Opportunity offering offspring?...

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White Christmas anyone (click on image)? Three families, two babies and gingerbread people...no, not my life but the Christmas card offerings of the UK's political party leaders [Guardian] aaahhh, cute. I take this opportunity to wish anyone who reads this a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2011. I will be in the UK as of tomorrow - if the snow lets me in - for three weeks, blogging will be sporadic...if at all. Best wishes.

Orthopsychiatry or opsimaths...

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Has the UK created a generation of children that need special help or are they late learners? Is it a problem of too many foreign langauges/immigrants, or poor teaching methods/poor teachers, or is it family break down/no parent to read/lack of parenting skills or could it be all of these things?...

Just what the fuck is it that leads to "one in 11 boys in England - one in seven in some areas" - being barely able to read when they go to secondary school?

Oikofugic Ows orts...

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No real story, unless you want to talk about something that's dead boring (boom-boom!)

This is really just an info post for myself to link to a few interesting points re the tuiton fees saga. Open Europe yesterday had an interesting piece on why a Graduate tax just isn't possible because "EU citizens studying in another EU member state must be treated under the same conditions" [EU link]; which is presumably why we have the news that Scotland will be pretty much following England's lead; that led me to see what-was-what about student finance, the reality and myths of the proposals etc, I knew - unlike almost every student interviewed in any media over the last few weeks - but want to have a handy record here with the appropriate links for when the new protests start.

P.S. I'm sure oikofugic isn't what you think it means.

Okavango outline...

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Owsblog has just had its first visitor from Botswana. It is also my 175 country. I can also say that I have had visits from no less than 13,050 cities. Yippee.

For info: the Okavango Delta, which is in NW Botswana, is the world's largest inland delta (click on image for Wiki page). The Batswana have had great success in reducing HIV transmission from infected mothers - down from nearly 40% to just 4% - however, because of AIDS, general life expectancy, which is 1984 was 60 years of age, has dropped to 35. Tuition fees? Cuts? Jeez.

Objurgation of oligarchy...

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Image credit and hat-tip to Prodicus (again). Click on image for the DT telling us that in the EU our beloved MEPs will have nigh on 91,000 quid in tax free expenses without having to provide any proof of expenditure! This is part of an increased pay and perks package and is made up from their money for showing up of EUR300/day (this is for 184 days of work; if you ever seen ANY footage of the EU you'll know they turn up and sign on but rarely get ino the Chamber unless it's to vote for topping up their trough) and added to that they get their "General expenditure allowance" (office running expenses) will be increased to about EUR4300/month; please note that this is by NO means all their expenses but these are the ones that are automatically paid directly into bank accounts belonging to MEPs. No questions asked bro, nudge-nudge, wink-wink. Feeling the pinch of any cuts?

P.S. Just in case you miss the point this is completely separate from their 80 grand salary. 

Obverting outreach overture...

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Tim Montgomerie at Conservative Home has some encourgaing news. With many, especially the BBC, doing their best to spike the Coalition guns at every opportunity, it was clear that Ed miliband would try to woo some of the wavering Liberal Democrats; however in reply to his direct overture today, Tim Farron, the left-leaning President of the Lib Dems has spoken up strongly:

"Labour have just spent 13 years sucking up to Rupert Murdoch and George Bush - why would any sane progressive even give them a second glance? As part of the coalition government, Liberal Democrats have started fixing Labour's economic mess, taking millions of people out of Income Tax and reforming British politics. Things Labour had 13 years to do but failed to deliver. The Liberal Democrats have also announced more cash for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, one of the biggest moves to improve social mobility in decades. Continuing that work is something far more attractive to Liberal Democrats than helping Ed Miliband's increasingly desperate attempts to work out what he actually stands for. However, if he is serious about co-operation then the first thing he should do is stop the Labour Party's attempts to block the referendum on electoral reform that he claims to support."

Really he is just saying things that should be the first words any Coalition member should be saying at any and every opportunity even if it gets irritating: the marked absense of any sort of contrition or apology from Labour and the even more marked absense in the media of any reminders of just why the UK is having to take certain unpopular measures needs addressing.

Update: I rather liked this comment from Prodicus:

"There is no essential difference between the 'thinking' of wannabe commissars like Miliband and that of ignorant gits like Gilmour junior and the violent, nihilistic haters of the SWP and Black Bloc.

The violence of recent days, and the coming days, is all 'Because they're Tories'. Government policy, political thought, democracy, the Common Good and the will of the people have nothing to do with it."

Outside office...

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"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he is going to govern temporarily from a tent so that families made homeless by recent floods can take refuge in his office." [BBC]

Nice, meanwhile his government discusses complete control of the Internet in Venezuela. And of course what would the family** of the socialist leader be without their life of guns, parties, cars, jewels, multi-million dollar bank accounts etc. [La Razon]

**Daddy Chavez was a State Governor, brother took over from him after being a government Minister; the other brother is a local Mayor; that's just the direct family...talented bunch, obviously.

Ooops...

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He don't need no education... (well you'd think he didn't get one, but he seems honest:"Ignorance is the poorest of excuses but I am sincerely sorry".)

All in all he's just another prick on the wall...[Link]