Oh shit, no. I had a shower last night, though.
— Chris Tomlinson, British long jumper, after being asked by his wife if he'd had a shave before he met the Prime Minister.
Tags — Quotation of the week
One for the political geeks out there: on a train to Leeds on Tuesday, I was sitting near Michael Howard, one time Tory leader and well-known politician.
Obviously, his being a Tory, I wasn't that bothered by him. Nevertheless, my political-geek side nearly came to the fore as I considered discussing political accountability versus operational responsibility with him, especially in the context of his experience of the Derek Lewis affair (and for which Jeremy Paxman put the same question to him 14 times in succession, without decent reply).
I also wanted to talk to him about his getting stuffed by Tony Blair and the Labour party in the 2005 general election. Given the current climate, however, I decided against that — and indeed all — discussion with him.
Update: Here's the interview, with the series of questions starting at 4'17". "You can put the question and I will give you an answer."
Tags — General Interest Personal Politics
At the risk of turning into the Stumbling and Mumbling fan club, you really should read this post from Chris Dillow, it being much better careers advice than most people would have ever received.
Anyone with a bit of self-control and nous can, therefore, cover up the fact that they are the wrong man for the job - and, after a while, maybe even turn into the right man.
Tags — General Interest
Sorry for the continued silence on arbitrary constant for the past couple of weeks. Here's a round-up of things I've missed:
— David Davis's resignation over the 42-day detention limit. As many have pointed out, he's a curious defender of civil liberties, especially given that he still believes in capital punishment. The by-election will be a farce; on which, Mad-Cow Girl, the by-election candidate for the Monster Raving Loony Party, has spoken more sense than David Davis:
I may be a loony, but I'm not mad enough to want dangerous people walking free in the name of political correctness.
— The Irish have voted no to the amending Lisbon treaty. As Oliver Kamm points out:
The successful "No" campaign in the Irish referendum argued[that] commissioners should continue to be drawn from each member state - a nice instance of a populist campaign in favour of unelected rule from Brussels.
— The Tory talk about the "post-bureaucratic state" hasn't gone down well at Prospect: "No wonder they're known as the 'stupid party'".
— Positive discrimination, for women and people from BME backgrounds, is to be introduced. Details here and here.
— One of Boris's advisers has already resigned, due to comments that could have been (mis)represented as racist. The Spectator has the story.
— In a recent 20-20 match, Graham Napier hit 152 not out off 58 deliveries, including 16 sixes and 29 runs off the last over.
Tags — General Interest
I think I may have found the best website on the internet: spEak You’re bRanes. It is:
[a] collection of ignorance, narcissism, stupidity, hypocrisy and bad grammar. All the comments quoted were found on the BBC "Have Your Say" site. Yes, people really have written them. On purpose as far as I can tell.
On many occasions I've highlighted the contribution made by Have Your Say to popular debate (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and all I can say is a big thank you to the creator of the site for being willing to dedicate time and effort to pointing out the quality of the various contributions that make it onto their site.
Tags — Newspapers
[T]he Tory chuntering class is as stupid and ill-read as its Hampstead lefty counterpart. Neither wishes to test the rectitude of their own tired prejudices against evidence or literature.
— Chris Dillow, at Stumbling and Mumbling
Tags — Quotation of the week
This is the message being sent by the government to schools: if you don't improve, then you must close.
This is a tough issue, because there are a large number of factors well outside the control of schools that affect their achievements. There's also a problem with what the government values from a school — concentrating on 5 "good" GSCEs is to focus too narrowly on what schools do for their pupils and the communities to which they (pupils and schools) belong.
Notwithstanding all of these points, I have argued here before (1, 2) that choice should be a fundamental part of the education system. With choice comes exit, i.e. parents choosing to send their children to a different school. And with exit inevitably comes poor schools. Although the government should be more sophisticated in the measures it uses to determine success or otherwise, in some cases it will be right that schools which don't attract pupils should "close": this is a consequence of choice in the education system, and will go some way to ensuring schools that exist are of a standard that can meet the expectations of pupils, parents, the school staff, and the government.
He is now quite addicted to alcohol, smokes and has spent a great deal of time over the last nine months asleep.
That's Mrs Gardner on her son during his first year at university. She had assumed her son would be "fully engaged" and suggested her assumption might be "very wrong".
You've got to give it to Mrs Gardner: she's willing to re-assess her assumptions in light of the evidence in front of her. It's just that, in this case, the evidence in front of her was so obvious — that an 18-year-old boy going to university for their first year would do everything but study — that she was being a bit unrealistic.
I don't know about you, but I reckon her son (who let her know he thought he would be doing more studying) was having her on.
Tags — Quotation of the week
The always excellent John Rentoul on the Independent's Open House blog:
The age of consent for gay men in Northern Ireland is to be made the same as for heterosexuals at 16... I mark this a significant gain in the plus column of Labour achievements.
"A bum-legged old man and a drunk... that all you got?"
"That's what I've got."
This line from Rio Bravo (reviewed here) came to mind when watching 24 hours in the life of Today. Radio 4's flagship news programme routinely annoys the hell out of me; every morning, without fail, my wife shouts at John Humphrys and his sanctimonious interviewing style.
But it is the best thing we've got in terms of in-depth news analysis and commentary. And so, for that, it's worth sticking by it.
(As an aside, I suspect that this video was Evan Davies's idea; if so, it shows in snippet form what a difference he's made to the programme having joined it as a presenter.)
Tags — Newspapers