Something else to consider - all the sacked ministers will receive a generous pay-off. If the Tories lose the election all the new ministers appointed over the last couple days will also receive a pay-off. A cynic might think this is a way of lining the pockets of as many Tories as possible.

 

Not only that, Mark Harper quit as an immigration minister earlier this year because he had employed an illegal immigrant as a cleaner. He too will have receive a pay-off. Now, just a matter of months later, he is back as a minister at the DWP.

 

only in government do you get rewarded for doing a bad job or getting sacked.

 

And banking.

 

And Directors of companies.

 

And people who go bankrupt.

 

And local Councillors and anyone who's in on what they're up to.

 

And Consultants.

 

And Hollywood Transformers script-writers.

 

Err, I take back that first statement....

 

 

 

 

This story sums up why so many teachers despised Gove and everything he stands for.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/...elson?CMP=fb_gu

 

It is true that he built on the last government's obsession with league tables but Gove took it to a new extreme.

 

good article. some of my teachers inspired me, and it started with them taking an interest in me as a person, not just a statistic or one of a homogenous mass class. Exams are helpful guides, no more, anyone can have a bad question on a paper, or panic. Some of the dumbest people have good exam results and smartest, bad. Inspiring kids is just as important as stuffing facts into their head that they will forget a few years down the line.

good article. some of my teachers inspired me, and it started with them taking an interest in me as a person, not just a statistic or one of a homogenous mass class. Exams are helpful guides, no more, anyone can have a bad question on a paper, or panic. Some of the dumbest people have good exam results and smartest, bad. Inspiring kids is just as important as stuffing facts into their head that they will forget a few years down the line.

Gove was just far too obsessed with cramming facts into children without testing whether they understood those facts. It started at the youngest age with his insistence on phonics tests. That showed that children could guess how a word might sound without them having any idea what it meant - if indeed it was a proper word at all.

 

As many people have said, knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Intelligence is knowing not to include a tomato in a fruit salad. Gove showed no sign of understanding that.

Gove was just far too obsessed with cramming facts into children without testing whether they understood those facts. It started at the youngest age with his insistence on phonics tests. That showed that children could guess how a word might sound without them having any idea what it meant - if indeed it was a proper word at all.

 

As many people have said, knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Intelligence is knowing not to include a tomato in a fruit salad. Gove showed no sign of understanding that.

 

The funny thing is, his obsession with "rigorous academic standards" or whatever was completely at odds with "free schools". In theory, I actually thought free schools were quite a good idea if it meant more specialist schools for things like drama, technology, sports etc. for kids who weren't very good at traditional "academic" subjects (though I have no idea if in practice there were many free schools actually like that, since obviously most of the ones in the news were crackpot religious schools). But then at the same time as he was promoting free schools, he was saying all this bullshit about how kids needed to be forced to do all the old-fashioned "traditional" subjects even if they weren't good at them or had any interest in them. It never made any sense.

 

I don't think he was "evil" (to be honest, there's quite a few government ministers who I dislike a lot more than him), but he's typical of most politicians these days, in that he arrogantly assumes he knows better about a profession than people who have a whole career of experience in that profession and a knowledge of what works and what doesn't.

Gove was just far too obsessed with cramming facts into children without testing whether they understood those facts. It started at the youngest age with his insistence on phonics tests. That showed that children could guess how a word might sound without them having any idea what it meant - if indeed it was a proper word at all.

 

As many people have said, knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Intelligence is knowing not to include a tomato in a fruit salad. Gove showed no sign of understanding that.

Yeah, but that says nothing on the extent to which intelligence is related to knowledge.

Yeah, but that says nothing on the extent to which intelligence is related to knowledge.

 

Intelligence is the ability to analyse and understand all available facts and observations and come to a reasonable conclusion.

 

Knowledge is the selective absorption of facts to fit a preconceived conclusion, interest or bias. Inconvenient facts ignored.

 

Most scientists would be the former, most politicians the latter.

 

Of course I'm cynical and just having a go at politicians.

 

Genius is the ability to have inspirational understanding of something, or artistically creative. Most geniuses dont end up in politics.

Just five words for you Chris:

 

Change does not equal Improvement.

 

 

Not always, no, but sometimes it might. :)

Something else to consider - all the sacked ministers will receive a generous pay-off. If the Tories lose the election all the new ministers appointed over the last couple days will also receive a pay-off. A cynic might think this is a way of lining the pockets of as many Tories as possible.

 

 

I believe that MP's, ministers, Cabinet ministers etc, all receive a Final Salary pension so that may be why Hague wants to stay in the Cabinet until he steps down as an MP as his pension will be more.

Now we've had the first comments from our new Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Israel's land invasion of Gaza. Apparently it is all the fault of Hamas who have killed one person over the last few weeks. Israel - who have killed 240 people, mostly civilians and including many children - are apparently blameless. It looks like he is making a serious attempt over the next 9 1/2 months at being an even worse minister than Gove. Ambition is often something to be admired but not in this case.

I believe that MP's, ministers, Cabinet ministers etc, all receive a Final Salary pension so that may be why Hague wants to stay in the Cabinet until he steps down as an MP as his pension will be more.

I'm no fan of Hague - although I have more respect for him than I have for most of his party colleagues - but I don't think that is his motive.

Now we've had the first comments from our new Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Israel's land invasion of Gaza. Apparently it is all the fault of Hamas who have killed one person over the last few weeks. Israel - who have killed 240 people, mostly civilians and including many children - are apparently blameless. It looks like he is making a serious attempt over the next 9 1/2 months at being an even worse minister than Gove. Ambition is often something to be admired but not in this case.

Well it doesn't exactly help that Hamas conduct their attacks from hospitals and schools so they can specifically get this kind of reaction when Israel respond to attacks. The Palestinians aren't angels here.

 

Really though it's one of the situations that calls for

 

Well it doesn't exactly help that Hamas conduct their attacks from hospitals and schools so they can specifically get this kind of reaction when Israel respond to attacks. The Palestinians aren't angels here.

 

Really though it's one of the situations that calls for

 

Have I said that I support Hamas? The Israeli response is always based on the assumption that it will be paid for by the USA.

Have I said that I support Hamas? The Israeli response is always based on the assumption that it will be paid for by the USA.

Have I said that you do?

Now we've had the first comments from our new Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Israel's land invasion of Gaza. Apparently it is all the fault of Hamas who have killed one person over the last few weeks. Israel - who have killed 240 people, mostly civilians and including many children - are apparently blameless. It looks like he is making a serious attempt over the next 9 1/2 months at being an even worse minister than Gove. Ambition is often something to be admired but not in this case.

 

whenever he appears on TV my bullshitometer goes into overload, alarm bells and lights flashing all over the place.

 

War: two wrongs do not make a right, they just bring about more wrongs. people learn nothing. Morons.