Thanks – I love this, it speaks volumes; the raw edges of an open wound reduced to a perpetual dull aching.
Category: Uncategorized
CENTRO budget cuts confirmed
By definition, many pensioners live on reduced means when compared to their disposable income throughout their working lives. Likewise those with reduced mobility who rely on Ring and Ride are often less able to command an average living wage. Subsidy of such services is therefore a critical factor in maintaining the access to the world beyond ones four walls which is believed necessary for the maintenance of an independent life and the presumed benefits to ones mental health, and general well being, accrued from contact with friends and family, not to mention the opportunity to form new friendships and associations.
Restriction of mobility, by pricing, selectively, certain demographic groups out of service use would seem to presage two major knock-on effects: first, more in these demographics will be pushed into need for social care services adding to the cost burden to an already critically underfunded and understaffed area; second, insidiously, the bean-counters will use the empirical data of reduced service uptake to argue that the subsidy is unnecessary.
But pensioners claim partial victory
On Friday 14th February over 100 pensioners and other anti-cuts protesters packed the CENTRO board meeting which was meeting to decide their 2014-2015 budget.
The chair claimed that CENTRO had no choice but to implement the budget reduction demanded by the seven metropolitan councils led by Birmingham. This was sharply refuted by interruptions from the floor which pointed out that until April 2014 the board has the right to set whatever budget it chooses and demand a corresponding precept from the councils.
It emerged that CENTRO bosses have abandoned plans to make pensioners pay on trams and trains, and increase child fares to two-thirds adult. They admitted the scale of public and particularly organised pensioner opposition was the reason.
However they are going ahead with a cut to the budget for Ring and Ride which will mean an increase in fares from 60p to £1.00…
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Climate-change denier Lord Lawson is an expert – he once wrote a book about dieting
One speaks for, one against – fair, innit?
Sadly, for many this constitutes a balanced argument.
(not satire – it’s the Tories!)
I see climate-change deniers have brought out their big guns to deny the recent flooding and storms are anything to do with climate change.
Former Thatcher chancellor Nigel Lawson went head-to-head with Met’ Office Chief Scientist Professor Julia Slingo – destroying her scientific assessments that the recent extreme weather conditions were almost certainly the result of climate change with the devastating scientific argument that she is just : “this Julia Slingo woman“.
Personally, I don’t know much about the science behind climate change. So let’s take a look at who is most likely to be right on the scientific arguments around climate in general:
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You had me at “it’s just this woman” Nigel.
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Please feel free to comment.
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Event: Thinking Allowed on Schooling with Mick Waters
Please register your free place at this exciting public meeting using the embedded link or via brumcase@gmail.com
Anyone with an interest in education and the education system in the UK will find this to be of interest – you are invited so please come and participate.
Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
Your title well describes the modus operandi of these players.
So, things had quietened down a bit. I was getting back to work, back in the swing of blogging about books and translation and other matters that this blog is supposed to be about. We had started to breathe a little more easily about the school – the IEB seemed like they were honest, Ofsted were due in soon and we had good expectations that they would take the school out of Special Measures.
The school playing field and new fort looking gorgeous in the sunshine, with the allotment to the right.
And then, wham! Today we learnt that the school has indeed come out of Special Measures. Hooray! Congratulations to all concerned. Nobody can force us to become an academy any more. Except, wait… What’s this?
The Interim Executive Board (IEB) has decided, at the behest of the County Council and the DfE academy broker, to apply for an…
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Gove argues more schools should be like Hogwarts
Enjoyed this piece. Good satire, where the veil between truth and the representation is as thin and transparent as that between the living and the dead at Samhain. Thanks for posting.
In what was seen as tacit admission that the public sector was falling behind on OECD’s International Defence against the Dark Arts tests, the Secretary of State insisted that schools should adopt a curriculum of ‘facilitating subjects’ such as herbology, arithmancy and ‘mocking the ginger kid’. By abandoning vocational BTECs and returning to the Ordinary Wizarding Level, he argued, the education sector could return to the ‘halcyon days’ of tuckshop with Nanny and ‘flying classes with Madam Hooch’.
As easy to get into as a Grammar school
Based on his own educational experience of having transferred from a state school into a private college, Michael Gove made a ringing endorsement of Scotland’s most prestigious independent school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A spokesman for Department of Education said: ‘We can assure voters that the Ministry for Magic will not be siphoning off public funds to subsidize private schools. However there is…
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A world where women jog toppless
The film is whimsy: part amusing, part disturbing. Ultimately a satirical piece which addresses the idea that the display of power is often unpleasant. The gender role reversal theme is an interesting, though hardly novel, plot device. Gender discrimination is, possibly, the oldest form of discrimination; hence deeply ingrained and, perhaps, the most difficult to overcome. As enlightening as the film is the discussion responses to it on YouTube. That such anger and such violent responses have been made – and made publicly – is an eye-opening confirmation that criticism of such a deeply held, almost cherished, distribution of power is too disturbing and too threatening for some to consider. Thanks for this thought-provoking post.
It may not live up to the fantasy.
Majorité Opprimée (Oppressed Majority)
This tasteful, French short by Éléonore Pourriat highlights the nuances of gender norms we take for granted. With a satirical eye, she depicts at the emotional constraints placed on men and the sexual/intellectual isolation of women to show a world of complete role reversal.
With or Without a Lover, This Valentine’s Day Is Yours!
Thanks for this. I’d always been under the impression that the Valentine’s Day card was the opportunity to declare, anonymously, the undying love and affection which would be the stuff of scandal, of tongues set wagging, were it declared on any other day of the year.
Am I sending such a message this year?
Why – blush – that would be telling!
Those without a loved one to share Valentine’s Day have more in common with the tradition of sending Valentine’s Day cards than those with a lover.
I thought the Victorians began the tradition with their sentimental, flowery, lacy, and cupid adorned cards:
The couple meets at a soiree where the fine lady’s heart beats like a caged canary. The gentleman wears gloves and even with them worries he’ll leave a thumbprint on the greeting card. He escorts her to a small chamber not far from the ballroom. Her cheeks flush with the touch of his warm hand on her back. It sends a thrill of which she is not accustomed. He pulls the declaration of love from his breast pocket and presents it with a bow. She smiles, rips it open and gasps when she sees two naked cupids complete with jiggly bits dancing in the sky. Underneath are the words…
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Punishing Poverty: A review of benefits sanctions and their impacts on clients and claimants
Thanks for posting this research – an exposé on the real benefits agenda of the current UK government and a disturbing read. This needs a much wider audience, hence my reblog of it, hope others are reblogging.
Benefits sanctions are financial penalties that are given to people who are deemed to have not met the conditions for claiming benefits. The social security system has always been based on people meeting certain conditions – this has been true for all working-age benefit claimants, with sanctions applicable to those who fail to observe those conditions. This has been the case since its inception.
However, the Coalition changed the conditions and increased the application, duration and severity of sanctions that apply to those claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) and extended the application of sanctions to those in the Work Related Activity Group of those claiming Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). Since 2012, benefit payments can be suspended for a minimum of four weeks and for up to three years where a person “fails to take sufficient steps to search for work”, to “prepare themselves for the labour market” or where they…
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Education Question Time
Good questions all and an excellent panel. If you are in the area on the Thursday 27th book up and go.
Gogwit's Blog 