Britain - The Official Thread

[TenEightyOne]

Michael Gove's new genius plan: Change school holiday dates so parents can benefit from cheaper holiday prices.

Sometimes I wonder whether Gove lives in the real world or not. Change the school holidays, and travel companies will change the times at which the prices rise and fall. It's pretty much the most basic, GCSE-level supply and demand. Staggering holiday dates will make next to no difference. Apart from make holidays more expensive for everyone else over what used to be off-peak times.

I think it would make sense to allow every school pupil 6 days leave per year. Medical absences would have to be taken during this leave except for emergency/regular treatments.

A national "Holiday Pack" should be available per-year-per-ability-band that children are given to take away to support at least a little out-of-school work.

Families would then have a bit more flexibility. Hitting the travel companies isn't going to help, forceably flattening the high peak will just raise the average price level and eventually everyone will be worse off. As Academies move to more flexible timetabling there's already a risk that companies unable to absorb changing regional peaks will go out of business leading to more price increases.

 

[Keef]

Probably something to do with the corrupt cops on many of the smaller islands. Which "backwoods" (I'm guessing Kona side of the big Isle or Kauai) did your friends come from, as I've never heard much along these lines from my many friends of the various islands.

I mentioned it to him and apparently the problem stemmed from the fact that he and his Hawaiian girlfriend had a baby. I guess the locals tended to be rude about it. On late night strolls they were confronted by locals a few times and after they realized what was happening they avoided it altogether. Big island.

 

[Lizard]

He's the Education Secretary. Doesn't that position require at least some IQ points?

The majority of people don't have a clue about the office they are appointed. That is one of the jobs of the civil servants to inform them.

 

[ExigeEvan]

I think it would make sense to allow every school pupil 6 days leave per year. Medical absences would have to be taken during this leave except for emergency/regular treatments.

A national "Holiday Pack" should be available per-year-per-ability-band that children are given to take away to support at least a little out-of-school work.

Families would then have a bit more flexibility. Hitting the travel companies isn't going to help, forceably flattening the high peak will just raise the average price level and eventually everyone will be worse off. As Academies move to more flexible timetabling there's already a risk that companies unable to absorb changing regional peaks will go out of business leading to more price increases.

Never going to happen.

You can't just give 30 hours of work to a kid and expect them to do it. Plus, a kid isn't going to do 30 hours of work while they're on holiday!

It actually takes considerable effort for teachers to accommodate the needs of long-term ill children, often the teaching material has to be modified to accommodate the complete lack of a teacher.

/Source - Suffering partner of a teacher.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Never going to happen.

You can't just give 30 hours of work to a kid and expect them to do it. Plus, a kid isn't going to do 30 hours of work while they're on holiday!

It actually takes considerable effort for teachers to accommodate the needs of long-term ill children, often the teaching material has to be modified to accommodate the complete lack of a teacher.

30 hours would be ridiculous, I was talking about base curricular support along the lines of PSHE provision.

As an ex-teacher I can assure you that absorbing a potential max of 6-days-authorised-leave per child would make very little difference to the existing status quo.

 

[Liquid]

I saw this via @GilesGuthrie on Twitter.

Parliamentary attendance is an issue. Former PM Gordon Brown retained his seat in 2010 and has subsequently turned up like... 2-5% of the time. Should attendance be mandatory?

 

[PeterJB]

Yes it should. What's the point of giving them taxes if they won't even show up? Treat it like a normal job, if your attendance is sloppy, you get fired.

 

[Liquid]

Yes it should. What's the point of giving them taxes if they won't even show up? Treat it like a normal job, if your attendance is sloppy, you get fired.

This echoes the ethos of Dennis Skinner, arguably the last true left winger in the Commons. He is famous for his attendance to every and all sessions of parliament. He sees it as like any other job and compares it with his coal mining days;

If you missed a shift at the pit, you would get the sack.

He can be seen in the top picture on the front row on the right, the one looking downwards out of the three in a row.

 

[PeterJB]

And I commend him for doing so. We put these people in office, so they should at least go to it!

 

[TenEightyOne]

And I commend him for doing so. We put these people in office, so they should at least go to it!

@Liquid too...

No, that's not how it works.

When paired members know they're each going to vote on the party line then neither of them need attend to vote or debate. What would be the point? It would make no difference and they'd sit all day with nothing to do, earning extra allowances.

Not turning up for paired-votes means that instead of paying them to lunch all day in London we're paying them to be in their constituencies getting some work done*.

If they were in the House all the time (brap) then that WOULD cost us a fortune for no action.

*I know, that's a different argument...

 

[Tired Tyres]

They are elected by constituency. Not parliament. Therefore they should be present at one or the other.

 

[TenEightyOne]

They are elected by constituency. Not parliament. Therefore they should be present at one or the other.

I couldn't agree more. Experience tells me that they have other Important Matters to attend to, often at conferences in unbearably hot places. Thank God for swiming pools or the poor loves would wither.

 

[ExigeEvan]

30 hours would be ridiculous, I was talking about base curricular support along the lines of PSHE provision.

As an ex-teacher I can assure you that absorbing a potential max of 6-days-authorised-leave per child would make very little difference to the existing status quo.

The average unauthorised absence per pupil is less than 2 days per year. (190 school days, approx 5% missed days and approx 20% of those missed days are unauthorised. Source: Guardian.)

You propose they triple that!? My secondary English teaching girlfriend just shrieked at the thought.

 

[homeforsummer]

They are elected by constituency. Not parliament. Therefore they should be present at one or the other.

This. I'm surprised how often people forget this.

Of course, if they're neither working in their constituency nor sitting in parliament, then that's a different matter. But them not being present when the TV cameras are isn't automatically a sign they're not doing anything.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Don't forget that MPs will sit on a variety of committees, will visit local businesses and go on TV shows to widen their appeal to yuffs.

 

[TenEightyOne]

The average unauthorised absence per pupil is less than 2 days per year. (190 school days, approx 5% missed days and approx 20% of those missed days are unauthorised. Source: Guardian.)

You propose they triple that!? My secondary English teaching girlfriend just shrieked at the thought.

Hopefully your main girlfriend is a maths teacher then!

Your girlfriend will be aware that at the core of the debate about school holidays is the wording of schools' responsibility. They actually have to provide 380 sessions over an unspecified number of days, established in practice (naturally) as 190 days but no longer specified at all for Academies. That's where the Euro-style 6-day-with-option proposal stems, for example. When I taught in state schools, I always taught 190 days per year*, in public schools it could be slightly different (with 7 day teaching at times or compressed courses) and I believe that soon in Academies we'll see some quite radical trial changes.

The issue here is getting families together and allowing them to spend holiday time away from home together. That's not just a perk, it's a vitally important part of giving a modern family time together. Families at the low end of the pay scale often suffer from that.

One can easily argue that statistically those students are the most likely to require greater educational support. The opposing camp points out the immense amount of pastoral intervention that these students can require.

Supporting all families is crucial but supporting families working long hours on no wages with no family time is essential if we're actually going to reach our ideal of rebuilding the British family.

I'm proposing an authorised absence, not the unauthorised figures which you used to upset one of your girlfriends. Last year absence showed 5% nationally (and 5.8%) over the previous 6 years. That's 9 days per pupil.

I'm proposing up to 6 days authorisation that can be used for holidays in addition to the other normal reasons for authorisation. Holiday authorisation by a school isn't possible under current rules, so really it's a very minor change that could make a very big difference.

*Thinking about it I bloody well didn't, the swine had me in for exam classes in the holidays.

 

[Touring Mars]

Meanwhile, in today's Pun Sun:

 

[TenEightyOne]

The only thing I like about the Sun is that their headlines satisfy my OCD. Look at that, perfect 4x5 punshot, look at them working that sneer

Also; I insist on spelling his name "Farridge" just so people get the idea their heads. UKIP with, very good

 

[homeforsummer]

How sad young douchebags took over modern Britain

The sort of people who wear facemasks to bed but will happily neck a pint of piss for a dare

Quite neatly summed up in that quote, I feel. University was full of people like that when I was there, and I get the impression it's got worse in the intervening decade or so, since it's apparently become more fashionable to act and look like someone from Geordie Shore or The Valleys.

 

[ExigeEvan]

I'm proposing an authorised absence, not the unauthorised figures which you used to upset one of your girlfriends. Last year absence showed 5% nationally (and 5.8%) over the previous 6 years. That's 9 days per pupil.

I'm proposing up to 6 days authorisation that can be used for holidays in addition to the other normal reasons for authorisation. Holiday authorisation by a school isn't possible under current rules, so really it's a very minor change that could make a very big difference.

*Thinking about it I bloody well didn't, the swine had me in for exam classes in the holidays.

Is that to suggest the 6 days authorisation is used to cover sick days as well?

 

[Famine]

Do you live near a church? Do you know you have to pay for its repairs?

What in actual 🤬 ?

 

[TenEightyOne]

Do you live near a church? Do you know you have to pay for its repairs?

What in actual 🤬 ?

It's always been the way if you live in a parish, and there are other theoretically-leviable charges too. That's why the Americans ditched feudalism and just kept republican Constitutionalism

I understand that some are now levying the charge before the legal cutoff period to claim it. Most people just insure themselves against it and therefore never pay it if the chancelry 'moots the due', some people clearly haven't got themselves insurance and should either sue their estate agency or learn to read rules properly. They'll be townies, serves'em right

 

[ExigeEvan]

What sort of amounts are we talking though?

 

[TenEightyOne]

What sort of amounts are we talking though?

Can be hundreds of thousands, any single person in the parish can be made to pay it the whole lot because it's joint-and-severable. It's part of English law. Hurrah for Blighty. Bah.

EDIT: Which is why I'm not a monarchist, but I have to be careful calling myself a republican because everyone thinks that means you're a Nazi (In the UK, obviously, and mostly because of how US Republicans are portrayed in world news).

 

[MatskiMonk]

Do you live near a church? Do you know you have to pay for its repairs?

What in actual 🤬 ?

Yeah that sucks, I live near lots of single income, <26 year old, un-married couples with 3 children, seems like I'm paying for them to have iPhones, cigarettes, SkyTV and their own cars... most of them also live in council houses... so yeah, I'd rather contribute to the upkeep of interesting old architecture than pebble-dashed squareness.

 

[PeterJB]

Didn't know that, I was always told that repairs were funded by parishioner's donations, much like the clergymen's salaries.

 

[Lizard]

Do you live near a church? Do you know you have to pay for its repairs?

What in actual 🤬 ?

You didn't know about that? I thought everyone in Britain knew about that. Especially as you are offered insurance against it.
Although yes it sucks.

 

[TenEightyOne]

You didn't know about that? I thought everyone in Britain knew about that. Especially as you are offered insurance against it by people.
Although yes it sucks.

It's a bit of an English thing actually, I don't know if Famine actually might live in one of the nicer bits?

/internet career

 

[Famine]

As a practising atheist (you should see the ceremonies and traditions), I make it my business not to really get involved with what the church does - so no, no idea about it. I've certainly never heard of insurance against it!

 

[TenEightyOne]

I flirted briefly with the church, or more accurately a chorister therein. I became disillusioned with both once I realised the amount of patience required to tolerate either of them for any length of time.