A Splendid Idea

Rishi Sunak wants all pupils to study maths to age 18

The prime minister is looking at plans to ensure all pupils in England study maths in some form until the age of 18.

In his first speech of 2023, Rishi Sunak will also set out the priorities for his premiership, including tackling backlogs in the health service.


A splendid idea. Perhaps this policy will eventually lead to a situation where far more young people consider a career in government epidemiology, government climate science or calculating the costs and benefits of major government projects such as HS2. Why not change the name to "Government Maths"?

Anxiety deficit declines

Save the Children survey reveals climate anxiety in youngsters: Teenage climate change campaigner from Chorley discusses his fears

A recent survey has revealed that climate anxiety is rising among children in the UK, and one teenage climate change campaigner from Chorley explains why this may be the case.

Fair enough, if young people are taught to be anxious about climate change then some will be anxious about climate change. In their case, climate anxiety lessons are achieving their objective. What about those who aren't anxious about climate change? 

We should surely initiate an initiative aimed at finding out if a lack of climate anxiety among some young people could lead to anxiety about not suffering from the right kind of anxiety. We may need to teach these youngsters that becoming more anxious about climate change could lessen their anxiety about not suffering from the right kind of anxiety.

Unfortunately, some young people may be natural sceptics with no exploitable anxieties at all, in spite of all the educational resources thrown at them.

Worse than silly

Ben Sixsmith has a useful Critic reminder of the link between the EDI agenda and serious political failure.

The EDI agenda is worse than silly

It divides, obscures and inflames

Even critics of the HRification of everything — the influx of equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives — are liable to see it as just irritating flummery. They roll their eyes at new boxes to tick and training sessions to attend but don’t see it as much more than a silly fad.

This is a mistake. “Wokeness”, the American reporter Aaron Sibarium wrote at the weekend, “Isn’t just stifling free speech or inventing dumb neologisms; it is determining policy that affects millions of people.” Sibarium had the evidence of his own reportage to back that up, raising cases where COVID treatments had been allocated according to race more than diabetes or obesity, and where experts had insisted that 9-year-olds could be put on puberty blockers if they were “trans”.

That is true of the US and it is true of Britain. I can feel as tired as anyone of yet another stupid argument about whether to call someone “he”, “she” or “they”, for example, but then I remember the kids being drugged to irreversibly change their developing bodies and a sense of seriousness returns. I can feel myself nodding off when someone rolls out words like “multiculturalism” but then I recall that witnesses interviewed for the Casey report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham said the council took deficient measures because they were “terrified of the impact on community cohesion” and I wake up again.

The whole piece is quite short and well worth reading as a reminder of the headline - the EDI agenda certainly is worse than silly. Behind it here in the UK, is a failing political class, a failing bureaucracy and ultimately a failing state.

As well as cultivating complaints, and digging a gigantic hole into which millions of pounds can be poured, the EDI phenomenon allows a failing state to engineer the illusion of improvement. Sure, it can’t do much about chronic societal and institutional dysfunction. But look how hard it’s working to be more equitable and diverse and inclusive. Well done. Do you want a cookie?

Ice Cream

 

This holiday we've seen lots of long queues for ice cream. Not unusual in a holiday destination with plenty of people around, even in winter, yet Mrs H and I have both been surprised how long the queues are.

I don't dislike ice cream but I haven't tasted one for years. It is certainly not delicious enough to queue for - not for this curmudgeon anyway. Now, with many ice creams from kiosks having brightly coloured syrupy stuff dribbling down the ice cream bit, it looks more artificial than ever.

Maybe the queue is part of the satisfaction, a kind of traditional delayed gratification. Or maybe it just keeps the kids quiet for a few minutes.

Eight Million Rabbits

 

Rod Liddle with a talk titled "The Feminist Roots of Woke: How The West Went Mad."

Quite long, but a very good start to 2023.

Cæsar somewhat remote

Two months earlier, in Rome, she had gone to the Palatine Hill to write a letter beginning, “Seated upon a block of marble in the banquet hall of Cæsar,” and necessarily the picture suggested to the mind of her correspondent must have had Claire in the foreground with Cæsar somewhat remote.

Booth Tarkington - Claire Ambler (1928)

We see this all the time with contrived celebrity images. We see it in wildlife TV programmes where a famous presenter in the foreground is clearly the primary subject. The lions in the background are just a few more dusty old lions. We often see something similar with documentary TV programmes.

It becomes particularly noticeable when there is a historical angle and the presenter takes care to locate himself or herself in the here and now while the purported subject of the programme is in the past. Gone, done with, no longer relevant – so just look at me.

Meghan Markle does it by effectively placing herself in the royal foreground where the effect is the same. Gone, done with, no longer relevant – so just look at me.

Sunrise on our way to breakfast