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Just now, Marshmallo said:

Sturgeon tweeting stuff out about this German factory and a market in Beijing and talking about risk, as if any of that is relevant to being able to get a cup of tea in your mate's living room.

I'd just go and have a cup of tea in your mate's living room if you think it's safe, nobody's going to stop you.

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1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

I'd just go and have a cup of tea in your mate's living room if you think it's safe, nobody's going to stop you.

If I drink caffeine at this time of night I'll be up till daft o'clock, and I'm working tomorrow.

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3 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

Sturgeon tweeting stuff out about this German factory and a market in Beijing and talking about risk, as if any of that is relevant to being able to get a cup of tea in your mate's living room.

You can tell from the replies that the majority are too lazy to look beyond the headline.

If nothing else, Covid-19 has certainly opened my eyes to just how easily people can be manipulated by media.

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1 hour ago, peasy23 said:

Looks like Hancock could be the first casualty among government figures. Fully expect the scientists to be flung under the bus quite soon too.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mps-despair-incompetent-matt-22226375.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Hancock's coat has been on a shaky peg for sometime. An enemy of Cummings as well. 

He is probably the most dispensable senior person involved in this, even if sacking your health secretary looks a bad thing to do at this time, all things considered. Putting aside any views of his performances (which have not impressed me) , I've always thought he's a total lightweight. 

I've long felt that Health Secretary was a thankless job, and that all the government wants from you is to piss off as few people in the NHS as you can. That being the case, the government hasn't really taken it seriously as they would of other positions and filled it with someone that "needs a role" for no reason other than they are a senior politician. When things go wrong, you have someone who quite clearly struggles and looks uncomfortable; not very reassuring. I don't think he should carry the can for Johnson's failings, but the disappearing act he partakes is designed to deflect blame away from where it should be placed, and I imagine it'll work. 

As for the scientists... the transcripts of SAGE meetings a few weeks back made for grim reading and, in hindsight, were horrifying. Bottom line - they delivered bad advice. If your advice is out of kilter with the rest of the world, your arse will be in the firing line if things go badly. Since things have indeed gone very badly, the advice given ought to be looked at those that provided it asked for a thorough explanation of why they shunned the approach taken by most other countries. A lot of people would still have died if we'd taken the approach other countries did, but it's very hard to argue we wouldn't have been in a better position. "We only advise and don't make decisions" isn't going to cut it as a defence anymore than "we were guided by the science" is. 

Edited by Michael W
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Hancock's coat has been on a shaky peg for sometime. An enemy of Cummings as well. 

He is probably the most dispensable senior person involved in this, even if sacking your health secretary looks a bad thing to do at this time, all things considered. Putting aside any views of his performances (which have not impressed me) , I've always thought he's a total lightweight. 

I've long felt that Health Secretary was a thankless job, and that all the government wants from you is to piss off as few people in the NHS as you can. That being the case, the government hasn't really taken it seriously as they would of other positions and filled it with someone that "needs a role" for no reason other than they are a senior politician. When things go wrong, you have someone who quite clearly struggles and looks uncomfortable; not very reassuring. I don't think he should carry the can for Johnson's failings, but the disappearing act he partakes is designed to deflect blame away from where it should be placed, and I imagine it'll work. 

As for the scientists... the transcripts of SAGE meetings a few weeks back made for grim reading and, in hindsight, were horrifying. Bottom line - they delivered bad advice. If your advice is out of kilter with the rest of the world, your arse will be in the firing line if things go badly. Since things have indeed gone very badly, the advice given ought to be looked at those that provided it asked for a thorough explanation of why they shunned the approach taken by most other countries. A lot of people would still have died if we'd taken the approach other countries did, but it's very hard to argue we wouldn't have been in a better position. "We only advise and don't make decisions" isn't going to cut it as a defence anymore than "we were guided by the science" is. 

Decent article in Private Eye about where the science went wrong, including Professor Ferguson ballsing up the figures early on.

 

https://www.private-eye.co.uk/issue-1524/columnists

 

Nobody in any of the top government positions at the moment gives you much confidence in their abilities. It's debatable whether a lot of them would be competent MPs, never mind being responsible for a government department.

 

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Who ever advises the Health Secretary and who the SAGE group reported to and who also filtered the scientific advice is not held accountable.
 
Said official also pushed for the centralised app.
Said officials mates profited from the failed app.
Everyone knows the public sector and IT is a bad partnership. f**k up after f**k up.
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16 minutes ago, superbigal said:

Said official also pushed for the centralised app.
Said officials mates profited from the failed app.
Everyone knows the public sector and IT is a bad partnership. f**k up after f**k up.

Isn't there some sort of legislation against nepotism and shouldn't there be inquiries into contracts for friends if so? If there isn't, there should be. 

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Saw this on FB. Shared by a teacher, no less.

https://www.change.org/p/education-boards-support-the-introduction-of-blended-learning-into-scottish-schools-on-reopening-in-august/c?source_location=petition_show

Quote

People all learn differently. Studies have found that when sitting in a class, people of any age only retain around 6% of the information. Teaching young people is one of the hardest but most rewarding job in the world. We must support teachers in their development of blended learning models of teaching during this time of global pandemic. People are still dying.

The bit in bold annoys me. Trying to spin blended learning as an improvement over the traditional model of education really isn't what any of this is about.

The comments section is exactly as you would expect...

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13 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

I suppose it's not unreasonable for a teacher to focus on the teaching/learning bit of why kids are at school rather than the so their parents can go to work bit of why kids are at school.

All very well, but in what other job can you essentially say "over 9/10ths of what I do here doesn't make any difference" and it's fine?

If the school model is that inefficient why hasn't it been brought up before?

It's a ridiculous line designed to influence daft parents into thinking that them overseeing their children sitting in the kitchen on an iPad is a more efficient way of learning than them being lead in person by a qualified teacher.

 

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How much of any job is needless jumping through hoops?
Everyone does stuff thats daft just because they work for a toxic employer who doesnt care or cant see that doing it differently would save cash.
Sometimes they cant because it costs too much 'weve always done it that way'
Cars run better on square wheels.

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