Apparently I can blog by email. This is a new advent for me (although I
was aware that one could... just not sure if I could) and so this is merely
the test email post. All lots of fun.

I'll continue trawling google now.

Why...

...can't I be political and yet not affiliate myself to any political party? *shakes head*

On a related note, why doesn't Student Direct print the name at the end of a letter? (Yes, I know who it was from, but the average student probably doesn't.) And related to that (although not really related to the first point), how ironic is it that it's the third issue running printing the same crossword twice within the same issue (as in they have printed the same crossword six times in three issues now), especially given my 'I think...'?

And revision is upon us

Well, long time no post/blog. (Actually, we've had very little post in the literal snail mail sense recently too... Coincidence? Likely.)

So, this is mainly because I've been busy (which is a good thing). And no, I'm not blogging about election results- my views can relatively easily be found elsewhere, or I will discuss them quite happily if you ask. I know that any in depth analysis (or less so) would come under scrutiny, when I don't know that much, apart from what I see as common sense (although educated, of course).

So... today it's been raining, and so what do I do? I stay in and I tidy and clean my room, revise and blog! I'm starting to get annoyed by not having formal definitions of important things in maths and things like that (and I should have started being annoyed by this a while ago, gah) but at least I can escape from the tedium of definitions, theorems, lemmas and proofs by looking into Shakespeare stuff. :) I love the balance of my degree.

So on with the note consolidating and procrastinating it is...

Gag removed

So, the lack of posting in the last few weeks (although admittedly not quite for all the time I actually haven't posted for) is the fact that my life has been largely dominated with election campaigns, for which online campaigning was banned (in any form, apart from approved emails to public lists), and I felt it almost impossible to blog my views about anything without wanting to post something about elections. On top of that, election fever did set in, leaving me little time to blog... I did actually need to do some work. This gag even managed to extend this week (although with fair reason) to being told not to shout and chant on the union steps (which could be heard for quite a distance, being heard inside and upstairs the union building, as well as down Oxford Road). However, for the physical safety of friends (and people in general), this was a valid gag, unlike the internet ban (tensions were likely to rise, and not necessarily in the most friendly of manners).

So the elections: there were two, NUS delegate elections and UMSU council and executive elections. I ran to be a delegate for Manchester, and to be maths rep on council (a re-election campaign)... and successfully won both campaigns. :D

We're still waiting upon some positions on council, which will actually determine which slate has the slight majority in overall council/executive composition, however it was a well fought campaign by most candidates (although some people managed to get an astounding number of votes, without producing a single poster or advertising themselves once) and I think an almost fair representation and balance on council of the student body. I think that there was a large number of students who turned up and bothered to read manifestos, voting for who they thought was the best candidate, rather than just writing a number 1 next to each name in a flyer pack. I think evidence of this is in Tom Miller managing to receive over 500 votes for Academic Affairs officer based on his manifesto alone, without posters (apart from a few several weeks ago). This must mean that at least 1000 people or so were actually reading manifestos: about 40% of the voter turnout. Sadly though, and probably for reasons like the internet ban, voter turnout was lower than last year by several hundred people at least.

School leaving age rise to 18

So, I'm supposed to be packing, and thus I blog... Always a good procrastination effort. Also, I did want to air my views on the fact that it was in the papers yesterday how there are now plans to raise the school leaving age to 18 in 2013. I personally think this is ridiculous for several reasons:
(i) Not everyone is suited to 16+ education, and unless there is some huge overhaul of the education system in that time (which I think the government might not find time to make successful by then) then all those who are really suited to leaving at 16 and doing an apprenticeship are going to be put in an awful situation where there is nothing suitable for them to do at school/college and they just don't want to be there, which will either result in high truancy rates or very disrupted classes.
(ii) Classes will be crowded with people who don't want to be there. I know from my A-levels that it was impossible with more than 15 in a class (and we had up to about 27 who wanted to learn in a class I think in 6th form) to learn efficiently and effectively, with due attention and teaching that one should receive at that point in one's education. It is unfair on both teachers and pupils alike to enforce larger classes (which will happen unless enough extra colleges are opened to accommodate the 330, 000 students).
(iii) Where is the funding going to come from? Not only are we going to have to fund the staff and buildings for the extra students, but also the EMA that almost all of the extra students would be entitled to receive. (Apologies for my sweeping assumption that the average teenagers who leave school at 16 would receive EMA, but I believe it to be true. However, I am happy to be corrected on this fact.)

So, I accept that we need a trained workforce in England and we need to improve literacy and numeracy rates, but will forcing everyone to stay in school until they are adult achieve this? Those who are illiterate or innumerate by 16 will probably remain illiterate/innumerate by 18. There is a possibility for vocational training to increase the trained workforce, however would an apprenticeship and learning on the job not be better?

I may add further thoughts at another point in time... Back to the packing for now.

Exams are coming up

... and I haven't been blogging much. How very odd. Perhaps this is due to the distraction that is facebook, as well as msn games. Hmm.

Actually, I haven't blogged for ages anyway. Perhaps little insightful stuff has happened when I've been near a computer with which to blog. Very odd.

New, different and procrastination

Well, not new at all, really.

So, whilst procrastinating this weekend (I said it was a good thing for my work for my laptop to have died... I don't get sidetracked by blogs and things) I discovered I could switch my blogger account over to the gmail beta version thingummy. Hence the slightly different looking blog. Which, once I remember and fiddle a bit more (I refuse to let myself until at least Tuesday) I think has at least one good aspect, in that it has kinda sorted out the archiving in the sidebar thingy, which I had been wondering quite what to do with, as listing every month since May 2004 (or thereabouts) seemed a bit excessive... But now it compacts down into years, so all is good. :)

Anyway, enough procrastination... I should go to bed!