The state of the UK

[rainbow]

If the left thinks the BBC is right and the right thinks they're left, does that mean they're centrist?

In terms of UK politics, which is to the right of most of the world, but to the left of the US.

This does assume that the world is flat, and that the south pole is actually a circle.

[Scot Dutchy]

What do the proles want education for?

Gap between rich and poor pupils in England 'grows by 46% in a year'

Disadvantaged and BAME pupils lost more learning in lockdown and need urgent support, researchers say

Urgent support must be targeted at disadvantaged pupils and schools in areas of high deprivation, researchers have said, as figures reveal the gap in England between some pupils and their wealthier peers widened by 46% in the school year severely disrupted by the coronavirus lockdown.

As the school year begins for most pupils in England and Wales, the authoritative study by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), based on interviews with more than 3,000 teachers and heads at more than 2,000 schools, revealed that disadvantaged and black and minority ethnic (BAME) children had gone backwards compared with their better-off peers since March.

While the average learning lost was three months for all pupils, according to teachers, more than half of pupils at schools in the most deprived areas lost four months or more, compared with just 15% of those in the least deprived areas.

[Brian Peacock]

I would imagine that parents further up the income scale were more likely to be working from home compared to those at the lower end more likely to to be out of the house, and schools in better of areas probably have more resources to support students at home than less affluent areas. That's probably not a UK-specific generalisation either.

[Scot Dutchy]

The UK is fucked at so many levels. Make sure you are wearing a life vest.

[Svartalf]

Spoken like an ign'ant prole, the gummint keeps telling you everything is going for the best, what's there that you can't wrap your atrophied brain around? I mean, the stock and City are doing GREAT !! what more do you want? England beating everybody at cricket every year? wine fountains at street corners? Charlie Jug ears for a king?

[laklak]

Steak and kidney pie for everybody!

[Brian Peacock]

Mr Kipling's French Fancies after every meal!

[laklak]

Rum, sodomy, and the lash!

[Svartalf]

and the Pogues reforming (though I don't even know what state Mc Gowan might be in, these days)

[JimC]

Make Britain great again?

[laklak]

Put the Great back in Britain!

[JimC]

Bring back the Empire, when most of the map of the world was coloured red!

[Hermit]

Bring back the Empire, when most of the map of the world was coloured red!

Pink, actually,



and even if you added up all the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states you'd get nowhere near half the world.

[rainbow]

and even if you added up all the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states you'd get nowhere near half the world.

...but dash it all old cheese, one is only talking about the Civilised World.

Excludes all the places that aren't British and well ... Australia.

[Scot Dutchy]

The UK is taking our crap now; literally.

Nearly 30,000 tonnes of sewage sludge containing human waste to enter UK

Shipment from Amsterdam has been approved despite health concerns, FoI request reveals

Sewage sludge containing human waste from the Netherlands has been passed for import to the UK, to be used on farmland as fertiliser, despite concerns over the safety of its use.

Spreading the sludge on farmland is banned in the Netherlands, where incineration is preferred, but allowed in the UK. Dutch water authorities are eyeing the UK as a possible destination for their sewage, after problems at an Amsterdam incineration company left them lacking disposal options.

A permit for the shipment of 27,500 tonnes of municipal sewage sludge was issued in February by the UK’s Environment Agency, according to a document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Greenpeace’s Unearthed investigative unit and seen by the Guardian.

The sludge is listed as coming from the Amstel, Gooi and Vecht water board but the identity of the recipient in the UK has been redacted. The permit is valid until February.

It is legal in the UK to use sewage sludge on farmland but it must be first treated and then applied under strict regulations. However, the Environment Agency has raised concerns that the regulations are not always followed.