Mailwatch(ed) Forum

On the one hand, maths is useless. On the other, teach our kids financial literacy (erm, that's more numeracy...).

Again, evidence that many of our woes can be blamed on middle class arts and humanities majors who have a way with words.

Also, the 3 Rs was always a fucking joke. Dickens's Dotheboys Hall offered "all languages living and dead, mathematics, orthography, geometry, astronomy, trigonometry, the use of the globes, algebra, single stick (if required), writing, arithmetic, fortification, and every other branch of classical literature". Impressive until you realise that it's just the 3 Rs dressed up.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu Jul 24, 2025 4:41 pm

financial education

But without the maths?

ETA: Andy beat me to it.

Calculators, innit?

You do though need to know what to put into the calculator. He must be mystified that it takes 3 years to qualify as an accountant. Can't they just do it all on a calculator?

As an aside, not giving Jenkins any sort of credibility at all, one of the best things I ever did was the conversion course on the Chartered Accountant exams. It was also the only part of Chartered Accountant exams that I did. It was excellent, included lots of accounting, some law relevant to business, and management/marketing. I wouldn't have gone near it if I didn't have to, but it was great in terms of general understanding of business stuff. I don't say everyone should have to do it, nor that all of it would be necessary for people who weren't trying to become accountants. but would be hugely useful to lots of people, I think. Maybe same sort of subjects for 6 weeks (rather than the 14 we did)? You could probably leave out financial accounting (debits and credits) altogether, come to think of it, but the management accounting/financial decisions would be very useful.

There you go. I've just added another big cost to the Education budget, and extra time to the curriculum. But we could do worse.

One of my former colleagues has left broadcasting to pursue a career as an accountancy assistant: going further back in time, someone I was at school with graduated in biochemistry but went into accounting afterwards.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu Jul 24, 2025 3:59 pm It's Simon Jenkins.

The PM promised to prioritise oracy, but has failed to do so. Set against tests and exams, it is seen as a luxury: in fact it is essential

PM in "not massively rejigging teacher training, curriculum and evaluation in his first year" shock.

As a bonus, Jenkins gets his "who needs maths when you've got calculators" trope in.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... g#comments

I read it. Starting off with some standard "kids, eh?" stuff, before moving onto Oracy, how it's been introduced to him, and the core of his argument - why can't kids be more middle class and nice, like mine? His family went to California - not to do anything touristy, but to observe the education system. It's been picked up by a few independent schools, nice places, very exclusive. Kids at common schools shout at each other and have those phones they have nowadays. Kids at nice schools have a daily debate on what they heard on Radio 4 that morning. Oh, why can't everyone be more like me?

So, standard Simon Jenkins fare then.

Another cartoon. Government are prisoners of the Treasury, and crippled by strikes. Am I missing anything?

Martin Rowson does at least have a distinctive style, I'll give him that.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... n#comments

What’s lurking in the water cooler ?

Apart from the Fur Cup?

Dear Keir Starmer, stop cosying up to Donald Trump – or he’ll drag Britain down with him

Why is the prime minister chasing after Trump in Scotland? His time would be better spent planning for a world beyond the ‘special relationship’

Is it because the US is the most powerful country in the world, and that Europe's fucked if they bail from NATO? Just a thought. And that's leaving out trade implications.

Starmer's announcing strategic stuff with other countries virtually every week anyway.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... n-scotland

On the plus side, the Guardian haven't left the comments open so that the regulars can weigh in with "Starmer is a Hard Brexiter who's basically the same as Trump".

Peak Guardian:

‘Astonishingly good value’: the best supermarket tofu, tasted and rated

This test helped me realise just how much I truly love tofu, even cold. Like all deceptively simple products, such as wine, coffee and chocolate, tofu’s character is rooted in its terroir: the soil, biodiversity, climate, plant species and production process.

Tom Hunt...

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 5:00 pm

Dear Keir Starmer, stop cosying up to Donald Trump – or he’ll drag Britain down with him

Why is the prime minister chasing after Trump in Scotland? His time would be better spent planning for a world beyond the ‘special relationship’

Is it because the US is the most powerful country in the world, and that Europe's fucked if they bail from NATO? Just a thought. And that's leaving out trade implications.

Starmer's announcing strategic stuff with other countries virtually every week anyway.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... n-scotland

On the plus side, the Guardian haven't left the comments open so that the regulars can weigh in with "Starmer is a Hard Brexiter who's basically the same as Trump".

Don’t go to Scotland to see him, Prime Minister. Don’t waste your breath. Instead, start planning for the post-special-relationship era. Make the break.

Can't you do both?
The record of rolling out the red carpet for autocrats is unedifying (Caecescu, Mugabe) and unproductive but this is for Ukraine and Europe's security. Don't know why Trump’s gone cold on Putin but it's a relief.
There's a proposal raised by Finland and Sweden to open talks with CPTPP for a joint customs union in order to counter US power. Brussels is reported to be lukewarm as they don't want to rile Trump too much, either. Great idea to pursue after Putin's defeated.

Starmer and Reeves should prepare UK for wealth tax, say top economists

Or 35 economists write a letter. Hardly the 364 who criticized the 1981 Budget (correctly, it delayed the recovery further).

This is not the best argument I've ever seen.

In centuries gone by, critics claimed income tax was too technical or difficult to implement and administer. The same arguments are being used now about a wealth tax, while income tax has become a given. These arguments shouldn’t stop us now and history should embolden our resolve.

Nor is this.

That only a small number of people would pay it isn’t a weakness in the policy, but a magnifying glass on the extreme inequality of wealth in the country.

That's like a talking point for an interview, rather than a proper argument. Smaller the number of people, the more vulnerable it is to not raising the money you think it should. And they say it would take till the end of this Parliament to set up. That's a lot of warning for people who don't fancy paying it.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... as-piketty

The BTL crowd, who assured us that Starmer was doing a terrible job and had a shit deal with Trump, are struggling to process the EU doing a worse deal. Trump hasn't won, of course. Everyone's seeking to do more work away from America. Including the UK, despite what BTL think.

This really is sixth form student stuff, where the performance of the protest becomes the point, and the cause becomes secondary.

You don't have to support Palestine Action to support Palestinians, lads. Join another group. Or none. It's not difficult.

I think this is inevitable given how heavy handed the government have been. But yeah, the idea this stops people supporting Palestine is nonsense.

Oh God.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... re-strikes

Wes Streeting’s divide and rule tactics may have won against the doctors – but more strikes are coming
Polly Smythe
This is the closest Labour has come to picking a fight with the unions. Still, public sector workers are struggling, and they have public sympathy

Gone is the relaxed attitude displayed by the health secretary towards the British Medical Association (BMA) in 2024, when he agreed a deal with doctors that set them on a “journey to pay restoration”.

I wonder why the attitude's changed, Polly?

there’s the fact that there are those in Labour who are itching to embrace the spirit of the 1980s and launch a full-frontal attack on the [trade union} movement.

Really? Evidence please.

On a basic starting salary of £38,831 and saddled with as much as £100,000 of student debt, it’s no longer enough for new resident doctor recruits to simply wait to earn more at some distant point in the future.

It goes up to £44,000 after one year, and to £60,000 by year 4. If the issue is the first year salary, then that's something that could be fixed by negotiation. But the BMA position is this (dishonestly presented) rise across all grades.

For this dispute, Labour has used inter-union tensions over NHS pay – as well as the outdated idea that all resident doctors are middle-class professionals – as a political opportunity to dodge blame for the strike.

"Middle class" is in the eye of the beholder, but if you're going to argue that doctors aren't middle class professionals, you might as well argue that Alan Sugar is working class.

What blame? They settled the dispute last year, then accepted the pay body review. "Inter union tensions" would of course vanish if the doctors received, say, 10% and other public sector workers got much less, right?

In, 1949 the Attlee government sent troops to break up striking dockers. So no this is not the worst it's been between Labour and the unions.

That might not be a million miles from happening in Birmingham.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 6:29 pm That might not be a million miles from happening in Birmingham.

There's no chance of that happening.