Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Poll here from Opinium



Have you got a full breakdown of the council by-elections? Labour seemed to be doing alright in Scotland when I last looked.

Doesn't seem to be too much evidence of Lib Dems going to Reform. I wondered if some of them might, because the Lib Dems always pick up some of those dustbin voters.

Another thing people get mad at Labour online is the Chagos Islands Yuan Yi Zhu has been leading the charge

Looking forward to Starmer loudly demanding someone locate the chief official responsible for managing the Chagos Islands airbase and convey them to his presence. Then everyone in Whitehall can cheer.

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2025 3:27 pm Another thing people get mad at Labour online is the Chagos Islands Yuan Yi Zhu has been leading the charge

I find that guy very annoying. Isn't he a legal expert? I thought there were relevant legal judgements.

Almost feel like they should hand them all over to the Chagos Islanders who could immediately sell it to China or India, and live like Emiratis in a tax haven of their choice.

I think it would be harsh if people who've already started Latin GCSE had to stop it, but otherwise, I think this is a fairly unimpressive set of arguments from the pro-Latin people.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... ing-pulled

“It is very difficult to get a handle on vast swathes of the humanities if you don’t have some knowledge of Latin. A lot of English literature is saturated with knowledge of Latin. It’s really important to understand the history of art, and the language of the church is written in Latin,” Holland said.

Latin certainly helps with English and Romance languages, but I assume that if you know a Romance language it makes it much easier to learn another.

Why is the "language of the church" a priority? I have a Classics degree and I never once read any church Latin. And as I've said, people can take Classics degrees these days without studying Latin at school at all. Most of this is a better argument for Classical Civilization than for Latin- not least because Classical Civilization takes in Greece too.

William Bearcroft, the head of Latin and classics at the Phoenix academy, a state secondary in west London with a high proportion of students from deprived backgrounds, said there was an “unapologetic social justice element” to teaching Latin through the programme.

“Latin is perceived as being prestigious and difficult. I don’t think it is difficult, and I don’t love the prestigious element either, but I think there is something powerful about students from our context getting a [grade] 7 or 9 in Latin, a subject that you could otherwise only expect from a student who probably attended a private school. I think that is really important and empowering,” Bearcroft said.

“We give them the chance to excel in a challenging qualification, and my hope is that they will stand out when they are applying for university.”

Roughly translated- this can't be scrapped because otherwise our kids won't have an advantage over your kids when they apply to university. He seems pretty keen on the prestige aspect. And I'm not quite sure why anyone would think working class kids couldn't do Latin. I don't know what his academy is like, but there are a lot of very overpaid people in academies generally who could fund Latin classes, I reckon.

What we're talking about is a very small number of kids getting special funding to do Latin. I don't really get why that should be a priority in the current climate. I actually give Bridget Philipson some credit for seeing that, even though she must know she's going to get shit for it, just like Becky Francis will get shit for trying to get a curriculum in that doesn't put off a load of what the right in other cirucumstances refer to as "white working class boys".

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2025 5:21 pm

The Weeping Angel wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2025 3:27 pm Another thing people get mad at Labour online is the Chagos Islands Yuan Yi Zhu has been leading the charge

I find that guy very annoying. Isn't he a legal expert? I thought there were relevant legal judgements.

Almost feel like they should hand them all over to the Chagos Islanders who could immediately sell it to China or India, and live like Emiratis in a tax haven of their choice.

According to his biography he is

https://yuanyizhu.com/

I am Assistant Professor (universitair docent) of International Relations and International Law at Leiden University and a Research Associate at the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies. Until recently, I was a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Policy Exchange‘s Judicial Power Project.

I've seen people say we're giving £9 Billion to Mauritius whilst our pensioners freeze.

I've just seen a post on Bluesky that says that ending this temporary scheme will disadvantage those who wish to study medicine, which is utter bollocks, Latin hasn't been a requirement for at least a generation (I speak as one who has sent a number of students to study medicine at various universities).
What I did do was offer (and fund) Latin at GCSE to Gifted and Talented students, to stand alongside our existing A Level Latin and Classics courses, all at an Inner London comp.

I am Assistant Professor (universitair docent) of International Relations and International Law at Leiden University and a Research Associate at the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies. Until recently, I was a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Policy Exchange‘s Judicial Power Project.

I am SO impressed...

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2025 6:46 pm I've just seen a post on Bluesky that says that ending this temporary scheme will disadvantage those who wish to study medicine, which is utter bollocks, Latin hasn't been a requirement for at least a generation (I speak as one who has sent a number of students to study medicine at various universities).
What I did do was offer (and fund) Latin at GCSE to Gifted and Talented students, to stand alongside our existing A Level Latin and Classics courses, all at an Inner London comp.

People sometimes say the same about Law too, as if that's about Latin phrases rather than principles and (lots of) cases.

You know the rules, Malcolm- nothing good ever happened before Adonis invented academies, the Lib Dems invented the pupil premium, and Birbalsingh took on the bigotry of low expectations.

Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2025 6:49 pm

I am Assistant Professor (universitair docent) of International Relations and International Law at Leiden University and a Research Associate at the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies. Until recently, I was a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Policy Exchange‘s Judicial Power Project.

I am SO impressed...

Policy Exchange, always one for the CV.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2025 6:11 pm I think it would be harsh if people who've already started Latin GCSE had to stop it, but otherwise, I think this is a fairly unimpressive set of arguments from the pro-Latin people.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... ing-pulled

“It is very difficult to get a handle on vast swathes of the humanities if you don’t have some knowledge of Latin. A lot of English literature is saturated with knowledge of Latin. It’s really important to understand the history of art, and the language of the church is written in Latin,” Holland said.

Latin certainly helps with English and Romance languages, but I assume that if you know a Romance language it makes it much easier to learn another.

Why is the "language of the church" a priority? I have a Classics degree and I never once read any church Latin. And as I've said, people can take Classics degrees these days without studying Latin at school at all. Most of this is a better argument for Classical Civilization than for Latin- not least because Classical Civilization takes in Greece too.

William Bearcroft, the head of Latin and classics at the Phoenix academy, a state secondary in west London with a high proportion of students from deprived backgrounds, said there was an “unapologetic social justice element” to teaching Latin through the programme.

“Latin is perceived as being prestigious and difficult. I don’t think it is difficult, and I don’t love the prestigious element either, but I think there is something powerful about students from our context getting a [grade] 7 or 9 in Latin, a subject that you could otherwise only expect from a student who probably attended a private school. I think that is really important and empowering,” Bearcroft said.

“We give them the chance to excel in a challenging qualification, and my hope is that they will stand out when they are applying for university.”

Roughly translated- this can't be scrapped because otherwise our kids won't have an advantage over your kids when they apply to university. He seems pretty keen on the prestige aspect. And I'm not quite sure why anyone would think working class kids couldn't do Latin. I don't know what his academy is like, but there are a lot of very overpaid people in academies generally who could fund Latin classes, I reckon.

What we're talking about is a very small number of kids getting special funding to do Latin. I don't really get why that should be a priority in the current climate. I actually give Bridget Philipson some credit for seeing that, even though she must know she's going to get shit for it, just like Becky Francis will get shit for trying to get a curriculum in that doesn't put off a load of what the right in other cirucumstances refer to as "white working class boys".

Oh god the amount of whining I've read about this. What they all fail to mention is that the scheme only operated in 40 schools and was due to run out in 2026. Also considering that Bridget Philipson actually went to a comprehensive school it really sticks in my gut that she's accused of the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Latin, like Rugby, Soggy Biscuit and Equestrianism is a shibboleth of British social capital.

Not saying it will happen but as David points out it remains a possibility that this does go down the Hollande route.

https://bsky.app/profile/dmk1793.bsky.s ... ncxl4uns2f

early unpopular tax rises fail to create fiscal headroom for more spending due to low growth
- flailing government responds by junking its agenda to pander desperately to business

I wrote this 18 months ago, but the failures of Hollande presidency remain as pertinent a warning as ever

Hollande didn't place export restrictions to neighbouring countries so wasn't marked down so much as an irrational economic player by international markets. He is a cautionary lesson as to how you squeeze more tax from the fat cats as the answer to debt repayment.

Like Badenoch as trade minister, Reeves wants us to believe routine trade diplomacy is an economic strategy. It is a good time to butter up China, though.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended her decision to travel to China to improve economic ties at a time when soaring government borrowing costs threaten to squeeze UK public finances.

She says she wants a long-term relationship with China that is "squarely in our national interest" and on Saturday said agreements reached in Beijing would be worth £600m to the UK over the next five years.

Following the talks, the UK Treasury said both countries had agreed to deeper co-operation in trade, financial services, investment and climate issues.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqx9jggw9ndo

I keep hearing that Starmer is a coward who won't do anything that Trump doesn't like. I didn't have better relations with China high on my Trump list.

The position is far from disastrous but it seems like bad fiscal rules are going to bite Labour and Reeves on the arse. I hope if necessary they rewrite them, as she did with the investment rule. It'll be a bit embarrassing but I recall George Osborne repeatedly failing his and getting very little stick, And his was way worse than Labour's.

These UK growth predictions aren't particularly catastrophic and in line with sluggish former DM zone countries doing slightly better than Germany itself. But pretty poor compared to other European economies which like the UK are more service orientated than Germany. What is interesting is that the multitude of problems that Germany faces no longer automatically drag down the rest of Europe.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/110 ... dp-growth/

Tulip Siddiq has resigned. Even though the independent adviser on ministerial standards has investigated her and found that she has not breached the ministerial code. She is apparently resigning purely to avoid being “a distraction”.

This is quite annoying. If every minister chucks in the towel every time they briefly become the focus of hostile media reporting so as not to be a distraction, there’ll be no fucking government left in a very short time.

But there we are. Onward and upward.

I don't think her problems are necessarily related to the ministerial code. Better she goes.