Mailwatch(ed) Forum

I'm sure there's a lot to commend going back to 1962. And I'm sure the couple of tablets a day many of us take to keep us alive, that weren't available then, outweigh that just slightly.

A few seconds research shows 1962 was particularly bad for smallpox outbreaks across the country, and smog in London.

Delightful.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 7:56 am A few seconds research shows 1962 was particularly bad for smallpox outbreaks across the country, and smog in London.

Delightful.

Barely an inconvenience when you're in the top year at a prep school in Devon.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailym ... -1991.html

Credit where it's due, a thoughtful piece on events in Russia.

https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

In which he hates young people, resents his education, and whines about vaguely naughty jokes on the radio. And gets decidedly personal about Tony Blair.

For, as somebody once said, the main purpose of a university education is to teach a man to disagree with his father, and our universities have certainly achieved that successfully.

Somebody?
What would be worse for Peter, his kids coming home from uni as ranting Trots or ‘but on the other hand, dad’ complete with stats?
You may grow out of the former as Peter did and replace it with another ideology. The latter is a gift for life for those who understood the purpose of higher education.

Does anyone else get the impression that we are being set up for a huge reduction in university provision so that the state can once more afford fully to subsidise middle class higher education?

Sad to say that having been a robust advocate for higher education since my own university days 40 years ago ( first in my family blah, blah), my enthusiasm had gradually ebbed away following an eye opening period working in the sector but mainly my daughter's woeful experience of university during the pandemic. Frankly, it was a disgrace.

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2023 8:08 am Does anyone else get the impression that we are being set up for a huge reduction in university provision so that the state can once more afford fully to subsidise middle class higher education?

I suspect it's much more a double-edged sword shafting: reduce university provision, increase cost of attendance.

Bingo: university becomes exclusive to the children of the upper class/rich people again (bar a few token bursaries). Mid-level wages can be pushed down to reflect the academic 'lackings' of the workforce. Senior level jobs can be dished out to the chums you make while at uni/family friends, and wages can be pushed up to reflect elite status.

I suspect Hitch would be well up for that - nothing he likes more than making himself (falsely) appear more intelligent by making life more difficult for others.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2023 1:47 pm

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2023 8:08 am Does anyone else get the impression that we are being set up for a huge reduction in university provision so that the state can once more afford fully to subsidise middle class higher education?

I suspect it's much more a double-edged sword shafting: reduce university provision, increase cost of attendance.

Bingo: university becomes exclusive to the children of the upper class/rich people again (bar a few token bursaries). Mid-level wages can be pushed down to reflect the academic 'lackings' of the workforce. Senior level jobs can be dished out to the chums you make while at uni/family friends, and wages can be pushed up to reflect elite status.

I suspect Hitch would be well up for that - nothing he likes more than making himself (falsely) appear more intelligent by making life more difficult for others.

Sounds like neo-feudalism.

https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

This week, why some shoplifting presages the coming apocalypse, Peter gets upset that he can't do the maths questions on University Challenge, did homophobia cause some murders (no), and how he'd have done Oppenheimer better than Chris Nolan. Unintentional comedy.

Maths and science questions are political correct, how does that work?

This happened did it? Perhaps it’s just some people who recognised Hitchens so tried to punk him.

Twice in recent weeks I have been used as cover by obvious shoplifters at Marks and Spencers. The thieves have suddenly fallen into step with me as I have walked out of the store with my legal purchases. The alarm buzzers sound, but shop staff cannot be sure which person has set them off.

I think he means that the questions aren't all about his chosen fields of study: reciting poems by rote, naming (by which we mean proper names, none of that Beijing or Mumbai nonsense) world cities, and colouring in countries on the map without going over the lines.

His utter snobbery over STEM is really pitiful.

For far too many, STEM = muck under the fingernails. Not like completely fucking useless Classics, oh no.

By the way - whenever anyone tries to look clever, they always default to cod Latin.

What's wrong with Ancient Greek?

Also, without sounding too fucking big headed, I limped on as far as a chemistry and mathematics A-Levels (in 1999, so in Hitchensland probably less knowledge than he had in his primary 3 storytime) before not really pursuing science or mathematics in any academic fashion and can usually manage a decent hit-rate on UC STEM questions, so his contention that they aren't "general knowledge" is fucking shaky at best.

https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

Ukraine bad, Trump not so much worse, science bad, BBC worse.

Would he rather have seen people in the 40s portrayed as modern liberal PC wokes?

I see the embarrassing BBC attempt to rewrite the history of World War Two ‘World on Fire’ is back for a second series. In this odd drama, British people are rather often portrayed as bigots of one kind or another.

Youngian wrote: ↑Sun Aug 06, 2023 12:36 pm Would he rather have seen people in the 40s portrayed as modern liberal PC wokes?

I see the embarrassing BBC attempt to rewrite the history of World War Two ‘World on Fire’ is back for a second series. In this odd drama, British people are rather often portrayed as bigots of one kind or another.

Back then we were all Antifa.

Largely.

Hurrah!