sadoldgit

Unfortunately the balls of steel are situated in his head rather than hanging between his legs.

You can’t criticise Tories on here mate, you will just end up being followed around and slagged off by the Boris Bullies. Apparently they can do no wrong and centrist or left party’s can do no right. It’s a shame that some of them feel the need to make it personal. Perhaps it some deep rooted guilt thing they have going on?

Easy. We are allowed to catch the fish with blue passports.

Finally given in to the hype and have started bingeing on BBC’s Normal People. It lives up to the hype and is well worth watching.

It sounds like you should volunteer to teach teachers how to control their pupils if you think it is that easy.

I love the argument against PPE because of not wanting to scare the children - as if having their teacher die of covid wont scar them for years! Good luck mate. I hope that they can sort out a situation where you are as safe as possible given the circumstances.

I have finally finished reading JG Ballard’s book “Crash”. It has only taken me 3 years as I kept picking it up and putting it down again. I like Ballard as an author but found this hard going. I have nothing against pervy sex but this is a bit freaky. The film was good though.

I have an old friend who would probably describe himself as a Marxist and was a staunch Corbyn supporter from day 1. He has not said a peep about Starmer. He has the air of someone who could get Labour elected and you would think that would be a good thing! I think the far left worry that he is another Blair but I think he will carve out his own place in the party. If they are going to get elected they need to appeal to middle England and those who shy away from more centrist politics will just have to compromise otherwise it will be another 5 years in the wilderness.

There is word going round that the government have chosen the years to go back based on the weaker unionisation of that teacher group. The unions are there to protect people. It is a shame that there wasn’t so much protection in other areas before the virus took a group. If we are speaking of anecdotal evidence, I know of several teachers who do not want to go back until safer conditions are agreed and who can blame them? They sign up to teach children, not to put their life on the line. Schools closed for a reason. There is no proper test, trace, isolate programme yet and the death rate is still depressingly high. What has changed other than the need to get more people back to work for the sake of the (already f*cked) economy). The worse thing we can do right now is allow another spike in infection rates. Yes, we do need to find a way to live with this virus for some time to come, but any return to a kind of normality needs to be properly managed and it has been a proper shambles here so far.

Clearly I don’t know all teachers, but the ones I do know do not want to go back until they feel that both the children and themselves are going to be relatively safe. The fact that it appears that the government have not consulted with either scientific experts or the unions seems to suggest that they are right to be concerned about the current plans to return.

You bet he does, but you don’t know for a fact. Perhaps find out and report back so that we can actually deal with the fact?

Shouldn’t the headline be “Let Our Teachers Be Martyrs”?

Perhaps you should direct that statement to Boris Johnson.

The review supported the decision note to prosecute the four charges on the basis that there wasn’t enough evidence (the complainants refused to go to court I believe). It was up to the police to come back with something that would stand up in court. They didn’t. Explain how Starmer failed, or the CPS for that matter. They do not gather evidence. That is entirely down to the police. Stories in the newspaper do not constitute evidence. He has accepted that the reviewing lawyer should have pressed the police for more evidence, but if the police believed Savile had a case to answer why did they need pressing? The stories about Savile had been around for some time. Should all of the DPP’s and police chiefs offered their resignations too?

My boss at the time, Roger Coe-Salazar, a CCP, carried out the case review for Starmer who as Shurlock rightly says, was not involved in making the decision. You need to check your facts (a bit like Boris).

Done yourself no favours here JB.

Bluster and waffle versus forensic scrutiny. Interesting times ahead.

And then proceeding not to answer the question.

Slightly before my time but did influence the bands I listened to in the 60’s. Without the likes of him and Chuck Berry, no Beatles, Stones etc. RIP

Fair point. I still think he is doing the right thing in letting them get on with it and not pressing for an extension, but as you say, they can do what they want anyway - deal or no deal!

It looks to me that Starmer is being very shrewd and is letting them hang themselves. He makes the point that the Government have said that they can do this by 31st December and he is saying go ahead and let’s see if you can. By not seeking an extension, as would seem perfectly reasonable given the circumstances, the government are putting pressure on themselves.

That doesn’t alter my point does it.

Or don’t do, as in this case.

Given that the lesser of two evils should probably be the wisest choice in most situations, how on Earth does Trump come out on top?