UK Politics Thread XII: The Lockdown

[Philjia]

Concerns have been raised that the system used to provide grades to students in Scotland who were unable to sit their exams might be a bit shit.

Basically, teachers would submit predicted grades to the SQA, who would then moderate them based on a range of factors to ensure that the results given reflected previous years. The problem is that one of the factors considered was how affluent an area each school was in. Deprived areas tend to have lower attainment, and the SQA revised the results of pupils from less well off areas down to reflect this, so essentially a government department has fucked over a bunch of bright kids from poorer backgrounds because they're poor. Oh dear.

[The New California Republic]

Concerns have been raised that the system used to provide grades to students in Scotland who were unable to sit their exams might be a bit shit.

Basically, teachers would submit predicted grades to the SQA, who would then moderate them based on a range of factors to ensure that the results given reflected previous years. The problem is that one of the factors considered was how affluent an area each school was in. Deprived areas tend to have lower attainment, and the SQA revised the results of pupils from less well off areas down to reflect this, so essentially a government department has fucked over a bunch of bright kids from poorer backgrounds because they're poor. Oh dear.

Yeah I heard about this earlier. Even before I heard about this metric being used I thought that the estimates might be a bit shit, but now I know that the estimates will be shit.

[The Archregimancy]

Happy 150th anniversary to the British Red Cross.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6v6aFw ... e=emb_logo

https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/ou ... 150-voices

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53645820


No real discussion point; just recognising a significant anniversary for a prominent British institution.

Whenever I buy books I try to get them from charities, with the British Red Cross being one of them. I've never done any actual charity work for them though, as I was mostly involved in helping fundraising for Barnardo's.

Just a bit of minor - but significant - pedantry...

While registered in the UK as a charity for legal purposes, the British Red Cross - along with the St John Ambulance and, in Scotland, the St Andrew Ambulance - has a specific status as one of the three UK Voluntary Aid societies. As such, it has a recognised role - defined by Royal Charter - as an auxiliary supplier of humanitarian services within the UK. It also has a defined role in providing auxiliary medical and humanitarian services in time of conflict. In fact, in the UK the right to use the Red Cross emblem is controlled by the Ministry of Defence (as a recognised neutral medical symbol in time of conflict under international law), who permit its use by the British Red Cross as the recognised national Red Cross society within the UK. Nonetheless the British Red Cross remains administratively and financially independent from both the UK government and the International Red Cross in Switzerland.

So ultimately the British Red Cross is a slightly unusual mixture of charity, NGO, and government-approved supplier of voluntary aid.

[The Alma Mater]

Concerns have been raised that the system used to provide grades to students in Scotland who were unable to sit their exams might be a bit shit.

Basically, teachers would submit predicted grades to the SQA, who would then moderate them based on a range of factors to ensure that the results given reflected previous years. The problem is that one of the factors considered was how affluent an area each school was in. Deprived areas tend to have lower attainment, and the SQA revised the results of pupils from less well off areas down to reflect this, so essentially a government department has fucked over a bunch of bright kids from poorer backgrounds because they're poor. Oh dear.

Does the opposite not also happen ?
In the Netherlands schools get a rating, based on their performance (like the average grades of the students). That rating is adjusted upwards significantly if the school contains a lot of children from low income, low education households or immmigrant families - which led to Islamic schools where half the kids failed being rated quite high nevertheless.

The official reasoning being that it is a more impressive achievement to let a poor kid from a family which cannot help with homework pass than it is to let the son of a millionaire with 2 private tutors score 8/10.

[The New California Republic]

Concerns have been raised that the system used to provide grades to students in Scotland who were unable to sit their exams might be a bit shit.

Basically, teachers would submit predicted grades to the SQA, who would then moderate them based on a range of factors to ensure that the results given reflected previous years. The problem is that one of the factors considered was how affluent an area each school was in. Deprived areas tend to have lower attainment, and the SQA revised the results of pupils from less well off areas down to reflect this, so essentially a government department has fucked over a bunch of bright kids from poorer backgrounds because they're poor. Oh dear.

Does the opposite not also happen ?
In the Netherlands schools get a rating, based on their performance (like the average grades of the students). That rating is adjusted upwards significantly if the school contains a lot of children from low income, low education households or immmigrant families - which led to Islamic schools where half the kids failed being rated quite high nevertheless.

The official reasoning being that it is a more impressive achievement to let a poor kid from a family which cannot help with homework pass than it is to let the son of a millionaire with 2 private tutors score 8/10.

No the thing with this situation is that they have never had to do this before, but inevitably they have screwed it up by saying "you live in postcode x that is former mining area, so that "A" grade that you were expected to get is being lowered to a B. But your friend who lives in that nouveau riche area a mile away is having his grade stay right where it is."

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

The Home Affairs Committee says the government made a serious error by not bringing in quarantine earlier. A Home Office spokesperson says they are wrong.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53654644

Government departments should listen to parliamentary committees.

[Vassenor]

So the EU is bullying us by holding us to payments we agreed to again, it seems.

The European Commission has dismissed a demand by senior Tories to rewrite the Brexit withdrawal agreement to reduce the amount of cash Britain has to pay the EU.

Brexiteers including Iain Duncan Smith have claimed that the financial liabilities signed up to by Boris Johnson in the agreement were too great, that the treaty “costs too much” and “denies us true national independence”.

But speaking to reporters on Tuesday, a European Commission spokesperson said the agreement’s financial section included “completely normal legal commitments”.

Sir Iain’s concerns relate to the UK’s continued liability for European Investment Bank loans, which he claims will mean the financial impact will go far beyond the main settlements in the £39bn divorce deal.

“I think it’s very clear that we are not going to get into a debate with British politicians on liabilities or any other of the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement,” the Commission spokesperson said.

[The Free Joy State]

I wonder how many HongKongers will take up the offer and move over. Cant imagine being in their situation and genuinely thinking about having to leave home because of that crap the Chinese are pulling. Hope the ones who come over have good lives and can do well.

I've been wondering about that. It must be a heartbreaking decision.

I'm glad the UK has pledged to help those who seek refuge here. I hope those who do come to the UK will thrive.

Happy 150th anniversary to the British Red Cross.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6v6aFw ... e=emb_logo

https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/ou ... 150-voices

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53645820


No real discussion point; just recognising a significant anniversary for a prominent British institution.

I didn't realise that. Many happy returns to the British Red Cross.

They've done so much good over the years.

Happy 150th anniversary to the British Red Cross.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6v6aFw ... e=emb_logo

https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/ou ... 150-voices

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53645820


No real discussion point; just recognising a significant anniversary for a prominent British institution.

Whenever I buy books I try to get them from charities, with the British Red Cross being one of them. I've never done any actual charity work for them though, as I was mostly involved in helping fundraising for Barnardo's.

I buy a lot of books from charity shops, too.

Donations to charity shops aside (where the British Red Cross is one of the charities I donate to), my fundraising efforts have mostly been for the local hospice that cared for my aunt.

[CoraSpia]

The Home Affairs Committee says the government made a serious error by not bringing in quarantine earlier. A Home Office spokesperson says they are wrong.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53654644

Government departments should listen to parliamentary committees.

They literally just said 'no we didn't.' It's the worst gov response I've ever heard.

[The Blaatschapen]

With regards to the Red Cross, how do I distinguish between it and the English flag?

[The New California Republic]

With regards to the Red Cross, how do I distinguish between it and the English flag?

[CoraSpia]

With regards to the Red Cross, how do I distinguish between it and the English flag?

Well, both are essential lifesavers who you definitely shouldn't shoot at.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I thought for a second Bob Ross had become leader of the Scottish Conservatives, turns out it was Doug Ross. I know nothing about him, but I expect he wants to make happy little Tories.

[Hirota]

I thought for a second Bob Ross had become leader of the Scottish Conservatives, turns out it was Doug Ross. I know nothing about him, but I expect he wants to make happy little Tories.

I googled him. Turns out he looks a little like George Clooney

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I thought for a second Bob Ross had become leader of the Scottish Conservatives, turns out it was Doug Ross. I know nothing about him, but I expect he wants to make happy little Tories.

I googled him. Turns out he looks a little like George Clooney

I would have said more Ant McPartlin.

[The Archregimancy]

With regards to the Red Cross, how do I distinguish between it and the English flag?

Or the Georgian flag?

I suspect Blaat is joking, but...

International Red Cross founder Henry Dunant chose the Red Cross emblem as the reverse of the Swiss flag; it has no religious connotations. The cross therefore has bars of equal length that do not reach the edges of the flag.

The earliest surviving British Red Cross flag, from the Franco-Prussian War, demonstrates the principle:

https://museumandarchives.redcross.org.uk/objects/26


The Red Crescent emblem, which has equal status in international law as a neutral protective emblem under the Geneva Conventions, arose in the Ottoman Empire in the 1870s during one of the regular wars against Russia. While the Red Cross emblem has no association with Christianity, a red cross on a white background was nonetheless perceived as having an unfortunate similarity to Crusader imagery. Ottoman medical volunteers seem to have spontaneously adopted a white crescent on a red background - the reverse of the Ottoman flag - as an alternative.

While the red crescent also has no religious symbolism (except in its adoption as an alternative to a red cross), it's used by many national societies in Muslim-majority nations. However, several Muslim-majority nations (Indonesia and Mali, for example) continue to use a red cross.


The third active emblem recognised as equal to the above two in international law is the Red Crystal. In practice this is little used, except when the Israeli national society is operating outside Israel. When Israel was founded, the new national society Magen David Adom wanted to use a red 'Shield of David' as their emblem. The International Red Cross baulked at giving a national society its own emblem, especially one so closely associated with a specific religion and ethnicity (at around the same time Sudan was proposing a red rhinoceros). In 2006-2007 a compromise was reached. A Red Crystal (a square resting on its point) would be adopted as a third symbol. National societies could choose to put another symbol inside the crystal, but it's the crystal - not the other symbol - that has a protected status under international law. The Israeli and Palestinian societies were then immediately accepted into the international Red Cross/Red Crescent movement, and the Israelis stick their unofficial Shield of David inside the Crystal when operating outside of Israel.

It's important to stress that the Cross, Crescent, and Crystal are all equal in status; if a war broke out in the UK tomorrow, any of the three could be used to indicate the presence of a medical facility or medical staff protected under the Geneva Conventions. However, in practice we would use the Red Cross, since the national society also uses the cross.


There is a fourth emblem that would have legal force if ever used, but it's been dormant since 1980. When the Iranian national society was founded, it objected to using a red crescent because this was seen as an exclusively Ottoman symbol (as it indeed was at the time; its widespread acceptance as an international Muslim symbol is comparatively recent, and post-dates the adoption of the crescent as a protective emblem). The Iranians therefore uniquely adopted the Red Lion and Sun - a red lion carrying a sword in front of a sun. As noted above, opposition to further emblem proliferation played a significant part in the refusal to let the Israelis use a Red Shield of David. The Iranian national society switched to the Red Crescent in 1980 following the 1979 revolution, but their government specifically reserves the right to use the symbol, and its formal status in international law as a protective emblem has never been revoked.

[Philjia]

I thought for a second Bob Ross had become leader of the Scottish Conservatives, turns out it was Doug Ross. I know nothing about him, but I expect he wants to make happy little Tories.

One of the only facts about him on Wikipedia is that in 2017 he said he would "like to see tougher enforcement against Gypsy Travellers".

[The Blaatschapen]

With regards to the Red Cross, how do I distinguish between it and the English flag?

Or the Georgian flag?

I suspect Blaat is joking, but...

International Red Cross founder Henry Dunant chose the Red Cross emblem as the reverse of the Swiss flag; it has no religious connotations. The cross therefore has bars of equal length that do not reach the edges of the flag.

The earliest surviving British Red Cross flag, from the Franco-Prussian War, demonstrates the principle:

https://museumandarchives.redcross.org.uk/objects/26


The Red Crescent emblem, which has equal status in international law as a neutral protective emblem under the Geneva Conventions, arose in the Ottoman Empire in the 1870s during one of the regular wars against Russia. While the Red Cross emblem has no association with Christianity, a red cross on a white background was nonetheless perceived as having an unfortunate similarity to Crusader imagery. Ottoman medical volunteers seem to have spontaneously adopted a white crescent on a red background - the reverse of the Ottoman flag - as an alternative.

While the red crescent also has no religious symbolism (except in its adoption as an alternative to a red cross), it's used by many national societies in Muslim-majority nations. However, several Muslim-majority nations (Indonesia and Mali, for example) continue to use a red cross.


The third active emblem recognised as equal to the above two in international law is the Red Crystal. In practice this is little used, except when the Israeli national society is operating outside Israel. When Israel was founded, the new national society Magen David Adom wanted to use a red 'Shield of David' as their emblem. The International Red Cross baulked at giving a national society its own emblem, especially one so closely associated with a specific religion and ethnicity (at around the same time Sudan was proposing a red rhinoceros). In 2006-2007 a compromise was reached. A Red Crystal (a square resting on its point) would be adopted as a third symbol. National societies could choose to put another symbol inside the crystal, but it's the crystal - not the other symbol - that has a protected status under international law. The Israeli and Palestinian societies were then immediately accepted into the international Red Cross/Red Crescent movement, and the Israelis stick their unofficial Shield of David inside the Crystal when operating outside of Israel.

It's important to stress that the Cross, Crescent, and Crystal are all equal in status; if a war broke out in the UK tomorrow, any of the three could be used to indicate the presence of a medical facility or medical staff protected under the Geneva Conventions. However, in practice we would use the Red Cross, since the national society also uses the cross.


There is a fourth emblem that would have legal force if ever used, but it's been dormant since 1980. When the Iranian national society was founded, it objected to using a red crescent because this was seen as an exclusively Ottoman symbol (as it indeed was at the time; its widespread acceptance as an international Muslim symbol is comparatively recent, and post-dates the adoption of the crescent as a protective emblem). The Iranians therefore uniquely adopted the Red Lion and Sun - a red lion carrying a sword in front of a sun. As noted above, opposition to further emblem proliferation played a significant part in the refusal to let the Israelis use a Red Shield of David. The Iranian national society switched to the Red Crescent in 1980 following the 1979 revolution, but their government specifically reserves the right to use the symbol, and its formal status in international law as a protective emblem has never been revoked.

I was joking.

https://satwcomic.com/english-flag

[The Archregimancy]

I was joking.

https://satwcomic.com/english-flag

Poor Wales; forgotten again.

[The Blaatschapen]

I was joking.

https://satwcomic.com/english-flag

Poor Wales; forgotten again.

Does Wales speak with its own voice?

Like, ever?

I mean, not that Northern Ireland does so, well, at least not coherently.

[The Archregimancy]

Poor Wales; forgotten again.

Does Wales speak with its own voice?

Like, ever?

Yes, but since it's in Welsh we all struggle to understand them.

More seriously, yes, there is a distinctive Welsh political voice; most recently Wales has been setting its own policy over coronavirus response.


I did actually address Wales's lack of visibility in international discourses on British nationalism both in my doctoral dissertation and in one of my academic papers on the topic some years back. Part of the issue is that Wales never had a large 19th-century diaspora; a combination of industrialisation and the expansion of mining meant that, in sharp contrast to Ireland and Scotland, Wales was a country of net immigration across most of the 19th-century. Combine that with a population historically smaller than either Scotland or (the entirety of) Ireland, and Wales rarely had the same level of international advocacy. Wales was also de facto controlled from England from the late 13th century, de jure from the early 16th century, had its last significant nationalist revolt in the early 15th century, and from 1536 lacked the same level of separate political and legal frameworks that continued in Scotland and Ireland. FInally, nationalism has become associated with language in Wales; there's close correlation between support for Plaid Cymru and Welsh-speaking areas of Wales. Unfortunately for Plaid Cymru, only about 20% of the Welsh population speaks Welsh, so they need to break that correlation if their agenda is going to gain better traction.

I'm oversimplifying for the sake of a short NSG post, and leaving out a lot of detail, obviously. But Wales does have its own voice; it just tends to be drowned out by Scotland and both bits of Ireland.

[The New California Republic]

I was joking.

Good, I was getting worried.

[The Blaatschapen]

I was joking.

Good, I was getting worried.

I can see why it would be worrying if I were not joking for once.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I thought for a second Bob Ross had become leader of the Scottish Conservatives, turns out it was Doug Ross. I know nothing about him, but I expect he wants to make happy little Tories.

One of the only facts about him on Wikipedia is that in 2017 he said he would "like to see tougher enforcement against Gypsy Travellers".

Rather worrying.

It seems he was the only person to put their name forward for the job.

I wonder what that says about Conservative expectations in Scotland at the next general election.

[Hirota]

Oh, some of the puppets for Spitting Image look very good: https://news.sky.com/story/spitting-ima ... e-12042507