I feel like I should scrub my eyeballs...

[a_stone_angel]

"Cameron…would not be what he is, and where he is, if he was not yearning, aching, gagging, for the opportunity" [to be PM]
Serves me right for just reading yesterday’s Daily Mail. (Rain...stop...please...) I remember it being exceptionally right wing, but how long has it been Tory porn? Yearning? Aching? Gagging? Ew.

Comments

[a_stone_angel]

In the interests of honesty, I must point out I’ve never punched another person, ever. In fact, the one time in my adult life I’ve been involved in any kind of physical altercation I acted on pure instinct - wiggled myself free and ran off as fast as I could.

‘Interesting’ is one word for the political situation here, yes. Things seem to be getting quite messy. Apparently, there’s very little faith in Gordon Brown at the moment, but it seems to me that is mostly as the result of media reporting, and one very damaging tax policy. People are also saying the general atmosphere is very much like when John Major was ousted…by ‘people’ I mean Tories.

It truly baffles me why anyone would want David Cameron at a dinner party. I don’t know anything about his wife, so perhaps that’s the draw, but David is just so smug and self-righteous. I would pick Gordon over him any day. I just wish Gordon would get his old smile back - he used to have a genuine grin that reminded me of Doctor Phlox, but his image people apparently told to stop doing that, and now all you see is a forced rictus grin. But I’m getting off the point now.

And Ha! I had completely forgotten about that Fabulous Mrs. Pritchard thing. I really didn’t know what to expect when I started watching it - it seemed like such an odd concept, but Jodhi May and Janet McTeer would’ve been enough to keep me watching, if only for shallow reasons. But damn, it turned out really well. There were mumblings about a second series when it came to an end, but I’ve heard nothing since, and a quick search just now drew a big blank. *frowns*

I’m a bit astonished that news about those crackpot semester ideas has reached Finland, too. I agree with what you’re saying…and would add that it’s probably far easier to just set the kids some reading homework during the Summer break if they’re truly worried about them losing their skills. I suspect there’s some other agenda for this proposal…for example there are problems with parents taking their kids out of school during term time for holidays because it’s cheaper - teachers/ministers haven’t got the balls to outlaw it completely. This ‘5 weeks on/2 weeks off’ idea would possibly help solve that. I predict it won’t happen, though - for the past fifteen or so years they’ve been threatening to introduce the American semesters, and it hasn’t happened yet.

That ‘can’t read’ statistic is shocking. I actually wonder how it’s determined, as I know they test kids at 14 for various things, but they don’t at 16 (well, GCSEs I suppose, but if you can’t read you probably would avoid taking them)…also, people who are illiterate tend to be excellent at hiding it - a lifetime of avoiding detection because it is a massive stigma - I worked for around three months once with a guy once who couldn’t read or write…I didn’t cotton on to it until after six weeks or so, and even then I’m pretty sure it was because I was studying issues around literacy and language at the time. But 7 million…wow.

[ladynyks]

I'll have to try and see more I guess. Woshername the lead is usually excellent. Jane Horrocks. Little Voice and whatnot.

Crackpot semester ideas reach me, since I read BBC World's teletext, as added on my side in relation to that. I think I read it was 8 weeks on or something like that, but could be wrong.

As also said on my side, don't know where the statistic came from, and don't remember where I read it. If not BBC W.