I have just watched John Denham MP claiming that anyone who worried about the fact only 3% of people fail A levels and that the pass rate can be as low as 17% was a bitter cynic. According to this genius, to complain about the dumbing down of A levels is to admit that schools and opportunities cannot unlock the potential . Have you ever heard such a lot of verbal offal. Guess who he quotes in his defence ,,the "Teaching profession" ? Oo Goody birthday and Christmas .Are you seriously telling me that when you asked teachers if they thought they were doing a good job they said yes? I am bedazzled and astonished….
Of course the exams have been dumbed down ,and of course schools can work ,its just that they haven’t during the ten years of New Labour misrule .That is why we are so far behind our competitors .
I see this Denham is going to be a big friend of mine ,he went on the brag about the governments record on crime ,despite the fact that a survey out last week reported 175 knife robberies are happening everyday in England and Wales in what is a national catastrophe. The continual dissonance between Police figures and absolutely everyone else`s is another question that might exercise this pitiful apologist`s scarcely sentient brain . The police are enmired in bureaucracy but they are also wasting efforts massaging statistics with the governments tacit approval. Conservatives must hear the calls for the Police to be independently monitored .
We have just been treated to the bewildering spectacle of Darling claiming the £21 billion of proposed tax cuts would be taken out of the economy . He has been accused of economic illiteracy but of course he knows money out of government hands is more active in the economy. Knowing this ,he is still prepared to hope sufficient people are too uninterested that the most transparent of lies will nonetheless cause a little doubt.
There is a theme developing here.As the problems caused by New Labour policies mount ,the separation of “New brown’ from his own actions becomes an increasingly preposterous imposture . Labour are obliged to defend their record as is right and just.Hence they are trapped into pretending there is no problem to be solved.That is why New Brown, New Labour aka 'same old crap', can do nothing for the country even if they wanted to . Brown can twist and finnesse as much as he likes but the web of lies New Labour spun paralizes them . He thought he was the spider, but he is becoming the fly .It would be a kindness to finish him quickly and cleanly
(PS £21 billion is also approximately the projected cost of the ID card white elephant according to outside observers. With the governments record on the Olympics and the NHS data bank its all too plausible )
12 comments:
When I took French A level I had to read at least 4 novels and a play and write essays on each. We also had to translate, both ways, and take a dictation. Not so anymore. If you want to get into Cambridge to study French these days an A* in French will not help you. Unless you can demonstrate that you can actually read, and comprehend, a novel in French, they wont take you on. Quite rightly.
These are interesting thoughts, Mr M. Like you, I rail against the way the Police and the Schools are allowed to get away with their transparent lies (you didn't mention the NHS: though, praise God, the Armed Services feel able to leak a little, & let us glimpse some plain truths). All news must always be good news: all have won and all must have prizes & target-related bonuses.
I am not immediately sure about your last para, though I shall be pondering it. If McBroon is to be seen as a fly, I would have said he is trapped in the web of Events ...
There are problems with trying to draw encouragement from this, however. To name but 2
> we just said they are practised, shameless liars with long track records of getting away with it. The web can be spun differently !
> our own side are showing none of the ruthlessness and discipline required to enter the lair and slay the bloated pest, be he spider or fly. Perhaps Events will spare us the bother. But is electoral reward deserved for such lameness? and will it be forthcoming in any case?
You speak French as well Je t'adore ,veux-tu m'épouser ? ...Merde J`ai oublie tle copain ..(ahem...)
Foreign Language degrees were exceedingly demanding when I was at University and even then an Alevel was not really a good enough standard. I did what was then a relatively soft subject English but we did work through the whole canon and all the major critics as well as critical frameworks philosphical ideas informing each era and linguistics.
I was staggered at how little an English graduate knew of the subject rcently , its just a lot of modules about " West Indian Poems "...all good fun no doubt but approached at a childish level and really barbaric by compaarison to twhat i was expectd . This mature student was on course for a first . My university had never given a first not ever !!
Nice to see you Lillith
our own side are showing none of the ruthlessness and discipline required to enter the lair and slay the bloated pest, be he spider or fly
This is what depresses me Nick. I was predicting , with no great foresight , year ago , that the key was to tie Brown into his own record but the fact that he has been given a clean sheet seems to have caught out the Conservtive Party big beasts entirely.
The whispers are growing that it is no longer acceptable for the shadow cabinet to have such diffuse interests. Its bnot a question of more aggression just more pereverence and above all more intelligence
Ah but to echo the words of that great financial guru Tessa Jowell, the 21 billion for ID Cards is an investment (in our rush to the Big Brother state if nothing else) rather than a cost.......
Significantly what has Darling said about sub-prime, credit crisis, stock markets or anything else remotely useful in between his visits to various TV stations to peddle out this particular guff.
"but we did work through the whole canon and all the major critics as well as critical frameworks philosphical ideas informing each era and linguistics."
Not a chance of that now Newmania..Daughter is planning to do hers in a year, starting in September...The English A level syllabus comprises of Atonement, Dracula, Frankinstein and T.S Eliot. Oh, and Much Ado. Pretty fucking heavyweight and literary doncha think?
Frankenstein. You can see I didn't do english...
Travis before the Wall Street crash there were many financial Gurus happy to predict nothing much was going to happen...and they really did know a thing or two . I just ignore that sort entirely ...Ruth Lea has a scarey record of being right though...ERM...
Lillith I was talking about a degree...actually they all sound pretty good for A level I even like Iain McEwan ...cment garden is brilliant.
If she is struggling get her to ask me I was pretty damn good at all of those and a fucking genius on Shakespeares comedies !
In all modesty !!:)
You have an English Degree!? ;-)
Ian McEwan gives me the pip. He likes to write about little nasty human weirdnesses and I come across enough of those not to want to read about them for fun. I always feel I need to bathe and scrub and bathe again after reading his stuff.
And however good a yarn Dracula is, is it a fine example of English Lit?
You have an English Degree!? ;-)
Yeeeeees... what are you saying ...it wasn`t a typing degree. Gothic Literature is interesting in that it operates outside the high tradition of literature.
I think the best way to approach it is through the history of ideas , of archetypes and structurally or via comparitive criticism or patterning of ideas that work without words . Your opposition between a good yarn...say Robert Louis Stephenson and Literature is not one I would accept. Jeckyl and Hyde is a seminal modern work as is Conan Doyle or HG Wells
Jane Austen`s Northanger Abbey is a good way into Gothicism in that it satirises it form the point of view of a fan .The Castle ontranto and Udolfo are other good ones .
I think sexual politics and sexuality are worth considering with Dracula as well as the specific milieau .. the writer was a theatrical fellow thats a good way to start thinking about it..possibly also a homosexual which is suggestive.
I know what you mean about Mc Ewan and while i like wierdness in Engkland we seem to have lost the ability to deal with the moral and emotional problems of normal life . Where is our Middle march?
( bet you look great in bubble bath)
I shall refer your comment to my daughter, although obviously without the bubble bath bit or she might not take you seriously..
Of course you know your English N, only teasing...
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