Two headlines in tomorrow's Telegraph.
"Tories in U turn over Grammar schools" and, in breaking news
"Almost 100,000 taught in failing schools"
Once again I iterate that Cameron is right, to fuss arse over a couple of hundred grammars that are now largely safe from ZanuLab inspired extinction at the expense of hundreds of thousands of failed children is preposterous in the extreme. What the fuck has gripped the Tory party?? Your goal, my friends, is to rescue the countless thousands from intellectual and vocational poverty created by Labour's mismanagement of education, not to pontificate over a natural given. Fucking grow up you spineless cunts! Do what's right not what feels comfortable!!!
Thursday, 31 May 2007
Monday, 28 May 2007
Muslim and civil liberties groups reacted with horror
Said the Daily Mail, playing completely into the hands of muslim and ultra-left wing groups about civil liberties. Let's just get some things straight here.
a. The Daily Mail is a really stupid newspaper that often unknowingly promotes its own betes noir through total ignorance.
b. I abhor and denounce this renewed attack on our liberty with all my might.
The new political landscape seems to be polarising into an authoritarian/libertarian rather than a left/right one, albeit that there are strong parallels. Let me make my position clear I am a libertarian to the core of my being. I chose to fight and potentially die, my compact with the British people is that I am here to defend their rights. Paramount amongst those rights is the right to seek liberty from the state as long as you recognise and contribute to it. Labour appears to seek to destroy that bond and I'm not going to let it happen.
Britain is a paragon of individual liberty, the agglomeration of which is a democracy for and by all. I will not allow these NuLab turds to destroy that enviable historical legacy.
a. The Daily Mail is a really stupid newspaper that often unknowingly promotes its own betes noir through total ignorance.
b. I abhor and denounce this renewed attack on our liberty with all my might.
The new political landscape seems to be polarising into an authoritarian/libertarian rather than a left/right one, albeit that there are strong parallels. Let me make my position clear I am a libertarian to the core of my being. I chose to fight and potentially die, my compact with the British people is that I am here to defend their rights. Paramount amongst those rights is the right to seek liberty from the state as long as you recognise and contribute to it. Labour appears to seek to destroy that bond and I'm not going to let it happen.
Britain is a paragon of individual liberty, the agglomeration of which is a democracy for and by all. I will not allow these NuLab turds to destroy that enviable historical legacy.
Music Again
Yesterday, in the car, 5Live Grand Prix coverage has finished, there's no cricket on R4LW and can't be faffed to plug in the MP3 so flip the dial to R2. There I found that old CAMPanologist Dale Winton playing some sort of album chart. When I turned on he was playing Jethro Tull and swiftly followed it with a track from King Crimson, hardly R2 material but top drawer!! That track led my thoughts to Greg Lake and onto ELP. Once home I thought I'd have a look on You Tube to see what ELP was on offer. Well fuck me sideways with a barge pole if I didn't discover amongst many excellent things, a fantastic live performance of Pictures at an Exhibition with the band, and Carl Palmer in particular, clearly enjoying themselves. Have just finished listening and am a happy man! Some of the other stuff is great too. Highly amused by how much of a porker Greg Lake is in some of the later videos but his voice has matured magnificently and adds some real depth and gravitas. At times, the musicianship leaves you open mouthed in awe.
I'm a regular poster on a Bath Rugby website called ERE. You Tube, in a similar but clearly different way to ERE, is a real example of the recent democratisation of the internet. I can now say what I like about rugby when I like, blog to my heart's content on the issues of the day and watch/listen to almost any music I like.
Fantastic!!
Am now going to search for some King Crimson!
More on this later perhaps.
I'm a regular poster on a Bath Rugby website called ERE. You Tube, in a similar but clearly different way to ERE, is a real example of the recent democratisation of the internet. I can now say what I like about rugby when I like, blog to my heart's content on the issues of the day and watch/listen to almost any music I like.
Fantastic!!
Am now going to search for some King Crimson!
More on this later perhaps.
Grammar Schools-Cameron is right
What a fantastically interesting issue. My gut feeling, after a beer or two is I should do this extempore and see how it goes.
I am a grammar school boy. In fact I'm the classic example of the current debate's poor kid made good. I was born into a very poor family, probably out of wedlock although my mum refuses to concede that 45 years later. My father was an arse of the first water and, as he's now dead, I will not go into detail, suffice to say he left us when I was seven and I never missed him.
From a very young age, I harboured a desire, inspired by my grandfather, to join the Navy. My primary school years were up and down. I attended an infant school and two separate primaries. I was bright but un-preposessingly shy due to my background. I passed my 11 plus with ease and went to Weymouth Grammar. But, but.... I passed partly because I was an august baby and therefore had a potential 11 month march on my class mates because age in year was considered important at 11 plus.
Still, I got into Weymouth Grammar and instantly, er, floundered. I initially struggled academically but also struggled socially with people who were very different from me. I ended up in a low set. I was bullied incessantly from 12 to 15. Hmm, Over time I realised I was clever, I could do things and worked my way up the "pecking order". I ended up doing my maths "O" level at 13 and getting a B, because I was good. Subsequent "O" level activity was mixed and I ended up with 7. Average. But in that time I'd fought my way to acceptance, it was hard graft and often literally painful but I became well liked. The minor point here being that grammar schools are not, and never were, paragons of virtue and harmony, they can be as tough as any comp.
I moved on to the sixth form and was adamant that I was going to to do Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry as my core subjects. I was advised early on to drop chemistry,primarily 'cos I'm a lazy bastard, I did not demur. 3 half decent A levels later I joined the Royal Navy as an Officer.
Result for Grammar Schools! Er, yes, 30 years ago! Let's fast forward
My son Ben is the son of a Grammar School boy and a Grammar School girl.... let's hold onto that idea.
Ben goes to the local comp. It's ostensibly one of that hateful twat Campbell's "bog standard" comprehensives but yet it's not. Thanks to a visionary head and stunningly well utilised investment, it's a school to die for in the area. And yet, bizzarely, due to the town's mining history it's not seen as being as good as Bath Schools! I would send anyone to his school it's a place of real quality.
As for him? He's top in his year in Maths, Science and (er) Technology (woodwork I think). He didn't quite make the national maths challenge finals in London but he was, by a league, "best in school". At 13 he realises that he needs to have all the talents and works really hard at English, he's good at it but by no means perfect, he continues to strive. He's also a fabulous rugby player and wants to join the school's CCF. In short, a well rounded pupil in a good school.
So. Where are we? Right where David Cameron is as far as I'm concerned. He is utterly right to call the the grammar school debate "sterile". Yes I was a grammar school boy but my son is doing better at his state school than I ever did. Let's be grateful he's the product of a parental past that was grammar school based, and move forward to what creates a culture of excellence in all our children. Ben's school aggressively "sets" its pupils and gives them individual targets EVERY SINGLE YEAR! This is, I think, Cameron's vision and it's one I utterly endorse.
So my conclusion, albeit a little obvious, is that where I once trod, Ben is now following. Today's good comprehensives can, and do, deliver the same level of performance as my school back in the 70's. Let's just teach to ability, let's let talent flow, and let's fund the right class sizes to do that.
Parents should be up in arms that less than a third of comps are like that despite so called "record government investment." Therein lies the scandal, not that grammar schools may or may not have a viable future but that this government cannot, or more likely will not, see the wood for the trees.
I am a grammar school boy. In fact I'm the classic example of the current debate's poor kid made good. I was born into a very poor family, probably out of wedlock although my mum refuses to concede that 45 years later. My father was an arse of the first water and, as he's now dead, I will not go into detail, suffice to say he left us when I was seven and I never missed him.
From a very young age, I harboured a desire, inspired by my grandfather, to join the Navy. My primary school years were up and down. I attended an infant school and two separate primaries. I was bright but un-preposessingly shy due to my background. I passed my 11 plus with ease and went to Weymouth Grammar. But, but.... I passed partly because I was an august baby and therefore had a potential 11 month march on my class mates because age in year was considered important at 11 plus.
Still, I got into Weymouth Grammar and instantly, er, floundered. I initially struggled academically but also struggled socially with people who were very different from me. I ended up in a low set. I was bullied incessantly from 12 to 15. Hmm, Over time I realised I was clever, I could do things and worked my way up the "pecking order". I ended up doing my maths "O" level at 13 and getting a B, because I was good. Subsequent "O" level activity was mixed and I ended up with 7. Average. But in that time I'd fought my way to acceptance, it was hard graft and often literally painful but I became well liked. The minor point here being that grammar schools are not, and never were, paragons of virtue and harmony, they can be as tough as any comp.
I moved on to the sixth form and was adamant that I was going to to do Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry as my core subjects. I was advised early on to drop chemistry,primarily 'cos I'm a lazy bastard, I did not demur. 3 half decent A levels later I joined the Royal Navy as an Officer.
Result for Grammar Schools! Er, yes, 30 years ago! Let's fast forward
My son Ben is the son of a Grammar School boy and a Grammar School girl.... let's hold onto that idea.
Ben goes to the local comp. It's ostensibly one of that hateful twat Campbell's "bog standard" comprehensives but yet it's not. Thanks to a visionary head and stunningly well utilised investment, it's a school to die for in the area. And yet, bizzarely, due to the town's mining history it's not seen as being as good as Bath Schools! I would send anyone to his school it's a place of real quality.
As for him? He's top in his year in Maths, Science and (er) Technology (woodwork I think). He didn't quite make the national maths challenge finals in London but he was, by a league, "best in school". At 13 he realises that he needs to have all the talents and works really hard at English, he's good at it but by no means perfect, he continues to strive. He's also a fabulous rugby player and wants to join the school's CCF. In short, a well rounded pupil in a good school.
So. Where are we? Right where David Cameron is as far as I'm concerned. He is utterly right to call the the grammar school debate "sterile". Yes I was a grammar school boy but my son is doing better at his state school than I ever did. Let's be grateful he's the product of a parental past that was grammar school based, and move forward to what creates a culture of excellence in all our children. Ben's school aggressively "sets" its pupils and gives them individual targets EVERY SINGLE YEAR! This is, I think, Cameron's vision and it's one I utterly endorse.
So my conclusion, albeit a little obvious, is that where I once trod, Ben is now following. Today's good comprehensives can, and do, deliver the same level of performance as my school back in the 70's. Let's just teach to ability, let's let talent flow, and let's fund the right class sizes to do that.
Parents should be up in arms that less than a third of comps are like that despite so called "record government investment." Therein lies the scandal, not that grammar schools may or may not have a viable future but that this government cannot, or more likely will not, see the wood for the trees.
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Let's talk nuclear, if only 'cos it pisses off the lefties!!
I'm a naval officer. I'm a marine engineer. I happen to be what we call a surface engineer, i.e. my propulsion plant is either electric motors or gas turbines. Just hang on to the global warming theme there for a moment....
Many of my best engineer friends went into nuclear submarines. They're not only still alive, they not only have normal, nay, exceptional children,i.e, they're not prematurely sterile, they are, without exception, advocates of nuclear power. And it's because they believe.
So what? you might say, with some justification. Well the so what's to me are twofold. One, through brilliant design and amazing technical support, our nuclear plants are the best run on the planet (ask Putin how he's doing and how polluted the arctic ocean is) and two, safety is absolutely paramount, even when it is occasionally of nugatory value and excessive cost, because that's what the populous expects.
Nuclear power, through the civilian programme and through the excellent military regime is an unbelievably safe form of power generation, those who oppose it are either always going to oppose it or are scientifically challenged and should read more.
Coming full circle, in my last ship, due to diesel generators and gas turbines, we contributed more to global warming as one platform than all the nuclear subs on the planet put together.
Let's have a proper debate. Nuclear is a Global and Green option. Full stop. Those unwilling to engage in a genuinely scientific debate are known to me as fuckwits and need not apply!!
Many of my best engineer friends went into nuclear submarines. They're not only still alive, they not only have normal, nay, exceptional children,i.e, they're not prematurely sterile, they are, without exception, advocates of nuclear power. And it's because they believe.
So what? you might say, with some justification. Well the so what's to me are twofold. One, through brilliant design and amazing technical support, our nuclear plants are the best run on the planet (ask Putin how he's doing and how polluted the arctic ocean is) and two, safety is absolutely paramount, even when it is occasionally of nugatory value and excessive cost, because that's what the populous expects.
Nuclear power, through the civilian programme and through the excellent military regime is an unbelievably safe form of power generation, those who oppose it are either always going to oppose it or are scientifically challenged and should read more.
Coming full circle, in my last ship, due to diesel generators and gas turbines, we contributed more to global warming as one platform than all the nuclear subs on the planet put together.
Let's have a proper debate. Nuclear is a Global and Green option. Full stop. Those unwilling to engage in a genuinely scientific debate are known to me as fuckwits and need not apply!!
Freedom of Speech and the MSM
Melissa we've got our eye on you and you don't seem to be a very nice lady. Shame.
Melissa Cassandra
your ambition clearly outweighs your ethics, shame on you.
Melissa Cassandra
your ambition clearly outweighs your ethics, shame on you.
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