Sharp Opinions on issues in the news
Tired
of firing off random emails to BBC News programmes, Mr Strop writes
this blog, ensuring that he's ignored by a far wider
audience.
Presenting Sharp Opinions on issues in the news,
it aims to give the other side of the story, often against the flow of
current thinking.
most recent strops
Government sacks Head of Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs: BBC Radio 4, pm, 29 October 2009.
Although Professor Nutt’s evidence may be scientific, where he misleads the public is by suggesting that his judgement and advice are scientific.
To say that cannabis should be downgraded because alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous, is like saying we should de-stigmatise knives sold as weapons, because more people are killed with kitchen knives.
Report says girls are directed to stereotypical girls' jobs: BBC Radio 4, Today, 29 July 2009.
Yes, and boys to stereotypical boys’ jobs.
Or perhaps they choose them.
Materials for recycling are stored, due to lack of recycling capacity: BBC Radio 4, Today, 21 May 2009
And yet we are disinvesting in
the one
industry which does recycle, in stead promoting waste to revive a
consumerist economy (see Eco(?) government,
below).
Roy Hattersley laments imbalance in media coverage: BBC Radio 4, Today, 20 May 2009
So, Lord Hattersley thinks the media should be giving more coverage to the increasing divide between rich and poor and less to the MP expenses scandal. Can he not see the connection?
People who are preoccupied with maximising their income at the expense of the tax payer are not the right people to tackle poverty. They are absorbed by the mentality which generates it.
Having said that, I think the principles now being used to judge MPs' behaviour are totally inconsistent and often unreasonable.
Eco(?) government promotes waste: BBC Radio 4, today, 18 May 2009
Today saw the launch of the car scrappage scheme - £2,000 to scrap a car as young as 10 years old to buy a new one. Surely, this economic crisis gives us the opportunity to cross examine our consumerism not restore it. Even if the new car is more environmentally friendly, how long will it take to recoup the environmental cost of scrapping one car and building a new one?
And economically, would it
not make more sense to invest in jobs which repair and maintain (the
small garages, car repair companies and replacement part manufacturers)
than in those which produce cars which, it seems, are obsolete in 10
years?
Treasury Select Committee grills bankers on qualifications: BBC Radio 4, pm, 10 Feb 2009
Much
as I don’t want to stick up for the four former UK bank bosses grilled
by the Treasury Select Committee today, I do think the banking
qualification questions were a bit rich. I wonder how many MPs on the
Treasury Select Committee have relevant qualifications in either
finance or even politics.
Peter Mandelson says there are half a million job vacancies in the UK: BBC Radio 4, Today, 2 Feb 2009
Yes,
but are they new jobs? Surely, many, if not most, of those vacancies
are simply part of the mechanism by which people already in work swap
jobs.
Daniel Hannan says charities are becoming too political: BBC Radio 4, Today, 26 Jan 2009
So,
Mr Hannan of the Daily Telegraph thinks that charities are becoming too
political. He perhaps wants to be able to give money to Third World
charities so they can provide practical help to the poor without
tackling the causes of poverty. Would that not be political support for
the status quo?
I think what Mr Hannan might really be
saying is
that he wants charities to appease his conscience without having to
change his behaviour.
US airline pilot says he was simply doing his job: BBC Radio 4 News, 25 Jan 2009
The
airline pilot who saved 150 lives by skilfully landing his aircraft in
the Hudson River after a bird strike has said that he was ‘simply doing
his job’. So why is it that bankers demand bonuses to simply do theirs?
Ed Balls says no excuse for schools from poor areas who fall below government's GCSE targets: BBC Radio 4, pm, 15 Jan 2009
Apparently 25% of schools are falling below the government target of 30% of pupils leaving with a minimum of 5 GCSEs.
If society can organise itself so that the country's top jobs (occupied by ministers of state) are carried out by people without relevant qualifications, surely it's not beyond society to organise itself such that people without 5 GCSEs can find appropriate roles.
Government aims to increase social mobility (still): BBC Radio 4, Today, 13 Jan 2009
The problem with most attempts at increasing social mobility is that they are based on changing, so called, lower class people into middle class people. Perhaps a better idea than trying to change people would be to change society so that all classes are equally valued and are provided with relevant opportunities.
For example, just
because
qualifications are an important means for middle class people to gain
self worth, doesn't mean they should be required of everybody. Better
to change society so that people who aren't geared up to obtain
qualifications can still develop skills that are recognised, valued and
rewarded.
Cost hinders phasing out of mixed sex wards: BBC Radio 4, Today, 9 Jan 2009
The
Tories are apparently suggesting that capital budgets should be created
to help the government achieve its promise to convert all mixed sex
wards to single sex wards. It sounds like a good idea to me. In fact,
isn't converting wards a good example of a
capital project which would have done some good and which would have
helped to revive
the economy more effectively than reducing VAT?
Government launches anti obesity campaign: BBC Radio 4, Today, 2 Jan 2009
The
Government’s Change4Life anti obesity campaign will have limited
success in schools as long as children are taught how to cook unhealthy
food in, so called, Food Technology classes.
At
my
children’s school, students are given healthy eating
theory then taught how to make fairy cakes, shortbread, cheese loaf,
chocolate truffles, cornflake cakes and other fat and sugar laden foods.
Even
when they use fruit, students are taught how to combine an apple with a
jar
of mincemeat and a pack of frozen pastry or with a tin of pie filling
and high fat, high sugar crumble.
The crumble
recipe is
given as an example of 'fitting in with healthy eating guidelines' –
not a good starting point, even assuming it's eaten without ice cream!
Chancellor considers 2.5% reduction in VAT: BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House, 23 Nov 2008
If the High Street can't tempt people to shop with 20% off sales, why does the government think it can succeed with what boils down to 2.1% off?
If shopping does revive, it'll be a coincidence.
What's more, the only people who might notice the extra money in their wallets are those on low incomes and they spend all their money, anyway.
John Sergeant pulls out of Strictly Come Dancing: BBC Radio 4, News, 20 Nov 2008
The public seem to have recognised something important about dancing which the Strictly Come Dancing judges seem to have forgotten: it's mainly a social exercise not a technical exercise.
Home Office plans new laws on prostitution: BBC Radio 4, News, 19 Nov 2008
Under the proposed new law it will be a client's duty before paying for sex to ensure that a prostitute is not 'controlled for another person's gain'.
Stopping the exploitation of unwilling prostitutes has to be welcomed. However, it implies that there are no women who choose prostitution and decide to employ an agent to conduct the business side for them.
And perhaps there should also be a duty on the more savvy prostitutes to ensure that their client is not pyschologically vulnerable.
Gilbert and George issue 'Ban religion' manifesto: BBC Radio 4, Today, 20 Oct 2008
So, Gilbert and George's contribution to the personal manifestos issued by artists at the Serpentine Gallery on 18 October is, 'Ban religion'.
I wonder if they'd be happy for the same level of censorship to be applied to their art.
Markets plunge despite coordinated international banks rescue plans: Various media, 16 Oct 2008
They
say that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. So what did we get for the
megabuck salaries we paid the financial bosses who’ve got the world
into its current financial mess?
It seems to me that if you
hire
people whose identity and self-worth come from the size of their wad,
you get emotionally impaired individuals unable to control
their
anxieties and more concerned with their personal issues than they are
with an important job well done.
It’s not surprising that
they
fail to control their responses to uncertainty and ambiguity,
constructing, in stead, more and more complex financial structures in
an attempt to spread risk but, in fact, producing an increasingly
fragile security.
Now, these same megabuck junkies are
overreacting to every potential source of uncertainty, whether real or
speculative.
For peanuts you may get monkeys. For megabucks
you get neurotic sharks.
previous strops
Government accused of dithering over financial crisis: Various media and UK banking sector, 7 Oct 2008
So, the media and three of the UK's big high street banks are pressing the UK government to hurry up with a plan to rescue the banks.
Are they confusing dithering with considered judgement?
I hope the government does 'dither' if it means they avoid being sucked into the anxiety and adrenalin driven world of those who run the money markets and who got us into this mess.
Rushed decisions lead to prematurely closing options. It takes a level of emotional intelligence apparently not possessed by the financial world or the media to properly manage ambiguity and uncertainty. Considered judgement will, we hope, lead to timely and effective solutions to the problems they've created and continue to create.
US election neck and neck after the ‘Palin bounce’. The Times, 6 August 2008.
How paradoxical is the development of the US evangelical brain. It’s apparently wrong, out of compassion for an unwanted life, or for potential parents unable to cope, to reluctantly prevent a blob of undifferentiated cells from developing into a foetus. Yet it’s all good clean fun to derive pleasure while killing adult animals, regardless of any suffering it might cause.
I wonder if Sarah Palin pulled the wings off insects as a child.
And as for her evangelical views on homosexuality, see previous strop: ‘.... people may think church is obsessed with sex’.
Gordon Brown says it's time to listen, understand and hear people's concerns: BBC News, 25 July 2008.
In response to his party's disastrous showing in the Glasgow East by- election, Gordon Brown said it was time to listen, understand and hear people's concerns.
Wrong: it's time to take notice and take action.
ETS had poor track record in US before gaining UK Government SATS contract: BBC Radio 4, pm, 17 July 2008
The whole ETS affair
confirms a main lesson
I learned while I was a director of a highly respected, highly valued
and highly efficient medium sized local charity:
To win Government contracts it
doesn’t matter if you’re crap, as long as you’re big and crap.
'A dad's role will never equal a mum's,' says Germaine Greer: The Times, 4 June 2008 (updated 14 July)
Nearly right: A dad's role may never be the same as a mum's, but in most cases it will be equal and in those where it is unequal it may be worse or it may be better, depending on the individuals, not purely on the sex of the individuals.
Germaine Greer's article is prompted by recent legislation requiring fathers to be named on birth certificates as a way of ensuring that they help to contribute to the child's upbringing. She argues that this should not be compulsory for fear that the child might have contact with a violent father. She goes on to say that the mother should be relied upon to decide whether the sire of her child should be allowed to share their lives.
It would be equally logical to say that naming mothers on birth certificates should not be compulsory for fear that the child might have contact with a bad mother and the father should be relied upon to decide.
Surely, the emphasis is wrong. The deciding parent is not deciding whether the other parent should share their lives; she / he is deciding on the child's right to have contact with both parents. It seems to me that the starting point should be equal contact with both parents; any variation should be agreed mutually or, where there is disagreement, by the courts (whose starting point, also, should be to give the child equal contact with both parents).
Much of the article is a mixture of new age style pseudo-science and pure unfounded assertion e.g. 'A father's role is not equal to a mother's (because, implied) a man can become a father and not know he's done it (whereas, implied) a woman can only become a mother after she has carried her child to term. OK, a father's role may be different from a mother's, but it's almost embarrassing to ask where the evidence is to link it with either of those two things.
Unless there is evidence, Germaine Greer makes the classic New Age pseudo-science mistake. Just because two things sound connected, that doesn't mean a link actually exists, let alone a causal link.
Maybe one role of a dad is to balance this kind of emotional rant.
Government says they've already been doing many of the things the Tories say they want to do to help the Voluntary Sector deliver statutory services: BBC Radio 4 News, 3 June 2008
Correction: The government's been saying for years that they're committed to Voluntary and Third Sector service delivery, but the money available at the coal face has, if anything, declined. Much of the money the Government has put in seems to have been absorbed by unnecessary training (a Government obsession) and infrastructure development. Also, rather than developing internal infrastructure to deal with the small and effective Third Sector organisations at the coal face, the government prefers to delegate responsibility either to large, cumbersome and disconnected prime contractors or to artificially imposed consortia. Let's hope that if the Tories get in they'll walk the talk.
Learning disability category in Paralympics suspended as a result of cheating: BBC Radio 4, You and Yours, 15 May 2008
The learning disabilty category in the Paralympics is currently suspended because the Spanish basketball team entered people who were not learning disabled in the Sydney Paralympics. Not only is this a huge blow in itself for all genuine learning disabled athletes, it also means they find it almost impossible to gain funding. And why isn't the whole of the Olympics suspended because of drugs cheats in Sydney?
'Answer to poverty is increasing size of cake,' says says Douglas Alexander: BBC Radio 4, Today, 5 May 2008
For my comment on this see my first ever entry on this blog, 'Trickle Down fantasy in Calcutta'. Although Douglas Alexander was talking about tackling poverty in the UK by making bigger cakes rather than by distributing the cake more fairly, what makes his comments even more exasperating is that he's the UK's Secretary of State for International Development. Evidence of the failure of this policy is that the divide between rich and poor in the UK has increased under this government.
'Government listens too much,' says Anne Jenkin: BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House, 4 May 2008
At last somebody's said it. The government's problem isn't that they don't listen enough; it's that they listen too much - and get confused, because everybody says something different. In a desperate attempt to please everybody, focus group politics is in real danger of leading to lightweight policies at best and conflicting policies at worst.
Clearing up after floods estimated at £5 Billion: BBC TV 10pm News, 27 July 2007
But that's only half what staging the 2012 Olympics will cost (even at the current estimate).
UK Home Secretary admits to smoking cannabis at Oxford: BBC Radio 4, Today, 19 July 2007
And by the end of the day, 7 government Ministers had admitted to smoking cannabis in their student days. During the course of interviews it was suggested that it was impossible not to encounter drugs at university. Amazingly, I got through my whole time at Oxford without knowingly encountering drugs and I did a four year degree. Perhaps that's because I didn't have much to do with the toffs who thought they were above the law. Or perhaps it's because for at least a year, what I thought was the smell of cannabis, was actually the smell of pachouly.
Still, the important thing is that cannabis might be reclassified as a Class B drug, which is good news given that regular users of cannabis are 4 - 7 times more likely to develop schizophrenia / psychosis ( see drugs & mental health booklet, pages 4-11 for more detail ).
BBC reporter says housewives and taxi drivers are unsuccessful: BBC Radio 4, Today, 25 June 2007
The comment was made by
John Humphries when interviewing a student at his former school in an
item about social mobility. It seems that the language of class allows
only one valid direction of travel.
He asked the student what his/her parents did for a
living.
The answer was my mum is a housewife and my dad is a taxi driver. John
Humphries replied, 'So in career terms, not very successful.'
Are the middle classes so insecure in their own
choices that
they need to evangelise the 'lower' classes to encourage them to make
the same choices? Perhaps it's the middle classes who lack ambition -
the ambition to carry out good honest jobs, like being a housewife and
taxi driving, which provide a useful service, have the potential to
provide what's needed (not in excess) and which value other things than
money and, so-called, status, including family.
Please can we stop applying language like 'lack of
ambition',
'lack of motivation', 'low expectation' and even, perhaps, 'lack of
opportunity' exclusively to those who don't 'aspire' to our middle
class values. And can we stop just assuming that the move from lower
class to middle class is automatically an upward move, even if the
words 'lower' and 'middle' do suggest it? This loaded language
perpetuates the myths.
I work for a mental health charity and not only does
this one
way pressure expose, in my view, the insecurity of the middle classes,
it is also a mental health risk factor because it encourages
dissatisfaction, social comparison and status anxiety. No wonder we
have such high levels of mental ill health.
What we need to do is to educate those who enjoy and choose education so that they better understand, value, engage and reward those who make different choices and who derive their self-worth from different things. It may come as a surprise, but there are some people who will never value conventional education because they don't get enough out of it for the amount they put in; so we might as well work on the people who do.
