, poor parent, then described an exactly similar occurrence for her.
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
You cannot polish a turd
That was proven untrue by students at MIT. All you need is a strong stomach, liquid nitrogen and a polishing wheel....
I do agree that a lot of the civil service doesn't work though. I read a quote last week - the gist of which was Cummings sitting in his office reading the headlines about "another Gove disaster", while watching the civil servant responsible walk to the lift, whistling happily, as they headed home at 3.30pm.
But Gove accepted responsibility for his mistakes, right?
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
You might expect me to say this but from the sample of black professional people I've spoken to personally (not representative: all in my network, so all middle-class, and in their 30s to early 40s) they just want what the rest of us have: good careers, good schools, decent home to own, safe neighbourhoods etc.
Most of them are enthusiastic and practicing Christians as well, which I found interesting.
All of them are married with families.
The Tories miss a trick when they overlook this. I know a couple of Bangladeshi origin - came here in the 70s - who say that economicaslly their instinct tells them to vote Conservative as their family has small businesses and they think the Tories are better for low business taxes. They are long-standing members of the Labour Party because they feel the party sees them as normal people and the Conservatives traditionally do not - "unless we're millionaires they see us as a general problem rather than as individuals". They feel it's got a bit better with people like Sunak near the top, but still mistrust the instincts of the party as a whole.
I can sort of see this but it seems unwarranted since Mrs Thatcher. As a former member for so many years and seeing my dad being a member for 30+ years the party is very different to what people on the outside imagine it to be.
It has, until recently, been about wanting to get on in life without massive state intrusion. The current big government stance has been off-putting for a lot of people but ultimately it's still the party of "getting on" rather than the party of grievances like Labour. I find people who want to pin the blame of their personal failures on "society" are more open to Labour and those who want to take responsibility trend more to the Tories. That is changing because of the Tory stance on immigration, though I think there is probably some level of truth behind wage depression among the working classes because of high levels of immigration.
Overall though, I think the Labour coalition of voters is over reliant on minority voters that aren't politically aligned with them for anything that isn't very superficial. Already with working class voters we've seen Dave, then May and now Boris take huge chunks out of Labour's traditional base. Now with people like Rishi at the top of government, living proof that the party gives no fucks about someone's skin colour or background, it is already tougher for Labour to maintain the pretence that the Tories are somehow racist.
Skin colour maybe. But the "right background" seems to trump everything else. It's just the same old gang of Tories as ever was.
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
You cannot polish a turd
That was proven untrue by students at MIT. All you need is a strong stomach, liquid nitrogen and a polishing wheel....
Mythbusters did it too - one of the best programmes ever on TV!
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
Yeah the people that seem to attack London don't seem to actually live or work there.
I like its diversity and the fact it feels young and fast-moving. Of course if you don't like that kind of thing then you're free to move out. But a lot of elderly people seem to attack London despite not living there for years.
Personally I moved away from the countryside to London because there is sod all to do!
With all due respect, “the countryside” is not the only alternative to London.
Of course it isn't - and I wouldn't want to state as such. For me it was the natural choice as it's where the good Software Eng jobs are and I already lived in the South.
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
What is lacking amongst our leaders is not mathematical ability (or not just that) but emotional intelligence, above all. Plus good judgment and integrity.
Mathematical models are not the whole answer, though - properly understood and used - they will help. Many people in finance thought that a new brilliant model would help them eliminate or manage risk. They were hopelessly wrong because they neither understood the models or the risks they were meant to be managing but because they ignored the biggest risk of all - in any organisation or sector - people.
As in finance so in government and politics, as we are seeing on a daily basis.
This strategy is problematic because its difficult to challenge. You have to be a mathematician. Many senior figures in the banking industry clearly had zero idea what the exposure of their bank really was, because they could not understand the maths. Indeed, I understand that in a few cases the positions were so many and so complex, the mathematicians didn't either.
We want to avoid that.
The killer problems with derivatives were often deadly simple.
For example - mortgage backed instruments. These were an attempt to spread the risk by putting a bunch of mortgages in a bag. So only a small fraction might default etc.
The problem was:
(a) The possibility that the whole housing market might fall at the same time was ignored,
(b) Correlation between the mortgages. In one case i saw, the mortgages in the product had been created by/for a single developer (to be sold to the house buyers as part of the deal) - so every single one was from the same, just built hosing estate.
All true. But the problem was even more basic than that. Banks forgot that the only thing they have to do is manage risk. They thought they had found a way to pretty much eliminate risk. So they never really bothered to understand - properly - the risks they were taking on, because they either thought there weren’t any or that they had got rid of them. And they didn’t have the curiosity or courage to ask some pretty obvious questions - like how are people with no assets or income supposed to repay these loans and what happens when they can’t?
In reality, however sober a bank is there are always risks and if you don’t understand them, you can’t manage them
Add in stupid hiring policies and a complete inability to manage the people they were hiring (the biggest risk of all) and it is no surprise the GFC happened. The only surprise is how long it took before the balloon went pop. After all, it’s not as if the components of the GFC had not happened before, quite recently, in some cases, several times.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
One interesting conversation I saw was between parents at a Free School - the black, well off, parent was discussing the being-followed-by-the-security-guard-through-the-store thing. The white, poor parent, then described an exactly similar occurrence for her.
It was an interesting moment of connection.
Exactly , nowadays it is always someone else's fault that they failed etc, never their own.
Yeah the people that seem to attack London don't seem to actually live or work there.
I like its diversity and the fact it feels young and fast-moving. Of course if you don't like that kind of thing then you're free to move out. But a lot of elderly people seem to attack London despite not living there for years.
Personally I moved away from the countryside to London because there is sod all to do!
How long you been in London?
I have lived in London for decades. One thing that London has over many other cities around the world, is that it is a series of... planes of existence. Physically, the rich rub shoulders with the poor, cultures mix etc. This makes people feel nice and liberal.
In terms of actually society, you can be standing next to someone but be a million miles from them.
By this, I contrast with the places in the world where gating, policing and ghettos are combined to ensure that the undesirable (deplorables?) are physically separated from the... presentable?
For example, I have no fear of the small streets of Oxford Street. Lancashire Court is a place where I can get a semi-decent Old Fashioned for a long price, to me.
Yet for others with a different angle on life - not so. People have been stabbed to death yards away. I bear little or no risk - the way it works in London, is that too the people who are involved in such things, I am just another part of the street furniture.
On one occasion, I was helping a friend pick some things up at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepards Bush. I was waiting in one of the semi outdoor cafes in the pedestrianised "street" that runs through the site. A shout. A gang of young men ran through - pursing one other, young man. They vanished round the corner.
Though they ran through the crowd of shoppers, they were not there. We must have seemed like ghosts to them. Perhaps we are as unreal at Celebrity TV, to them.
Know what you mean - I mean when my grand parents had their front door kicked in by some guy off his face on drugs because he was looking to get laid in some knocking shop they felt perfectly safe.
I asked Horse that question for a specific purpose and his answer did not surprise me in the least
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
You might expect me to say this but from the sample of black professional people I've spoken to personally (not representative: all in my network, so all middle-class, and in their 30s to early 40s) they just want what the rest of us have: good careers, good schools, decent home to own, safe neighbourhoods etc.
Most of them are enthusiastic and practicing Christians as well, which I found interesting.
All of them are married with families.
The Tories miss a trick when they overlook this. I know a couple of Bangladeshi origin - came here in the 70s - who say that economicaslly their instinct tells them to vote Conservative as their family has small businesses and they think the Tories are better for low business taxes. They are long-standing members of the Labour Party because they feel the party sees them as normal people and the Conservatives traditionally do not - "unless we're millionaires they see us as a general problem rather than as individuals". They feel it's got a bit better with people like Sunak near the top, but still mistrust the instincts of the party as a whole.
I can sort of see this but it seems unwarranted since Mrs Thatcher. As a former member for so many years and seeing my dad being a member for 30+ years the party is very different to what people on the outside imagine it to be.
It has, until recently, been about wanting to get on in life without massive state intrusion. The current big government stance has been off-putting for a lot of people but ultimately it's still the party of "getting on" rather than the party of grievances like Labour. I find people who want to pin the blame of their personal failures on "society" are more open to Labour and those who want to take responsibility trend more to the Tories. That is changing because of the Tory stance on immigration, though I think there is probably some level of truth behind wage depression among the working classes because of high levels of immigration.
Overall though, I think the Labour coalition of voters is over reliant on minority voters that aren't politically aligned with them for anything that isn't very superficial. Already with working class voters we've seen Dave, then May and now Boris take huge chunks out of Labour's traditional base. Now with people like Rishi at the top of government, living proof that the party gives no fucks about someone's skin colour or background, it is already tougher for Labour to maintain the pretence that the Tories are somehow racist.
Skin colour maybe. But the "right background" seems to trump everything else. It's just the same old gang of Tories as ever was.
For the Tories you need to have lots of money and then skin colour does not matter so much. I wonder how many poor coloured people are in the Tories.
Yeah the people that seem to attack London don't seem to actually live or work there.
I like its diversity and the fact it feels young and fast-moving. Of course if you don't like that kind of thing then you're free to move out. But a lot of elderly people seem to attack London despite not living there for years.
Personally I moved away from the countryside to London because there is sod all to do!
How long you been in London?
I have lived in London for decades. One thing that London has over many other cities around the world, is that it is a series of... planes of existence. Physically, the rich rub shoulders with the poor, cultures mix etc. This makes people feel nice and liberal.
In terms of actually society, you can be standing next to someone but be a million miles from them.
By this, I contrast with the places in the world where gating, policing and ghettos are combined to ensure that the undesirable (deplorables?) are physically separated from the... presentable?
For example, I have no fear of the small streets of Oxford Street. Lancashire Court is a place where I can get a semi-decent Old Fashioned for a long price, to me.
Yet for others with a different angle on life - not so. People have been stabbed to death yards away. I bear little or no risk - the way it works in London, is that too the people who are involved in such things, I am just another part of the street furniture.
On one occasion, I was helping a friend pick some things up at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepards Bush. I was waiting in one of the semi outdoor cafes in the pedestrianised "street" that runs through the site. A shout. A gang of young men ran through - pursing one other, young man. They vanished round the corner.
Though they ran through the crowd of shoppers, they were not there. We must have seemed like ghosts to them. Perhaps we are as unreal at Celebrity TV, to them.
Know what you mean - I mean when my grand parents had their front door kicked in by some guy off his face on drugs because he was looking to get laid in some knocking shop they felt perfectly safe.
I asked Horse that question for a specific purpose and his answer did not surprise me in the least
No you asked it to try and undermine what I said, as you do with most of your posts. That's okay though, you have a different experience and thanks for sharing it with such good grace.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
Yeah the people that seem to attack London don't seem to actually live or work there.
I like its diversity and the fact it feels young and fast-moving. Of course if you don't like that kind of thing then you're free to move out. But a lot of elderly people seem to attack London despite not living there for years.
Personally I moved away from the countryside to London because there is sod all to do!
How long you been in London?
I have lived in London for decades. One thing that London has over many other cities around the world, is that it is a series of... planes of existence. Physically, the rich rub shoulders with the poor, cultures mix etc. This makes people feel nice and liberal.
In terms of actually society, you can be standing next to someone but be a million miles from them.
By this, I contrast with the places in the world where gating, policing and ghettos are combined to ensure that the undesirable (deplorables?) are physically separated from the... presentable?
For example, I have no fear of the small streets of Oxford Street. Lancashire Court is a place where I can get a semi-decent Old Fashioned for a long price, to me.
Yet for others with a different angle on life - not so. People have been stabbed to death yards away. I bear little or no risk - the way it works in London, is that too the people who are involved in such things, I am just another part of the street furniture.
On one occasion, I was helping a friend pick some things up at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepards Bush. I was waiting in one of the semi outdoor cafes in the pedestrianised "street" that runs through the site. A shout. A gang of young men ran through - pursing one other, young man. They vanished round the corner.
Though they ran through the crowd of shoppers, they were not there. We must have seemed like ghosts to them. Perhaps we are as unreal at Celebrity TV, to them.
Know what you mean - I mean when my grand parents had their front door kicked in by some guy off his face on drugs because he was looking to get laid in some knocking shop they felt perfectly safe.
I asked Horse that question for a specific purpose and his answer did not surprise me in the least
No you asked it to try and undermine what I said, as you do with most of your posts. That's okay though, you have a different experience and thanks for sharing it with such good grace.
Yeah the people that seem to attack London don't seem to actually live or work there.
I like its diversity and the fact it feels young and fast-moving. Of course if you don't like that kind of thing then you're free to move out. But a lot of elderly people seem to attack London despite not living there for years.
Personally I moved away from the countryside to London because there is sod all to do!
How long you been in London?
I have lived in London for decades. One thing that London has over many other cities around the world, is that it is a series of... planes of existence. Physically, the rich rub shoulders with the poor, cultures mix etc. This makes people feel nice and liberal.
In terms of actually society, you can be standing next to someone but be a million miles from them.
By this, I contrast with the places in the world where gating, policing and ghettos are combined to ensure that the undesirable (deplorables?) are physically separated from the... presentable?
For example, I have no fear of the small streets of Oxford Street. Lancashire Court is a place where I can get a semi-decent Old Fashioned for a long price, to me.
Yet for others with a different angle on life - not so. People have been stabbed to death yards away. I bear little or no risk - the way it works in London, is that too the people who are involved in such things, I am just another part of the street furniture.
On one occasion, I was helping a friend pick some things up at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepards Bush. I was waiting in one of the semi outdoor cafes in the pedestrianised "street" that runs through the site. A shout. A gang of young men ran through - pursing one other, young man. They vanished round the corner.
Though they ran through the crowd of shoppers, they were not there. We must have seemed like ghosts to them. Perhaps we are as unreal at Celebrity TV, to them.
Know what you mean - I mean when my grand parents had their front door kicked in by some guy off his face on drugs because he was looking to get laid in some knocking shop they felt perfectly safe.
I asked Horse that question for a specific purpose and his answer did not surprise me in the least
No you asked it to try and undermine what I said, as you do with most of your posts. That's okay though, you have a different experience and thanks for sharing it with such good grace.
With most of my posts?
LOL - if you say so
You're one of the most boring posters here, your snide remarks are fun to laugh at and certainly make the day go faster - but in terms of contribution and stuff to take from them, you're just contrary for the sake of it. It's okay, you're easy to ignore and watching you get wound up is also entertaining occasionally.
I get a lot more out of some of the people I disagree with most who actually want to converse in a good faith manner as opposed to just argue and find a new way to call my posts nonsense (which is what you do), because there's an actual conversation being had, with you it's really a waste of time.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
If you say so
I would suggest that you take some time to understand the Nietzschian levels of will it takes to become a national, let alone international athlete.
It cannot be done by someone who is a shrinking wallflower.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Yes, it’s utter bilge. I also live in London, but I have travelled to Brazil frequently over the last 20 years (may be a while before I’m able to go again, though). Anyone who thinks London is unpoliceable should spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro, if they really want to know what being in an unpoliceable city feels like.
Absolutely. There's no comparison between the London of recent years and that of my youth. Even then it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't upset Reggie and Ronny.
Better class of thug in those days....
I've lived in London most of my life. Most things have got better but property prices are a bane. Most people are priced out and stuck with paying half their wages to rent from those on the right side of this ever starker divide.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Yes, it’s utter bilge. I also live in London, but I have travelled to Brazil frequently over the last 20 years (may be a while before I’m able to go again, though). Anyone who thinks London is unpoliceable should spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro, if they really want to know what being in an unpoliceable city feels like.
Absolutely. There's no comparison between the London of recent years and that of my youth. Even then it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't upset Reggie and Ronny.
Better class of thug in those days....
I've lived in London most of my life. Most things have got better but property prices are a bane. Most people are priced out and stuck with paying half their wages to rent from those on the right side of this ever starker divide.
Property prices are the worst thing although having to renew my lease and move (luckily with a good friend of mine this time), we've seen rental prices already fall in recent weeks.
To be honest, Cummings couldn't come up with a convincing lie to get himself out of breaking lockdown rules so I really doubt his intellectual ability to make any meaningful change.
His blog comes across as somebody who spent half an hour Googling something and then wrote an essay on it. I've recounted before that his views on AI and technology more broadly made me laugh.
The best bits of his blog are when he talks about his experiences of dealing first hand with the civil service as assistant to Michael Gove at education. That doesn't come from half an hour's googling.
Cummings' critique is sound, his solutions much less so, in my view. He has enormous faith in people of high mathematical talent and their ability to create working models to make better policy decisions.
Trouble is, that strategy is what, in effect, helped to cause the financial crisis of 2008.
Complex derivatives, created by people of .....er........high mathematical ability, were a major factor in the collapse of the banking system.
What is lacking amongst our leaders is not mathematical ability (or not just that) but emotional intelligence, above all. Plus good judgment and integrity.
Mathematical models are not the whole answer, though - properly understood and used - they will help. Many people in finance thought that a new brilliant model would help them eliminate or manage risk. They were hopelessly wrong because they neither understood the models or the risks they were meant to be managing but because they ignored the biggest risk of all - in any organisation or sector - people.
As in finance so in government and politics, as we are seeing on a daily basis.
This strategy is problematic because its difficult to challenge. You have to be a mathematician. Many senior figures in the banking industry clearly had zero idea what the exposure of their bank really was, because they could not understand the maths. Indeed, I understand that in a few cases the positions were so many and so complex, the mathematicians didn't either.
We want to avoid that.
The killer problems with derivatives were often deadly simple.
For example - mortgage backed instruments. These were an attempt to spread the risk by putting a bunch of mortgages in a bag. So only a small fraction might default etc.
The problem was:
(a) The possibility that the whole housing market might fall at the same time was ignored,
(b) Correlation between the mortgages. In one case i saw, the mortgages in the product had been created by/for a single developer (to be sold to the house buyers as part of the deal) - so every single one was from the same, just built hosing estate.
All true. But the problem was even more basic than that. Banks forgot that the only thing they have to do is manage risk. They thought they had found a way to pretty much eliminate risk. So they never really bothered to understand - properly - the risks they were taking on, because they either thought there weren’t any or that they had got rid of them. And they didn’t have the curiosity or courage to ask some pretty obvious questions - like how are people with no assets or income supposed to repay these loans and what happens when they can’t?
In reality, however sober a bank is there are always risks and if you don’t understand them, you can’t manage them
Add in stupid hiring policies and a complete inability to manage the people they were hiring (the biggest risk of all) and it is no surprise the GFC happened. The only surprise is how long it took before the balloon went pop. After all, it’s not as if the components of the GFC had not happened before, quite recently, in some cases, several times.
And once they created the CDOs based on mortgages, because they believed they had eliminated risk, they started issuing riskier mortgages and then not checking on those mortgages' performance to evaluate whether the CDO had been tranched and priced appropriately to the real risk, not the imagined one.
"Hundreds of disturbing accounts are being set up every day which refer to both potential and prolific abusers as ‘MAPs’ – Minor-Attracted Persons – to escape the ‘stigma’ attached to the word paedophile.
The anonymous users have even created their own rainbow ‘MAP Pride’ flag – with some arguing they should be celebrated as a niche group alongside the LGBT community."
Sounds like PIE all over again, trying to normalise their perversions and illegal activities.
I thought the PC term was "cross-generational relationships."
They’ll be claiming they’re a “gender” next and that anyone criticising them is an “ist” of some kind.
And they would be wrong. Gender is a very personal thing that affects how you see yourself in the world. It does not inflict harm on others.
I quite agree. But paedophiles will claim that (a) they are not inflicting harm; (b) the child led them on; and / or (c) that it is a “loving” relationship from which the child benefits.
All 3 of these arguments have been put forward by paedophiles - or those arguing for them, such as PIE - at some time or other. I would not be surprised to see them repackaged in some other form and represented.
I would also take issue with your final sentence. In some cases, it can inflict harm on others. But I have other stuff to do. Off to help Daughter with her business.
She is currently alternating between tiredness and gloom at her prospects, not helped by very windy rainy days the last couple of days......
I really hope your daughter has something to lift her soon. When Dame Fortune deals you nothing but ill, it becomes very demoralising. Gets to a stage when you can't handle things well, even the rare good things.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
If you say so
I would suggest that you take some time to understand the Nietzschian levels of will it takes to become a national, let alone international athlete.
It cannot be done by someone who is a shrinking wallflower.
I think I know that , yet still has an inferiority complex. If you wallow in self pity and go look for bogey men then you will easily spot them and reassure your bias. She is merely stating the typical stereotype that would be portrayed by about 1 in 10 million people. Only the odd arsehole assumes anyone of any colour is "an employee", I hardly think she would be dressed similar to employees at a black tie dinner and I just cannot see many people being surprised her father was with her, it sounds like made up bollox to me of the "oh poor me" variety. pardon me for being just a little cynical if it looks more like attention seeking and "Me Me Me" behaviour.. PS: plenty of wrecks of former athletes etc
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Yes, it’s utter bilge. I also live in London, but I have travelled to Brazil frequently over the last 20 years (may be a while before I’m able to go again, though). Anyone who thinks London is unpoliceable should spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro, if they really want to know what being in an unpoliceable city feels like.
Absolutely. There's no comparison between the London of recent years and that of my youth. Even then it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't upset Reggie and Ronny.
Better class of thug in those days....
You had the Krays? Luuuuuuuuxuuuury.
We would have given our right arms to have the Krays, when we lived in that rolled up newspaper in a septic tank....
We had the Piranha Brothers. They used..... dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
One interesting conversation I saw was between parents at a Free School - the black, well off, parent was discussing the being-followed-by-the-security-guard-through-the-store thing. The white, poor parent, then described an exactly similar occurrence for her.
It was an interesting moment of connection.
One of the dangers of concentrating so much on race, is that the discussion on class gets pushed back.
It's already the case that, in the UK, white working class boys do worse at school than any other group, the current obsession with race could see that group become even worse off in future. Other countries, specifically the USA, have very different cultural issues around race that need to be addressed.
Good point about Free Schools as well, they've done more for social mobility than almost any other recent government policy.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Yes, it’s utter bilge. I also live in London, but I have travelled to Brazil frequently over the last 20 years (may be a while before I’m able to go again, though). Anyone who thinks London is unpoliceable should spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro, if they really want to know what being in an unpoliceable city feels like.
Absolutely. There's no comparison between the London of recent years and that of my youth. Even then it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't upset Reggie and Ronny.
Better class of thug in those days....
I've lived in London most of my life. Most things have got better but property prices are a bane. Most people are priced out and stuck with paying half their wages to rent from those on the right side of this ever starker divide.
Property prices are the worst thing although having to renew my lease and move (luckily with a good friend of mine this time), we've seen rental prices already fall in recent weeks.
Corona may change the South East radically. I reckon I save 500 quid a month not having to commute from Surrey and not having to eat and drink in central London. And there's the added bonus of zero aggravation from crowded/late trains and crap weather.
Recently I got something through my door from an estate agent saying they were experiencing a big move out of the central London and did I want to sell my property.
Central London might cheapen up a bit for quite a while.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've even got a full sentence out.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
One interesting conversation I saw was between parents at a Free School - the black, well off, parent was discussing the being-followed-by-the-security-guard-through-the-store thing. The white, poor parent, then described an exactly similar occurrence for her.
It was an interesting moment of connection.
One of the dangers of concentrating so much on race, is that the discussion on class gets pushed back.
It's already the case that, in the UK, white working class boys do worse at school than any other group, the current obsession with race could see that group become even worse off in future. Other countries, specifically the USA, have different cultural issues around race.
Good point about Free Schools as well, they've done more for social mobility than almost any other recent government policy.
Its not a danger its a feature.
The affluent want the discussion to be about race because that doesn't offer a threat and allows them to feel morally superior.
A discussion about class has the opposite effects.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Yes, it’s utter bilge. I also live in London, but I have travelled to Brazil frequently over the last 20 years (may be a while before I’m able to go again, though). Anyone who thinks London is unpoliceable should spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro, if they really want to know what being in an unpoliceable city feels like.
Absolutely. There's no comparison between the London of recent years and that of my youth. Even then it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't upset Reggie and Ronny.
Better class of thug in those days....
You had the Krays? Luuuuuuuuxuuuury.
We would have given our right arms to have the Krays, when we lived in that rolled up newspaper in a septic tank....
We had the Piranha Brothers. They used..... dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire.
They was vicious.
One of my mates at college was from the East End and knew the Kray family. "Lovely boys ..." was the usual descriptor. Ironically, the mate was studying Law. Cyclefree may have actually been in his classes.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
If you say so
I would suggest that you take some time to understand the Nietzschian levels of will it takes to become a national, let alone international athlete.
It cannot be done by someone who is a shrinking wallflower.
I think I know that , yet still has an inferiority complex. If you wallow in self pity and go look for bogey men then you will easily spot them and reassure your bias. She is merely stating the typical stereotype that would be portrayed by about 1 in 10 million people. Only the odd arsehole assumes anyone of any colour is "an employee", I hardly think she would be dressed similar to employees at a black tie dinner and I just cannot see many people being surprised her father was with her, it sounds like made up bollox to me of the "oh poor me" variety. pardon me for being just a little cynical if it looks more like attention seeking and "Me Me Me" behaviour.. PS: plenty of wrecks of former athletes etc
I take it you have never heard her speak? She is relentlessly hyper positive and bubbly. She makes it clear in her interview she suppressed the bad memories and didnt wallow in them with self pity. Suppressing them is a coping strategy but it is sad one of our best athletes and national ambassadors is treated so poorly.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
If you lefties stop being anti-Semitic the problem will go away. Eventually
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
Corbyn defeated at the polling booth last December, but now he's got the people who think they got rid of him pushing his agenda better than he ever could!
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
If you say so
I would suggest that you take some time to understand the Nietzschian levels of will it takes to become a national, let alone international athlete.
It cannot be done by someone who is a shrinking wallflower.
I think I know that , yet still has an inferiority complex. If you wallow in self pity and go look for bogey men then you will easily spot them and reassure your bias. She is merely stating the typical stereotype that would be portrayed by about 1 in 10 million people. Only the odd arsehole assumes anyone of any colour is "an employee", I hardly think she would be dressed similar to employees at a black tie dinner and I just cannot see many people being surprised her father was with her, it sounds like made up bollox to me of the "oh poor me" variety. pardon me for being just a little cynical if it looks more like attention seeking and "Me Me Me" behaviour.. PS: plenty of wrecks of former athletes etc
I take it you have never heard her speak? She is relentlessly hyper positive and bubbly. She makes it clear in her interview she suppressed the bad memories and didnt wallow in them with self pity. Suppressing them is a coping strategy but it is sad one of our best athletes and national ambassadors is treated so poorly.
Never even heard of her but am even more certain it is exaggerated. As I said I doubt she was at a black tie dinner in a waiter's outfit, sounds your usual celebrity bollox trying to make out how ill done to they are.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Yes, it’s utter bilge. I also live in London, but I have travelled to Brazil frequently over the last 20 years (may be a while before I’m able to go again, though). Anyone who thinks London is unpoliceable should spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro, if they really want to know what being in an unpoliceable city feels like.
Absolutely. There's no comparison between the London of recent years and that of my youth. Even then it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't upset Reggie and Ronny.
Better class of thug in those days....
I've lived in London most of my life. Most things have got better but property prices are a bane. Most people are priced out and stuck with paying half their wages to rent from those on the right side of this ever starker divide.
Property prices are the worst thing although having to renew my lease and move (luckily with a good friend of mine this time), we've seen rental prices already fall in recent weeks.
Corona may change the South East radically. I reckon I save 500 quid a month not having to commute from Surrey and not having to eat and drink in central London. And there's the added bonus of zero aggravation from crowded/late trains and crap weather.
Recently I got something through my door from an estate agent saying they were experiencing a big move out of the central London and did I want to sell my property.
Central London might cheapen up a bit for quite a while.
A friend of mine rents out half of her flat in hackney. She says her rental income has dropped by 20% overnight. As she’s not rich that’s quite an issue
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
It's slowly getting to the point where people start to realise that BLM UK is just a front for a bunch of Marxists and Corbynites.
Why, for example, does the Premier League have their logo on the team shirts, when they already have their home-grown Kick It Out campaign against racism?
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
I struggle to understand why criticizing the Israeli government is considered anti Semitic? By whom? The Labour Party have muddied the waters by not being clear about what is anti Semitic and what isn’t. The state of Israel has a lot to answer for and should be held to account as should anybody who attempts to blame Jewish people in general for the actions of that government.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
It's slowly getting to the point where people start to realise that BLM UK is just a front for a bunch of Marxists and Corbynites.
Why does the Premier League have their logo on the team shirts, when they already have their home-grown Kick It Out campaign against racism?
..and the players have added the black power clenched fist to the taking of the knee
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
It's slowly getting to the point where people start to realise that BLM UK is just a front for a bunch of Marxists and Corbynites.
Why does the Premier League have their logo on the team shirts, when they already have their home-grown Kick It Out campaign against racism?
Most people who support BLM are supporting the slogan not an organisation. Some of the people setting up organisations around the slogan are indeed opportunistic idiots and unhelpful, but its not going to stop most of us supporting the slogan.
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
If you say so
I would suggest that you take some time to understand the Nietzschian levels of will it takes to become a national, let alone international athlete.
It cannot be done by someone who is a shrinking wallflower.
I think I know that , yet still has an inferiority complex. If you wallow in self pity and go look for bogey men then you will easily spot them and reassure your bias. She is merely stating the typical stereotype that would be portrayed by about 1 in 10 million people. Only the odd arsehole assumes anyone of any colour is "an employee", I hardly think she would be dressed similar to employees at a black tie dinner and I just cannot see many people being surprised her father was with her, it sounds like made up bollox to me of the "oh poor me" variety. pardon me for being just a little cynical if it looks more like attention seeking and "Me Me Me" behaviour.. PS: plenty of wrecks of former athletes etc
I take it you have never heard her speak? She is relentlessly hyper positive and bubbly. She makes it clear in her interview she suppressed the bad memories and didnt wallow in them with self pity. Suppressing them is a coping strategy but it is sad one of our best athletes and national ambassadors is treated so poorly.
Never even heard of her but am even more certain it is exaggerated. As I said I doubt she was at a black tie dinner in a waiter's outfit, sounds your usual celebrity bollox trying to make out how ill done to they are.
Arseholes (as you mention above) are an invariant in all societies. The two commonest things in the universe are Hydrogen and arseholes. We might run out hydrogen in x billions years.....
Mr. Sandpit, may be slower than you think. The cult doesn't tolerate heresy, and people won't be keen to admit they're wrong both due to self-regard and fear of being the next victim.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
I struggle to understand why criticizing the Israeli government is considered anti Semitic? By whom? The Labour Party have muddied the waters by not being clear about what is anti Semitic and what isn’t. The state of Israel has a lot to answer for and should be held to account as should anybody who attempts to blame Jewish people in general for the actions of that government.
Many countries should be held to account.
Yet some people seem to be only concerned about Israel.
Good speech (on paper). I could find little to disagree with. I would be interested in @ydoethur's view of Gove's assessment of his own education reforms!
In a sense the Government has been lucky - a lot of what they clearly wanted to do anyway will be covered under Covid stimulus.
The issue is that civil service reform is a prerequisite for the rest of the government's agenda. They've been totally infected by Common Purpose, and are more interested in processes than outcomes. Getting the woke box-tickers out of the way does more for the economy than almost anything else.
What on earth does this mean? “Infected by Common Purpose”? “Woke box-tickers”? “More interested in processes than outcomes”? The last sentence might have been said by someone like Jenrick when someone pointed out the law to him.
I’ve no doubt that there will be better ways of doing the things that government has to do. I’ve been pretty critical of some of our major institutions and the people who end up at or near the top of them.
But you need to have not just a clear critique of what you don’t like but a clear idea of why things have gone wrong, the standards you expect, what you are trying to achieve and how.
“Just get out of my way” and “do what I tell you” is not such a plan.
Nor is any such plan very credible from people who have little record of actual achievement of implementation of change and positive results from such change, as @ydoethur’s posts on education regularly remind us. Nor from people who have pretty low standards of integrity.
It means an organisation that doesn't think about people and outcomes, only about processes and procedures. It's the sort of organisation that sends people from hospitals to care homes in the middle of a pandemic, it's the sort of organisation that leads to people like Cressida Dick constantly failing upwards until London becomes unpoliceable, an organisation where no-one ever gets fired, only moved on to their next assignment to be someone else's problem, where the organisation as a whole is more occupied by the interests of itself than the people it serves, in its staff rather than its customers.
Now, it's obviously much easier to identify problems rather than to offer solutions, but easy starting points are getting rid of the honours for those who have done nothing more than serve time, and employment contracts that let people be fired for poor performance, rather than simply moved around.
Having lived in London over 25 years I really dont recognise it as unpoliceable, I think the police generally do a good job and its working pretty well. I feel far safer in London than I did growing up in a typical provincial town, where entering the wrong bar, bumping into someone, chatting to someones girlfriend could often to lead to a potential fight.
People who dont live in London have some very strange views about London that are not representative or accurate.
Yes, it’s utter bilge. I also live in London, but I have travelled to Brazil frequently over the last 20 years (may be a while before I’m able to go again, though). Anyone who thinks London is unpoliceable should spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro, if they really want to know what being in an unpoliceable city feels like.
Absolutely. There's no comparison between the London of recent years and that of my youth. Even then it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't upset Reggie and Ronny.
Better class of thug in those days....
I've lived in London most of my life. Most things have got better but property prices are a bane. Most people are priced out and stuck with paying half their wages to rent from those on the right side of this ever starker divide.
Property prices are the worst thing although having to renew my lease and move (luckily with a good friend of mine this time), we've seen rental prices already fall in recent weeks.
Rents and values are falling in London, which I hope continues. To the extent leaving the EU accelerates this it could represent the sighting of a very rare bird indeed - a tangible Benefit of Brexit.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
I don't know if you saw it, but Ed Miliband was excellent on this on the Marr show this morning. He was absolutely clear that criticism of actions of the Israeli state, for example annexation, was entirely legitimate, and was not evidence of anti-semitism. At the same time, he justified RLB's dismissal on the grounds that she was endorsing, wittingly or not, Peake's spurious linking of the Israeli defence force to George Floyd's murder. As he pointed out, the US police could have learnt techniques from a wide range of foreign actors - singling out Israel (wrongly anyway) was evidence of anti-semitism.
This seems to me a pretty clear distinction to make. People on all sides, not just the left, have the right to be critical of Israel's actions in relation to the Palestinians. Though it shouldn't become an overriding obsession, to the exclusion of other matters of justice, as it is with some on the left.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
I struggle to understand why criticizing the Israeli government is considered anti Semitic? By whom? The Labour Party have muddied the waters by not being clear about what is anti Semitic and what isn’t. The state of Israel has a lot to answer for and should be held to account as should anybody who attempts to blame Jewish people in general for the actions of that government.
Yes, it is no different from you and I being blamed for the actions of our Government.
A Jewish friend of mine worked for a long time as one of the Israeli Government's PR people. Quite a job, eh?! I promise you she had plenty of criticisms of the way it behaved, but they were expressed in private of course.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
It's slowly getting to the point where people start to realise that BLM UK is just a front for a bunch of Marxists and Corbynites.
Why does the Premier League have their logo on the team shirts, when they already have their home-grown Kick It Out campaign against racism?
Most people who support BLM are supporting the slogan not an organisation. Some of the people setting up organisations around the slogan are indeed opportunistic idiots and unhelpful, but its not going to stop most of us supporting the slogan.
"Most people who support BLM are supporting the slogan not an organisation"
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
If you say so
I would suggest that you take some time to understand the Nietzschian levels of will it takes to become a national, let alone international athlete.
It cannot be done by someone who is a shrinking wallflower.
I think I know that , yet still has an inferiority complex. If you wallow in self pity and go look for bogey men then you will easily spot them and reassure your bias. She is merely stating the typical stereotype that would be portrayed by about 1 in 10 million people. Only the odd arsehole assumes anyone of any colour is "an employee", I hardly think she would be dressed similar to employees at a black tie dinner and I just cannot see many people being surprised her father was with her, it sounds like made up bollox to me of the "oh poor me" variety. pardon me for being just a little cynical if it looks more like attention seeking and "Me Me Me" behaviour.. PS: plenty of wrecks of former athletes etc
I take it you have never heard her speak? She is relentlessly hyper positive and bubbly. She makes it clear in her interview she suppressed the bad memories and didnt wallow in them with self pity. Suppressing them is a coping strategy but it is sad one of our best athletes and national ambassadors is treated so poorly.
Never even heard of her but am even more certain it is exaggerated. As I said I doubt she was at a black tie dinner in a waiter's outfit, sounds your usual celebrity bollox trying to make out how ill done to they are.
Arseholes (as you mention above) are an invariant in all societies. The two commonest things in the universe are Hydrogen and arseholes. We might run out hydrogen in x billions years.....
According to Einstein, two things were infinite - the Universe and human stupidity, but he was not sure about the Universe...
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
It's slowly getting to the point where people start to realise that BLM UK is just a front for a bunch of Marxists and Corbynites.
Why, for example, does the Premier League have their logo on the team shirts, when they already have their home-grown Kick It Out campaign against racism?
Well quite.
Rashford is now intimately connected with the bunch of anti-semitic marxist hucksters that are BLM.
Imagine his next game at Tottenham in front of a full house.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
I don't know if you saw it, but Ed Miliband was excellent on this on the Marr show this morning. He was absolutely clear that criticism of actions of the Israeli state, for example annexation, was entirely legitimate, and was not evidence of anti-semitism. At the same time, he justified RLB's dismissal on the grounds that she was endorsing, wittingly or not, Peake's spurious linking of the Israeli defence force to George Floyd's murder. As he pointed out, the US police could have learnt techniques from a wide range of foreign actors - singling out Israel (wrongly anyway) was evidence of anti-semitism.
This seems to me a pretty clear distinction to make. People on all sides, not just the left, have the right to be critical of Israel's actions in relation to the Palestinians. Though it shouldn't become an overriding obsession, to the exclusion of other matters of justice, as it is with some on the left.
So Black Lives Matter are wrong when they say
"British politics is gagged of the right to critique Zionism, and Israel’s settler colonial pursuits"
Thanks for posting that. An interesting, if depressing, read for those (like me) who think that Biden will win comfortably. The main takeaway is that Biden cannot take black people`s votes for granted - many will not vote at all.
That's the political lesson. But it's also worth reading for people who just don't get what ordinary black people (not rioters or even activists) are bothered about - it illustrates @Casino_Royale 's helpful article the other day.
Yes - it is very interesting. I wonder whether middle class black people here feel the same way and what can be done about it, if so.
I found the recent article from Dina Asher-Smith was v powerful.
" These few weeks have been so hard for so many people for a number of different reasons. For me, it was because it brought up so many suppressed memories and restated that it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish, how kind or “good” a person I may be, how educated or well-intentioned I am, there are people out there that seek to do me wrong because of the colour of my skin. There are layers and layers of “unconscious” bias at best, and hate at worst, that affect my life on a day-to-day basis.
It’s being assumed that I am an employee rather than an attendee at a black-tie event. It’s being assumed that I come from a single-parent household and having consistently to emphasise that yes, my father is present and does come to my races… yes he’s over there… and yes, he is loving and supportive, he has been since the day I was born. It’s having to smile through the shocked “Oh” that follows that. It’s being followed around not so inconspicuously by security in a store from the moment you step in. It’s being assumed you can’t afford to buy anything in a nice shop."
Someone runs about in victim mode, desperately looking for slights and then is surprised she actually recognises them, pretty dire. Just reinforcing her bias , needs a bit of self confidence, less blaming others and less chip on shoulder
She didnt become the fastest woman in the world through lacking self confidence, blaming others or having a chip on her shoulder but through sheer hard graft and inner confidence. She know who she is, she is just disappointed others treat her like crap because of their false assumptions based on her skin colour.
If you say so
I would suggest that you take some time to understand the Nietzschian levels of will it takes to become a national, let alone international athlete.
It cannot be done by someone who is a shrinking wallflower.
I think I know that , yet still has an inferiority complex. If you wallow in self pity and go look for bogey men then you will easily spot them and reassure your bias. She is merely stating the typical stereotype that would be portrayed by about 1 in 10 million people. Only the odd arsehole assumes anyone of any colour is "an employee", I hardly think she would be dressed similar to employees at a black tie dinner and I just cannot see many people being surprised her father was with her, it sounds like made up bollox to me of the "oh poor me" variety. pardon me for being just a little cynical if it looks more like attention seeking and "Me Me Me" behaviour.. PS: plenty of wrecks of former athletes etc
I take it you have never heard her speak? She is relentlessly hyper positive and bubbly. She makes it clear in her interview she suppressed the bad memories and didnt wallow in them with self pity. Suppressing them is a coping strategy but it is sad one of our best athletes and national ambassadors is treated so poorly.
Never even heard of her but am even more certain it is exaggerated. As I said I doubt she was at a black tie dinner in a waiter's outfit, sounds your usual celebrity bollox trying to make out how ill done to they are.
Arseholes (as you mention above) are an invariant in all societies. The two commonest things in the universe are Hydrogen and arseholes. We might run out hydrogen in x billions years.....
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
I struggle to understand why criticizing the Israeli government is considered anti Semitic? By whom? The Labour Party have muddied the waters by not being clear about what is anti Semitic and what isn’t. The state of Israel has a lot to answer for and should be held to account as should anybody who attempts to blame Jewish people in general for the actions of that government.
Take the RLB case about Israel training US police.
US police train with many countries police including our own and Israel. Neither the UK nor Israeli police train the use of kneeling on someones neck When something goes terribly wrong in the US the one country (incorrectly) singled out is Israel? Why not the UK or France or Germany or someone else? There is no logical reason to have identified Israel here. Without a logical reason, prejudice is the likely answer. At best case its an irrational negative prejudice against the Israeli nation which just happens to be majority Jewish. Or more likely its anti semitic.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
It's slowly getting to the point where people start to realise that BLM UK is just a front for a bunch of Marxists and Corbynites.
Why does the Premier League have their logo on the team shirts, when they already have their home-grown Kick It Out campaign against racism?
Most people who support BLM are supporting the slogan not an organisation. Some of the people setting up organisations around the slogan are indeed opportunistic idiots and unhelpful, but its not going to stop most of us supporting the slogan.
"Most people who support BLM are supporting the slogan not an organisation"
That's the trick
Its also not always true. The Free Speech Union is fighting the cause of a charity boss who wrote criticisms of SOME BLM policies such as defund the police and smash capitalism, and found himself sacked for his efforts.
He founded the charity himself and has spent decades working with the disadvantaged.
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
I don't know if you saw it, but Ed Miliband was excellent on this on the Marr show this morning. He was absolutely clear that criticism of actions of the Israeli state, for example annexation, was entirely legitimate, and was not evidence of anti-semitism. At the same time, he justified RLB's dismissal on the grounds that she was endorsing, wittingly or not, Peake's spurious linking of the Israeli defence force to George Floyd's murder. As he pointed out, the US police could have learnt techniques from a wide range of foreign actors - singling out Israel (wrongly anyway) was evidence of anti-semitism.
This seems to me a pretty clear distinction to make. People on all sides, not just the left, have the right to be critical of Israel's actions in relation to the Palestinians. Though it shouldn't become an overriding obsession, to the exclusion of other matters of justice, as it is with some on the left.
So Black Lives Matter are wrong when they say
"British politics is gagged of the right to critique Zionism, and Israel’s settler colonial pursuits"
?
Yes they are wrong, bonkers even. Wont stop me supporting the black lives matter slogan and movement which is not owned by an organisation of nutters piggy backing on its name.
They should just claim it is a protest against offensive statues and the police would leave them alone.
If nightclubs stay closed, this summer is going to be like 1989 all over again- although thanks to mobile phones, maybe without the queues of cars around the M25 trying to work out where to find the party!
The British government opposes the plan by the Israeli government to annex land in the West Bank. Is the British government anti-semitic?
Israel will become a no-go area for debate if we're not careful. It is replacing Immigration as the "I" word you must steer clear of unless you are prepared for a whole heap of trouble. Risk saying it - in a negative sense - and the zealous hordes of the xenophobic antiwokerati will be screaming "antisemite!" in your face before you've got a full sentence out.
BLM will regret getting involved in Israel, whatever the pros and cons.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
It's slowly getting to the point where people start to realise that BLM UK is just a front for a bunch of Marxists and Corbynites.
Why does the Premier League have their logo on the team shirts, when they already have their home-grown Kick It Out campaign against racism?
Most people who support BLM are supporting the slogan not an organisation. Some of the people setting up organisations around the slogan are indeed opportunistic idiots and unhelpful, but its not going to stop most of us supporting the slogan.
"Most people who support BLM are supporting the slogan not an organisation"
Comments
A surprising number of people are not aware that power in the Church Of England is in the process of moving from UK church men & women to those from Africa.
The CoE in the UK is going out of business, while it's booming in Africa.
The cultural gap is quite large. It will be interesting times when we get our first African Archbishop of Canterbury.
So personal experience matches the statistics, which is unusual but pleasing.
I do agree that a lot of the civil service doesn't work though. I read a quote last week - the gist of which was Cummings sitting in his office reading the headlines about "another Gove disaster", while watching the civil servant responsible walk to the lift, whistling happily, as they headed home at 3.30pm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sentamu
Better class of thug in those days....
All 3 of these arguments have been put forward by paedophiles - or those arguing for them, such as PIE - at some time or other. I would not be surprised to see them repackaged in some other form and represented.
I would also take issue with your final sentence. In some cases, it can inflict harm on others. But I have other stuff to do. Off to help Daughter with her business.
She is currently alternating between tiredness and gloom at her prospects, not helped by very windy rainy days the last couple of days......
Mathematical models are not the whole answer, though - properly understood and used - they will help. Many people in finance thought that a new brilliant model would help them eliminate or manage risk. They were hopelessly wrong because they neither understood the models or the risks they were meant to be managing but because they ignored the biggest risk of all - in any organisation or sector - people.
As in finance so in government and politics, as we are seeing on a daily basis.
Re the Home Office and prisons, it seems to me that the former is so overwhelmed with stuff at the moment that adding yet more to the portfolio will do nothing for it or prisons.
Cummings and Gove seem to have convinced themselves the catastrophe at education would have been fine "if only the civil servants had done it right"
If that really is their mindset, we are in for a World of hurt.
Cummings reminds me of the protagonist in the movie Source Code, who wants to detonate a dirty bomb outside Chicago, because "if you want to rebuild from the rubble, first their must be rubble"
Their instinct is destructive, and i don't think they have any clue what might emerge instead.
In terms of actually society, you can be standing next to someone but be a million miles from them.
By this, I contrast with the places in the world where gating, policing and ghettos are combined to ensure that the undesirable (deplorables?) are physically separated from the... presentable?
For example, I have no fear of the small streets of Oxford Street. Lancashire Court is a place where I can get a semi-decent Old Fashioned for a long price, to me.
Yet for others with a different angle on life - not so. People have been stabbed to death yards away. I bear little or no risk - the way it works in London, is that too the people who are involved in such things, I am just another part of the street furniture.
On one occasion, I was helping a friend pick some things up at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepards Bush. I was waiting in one of the semi outdoor cafes in the pedestrianised "street" that runs through the site. A shout. A gang of young men ran through - pursing one other, young man. They vanished round the corner.
Though they ran through the crowd of shoppers, they were not there. We must have seemed like ghosts to them. Perhaps we are as unreal at Celebrity TV, to them.
The flavour taints everything it touches. As here, with BLM
Indeed, I understand that in a few cases the positions were so many and so complex, the mathematicians didn't either.
We want to avoid that.
And Wales right now is the dunce of Britain, on its utterly shameful PISA scores. Talk about Manchester United budget Scunthorpe United results.
For example - mortgage backed instruments. These were an attempt to spread the risk by putting a bunch of mortgages in a bag. So only a small fraction might default etc.
The problem was:
(a) The possibility that the whole housing market might fall at the same time was ignored,
(b) Correlation between the mortgages. In one case i saw, the mortgages in the product had been created by/for a single developer (to be sold to the house buyers as part of the deal) - so every single one was from the same, just built hosing estate.
As I said before, if you're obsessive about Israel and attempt to push a grievence into areas it doesn't belong it is a massive tell you're trying to whip up blood libel frenzy.
Take the current abolition of DFID. It may or may not be a sensible idea, but is this really the moment to have a massive internal reorganisation of the FCO? Instead of Brexit deal and new trade deals, they are all scrabbling to reapply for their own jobs. No one has their eye on the ball.
*free to think whatever the Mekon himself tells them to think, of course...
It was an interesting moment of connection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qSFI
In reality, however sober a bank is there are always risks and if you don’t understand them, you can’t manage them
Add in stupid hiring policies and a complete inability to manage the people they were hiring (the biggest risk of all) and it is no surprise the GFC happened. The only surprise is how long it took before the balloon went pop. After all, it’s not as if the components of the GFC had not happened before, quite recently, in some cases, several times.
I asked Horse that question for a specific purpose and his answer did not surprise me in the least
LOL - if you say so
I get a lot more out of some of the people I disagree with most who actually want to converse in a good faith manner as opposed to just argue and find a new way to call my posts nonsense (which is what you do), because there's an actual conversation being had, with you it's really a waste of time.
It cannot be done by someone who is a shrinking wallflower.
She is merely stating the typical stereotype that would be portrayed by about 1 in 10 million people. Only the odd arsehole assumes anyone of any colour is "an employee", I hardly think she would be dressed similar to employees at a black tie dinner and I just cannot see many people being surprised her father was with her, it sounds like made up bollox to me of the "oh poor me" variety. pardon me for being just a little cynical if it looks more like attention seeking and "Me Me Me" behaviour..
PS: plenty of wrecks of former athletes etc
We would have given our right arms to have the Krays, when we lived in that rolled up newspaper in a septic tank....
We had the Piranha Brothers. They used..... dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire.
They was vicious.
It's already the case that, in the UK, white working class boys do worse at school than any other group, the current obsession with race could see that group become even worse off in future. Other countries, specifically the USA, have very different cultural issues around race that need to be addressed.
Good point about Free Schools as well, they've done more for social mobility than almost any other recent government policy.
Recently I got something through my door from an estate agent saying they were experiencing a big move out of the central London and did I want to sell my property.
Central London might cheapen up a bit for quite a while.
The affluent want the discussion to be about race because that doesn't offer a threat and allows them to feel morally superior.
A discussion about class has the opposite effects.
The campaign against anti-semitism is already getting stuck into them. People are starting to realise BLM are an extremely poor representative for the cause of black people, and not an effing moment too soon.
Meanwhile prices in Cornwall are surging
Why, for example, does the Premier League have their logo on the team shirts, when they already have their home-grown Kick It Out campaign against racism?
https://twitter.com/Fox_Claire/status/1277197209835122688
Yet some people seem to be only concerned about Israel.
Why do you suppose is that ?
This seems to me a pretty clear distinction to make. People on all sides, not just the left, have the right to be critical of Israel's actions in relation to the Palestinians. Though it shouldn't become an overriding obsession, to the exclusion of other matters of justice, as it is with some on the left.
A Jewish friend of mine worked for a long time as one of the Israeli Government's PR people. Quite a job, eh?! I promise you she had plenty of criticisms of the way it behaved, but they were expressed in private of course.
That's the trick
Rashford is now intimately connected with the bunch of anti-semitic marxist hucksters that are BLM.
Imagine his next game at Tottenham in front of a full house.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53208632
They should just claim it is a protest against offensive statues and the police would leave them alone.
"British politics is gagged of the right to critique Zionism, and Israel’s settler colonial pursuits"
?
US police train with many countries police including our own and Israel.
Neither the UK nor Israeli police train the use of kneeling on someones neck
When something goes terribly wrong in the US the one country (incorrectly) singled out is Israel? Why not the UK or France or Germany or someone else?
There is no logical reason to have identified Israel here.
Without a logical reason, prejudice is the likely answer.
At best case its an irrational negative prejudice against the Israeli nation which just happens to be majority Jewish.
Or more likely its anti semitic.
https://twitter.com/je_police/status/1277021780104941570?s=20
He founded the charity himself and has spent decades working with the disadvantaged.
Headline : 18 - lowest, Sunday or not, in a long while
7 Days : 16
Yesterday : 3