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mmoa_writes at 12:01am on 14/06/2010 under bp, obama administration, oil, politics, question time, university
mmoa_writes at 12:01am on 14/06/2010 under bp, obama administration, oil, politics, question time, universityI've missed so many of these. There's been so much I wanted to rant about: Melanie Philips and her standard 'we need the best sort of people, regardless of whether they be male or female' as if that's an answer to the problem of the tiny female representation in the House of Commons (oh how that line irritates me whenever the issue arises. It doesn't mean anything, it doesn't address anything. It just shuts down the conversation which is equally irritating because it shouldn't. It isn't even relevant to the conversation *rambles away*), the latest version of the expenses scandal, Matthew Paris' take on this seasons phase of the Israel-Palestinian conflict... so much juicy stuff. But I must be strong.
Did anyone else want to smack the kid who asked the question on what Lady Thatcher said to the Prime Minister on her (apparently recent) visit? It was almost as if he seemed to think that by mentioning an elderly (and it seems, still controversial) stateswoman, that was all he needed to show off his political kudos.
It was rather strange that this was the second question of the evening, rather than one of those they save for the end, and even stranger that only one person on the panel responded in any way appropriately. Frankly, who knows and more to the point, who cares?
Something else that I found rather strange was all this coverage over President Obama's supposedly 'anti-British' rhetoric concerning the Gulf leakage that's apparently resulting in 200,000 barrels of crude being lost per day. I know it's a sore point when anyone else points out how crap we /anything even vaguely related to us is/are (however much we might agree) but this is getting a little silly. It's as if all the resentment about the bad teeth/sex/coffee jokes, being cast as the (probably gay) villains in Hollywood action movies, or the (probably lesbian) snooty hostess who needs a good going over* from the all-American male lead has risen after all these years and manifested itself into a magnificently petty snit about the leader of the most powerful nation in the world pointing out that something bad is... something bad.
From what meagre I've been able to put together it seems this was a very unfortunate and horrific accident, which probably owes something to negligence on the part of BP, but nothing, it seems, beyond the sort of negligence that most companies worth billions are guilty of. I think most people are still too shocked - I know I certainly am - by the extent of this for us to start reading too deeply into what the president of the nation currently worst afflicted might say or the tone with which he said it in.
As someone on Radio 2 (no, I don't usually listen to it, I swear!) said, if this were a case of an 'American' company's pipes bowing off the coast of Scotland, you can guarantee there'd be the usual xenophobic Yank-based (ew) headlines in all the tabloids for months after the event. That a company with the word 'British' in it's title happens to be at the centre of this mess is not a call to arms. It's not a call to anything. Except an inquiry. Several inquiries. Which we should be pleased about as it seems to be the one thing we can do brilliantly.
Oh wait. Apparently not as brilliantly as the Germans. Or the French. Or the Canadians.
Nuts.
Anyway, in the meantime I think we just need to get over ourselves. Neither our government nor our people have been attacked. Let's not go making ourselves look even sillier than usual, please?
Oh and don't get into a strop because BP might be losing shares due to the presidents rhetoric. That's business, as any Conservative worth their salt should know *cough cough* and if they behave appropriately, BP should recover well enough. As for suggestions that Obama's pushing the anti-British slant because of his own falling ratings in the US, well, if that's the case, duh. That's politics.
It went pretty smoothly after that until it got to the issue surrounding University fees and I felt the urge to severely hurt Kate Hopkins. Her speech was so typically misguided - the idea that we are at a stage when 'everyone' gets to go to University (not at all) that somehow that is damaging the standards of our Universities, that we would benefit from privatising the entire system.
I find it downright hypocritical coming from a member of the generation which did not have to pay and if it did, pay significantly less than we currently do for their education. I agree we need a new way to fund Universities, as I suspect the drive for top-up fees was due to a widening gap that had to be plugged somehow. I am very sceptical about encouraging a purely American style, Ivy League system - not that there is nothing we can learn from it - as I sometimes worry if that has not resulted in the cultural dissonance between academia and the 'average Joe' (as if we don't have a class problem already!) which can - and is, it seems to me at times - all too easily be manipulated by certain disingenuous someones.
As for whether the flag should be flown over 10 Downing street, obviously not as that's rather sad bordering on patriotic and we don't do that kind of thing.
Tomorrow my teaching placement starts. At the moment I'm suffering from a stale-lemonade induced headache but I am definitely looking forward to it. Should certainly be interesting!
Did anyone else want to smack the kid who asked the question on what Lady Thatcher said to the Prime Minister on her (apparently recent) visit? It was almost as if he seemed to think that by mentioning an elderly (and it seems, still controversial) stateswoman, that was all he needed to show off his political kudos.
It was rather strange that this was the second question of the evening, rather than one of those they save for the end, and even stranger that only one person on the panel responded in any way appropriately. Frankly, who knows and more to the point, who cares?
Something else that I found rather strange was all this coverage over President Obama's supposedly 'anti-British' rhetoric concerning the Gulf leakage that's apparently resulting in 200,000 barrels of crude being lost per day. I know it's a sore point when anyone else points out how crap we /anything even vaguely related to us is/are (however much we might agree) but this is getting a little silly. It's as if all the resentment about the bad teeth/sex/coffee jokes, being cast as the (probably gay) villains in Hollywood action movies, or the (probably lesbian) snooty hostess who needs a good going over* from the all-American male lead has risen after all these years and manifested itself into a magnificently petty snit about the leader of the most powerful nation in the world pointing out that something bad is... something bad.
From what meagre I've been able to put together it seems this was a very unfortunate and horrific accident, which probably owes something to negligence on the part of BP, but nothing, it seems, beyond the sort of negligence that most companies worth billions are guilty of. I think most people are still too shocked - I know I certainly am - by the extent of this for us to start reading too deeply into what the president of the nation currently worst afflicted might say or the tone with which he said it in.
As someone on Radio 2 (no, I don't usually listen to it, I swear!) said, if this were a case of an 'American' company's pipes bowing off the coast of Scotland, you can guarantee there'd be the usual xenophobic Yank-based (ew) headlines in all the tabloids for months after the event. That a company with the word 'British' in it's title happens to be at the centre of this mess is not a call to arms. It's not a call to anything. Except an inquiry. Several inquiries. Which we should be pleased about as it seems to be the one thing we can do brilliantly.
Oh wait. Apparently not as brilliantly as the Germans. Or the French. Or the Canadians.
Nuts.
Anyway, in the meantime I think we just need to get over ourselves. Neither our government nor our people have been attacked. Let's not go making ourselves look even sillier than usual, please?
Oh and don't get into a strop because BP might be losing shares due to the presidents rhetoric. That's business, as any Conservative worth their salt should know *cough cough* and if they behave appropriately, BP should recover well enough. As for suggestions that Obama's pushing the anti-British slant because of his own falling ratings in the US, well, if that's the case, duh. That's politics.
It went pretty smoothly after that until it got to the issue surrounding University fees and I felt the urge to severely hurt Kate Hopkins. Her speech was so typically misguided - the idea that we are at a stage when 'everyone' gets to go to University (not at all) that somehow that is damaging the standards of our Universities, that we would benefit from privatising the entire system.
I find it downright hypocritical coming from a member of the generation which did not have to pay and if it did, pay significantly less than we currently do for their education. I agree we need a new way to fund Universities, as I suspect the drive for top-up fees was due to a widening gap that had to be plugged somehow. I am very sceptical about encouraging a purely American style, Ivy League system - not that there is nothing we can learn from it - as I sometimes worry if that has not resulted in the cultural dissonance between academia and the 'average Joe' (as if we don't have a class problem already!) which can - and is, it seems to me at times - all too easily be manipulated by certain disingenuous someones.
As for whether the flag should be flown over 10 Downing street, obviously not as that's rather sad bordering on patriotic and we don't do that kind of thing.
Tomorrow my teaching placement starts. At the moment I'm suffering from a stale-lemonade induced headache but I am definitely looking forward to it. Should certainly be interesting!