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Steve Walker

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Everything posted by Steve Walker

  1. King & King is one of the books they use for the older children, yes.
  2. I think all of this needs to be done sensitively in an age-appropriate way. I suspect that a lot of people are getting angry about what they assume is being taught rather than what is being taught. A lot of this amounts to reading books like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIm_H01Z6Ss or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiu5tvEv70I
  3. Primary school teachers are vetted already, John - what exactly do you want to check for that isn't already checked? And what agenda are you worried that they might further? They aren't going to turn the kids gay, if that's what you're worried about. They are or they aren't. I think you might get some pushback if you try to censor which bits of the Bible or Koran parents are allowed to read to their kids at home. Maybe a bit more than we're getting for offering the view of modern society.
  4. No, kids in general. Just making the point about the consequences of allowing ignorance and hatred to fester unchallenged to avoid confusing kids. There are other religions preaching hatred, and some parents manage it without any help from priests. "Sometimes families have a mum and a dad, or two mums, or two dads, or one mum or one dad, and that's absolutely fine and we shouldn't be mean to people who are different to us like that" - is that really such a shocking and confusing thing to say?
  5. Yes, it may confuse them if their preacher and parents are telling them that gays and people who don't share their religion are wicked. Probably at some point between them being born and them strapping on a suicide vest, we should challenge those ideas?
  6. Section 28 was legislation produced because the right wing panicked about the idea that schools were telling children that being gay was OK. This sounds like the same argument. Keep in mind that this is part of a package which includes teaching kids that some people are different races, some are different faiths, some are disabled, etc - is that also all too complicated?
  7. It appears to be mostly religious people who have a problem with it. Which makes sense, as mostly nobody else wants to teach their children to hate gay people without challenge. I mean, why would you?
  8. Ah well, if they dont like their religious morality being challenged they can always send them to a faith school. Plenty of Catholic and orthodox Jewish schools and madrasahs out there, though it seems too many of the Catholic schools have homosexuality practicals.
  9. I don't have a problem with telling primary kids that some families have two mummies or two daddies and that's fine. We're not talking about bedroom stuff here.
  10. Dave, true, but as I understand it, the holding hands thing is just a friendly thing there. I think the more liberal papers were ignoring the inconvenient cultural issues. I think they sometimes forget that liberalism isn't about taking sides, it's about principles of equality, fairness and freedom. I was pleased to see that the Grauniad was giving decent coverage to this story - they need to be brave when minorities are illiberal. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/31/school-defends-lgbt-lessons-after-religious-parents-complain
  11. With the EU, you can't always tell which measures are there to protect consumers and which are just protectionism for producers.
  12. Ageing population? Similar stats for the UK; In 2015/16 48% of adults had taken at least one prescribed medicine (not including contraception or nicotine replacement therapy) in the last week. This increased with age from 19% of young adults aged 16 to 24 to more than 90% of those aged 75 and over. The proportion of adults taking one or more prescribed medicines was similar to 2012/13.In 2015/16, 24% of adults were taking three or more medicines.The prevalence of prescribed medicine use was higher in more deprived areas: 54% of adults in the most deprived fifth of areas took at least one medicine, compared with 45% in the least deprived areas.Prescribed medicine use was much higher than average among those with self-reported bad or very bad general health (85%), a limiting or non-limiting longstanding condition (76% and 71% respectively), or probable mental ill health (63%).The most commonly used prescribed medicines were antihypertensives (by 15% of adults) and lipid-lowering medicines (14%); followed by proton-pump inhibitors for reducing acid in the stomach (11%); analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (11%); and antidepressants (10%).So basically blood pressure tablets, statins (we give those out like sweeties to older people), omeprazole and similar, possibly aspirin and paracetamol though those are available over the counter and cheaper than via the NHS for those who pay for their prescriptions, SSRIs.
  13. For some reason, having a diagnosis (even if it's just a label for a cluster of symptoms) seems to make people feel better. An old school friend of my partner is in a bad way. She's been having weird symptoms for a long time, and has spent a lot of time with alternative "medicine" practitioners. She's now got a clinical diagnosis, and it's not good. She's got MS and it's quite advanced. But she's a lot better in herself for having a label to hang on it.
  14. Trouble is, if we want trade deals with China, India, etc, they're going to want visas in return.
  15. Not necessarily money to burn. Norway's wealth fund is large, highly diversified, and takes a long view. If they think that UK assets are undervalued at the moment because of the uncertainty of Brexit, there's money to be made in the long term. https://www.forbes.com/2009/02/23/contrarian-markets-boeing-personal-finance_investopedia.html#46fed4d7b59a "Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own."
  16. Politically, cancelling Brexit without seeking a mandate for it from the public is what Sir Humphrey would call "brave".
  17. As I was explaining to my partner's kids the other day, they don't need to fear Brexit. They're smart, well educated, they're going to get degrees in proper subjects. If it all goes to hell, they'll be able to emigrate to somewhere with better prospects. For less lucky youngsters, and for those dependent on the state in their old age - well, I hope it all works out.
  18. Small potatoes compared to pension costs. Our gross EU contribution was 13bn. We spend almost 100bn on the state pension alone. EU contributions aren't important in that picture, what is important is economic performance (and resulting tax receipts) and the number of young people earning and paying tax compared to the number of old people taking out.
  19. Because we are facing reality and they aren't. https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/one-step-forward-two-steps-back-for-polish-pension-reform.html
  20. Phone, I got down to 26 when I was doing a lot of exercise. Which was still overweight, but I was at 17% bodyfat, which is a perfectly good figure for a bloke my age. This is definitely because I am extremely muscular, and not because I have peculiarly short legs for my height. Ahem.
  21. There's some discussion going on, and it's complicated, but it looks as if she is not a Bangladeshi citizen, but could become one if she wanted. The Bangladeshis are saying "no she can't".
  22. She's entitled to apply for Bangladeshi citizenship. As my friends were entitled to apply for Irish. I think these rules are really based around kicking out foreigners, not about kicking out British citizens who could be entitled to apply for foreign citizenship. I think the Bangladeshis are entitled to feel aggrieved that we're trying to play pass the parcel with an undesirable. If she'd moved to Bangladesh as a baby and spent all her life there, I think we'd object to them trying to palm her off on us.
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