Making it up

BBC NEWS | Politics | Rubbish charge trials to go ahead

Trials of a scheme to tax householders who throw away too much rubbish are to forge ahead, Downing Street has said.

I’m fascinated by how that would work in this area. There’s next to no recycling facilities - the area we’ve come from was collecting glass, cans, paper, garden waste and cardboard, with optional paired shoes and textiles (if you bagged them and put them out on recycling day) and black bin rubbish on alternate weeks. Oh, and we had a compost bin for food waste other than meat. Here there’s a black bag (not even a bin, we had to buy that ourselves) and when I mailed and asked we got a green bag that can take paper and thin cardboard, and a black box that takes glass. That’s it.

So everything else I’m collecting up and stacking in separate piles in the ex coalhole (apart from compostables, which right at the moment I’m sorrowfully binning - suppose I could take it to school and bung it in the bin there) for the moment when I’ll feel up to going and finding the local recycling facilities other than those at tesco. Although at least Tesco has a recycling bin for juice boxes, so I’ve been taking those every so often for the past few months. I need to find somewhere for plastic, cans and heavier cardboard. Not so much to ask is it?

Really ought to get outside and do some gardening - think I might grab half an hour once I insert the children into bed. Given how loath they are to get in the bath that might be some time away yet. They need it though - due to several late nights they haven’t really bathed and certainly haven’t hair washed - we’ve been spiritually keeping up with the campers At least we’ve had a fairly relaxing weekend though, and fitted quite a lot in, including yet another shoe shopping trip for Big (she now has some very nice trainers for bike riding after another 45 minute session in Clark’s. I feel like I should be getting names and addresses from the shop assistants and sending them birthday cards!), another party for Small (bit of a busman’s holiday with so many children from school who seemed to think that I was there to assist! One of the mums bought me coffee though ), catching up with a sister and cousins and finally managing to walk both children to the park.

The park was heaving, with one family from school, which was quite nice as the boychild, N, has a bit of a crush on Big, and it was good for the mother to finally understand who she is and another family from where I used to work, also good to play catch up. Did point out to him that I might be up for some emergency cover given our current slightly strapped situation - Tim is away on another job interview, thumb holding appreciated (tomorrow at 10).

And that’s about as much as I have energy for given that I’ve still got to get the kids into bed, excavate the kitchen, find the mending and do it, and crack through some paperwork. At least we’ve got darker curtains on the bedroom window now so I ought to sleep past dawn!

From the story Tim links to below:

To those who see him as out of touch, he stressed his “ordinary” upbringing, knowing hardship, and the friends he still keeps from Kirkcaldy schooldays represent today’s Britain.

Ordinary upbringing?

From wikipedia:

Brown was educated first at Kirkcaldy West Primary School[13] where he was selected for an experimental fast stream education programme, which took him two years early to Kirkcaldy High School for an academic hothouse education taught in separate classes. At age 16 he wrote that he loathed and resented this “ludicrous” experiment on young lives.

That sounds very ordinary. I don’t know whether being a son of the manse was a good or bad thing, certainly we seem to have ended up with an awful lot of scottish personalities who can claim it in the background, but again, not enough to call it ordinary.

Do you think we need to send him a definition of the word? I’m also wondering how many friends he’ll have retained from Kirkcaldy who weren’t in that academic hothouse - in other words, not that many ordinary friends.

BBC NEWS | Education | Teachers jeer children’s minister

Rona Tutt, a delegate from Hertfordshire, had asked the minister what she was going to do to reform the “test-ridden education system”.

Ms Hughes responded by saying headteachers’ views were important “but it’s not the only perspective”.

She said: “The views of parents are also important.”

They really are making it easy to get political today. Headteacher’s views are indeed not the only perspective. There are class teachers, the majority of whom think the tests are too much. Parents, who think the tests are too much. Children, who think the tests are too much. Are you spotting the pattern yet? In fact, about the only group who seem to think the tests are judged right are politicians, many of whom don’t have a clue what mainstream education is like as they didn’t go and they didn’t send their children either.

(Incidentally, the article appears to have been edited while I was writing this and now reads very differently to how it did 45 minutes ago. Sorry.)

I’m tempted to say that I think our children’s education is far too important to be used as a political football, and that only ppl who have actually have experience of it should be involved in deciding policy, but I think you get a whole load of fools involved that way too. What I am sure of is that the current system of plucking ideas out of the air and implementing them across the entire country without paying any attention to the stakeholders (parents and their children, and to a lesser extent, teachers) is absolutely ludicrous and should be stopped.

But I can’t resist responding to this:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he understands people’s “hurt”, in the aftermath of Labour’s worst local election results in 40 years.

Mr Brown told the BBC it had “not been the best weekend”, adding that voters were worried about rising petrol and food prices and utility bills.

“I do understand this and I feel the hurt that they feel,” Mr Brown said.

Do you really Mr Brown? Do you really worry about whether you can afford to fill up the car to get to the job that pays you £3.90 a day after you’ve paid for childcare? Are you sure that you feel the pain of rising utility bills - do you actually pay them, living in 10 Downing street, which is after all, offices as well as a flat? Are you sure that you are concerned about the price of every day items, given that you can charge many of them on expenses?

Do you understand that removing the 10p tax level while replacing the money in tax benefits that many ppl can’t bring themselves to claim because of the incompetence of the agency involved means ppl standing in supermarkets looking at food they can’t afford?

You know, I don’t think you do. Because you are paid £187,000 and your two houses are rent free, so you aren’t feeling the pinch of disappearing mortgage deals either. You probably haven’t noticed that while the base rate has been cut, credit cards are currently raising their interest rates, and I doubt very much that you stress about the credit card shuffle or wake in the middle of the night as you suddenly remember a bill you’ve forgotten.

Mr Brown, please don’t say that you feel our pain, you haven’t got a clue.

I find M’hell more and more depressing. Friday afternoon, last one in November and it was absolutely heaving. I’m reasonably sure it wasn’t that busy even 5 years ago - mother and I used to go regularly on a Friday with Big (when she was little and before there was a Small) and it used to be quite a pleasant day out. No way you could describe it that way now. And the traffic on the way there is horrendous - are there more cars on the road than there were 5 years ago?

Anyways, must get myself organised and work out what I’m doing for the present side of Chrimble. I’d love to just tell everyone that I’ve become a Pagan and am no longer celebrating it, but as I can’t find certainty in myself for that set of beliefs (or indeed any other) I guess I can’t. Don’t think the kids would go for it either.

Haven’t told the kids but we were supposed to be heading up to Meltham today. Given that I am upright only through copious application of painkillers, and still hurting slightly, and Tim is no longer upright at all, it’s not happening. Not quite sure what’s felled him, but I’ve got a stinking head cold. I might not have been so bad if I hadn’t been woken at 7.15 by shrieks about the cat wetting on the end of Big’s bed (guess we’re back to the shut door policy after all) but then again, maybe I would be. Have spent the morning in bed reading . But I finished it now, and Tim needed to lie down, so I’m up.

Kids so far seem unaffected by any of these bugs, but are suffering from a surfeit of tv and computer games. Although there is a part of me that is determined that they should continue enjoying them as much as they want, in defiance of the latest diktats from the idiots in Westminster. It’s a shame that none of these ppl can understand the studies that are causing their panics, none of the papers seems to have a problem.

The Times says:

As the study measures comparative performance of reading among 4,000 10-year-olds in 40 countries, there is no evidence that reading standards have fallen in England, only that other countries have caught up and overtaken English children.

(Although they don’t go as far as noticing that if other countries are able to improve and overtake our standards, presumably we should be able to improve our standards as well.)

I read around about the EYFS stage yesterday after Michelle’s post on the topic. Pretty much all the papers had the same coverage, but I couldn’t find anything on the EYFS site that actually told me what they were worried about. Figures. Why would the government actually be open about this stuff? The bit that’s confusing me is that all the EYFS stuff was announced a year ago and it doesn’t take affect for another year. So why is the panic rising now? Odd.

Beware, this is a long post. It may even turn into a series of posts. Or should that be rants?

David Cameron is really enamoured of those swedish schools. They’re in his green paper:

Fifteen years ago, the Swedish government introduced choice into the national school system, with great success. Money follows the pupil so that parents can send their child to any school of their choosing.

He goes on about them some more:

So we will open up the system to provide all parents with the sort of choice currently only the rich enjoy. The country that provides the closest model for what we wish to do is Sweden. Over the past fifteen years, Sweden has introduced a new system that has allowed the creation of many new high quality state schools that are independent from political control. All parents have the power to take their child out of a state school and apply to a new independent state school. The money that went to the failing state school is transferred to the new independent school. All the new independent schools are free. They are not allowed to be selective.
The results? Hundreds of new schools have been started. Thousands of children have been saved from failing schools and given a chance in life. In particular, thousands of children from the poorest areas have been able to escape failing state schools. And, crucially, standards have risen across all state schools because failing state schools have been forced to reform. These are the basic dynamics we will introduce into the British school system.
And there is evidence already that what has worked in Sweden can work here.

Shame that he didn’t read on about them (here for example) to find out:

“Municipalities are obligated to provide a place in a preschool class for all children beginning the fall term of the year the child turns 6. The preschool class program shall comprise a minimum of 525 hours per year and stimulate the learning and development of each child, as well as lay the foundations for continued schooling.

… The 9-year compulsory school program is for all children between the ages of 7-16 years. Upon the request of the parents, a child may begin school one year earlier, at the age of 6. ”

(I found this on Wikipedia as well.)

Which makes it unlikely in any of those schools, that children are being tested to find out whether they can read at age 6. Ooh, sorry, we’re not talking about that yet, are we? Getting ahead of myself.

(more…)

These are all from a quick scan of today’s news:

• Angloplat to inject up to $10 mln into new project
• Trust plans to axe up to 450 jobs
• SIA raises fuel surcharge by up to US$60 from May 15
• Best practice procurement may save GLCs up to RM9b, says PM
• Father accused of lying to protect son faced up to 16 years
• 3 men facing up to life in prison in illegal immigrant smuggling …
• EHealth plans IPO for up to $85 million

More muddled-minded gibbering from the media. Completely meaningless nonsense. You could rewrite each of these, replacing ‘up to’ with ‘not more than’ and they would mean exactly the same. What the hell does ‘up to life in prison’ mean? You can’t serve more than life in prison. :rant:

In case you are interested. I presently have debts of up to £100,000,000, have had sex with up to 10,000 women, fathering up to 200,000 children. I intend eating up to 15 kilograms of chocolate this evening, while bingeing on up to 27 pints of beer and up to 5 bottles of wine. What are you all getting up to?

:rant:

Can things get any worse?

Over the weekend I read a set of estate agents particulars “in our opinion a 4 bedroomed detached house”. Good to know that your estate agent can recoginise a house when he/she/it sees one, I suppose.

But no, gentle reader, the nadir has been reached, the ultimate low.

On Radio 4, on the Today programme.

“upsum”

Not from a guest, from the BBC interviewer - used in place of ’summary’.

Yes, didn’t you just know it, another :rant:.

But honestly, do you comb your teeth?

Do you know anyone who combs their teeth?

I brush mine regularly, but not once in all my umptynumpty years have I once felt the urge to comb them.

So. Pray tell me. What possible purpose could anyone have for a “toothcomb”, whether a “fine” one or any other kind?

I have searched with a fine-tooth comb, but nowhere have I been able to find one for sale. So why do I keep hearing people talking about them?

:rant: It started with ongoing, but is now pandemic. Today’s annoyance, in press articles about Tessa Jowell, DOWNPLAY.

What is wrong with “play down”? why do we need to keep inventing new verbs to say things we can say perfectly well and a lot more clearly using adverbs?

Who decided to declare war on adverbs?

Why not go the whole hog and only have compound verbs…..

Abouthink it! This would English bettermake. It would upneaten our sentences hugely and awaydo with lots of unnecessary words.

If that is not totally upfucked, I don’t know what is.

The phrase read it and weep seems remarkably apposite here:

BBC NEWS | Education | Who could be right about reading?

It seems very likely that this 20% or so who watch a lot of television, play a lot of computer games and never read for fun represent the bulk of the “unacceptably high” figure of 20% who fail to reach the expected standards of reading in school.

This surely suggests that the key to this under-performance is not the result of England’s teaching methods (which are producing results to match the best in the world) but of what is going on in the homes of a substantial minority of children.

On this basis, the most effective policy would be to ban TVs and computer game consoles in the homes of children who fail to spend at least an hour a day reading for pleasure.
****

Hm, proving that statistics can be used to prove anything again. Ever thought, Mr Baker, that these children could be watching tv *because* the schools failed to teach them to read? And when precisely, in the New Labour world of wrap around childcare, are these children fitting in 5 hours of tv/ computers?

Can you think of any other reasons you’d like to invade our homes and tell us what to do? Ludicrous.

Would someone explain to me how being self-employed, so I no longer have to commute to an office 4 days a week at peak time, means my car insurance premiums go up???

Rip off Britain comes home to roost.

Is not getting sarcasm a feature of all five year olds? If not, I want to swap ours for one who gets it, or alternatively, get remedial treatment for ours.

We have spent years here, honing and polishing new nadirs in the lowest form of wit, only to have them sail off into oblivion over Big’s fair head.

well today’s candidate is Tesco Baby and Toddler club. I’ve just received the toddler winter 2004 issues - cover articles are

• Time for ‘big’ school
• Helping your child to make friends
• The importance of quiet time
• Tasty ideas for lunchboxes

Not too surprisingly, although there are hints and tips on how to lower your stress level while taking your child to school, there isn’t one mention of the fact that you don’t actually have to do it.

The email address is todwin4-5yrs@theforwardgroup.com and you could win one of two hampers filled with a selection of great products (although if the coupons that came with this are anything to go by, pampers and nestle could feature highly (ooh, just gone and retrieved the letter from the recycling bin, the hamper would appear to contain slate and chalks, big art set, roller stamper set, mini carrots ??, rice cakes, low far yoghurts, babybel cheese and what looks suspiciously like a leap pad.)) for writing in with your comments.

Anyone else care to join?

I had occasion to visit your Brewsters pub at York Business park yesterday. I have two young children (4 and 16 months) and wanted them to enjoy playing in softplay while I ate with a friend before travelling home.

On arrival at the pub, my toddler was knocked over by another child. When I spoke to the child she ignored me. A woman came along and I said “if that’s your daughter, she’s just knocked over my little boy”. She said, aggressively, “Do you want to make an issue of it?” I said that I just thought it would be reasonable for the little girl to be more careful. She then realised that it wasn’t her little girl, and told me to get my facts straight, before going back to the area that she was sitting in. Another woman then came along, and told me that the first woman had said I’d had a go at her child, and what was going on. I explained that she had knocked over my son, and that I’d asked her to be more careful, and that I hadn’t had a go at her. She said that the little girl was only 4 and wouldn’t have meant it, and I said that if my four year old did similarly that I would expect her to apologise and that was usually what we did when we did something we didn’t mean.

I was left shaking by the aggressiveness of the two women, and kept my children out of the soft play while the other children were in there.

We then ate. I was distinctly unimpressed by the offerings for vegetarians on your menu - none of which are marked as such, so it’s left to the imagination. Broccoli and cheese pasta appeared to be it for a hot meal, and was over £6, which is just a little excessive to say the least, given that vegetables are rather cheaper than meat. The children’s meals, at £3.99 a go are exorbitant - three fish shapes, a spoonful of beans and a few chips. Either ice cream or bananas and custard for dessert, and a poor choice of drinks (although I do commend you for including water). Apparently young children can’t be vegetarian either, as there didn’t appear to be any vegetarian option unless you go up to the £4.99 menu. You don’t appear to have child size cutlery which I think is remiss.

After our meal (I had a deeply uninteresting cheese bagette - basically grated cheese on a bit of french style bread), we took the children into the softplay. Unbelievably, despite the fact that we’d already paid for the meal through the nose, we were then charged £2 for my daughter to use the softplay. (My son was free because he is under the height limit and therefore not allowed to go on most of the softplay).

Suffice it to say that after this experience, it will be a very long time before I set foot in a Brewers Fayre pub again.