[Tubby Isaacs]

This seems a bit of an overreaction.

Devolution doesn't mean the absence of national policies. As someone BTL says, LAs have to follow national accessibility standards. Should they be removed?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Can serious commentators please provide more analysis than schoolyard mythology about bullies really being cowards? If Trump was bluffing about NHS drug prices, how do we know he's not bluffing about the Digital Service Tax?

[davidjay]

I wish people would stop saying bullies back down if you stand up to them. At our school the bullies enjoyed battering anyone who did that.

[Boiler]

I wish people would stop saying bullies back down if you stand up to them. At our school the bullies enjoyed battering anyone who did that.

They did at my school too. Sadly, the concept of punching a bully on the nose and they back off is a myth.

[Oboogie]

I wish people would stop saying bullies back down if you stand up to them. At our school the bullies enjoyed battering anyone who did that.

Yeah, standing up to bullies only works if you can convince them you might win, or at least be hard work, not always easy when there's three of them towering over you.

[Samanfur]

And at my school, you probably got into more trouble with the teachers than the bully.

[Boiler]

And at my school, you probably got into more trouble with the teachers than the bully.

I don't know if your school was anything like my mid-70s comp but in some cases the teachers were as bad as the bullies. They lived up to the image of the teacher in Floyd's The Wall.

Sadly, they weren't all like one in particular who stood out - a maths and PE teacher who was an absolute gentleman and always, always looked after the ones that were struggling a bit. Sadly, he's no longer with us.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I wish people would stop saying bullies back down if you stand up to them. At our school the bullies enjoyed battering anyone who did that.

Yep. Rather a lot of people get bullied at school. I doubt all that many of them are sitting there now thinking "Christ, if I'd only landed a right hook on him, he'd have collapsed and never bothered me again"

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't know if your school was anything like my mid-70s comp but in some cases the teachers were as bad as the bullies. They lived up to the image of the teacher in Floyd's The Wall.

One of the advantages of private school even in the 80s was that most teachers knew parents wouldn't have put up with that sort of shit. We had good, humane teachers overall.

[Oboogie]

And at my school, you probably got into more trouble with the teachers than the bully.

At my school there was no attempt to ascertain cause and blame, both kids were fighting therefore perpetrator and victim received the same punishment. Ah, the good old days.

[davidjay]

And at my school, you probably got into more trouble with the teachers than the bully.

At my school there was no attempt to ascertain cause and blame, both kids were fighting therefore perpetrator and victim received the same punishment. Ah, the good old days.

Ours was the same. If you were caught fighting you were assaulted by a teacher.

[Oboogie]

And at my school, you probably got into more trouble with the teachers than the bully.

At my school there was no attempt to ascertain cause and blame, both kids were fighting therefore perpetrator and victim received the same punishment. Ah, the good old days.

Ours was the same. If you were caught fighting you were assaulted by a teacher.

To teach you violence is wrong.

[davidjay]

You should stand up to a bully. Unless the bully is twice your size, three times your age and carrying a weapon. Stand up to them and you're REALLY in trouble.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I wish people would stop saying bullies back down if you stand up to them. At our school the bullies enjoyed battering anyone who did that.

They did at my school too. Sadly, the concept of punching a bully on the nose and they back off is a myth.

Worked for me...

[Tubby Isaacs]

Labour could lose dozens of seats to the Green party if the government allows new drilling in the North Sea, according to internal research shared with the Guardian.

Green party analysis suggests up to 50 Labour MPs, including Andy Burnham’s key ally Louise Haigh, could lose their seats at the next election if the government fails to make urgent climate action a priority or allows new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.

Though I'm in favour of the drilling, as I've said before, I'm not sure how the politics will work out. My hope is that they'll have enough overall climate progress to point to. Anyway, losing votes to the Greens is not as bad as losing them to Reform or Kemi.

[Oboogie]

I wonder a) how many seats the Greens can afford to fight simultaneously b) how politically savvy they will be about choosing target seats. I'm remembering the ineptitude of Corbyn's Labour pouring resources into certain seats for ideological reasons at the expense of potentially winnable seats elsewhere. Many of those inept Corbynites are now Greens, I wonder if they've learned any lessons, especially the most basic one ie that total votes are irrelevant, it's seats which count.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They'll have more activists than Ed Davey had, and look what he did against an incumbent. I know it was only 4 seats, but they targeted well in 2024. They'll have their local government experience to help them. I expect them to be reasonably good at that.

But selling Polanski as Prime Minister (or at the minimum a senior cabinet minister in a coalition) may be a major problem.

[Oboogie]

They'll have more activists than Ed Davey had, and look what he did against an incumbent. I know it was only 4 seats, but they targeted well in 2024. They'll have their local government experience to help them. I expect them to be reasonably good at that.

But selling Polanski as Prime Minister (or at the minimum a senior cabinet minister in a coalition) may be a major problem.

Since his response to the Golders Green attack, Polanski is now a major liability, only Farage is less popular.
I wonder who the Greens will replace him with?
https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/55382 ... ugust-2026