“By The Middle Of The 14th Century, Feudalism In Europe Was Losing Steam. Population Had Stopped Rising,

Folk say I look like James Dean or Steve McQueen. I see a 49 year old from Glasgow with hair and no fat staring back from the mirror.

If I was a character from Greek myth it would be Kassandra.

I've been head-butted by a flying fish.

I think this thread is getting older as it cycles so refuse to tag.

if you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not. let’s get to know the person behind the blog. (you don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course). hope you’re ok :)

——

:O yeah!!!

1. i carry a kazoo with me everywhere i go

2. i speak arabic

3. my special interest is politics (i have adhd lmao) so please dm/ask me questions

@sailor-sisi @sokka-simp @eijiro-anon @error-loading-sorry @1-800-teddybear @reality-is-often-disappointing @ukais12thkid @annoyinglyseveredefendor @danny-likes-peas

"Young people make up a smaller proportion of the electorate than in 2016"~so by living Saunders is responsible for the aging population now. I can think of a few other septugenarians I would want to see euthenized before we got to Berne,( just to maintain a healthy demographic of course)

This is the true measure by which we should judge the utterances of our politicians.

Timothée Parrique, Giorgos Kallis - Degrowth: Socialism without Growth

Even socialists must shake off the idea that quantity can improve, when only quality counts.

Use values do not grow at a compound rate. Fundamental human needs like subsistence, protection, freedom, or identity can all be understood as thresholds of sufficiency: enough food to be healthy, enough living space to be happy, enough means of mobility to feel free, etc. The story of endless consumption to match endless needs is a capitalist discourse, created precisely to legitimate accumulation for the elite. And this is the central argument of degrowth: standards of living can improve without growth by redistributing and sharing wealth, doing away with artificial desires and the superfluous goods and appropriation of our time destined to the making of profit, and by shifting from valuing material goods to valuing relations. There is already enough for everyone to have a decent share – if the pie cannot grow, then it is time to share it more evenly.

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This is an experiment

Brexit Charade.

At last the absurd Brexit negotiations are over. It's taken 4 1/2 years of posturing from the British government but now the European Union has called it's bluff and We will be leaving in December.

I think we are now viewing the last hurrah for Gladstone's gunboat diplomacy. No longer can Britain negotiate trade access with its financial might backed up by the RN. The vague hope that individual European nations would have broken ranks and agreed to Britain's demands were just that. Faced with an existential crisis the EU27 collectively agreed a fair treaty with the UK .

So why does a bunch of trust-fund benefiting toffs refuse to sign? Because their idea of fair is different to ours. They have turned Britain into a conduit for the world's wealth. Through The City of London into offshore tax-havens like Bermuda and Jersey. They see this as fair, so when the EU called for taxation on financial transactions and more disclosure of assets for its citizens, David Cameron and Co. decided that wasn't fair. And so one referendum and two elections latter they still think it is unfair. And they are fully justified. The British public have consistently voted for these people so they must be right? I think the British media, run by like minded individuals, is mostly to blame. Along with many people's lack of curiosity. The British media has avoided any discussion regarding fairness in taxation that other countries regard as normal. We cleave to fudal laws when it comes to property and inheritance tax that these people see as fair because they have learnt how to avoid them. The media have portrayed the EU as inflexible and are the bad guys , whereas it's the UK government that are willing to break international law, first through Diago Garcia and now through the Internal Markets Bill. We are saddled with a ruling class that's sense of moral rightness is shown to be entitled hubris by the EU.

I just want to see how the BBC plays this one out for Prole consumption.

Passenger Announcement:

You are a special person, whose existence is of value to us.

Your interests make you unique.

You can imagine the impossible.

You know what's fair.

You are perceptive.

You are judgemental.

You know your own status.

You are deluded.

Now please get back in line with the other

7,716,499,084 special people. ☺👌

Covid Thoughts

So far the Covid pandemic has played out according to the models for respiratory virus disease. We are now seeing an increase of the infection rate above 1. The govornment wwwill invoke further quarantine measures with increasingly limited effect. But is this right?

Personally I don't think so. On the scale of deadly virus epidemics, the COR-SARS 2 virus is not that deadly. The average age of covid deaths in the UK is 82.6. In Scotland this is over the average life expectancy for both men and women. This is why the published death rate looks so high for Italy (11.5%) and the UK (9.2%) whose populations have a large old and frail cohort in which the virus was spreading through in January and February within the hospital system by the staff and by GP's in the communty,(mainly nursing homes).The models showed that (simmilar to SARS), hospitals would qickly not be able to take the increased number of patients with so many staff already infected. The govornment had to stop the exponential growth th allow hospitals to deal with the current infections, so imposed a national lock down. Adherence to the lock down by the populace was high and within days the r number dropped before 1. At this point I think the govornment should have relaxed quarantine quicker. Doing enough tests to have a reliable sample of the population meant the r number should have been monitored and allowed to stay around 1. By almost stopping infection over the summer the govornment has stored up greater infections over the winter compounded with all the other winter bugs. NHS hospitals have been quieter than usual over the summer but will now have more than usual until the epidemic has played out. Nicola Sturgeon said that "we must flatten out the curve". Correct but was it right to try and get rid of the hill completely?

I think Covid is the first example of the fourth stage of the above pictured population model. The UK's life expectancy has stalled since 2012 but the numbers of older people has continued to rise. This has created a pool of susceptible individuals who won't make it through the next serious infection. As an epidemic kills off that pool of people, the life expectancy rate drops. Then as time goes by the population fills up the older groups again leaving hills and valleys in the overall graph. No population in nature can remain stable for ever. Humans arn't exempt from nature.

I understand my assessment is rather sanguine and there is deaths and lingering conditions amongst younger people but there is always outliers in any virus and Covid is overwhelmingly fatal for the elderly. Any one individuals risk of dying in the next few months has not been increased that much but for some of the oldest that small change is enough. I think this pandemic has shown that if you give people accurate information they will collectively act to curtail the infection but the govornment hasn't been able to eradicate the virus because collectively we know it's not dangerous enough to sustain a lock down. And wreck the economy. It just isn't fair. Folk have to die of something and this year's trend is Covid.e

I think that at least when an existential crisis does come, some people's coping strategies may seem peculiar ( like purchasing large quantities of toilet toll), but collectively people' act sensibly. Because the next pandemic will be simmilar but could be much more dangerous like Measles.

Exam Results

Exams are the best way to determine student's ability. The process is fair to all. A well designed exam should produce results that spread the candidates out over as much points as possible. Groups of students generally conform to the bell curve on ability so it's easy to separate the top and the bottom but more difficult to grade the mass in between.

However with the revision of the Scottish examination system, we have a govornment that has taken the system away from the academics in order to try and push it's social agenda, and how it's viewed in the media and international league tables. For years the Scottish education systen (unlike England) was free of political influence, and the better for it. Covid 19 has shown (as in many other things), the problems with this meddling. The reason there is constantly poor performing schools is less to do with social depravation and more to do with a cohort of poor teachers that simply can't control the class and prevent any real learning. If the govornment want to improve "learning outcomes", give head teachers the freedom to dismiss bad teachers. Instead we have heads hiding poor teachers when the inspectors come visiting. This is why there is an attainment gap. Better off parents hire tutors to teach what should have been learned in class and poorer ones don't.

Or just cave in to media pressure and give pupils all B's, a pat on the head and say well done, there's going to be fuck all jobs anyway"