tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69159429544027815012024-03-20T09:58:19.028+00:00Ian Gent's BlogIan Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-48010467373067504922022-08-05T22:39:00.002+01:002022-08-05T22:39:54.865+01:00Rules of Some Patience Games from "250+ Solitaire Collection"<h2 style="text-align: left;">Rules of Some Patience Games from "250+ Solitaire Collection"</h2><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.anoshenko.android.solitaires&gl=US">250+ Software Collection</a> is a Solitaire/Patience game from <span>Alexei Anoshenko, and it includes a number of new games. Some of these that interest me are Alina, Alpha Star, and Delta Star. I can't find the rules for these anywhere online so I am posting them here. I include screenshots from the game on my phone to confirm the rules.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">Alina<br /></h3><p></p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Game purpose </b><br /><span> </span>Move all cards to the foundation piles. </p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><b>Rules </b><br /><i><b>4 foundation piles </b></i><br /></p><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Build up by suit in sequence from Ace to King. </li><li>Spaces may only be filled with Aces. </li><li>The topmost card is available for play on the tableau piles. <br /></li></ul></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><i><b>13 tableau piles </b></i></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i><b> </b></i>Build down in descending order regardless of suit. </li><li>The topmost card is available for play on the foundation or tableau piles. </li><li>Spaces are not filled.<br /></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> <b><i> </i></b></span><b><i>Cell (reserve)</i></b> </div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Only one card at a time is allowed in this pile. </li><li>The card in this cell can be moved to the foundation piles or the tableau piles. </li><li>Space can be filled with any available card. <i><b><br /></b></i></li></ul></div><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><img aria-label="Photo – Portrait – 5 Aug 2022, 15:09:26" class="BiCYpc" data-atf="false" data-iml="60848" height="573" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qaVCZd99Y9KZG_zYzmWGGMCAjby4A5HazoKThXct-ql48yDX0CR3R2rFMrUgWQ3K7jZFIsQ3sIwsRMiEjVYkXKVw8Mf6Hg-0mRDE-mop2HE9cQnowi4oO2Y0d0QHu8V9vMGV3QOeMB2SjVCWsjBkFW3KkBZK26yCaOqREvjQlEgTdS2vQPgI-OyLXGTYPFyi5U70ER_8bUTzZl2DnvBP9sRDLzPnoJynxVHV5-KHufrasOuguxwBMU69mD_UF8f3V9khYWDM6QgOcDjtbYaCB0UX4oxVlO8Mw11nHyh9HHY1YqdzxuJQdoFamQWAAToQYgx29KL2h0WROmp3Or2PszWm2XosO-t96h60LN1-AOI9wesObF3CFN7_7JzGcu-ry02jqb6fa21_9Ljz3K59ygpfqlwOFEWzam4RXb0fNHBMP6xqIGpkaIfnNvLsN2336iB9TCXtfTjMPxlSwc0aVCd680atvQXL7k4nI7qIcWTdaryWkkFSya--qC_bGLva8V8iZoOEOzNxmnYn2JWFZ0pIXdrMCk78_1wBvRhmr81MXBH8JiLSLUB5LZzkv8jI3VvFkWpP0nSQIL7rTdGPxx1gyL9KNOLiuomcqq4udkYm-mgIQj3WAbwUOGpWzFCvPXT9utp8wXdu0qYNad3lqlgqOum1SdSESIP2ARSrFvApq20AwTnXgdrLUW1JP0FUhIGBnj66an4s_4h0BLf4n5xWdtQVqIlvdEY3e4hMPFFufaUX12xM35UiSz59=w774-h1719-no?authuser=0" style="transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="258" /></p><span></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Alpha Star </h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span><img aria-label="Photo – Portrait – 5 Aug 2022, 15:08:31" class="BiCYpc" data-iml="204403" height="573" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7OYZqWcU8FNLlBSUj8Mp13O85G4kxXLW08vujzO4c71fQp7Lg8JCFQiqomwBSLzcHDXwB9A74LK6T1ijgyhw8uwbJ4XMahUO1LNHqOk2T40SNjow4OVXXR8r2E5CihqlKNamqQHrhnylgFSJcKFfG5N_tEMsik0s4_hE6gsZqjoVYlBfuicpQ9_G_0wX4Mc-VWLwSha7mktwWZXzl9x-6cdYxZG6A9g0D9e8pZKOhKj8Py3ty_h9IZ-Ebr8y6sskx4_hCQZOJzhxw68RXdQOFM6L96C2aYux2k40WacDwMAtUgcz-GsvunrZz4sBSG7F7pySL2EtsqPPiqJverEOBsUL4I-jC6YncVNCKmMqCX9ss0BlaY-t0ikpOpY3yO7fJl4lVEtbVTS19S7tbIgUZlXB39FdlzwemOAhsM5xA8frO5ZTFzZIQSGfXbTZ3uPM8rUVbBGpxWftvCtPQfE59bY5ath7OeA66GDdst2seZ-MSb8bjxWlXfmR84Q30BNf_QhbJQdj0vava6Tz8q3DLwFLNXcbWan1fFqhnc2Je4sj2GNVcGDMj_kvhSC_6TlCfO7gcZ-mWKSvykD3Uk_AV5T5C6QXYoOcNOnF00IqAppcemBDsDZ0FABAvGSPjRN4i-aLj_0TbruzAIq4Npfe1gCsl_I-V5h13EEvnEe5dViCxl6jJWGl0Zjg_VhvbXjxePdsPbJGQt_37xoDzztMLBGKwYmddnya0A4E98ZRQ8gcZWG7-cut01sFErL=w774-h1719-no?authuser=0" style="transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="258" /></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Game purpose </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span>Move all cards to the foundation piles. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Rules</b> </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>4 foundation piles </i></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Build up by suit in sequence from Ace to King. <br /></li></ul></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>At the start of the game, the piles are filled by Aces. </li></ul></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>12 tableau piles </b></i></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Build down by suit in descending order. The topmost card is available for play on the </li><li>foundation piles. </li><li>The topmost card or an entire built group of cards can be moved to another tableau pile. </li><li>Move groups of cards if they are in sequence. </li><li>Spaces may be filled with any available card. </li></ul></blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;">Delta Star</h3><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><p><img aria-label="Photo – Portrait – 5 Aug 2022, 15:09:03" class="BiCYpc" data-iml="203803" height="573" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TWw2L2ZcLDspRiyPbYJDXDrnXZ1dcxCXjSB9EuwpNrK0NT2pFJ3FCSmLpB-SeyFKoyM9qyMQ_uZW9wKrB03pymz2rjPjfSFCaRlrPoJSO9gy9oxlqjT-7gOgPSxdHSkOvVR5XlWgZar7b3eeYdYOlvvTvSg506ssACdbD1JWU_AJzMAVxDYWhfjQjjHCj82T34FKNLyJ8GC2sduVrF5u-CI3xemIvjpmaQPDMpYMfNlH6e9ldICXDCH4pChp_WbI-fMEyIAlM_yJqIu_utPqmvMTzEONVQxhSvml-kwZq6RT1Z7Kx15fWeHWWCv29IGIIuv3NpkQH1ny08FAow2DY5ZIav206qyZSO5Lwf5TUOCMrjFvq_ZOnuIA3bPmY_1zPYMhrj_Zsv-R-N_TvIJxzehTFyx46g4vlnqXB9UprY_bMJgL0Q01XVEKyuAaOLOlbSua0Lxd6qAVFmHt_Pzqde4DZUb6tBcZqx8m-hfmsOUy4_tk4UL6ApEfEGyJBgpyfIecco5LjKQW424gOstsfTHKq696_HJ3lrS8zCEQXFF8As9nbTeAc0lz9az6c_8NGSRBwEbaeo1MhSqR5maothajNgjjTYJpbfZMFmt2U3uVw7RJ2i70v0RHds6_D8x77Z4OlIoKL2E9OkitEEASGIJZh9DNcl2X--YdmMSvtI9NHilhy1RuV49etZed9c4thLTTUp9vG_ii4Skxg5Q5myBrjQOBiysGo_WjraaQwpvn6KKyr4lZ8wJGNrud=w774-h1719-no?authuser=0" style="transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px) rotate(0deg);" width="258" /> </p><b>Game purpose </b><br /><span> </span>Move all cards to the foundation piles. </div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><br /><b>Rules </b><br /><i><b>4 foundation piles </b></i><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Build up by suit in sequence from Ace to King. </li><li>At the start of the game, the piles are filled by Aces. </li></ul></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><i><b>12 tableau piles </b></i></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><i><b> </b></i><br /></div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Build down by suit in descending order. </li><li>The topmost card is available for play on the foundation or tableau piles. </li><li>Spaces may be filled with any available card.</li></ul></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"></h3><p></p><br />Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-82619284022519719292018-04-16T15:51:00.000+01:002018-04-16T22:54:11.962+01:00Dear Vice Chancellor, Here are seven equality problems at your University<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dear Vice Chancellor - of any university in the United Kingdom</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I have been thinking a lot about what is necessary to ensure that universities are committed
to equality. You and your staff need to ensure that equality issues of every type are factored
into every decision made. This might sound ridiculous. But compare finance. Finance
is factored into every decision at this university, as it obviously should be.
If we don't factor equality into every decision in a similar way, then
decisions that hurt equality will inevitably result. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I have picked out seven
particularly important equality issues which your university faces. Are you prepared to address these problems?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><b><br /></b></b></span></div>
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1. Gender
pay gap.</b> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is the gender pay gap at your university? For example, if you are my former boss and now VC of Oxford, the <a href="https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/viewing/employer-details?id=WDLN04b7M_ewxTcMH9HBow%21%21">headline hourly pay gap </a>is 24.5%, i.e. women earn about 75.5p for every pound men earn. Turn it around and men earn 34.2% more than women. And this understates the problem. Women are far more likely to be part time and therefore on an annual pay basis the gap is probably much worse. For example, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p3o6rjkxsjlyPfneMHU-bpuJqJ9dmWhzl7cbiLG7TV8/edit#gid=0">by my calculations </a> at the University of St Andrews, the headline pay gap was 21% in 2017, yet the same data shows that men earned 38% more than women per year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><b>2. Pensions</b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The gender pay gap feeds
directly into pensions disparity. I therefore invite you to state publicly
that you accept that pensions are an equality issue, as requested by the
open letter available at this link: <a href="https://platform.organise.org.uk/campaigns/open-letter-to-equality-challenge-unit">https://platform.organise.org.uk/campaigns/open-letter-to-equality-challenge-unit</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><b>3. Casualisation
and early career precarity</b>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The path to a stable academic career is a fraught one, and fundamental to
equality. Some good steps have been taken here, such as bridging funds for
teaching and research staff. But much more needs to be done. It is a particularly
vital equality problem because those from disadvantaged groups are less likely
to be able to surmount the obstacles the academic career structure puts in
their way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>4. Sexual Harrassment. </b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You will
be familiar with the Time's Up movement on sexual harassment in the movie
industry. Despite existing policies, it is extremely likely that
there are sexual harassers at work here, either who have never been
identified or those who have been identified but dealt with in what
everybody would now agree was too lenient a manner. In fact, perhaps
academia’s “Weinstein moment” is now. An article appeared in <i>The National</i> on this topic today, by Vonny Leclerc: <a href="https://www.blogger.com/An%20article%20appeared%20in%20The%20National%20on%20this%20topic%20today,%20by%20Vonny%20Leclerc.%20http://www.thenational.scot/news/16160952.University_walls_must_give_up_academia__39_s_dirty_secrets/">“University walls must give up academia's dirty secrets” </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b><b>5. Disability
and Ableism. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
I was recently amazed to discover just how inaccessible universities
remain in general, and how much disabled students and staff have to fight
to get even "reasonable adjustments". While not my area of
expertise, it is completely clear that the disabled community views
university culture as ableist in many ways.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><b>6. Working
hours. </b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm told that
the notional working hours of academic staff is 37.5 hours per week,
although I’m not sure if that is the correct number. As a good employer, it
is this university’s responsibility to ensure that this is not a notional
working time but a real one. What is the university going to do to ensure
that in future the contracted hours are all that staff are expected to
work? Not to act in this area puts at risk the health and careers of those
who are unable to work more than the notional amount, e.g. those with
caring responsibilities such as single parents. This could be a form of
discrimination. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><b>7. Use
of language and communications. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Do you believe that you are the kind of academic we all aspire to be, who accepts criticism perhaps grudgingly but definitely gracefully? Yes? Great. Do your staff believe you? Are they sure that criticising you, your decisions, or your senior management team (SMT) will not harm their careers? If your staff have the temerity to do something you don't want them to do, such as for example striking for better pensions, are they confident that their next promotion case will be looked on just as well as any other staff member? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm sure you are confident that you can give all the right answers. If you're at a USS institution, there's a very good chance your staff disagree with you, especially if your university told UUK that your staff don't deserve good pensions, or that staff who took ASOS deserved anything down to zero pay. Why not find out - commission an independent staff survey to find out what they think of you and your communications with them? Then - if the results are not what you hope for - make sure that you completely reform the way you and your SMT communicate with staff.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ian Gent<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Monday 16<sup>th</sup>
April 2018<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-59666100021396141422018-03-09T08:10:00.002+00:002018-03-09T08:16:00.654+00:00Deadline Extension Request: Open Letter to Chief Executive of EPSRC.Dear Professor Nelson<br />
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I write to you as Chief Executive of EPSRC, and ask you to immediately make sensible deadline extensions to EPSRC closing dates. This is of course because of the disruption across the University sector. For example, given the strikes to date, a blanket extension of two weeks to all deadlines within the next month might be appropriate, but I naturally leave the details to you.<br />
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For example, I am currently working on a proposal for the UKRI CDT call on the new theme of "Applications and Implications of AI". This was announced only on February 5, with a deadline of March 28. In the worst case, almost half the duration of the call will be taken up by strike action. I have written about the dilemma this places me under at this address: <a href="http://blog.ian.gent/2018/02/the-5-million-pound-grant-im-not.html">http://blog.ian.gent/2018/02/the-5-million-pound-grant-im-not.html</a><br />
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Many other staff will be working on this and other calls with looming deadlines. The interaction of the deadlines with the strike could have any and all of the following negative effects:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Fewer and lower quality submissions to EPSRC calls than you have a right to expect.</li>
<li>Stress on staff at affected institutions under pressure (both from others and themselves) to do the right thing in their view by striking but also to obtain funding for the benefit both of their employer and their career.</li>
<li>Overwork at danger to their health by staff who are committed to both strikes and submitting amazing proposals to EPSRC.</li>
<li>Potential conflict between staff at a striking university between collaborators on a grant taking different stances.</li>
<li>Potential conflict between staff at different universities collaborating on proposals, where one is striking and the other is unaffected (e.g. a post-92 university). </li>
</ul>
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By making an appropriate extension urgently, EPSRC would not be taking any position on the strikes except that they are happening and are having a massive impact on the work of many thousands of staff. I believe that such a blanket deadline extension would massively foster goodwill across the sector. </div>
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While I deeply disagree with the management at my university about the strike, I do want to emphasise that I have come under no pressure at all from anyone at the University of St Andrews to change my stance because it might help the university obtain such a large grant, and I thank everyone involved for that.<br />
<br />
With very best wishes<br />
<br />
Ian Gent<br />
Professor of Computer Science<br />
University of St Andrews<br />
<br />
<i>Note to anyone reading this. Please feel free to cut and paste any and all parts of this letter if you wish to recycle for other people who might help. Also note the petition on this issue here: <a href="http://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/call-for-deadline-extensions-from-research-funding-bodies/">http://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/call-for-deadline-extensions-from-research-funding-bodies/</a></i><br />
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<br />Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-74798637720578709722018-03-08T23:31:00.002+00:002018-03-08T23:31:27.506+00:00Guest post: Message from an EU Colleague<i>I do this quite often at <a href="http://blog.depressedacademics.org/">Depressed Academics</a>, but this is the first time I have had a guest post on my personal blog. Since I have spoken so vocally about various aspects of the ongoing USS pensions dispute, this person asked me to post this anonymously. All I will tell you is that the person writing this is an EU colleague of mine at this University. Following text unedited that they sent me:</i><br />
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As an instructor and academic at St Andrews I have never put money over<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>my students or my work. I've sacrificed much of my personal time for the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>quality of my lectures, practicals and supervision, often working off<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>hours and weekends. In my calculation, I've (happily) overworked to the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>tune of about 10 to 20 extra hours a week on average, and systematically<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>failed to take all my holidays. I'm not alone here, a large proportion<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of my colleagues do the same, helping deal with the increasing work load<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that we have been observing in the last few years.</div>
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But the University and UUK now seem to be asking us to, besides the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>years of increased load ("we have to do more with less", as put by the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Head of School) and of lower-than-inflation increases, put in jeopardy a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>reasonable retirement and make us take most of the risk, without any<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>compensation for that loss, and with weak arguments as to the whys or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>hows of the situation. Just the fact that UUK has allowed the industrial<span class="Apple-converted-space"> a</span>ction to happen, forcing us to go on strike is, in itself, a great<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>disappointment and it has been even more disappointing to see that St<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Andrews has been one of the institutions vocally defending this position.</div>
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The previous principal, Louise Richardson, put it quite eloquently at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>one of the meetings I attended when she was the principal. She expressed<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that if she had to make a career decision at the current time (a few<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>years ago) regarding being an early career academic, she would probably<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>do something else. Well, for me it is becoming more clear that, were I to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>accept the new retirement plan, I would simply be accepting the chance<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that my retirement would not be enough for me and my family to sustain a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>decent life in the mid and long term (I'm not talking about luxury<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>here). I cannot accept that risk on top of a salary that, quite frankly,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is quite low compared to colleagues of similar standing in similar<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>countries, and an increased workload.</div>
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I realise that this is not only the fault of the University or UUK.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Successive governments and the overall direction of the country all seem<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to be conspiring towards transforming this country's higher education<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>sector into a money making machine at the cost of the employees'<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>financial security in old age. But instead of trying to ameliorate the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>effects, the University and UUK seem to have other priorities and be<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ready to pass on this enormous cost to us.</div>
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I love my job, I love my colleagues, I like St Andrews as an<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>institution. St Andrews has been welcoming to me and offered much<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>opportunity, contributing to my professional development. I am ready<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"Ever to Excel". I am ready to continue the virtuous cycle of good will<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and keep putting into the job my 130% percent, but not if I feel<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>short-changed by the institution's management and a fair pension is not<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>prioritised. Perhaps the University of St Andrews has overlooked our<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>situation and taken for granted this good will, from my colleagues and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I, that is most likely one of the factors that keep the university in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>such high regard and at the top of the rankings.</div>
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Many of us have other options. I want to stay and this is why I am on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>strike. However, without a reasonable pension that will help me sustain<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>my family I will just try to go elsewhere where the best and brightest<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of my colleagues are going, especially in these Brexit times, and where<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I can have better prospects for a retirement remotely comparable to the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>kind of retirement that my most senior colleagues are getting now.</div>
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<i>Postscript: Many thanks to this person. Two quick reactions. </i></div>
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<i>First, just as with those who post on Depressed Academics or talk to me in person, I am deeply honoured and moved by the trust that people place in me. Things like this are not always easy to say and the fact that people believe I am the kind of person they can say them to means an awful lot to me. Academia is about lots of things but it is at its best when it is about companionship and collegiality.</i></div>
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<i>Second, I find it almost as sad that people feel the need to put this kind of comment out anonymously. My personal opinion is that, at this University, no harm would befall them for speaking out. But I quite understand the fact that the culture here is not encouraging enough of criticism to ensure that everyone knows that criticism is welcome. And even if my optimistic view is right, I am very sad about the failure to make it clear that unpleasant truths are welcome, </i></div>
Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-91536359487910526262018-03-07T08:34:00.000+00:002018-03-07T17:11:09.830+00:00Resignation from University Equality, Diversity and Inclusion CommitteeA few moments ago I resigned from the University of St Andrews' Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Here is my email to the Principal explaining this decision.<br />
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Dear Sally<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
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I write to you for three reasons.</div>
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First, I write to thank you for your change of position on ASOS deductions. I completely agree with this decision and you deserve full credit for changing your mind and the University position on it.</div>
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Second, I write to urge you to move urgently to help resolve the current pensions dispute. It is entirely clear what the University community's view is, so I would urge you to follow the lead of many others, including (moments ago as I write) our former colleague Louise Richardson, and reverse the position of the University.</div>
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Third, I write to resign as a member of the University's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
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Too many of us, including me, have failed to "speak truth to power". I intend to correct this mistake in the future so will start now. I do not doubt your personal commitment to equality and sincerity of your efforts to enhance it in St Andrews. But the truth is that your efforts to make this University a beacon of equality are doomed to failure without a dramatic change of approach. </div>
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In your email of Monday you said that it is up to the University community to decide our priorities. The University community has been making this choice for 605 years and for every one of those years has decided that equality is not a high priority. Yet it should be no more up to the community to decide that equality is a priority than it is for the community to decide that we should care about fire safety. Equality is a legal and moral imperative that must underlie every decision made in the university, just as (quite rightly) financial imperatives already do.</div>
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Pensions are an equality issue. Changes to pensions are likely to differentially detriment workers such as lower paid staff, casual workers, part time workers, those who have taken career gaps, all categories of immense concern in themselves and also more likely to be women than men. Yet the pensions issue has not been discussed in any way by the ED&I Committee. The University should not have considered writing a response to the UUK consultation without consulting this committee. When the University has an ED&I committee that is consulted on key equality issues and whose opinions are listened to, I will naturally be happy to serve on it.</div>
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I pay tribute to all the amazing work done by so many talented people in the area of equality at this University. Many of them are colleagues from the ED&I committee and will feel that it is right to continue working on that committee, and I will not attempt to change their minds. But for me, it is a relief to stop the public pretence that all is well in equality at this University, and that we have any hope of achieving meaningful equality without a dramatic change in approach.</div>
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With very best wishes</div>
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Ian Gent<br />
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<i>Note added 5pm same day: been rushing around all day but wanted to be sure to do two things.</i><br />
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<i>Credit to <a href="https://twitter.com/mark_pendleton/status/969126886344396800">Mark Pendleton</a> for the phrase "pensions are an equality issue"</i><br />
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<i>And separately wanted to emphasise that my decision is in no way an imputation of bad professionalism or commitment on behalf of the E&DI staff at St Andrews. </i></div>
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-7107846218976781862018-02-25T22:42:00.000+00:002018-02-26T08:51:27.366+00:00Why I'm striking for USS Pensions - And why I think you should too<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This post is inspired by, not as good as, and much much longer, than: a wonderful <a href="https://medium.com/@katecross_88138/please-join-the-ucu-strike-action-right-now-1a86760171fc">post</a> by <a href="https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/catharine-penelope-cross(602d513d-0e03-4332-bee6-f90197db514b).html">Kate Cross</a> about why she would encourage <a href="https://medium.com/@katecross_88138/please-join-the-ucu-strike-action-right-now-1a86760171fc">everyone to strike</a> in the current UCU-UUK pensions dispute. Feel free to just read that one instead. Or even just watch this amazing minute of her <a href="https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/966944172245630976">speech in Dundee</a> a few days ago. </span>
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‘I am supposed to think of the students. I do.’ <a href="https://twitter.com/CatharineCross?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CatharineCross</a> speaking for so many of the younger staff on the <a href="https://twitter.com/ucu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UCU</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/strikeforUSS?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#strikeforUSS</a> <a href="https://t.co/KcqeYLQUO4">pic.twitter.com/KcqeYLQUO4</a></div>
— STUC (@ScottishTUC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottishTUC/status/966944172245630976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Being on strike for a couple of days has given me a bit of time to read more about the situation. I always thought a strike was the right thing to do, but I am completely surprised at how strongly I now feel. This is because I've been following what's been happening and have been shocked by what I've found out. In some cases these have been out there a while and I only now know about them. In others things have come out recently. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So here are the things that have made me ever more certain that striking is the right thing to do. Please join me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">[Citation Needed]</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I really really wanted to put in all the links to justify everything, but eventually it got too late on Sunday night. Feel free to query me about anything. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Absurd Assumptions </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A group of eminent statisticians wrote a <a href="http://www.dannydorling.org/?p=6109">letter to the FT,</a> which among other things skewers some astonishing assumptions like these</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">University salaries will rise 1% above RPI, i.e. 1% above inflation. I can't remember our most recent pay rise that even matched inflation, never mind went above it. At a guess it was before the crash in 2008. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Life expectancy will increase by 1.5 % per year, when if anything they are declining. This assumption was so absurd that when somebody challenged the online pensions model based on this, t<a href="https://twitter.com/nm_davies/status/967313652952059904">hey changed it to 0.5%</a>. </span> </li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Oxbridge Effect </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Part of the process leading to this disaster was a survey of employers by USS about what risk they wanted, which came out in favour of reduced risk with 42% favouring that option. Except that </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of those for that option was Cambridge university, which declared that it was not the official position of the university because ... I don't know, I suppose they couldn't be bothered. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Several others were individual colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, who were treated as equal voices with all other universities in the system. One estimate was that about a third of the 42% came from Oxbridge alone. </span></li>
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USS is doing really really well. </h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How badly has USS been doing over the last five years? 12% a year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Wow. It's been falling by 12% a year?? Incredible. No wonder there's a problem. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No, sorry, I misled you. It's been <i>growing</i> by 12% per year for five years. Growing. That's how well it's doing, even though apparently it's headed for catastrophe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And another metric of how well it's doing is the news, discovered on the first day of the strike, that the boss of the USS received an £82,000 pay rise precisely because the USS <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43157711">is doing so well.</a> Just take care to read that right, the <i>rise </i>is £82,000.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Really Really Bad Spin. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On Friday, the UUK (employers organisation) announced that they wanted to resume talks. Excellent news. Except ... they are not prepared to discuss the key issue of reverting the decision which led to this strike. Which they didn't want to reveal but I found out when the University of St Andrews accidentally forwarded a private email to all (or at least many) staff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or take this headline from a left wing rag: "<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/02/21/vice-chancellor-suggests-deserves-salary-360000-has-oversee/">Vice-Chancellor suggests he deserves salary of £360,000 as he has to oversee huge staff redundancies</a>". Oh wait, that was the Daily Telegraph. When the <i>Telegraph </i>is mocking employers in a dispute in their headlines, you know how ridiculous they employers are being. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Nobody's Proposing the Status Quo</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You might think that the union position is pie-in-the-sky everything-is-fine don't-touch-it. Not at all. If the universities suddenly agreed to the union position, we would get pensions that we had to pay for more and then delivered us less. We are striking <i>for </i>a worse pension, <i>against </i>the alternative of a pension which puts all the risk on staff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And the more the employer position is that the current scheme is unaffordable, of course the more their arguments confirm that they are seeking to massively reduce our quality of life in retirement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Rewards for Failure as a Principal </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I never used to mind the extremely high salaries university principals get. Indeed even now I don't think the money a principal or a vice-chancellor gets is a problem. But there is a very big problem, which is that failure as a principal seems to attract very high rewards. I think my former boss, now vice chancellor at Oxford, is a wonderful case in point.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I thought she was a pretty good principal and people weren't rude about her while she was here. But on the other hand, the number one goal of her tenure was fundraising around the 600th anniversary in 2013. And she had the most wonderful free gift at the exact start of the campaign, of <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1360572/Kate-Middleton-Prince-William-return-St-Andrews-romance-started.html">William and Kate getting engaged</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And the campaign was an ignominious failure. She set out to raise £100 million between 2011 and 2013. It's so far raised £90 million, which doesn't sound bad except it's now 2018, so about 13 million a year instead of 50.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And that failure led to her getting the promotion of the job in Oxford. And a complete inability to defend on the radio her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/shortcuts/2017/sep/05/louise-richardson-oxford-410000-a-year-vice-chancellor">£350K salary</a> or <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-41160613">remarks about homophobic professors</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What decisions does a University principal make that matter very much to the future of the University? This is a serious question, because I have no idea. The two main drivers of university income are teaching and research. Both of these are driven overwhelmingly by forces outside the management's control, and most especially by the quality of staff and the work they do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">University principals are not good value for money. And given the money they earn, that's a very big problem. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Our Principal's Letter</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't want to beat down too much on our current principal, but a couple of points in the letter she sent to staff are symptomatic of the disconnect between the presentation of the situation and the reality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She mentioned that the University runs a small surplus. I'm sure that's true, but let's remember: the University of St Andrews is a <i>charity.</i> It's <i>legally required </i>to run a small surplus instead of a big one (and hence the word surplus, not profit). So if we are making too much money, we have to either spend it or put it against the balance sheet in some other way (like incurring debts for planned things like the move to Guardbridge and a new STEM building). It's not an accounting trick to say we have a small surplus, but the word "small" is meaningless. (I'm grateful to the person who made this point to me but I don't want to embarrass them by naming them - if it would embarrass them. If not I'm happy to edit and credit them). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She also mentioned that the consequences of preserving our pensions would be increased class sizes. But ... A) what is apocalyptic about increased class sizes? And B) as everyone in Computer Science knows, our class sizes have ballooned in recent years due to CS being such an awesome subject and us being so awesome at teaching it. Does that mean we get to keep our pensions after having already suffered whatever the cataclysm of increased class size is? No, of course not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'm going to be fine (but I'm not sure you are)</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Though I'm striking, I am not seriously worried about my own pension. I have a large percentage built up on the prior rules, live in a dual-income family, and I have a high salary (and indeed got a significant pay rise last week: long story, happy to talk to you separately about that one if you want). But I worry a lot about younger colleagues who don't have these advantages or only some of them. The <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo8rpek3icpmqx9/modeller_nmd_180224.xlsx?dl=0">online pension calculator </a>is seriously scary for young staff, and they need my support. (Thanks to </span><a href="https://twitter.com/nm_davies" style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Neil Davies</a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> for doing that).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The entire point of the pension change (and there is no argument about this from either side) is to de-risk pensions for the universities and put the risk onto the staff getting pensions. But academic computer scientists are not notably risk-loving people. In general many of us are here in part because we like a safe environment which we know and which - while not giving us the rewards of outside jobs in our field - is a very rewarding one with a decent pension. Take away the second half of the deal and the equation for staying changes against academia. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Everybody in the School of Computer Science is incredibly smart and talented. Many of them (and yes that means <i>you</i> if you are reading this) have better reasons than me for leaving academia: they are better programmers so would find it easier to get a job; they are paid less than me so need to find a less high paying job to be attractive; they are younger than me, so have far more to lose in the pension changes; and are not all living in the same country they grew up in so have far less reason to stay in a place which Brexit has already made a less comfortable environment for them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So to all of them (and you) I say this: if these changes go through and you decide to leave, then I'll be sorry, I'll miss you, but I won't be able to say you made the wrong decision. </span></div>
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-10923448863685904542018-02-22T09:33:00.002+00:002018-02-22T09:41:16.087+00:00The £5 million pound grant I'm not writing today I want to tell you about the 5 million pound grant I'm not writing today.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/9174/USS-strike-poster/large/USS_strike_poster_Jan18.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="566" height="320" src="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/9174/USS-strike-poster/large/USS_strike_poster_Jan18.png" width="226" /></a>I'm not writing it because I am on strike against my employer (the University of St Andrews) and more generally many universities in the UK, because they seek to destroy part of the informal social contract between themselves and their staff. That contract is: undertake work for decades at the forefront of your field, and we'll look after you in retirement. They've now said that they don't want to look after me - and most especially my younger colleagues - in retirement. The result is that today I am not undertaking work at the forefront of my field. Work that could bring in £5 million or more into the University.<br />
<br />
So what is the grant I'm not writing today?<br />
<br />
You may have heard that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the hot new thing. It's so hot that at very short notice the government has decided to fund 10 to 20 centres at about £5 million each to fund 50 PhD students in AI each - yes that's funding for about 1000 PhD students. Short notice? The <a href="https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/ukriaicdts/">call</a> was announced two weeks ago and has a deadline in 5 weeks. Seven weeks in the world of putting together this kind of bid is a nanosecond in academic time: I heard last week about a bid where it took about a year of negotiations at principal-level to decide which university was going to lead a multi-site bid.<br />
<br />
I love AI. I've been studying it well more than half my life, and in fact half the life of the subject. I started studying AI in 1986, and it was founded <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_workshop">(by one count)</a> in 1956. I've published <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?authors=gent&pub=Artificial%20Intelligence&show=25&sortBy=relevance&origin=jrnl_home&zone=search&publicationTitles=271585&articleTypes=FLA%2CSCO&lastSelectedFacet=articleTypes">8 papers </a>in the top journal in the field, and another 5 in the <a href="http://www.jair.org/">second best.</a> My "h-index" is <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-ufUvmEAAAAJ&hl=en">43</a>, all papers about AI. I only mention these numbers to show that I am quite good at working at the forefront of my field (and yes, full disclosure that's the British "quite" which actually means "very"). So <i>exactly</i> the kind of person you would want to lead an application for a £5 million pound funding bid. With three working weeks taken out of seven weeks to prepare a bid, it would be no surprise if we could not write the bid on time and lose any money we might have got.<br />
<br />
So why am I telling you this? To correct any impression that the only people strikers are hurting are current students. <br />
<br />
No.<br />
<br />
I am potentially hurting myself. Because I might not be able to bring 50 PhD students into the field to share the passion I have lived for so many years.<br />
<br />
I am potentially hurting my colleagues throughout the University of St Andrews. Colleagues who I can help to get funding to have their own PhD students in AI. Colleagues whose future might be transformed by working with those students.<br />
<br />
I am potentially hurting those future students who won't get to study AI at this wonderful university with 600 years of history.<br />
<br />
I am potentially hurting this wonderful university's finances by endangering a million pounds a year of income, roughly half a percent of the university's budget.<br />
<br />
And actually I'm not hurting current students very much at all. I might be missing some lectures and tutorials, but when I asked my Head of School yesterday if he would prefer (after the strike, if a choice was necessary) to prioritise helping those students catch up or get this grant, he immediately said the current students. I admire this and it's obviously right.<br />
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I don't want to give any impression that I am trying to hold anyone hostage with this. I think the chances are we will be able to put in a bid, and also I have gone out of my way to make sure that I don't stop anybody else working on the bid. But on the other hand, I do think that my own and other universities are jeopardising the future wellbeing of their staff. This has to be stood up against, and that means striking. </div>
Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-16241774248872508782017-08-10T20:41:00.000+01:002017-08-10T20:53:48.311+01:00The Importance of Being Flawless: Lectureship Interview Talks Then and NowRecently my department - the School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews - has been interviewing candidates for lectureships. Each candidate had to give presentations to the School. It dawned on me during the talks how different things were when I gave my talk which helped me get my lectureship here. <br />
<br />
I've been telling everybody two stories about that talk.<br />
<br />
The first was that during the talk I said something like: "This is not just an academic question, people all over the world care about this." And then I thought for a moment and paused before saying "Well now I think about it, they are all academics, so actually it <i>is</i> an academic question." This wasn't a prepared joke, but apparently I got away with it.<br />
<br />
The second relates to the point about things being different now. I didn't have to do a sample teaching talk. Years later, when the School started requiring candidates to do that, I said to my boss (Ron Morrison), "I never would have got my job if I'd had to give that talk." Quick as a flash, Ron shot back: "Why do you think we brought them in, Ian?" A great line, especially assuming (as I hope) it was a joke.<br />
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I went and found my talk - which is still on my computer - and it turns out ... that yes, things were very different. </div>
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My talk was called "The Importance of Being Flawless". Here it is for your delectation.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/wZXKXgtPRSQA9F" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<br />
Boy, were things different then. This is basically just a research talk which might have been a research seminar. I'm pretty sure that was standard then: I mean it got me a job, right? And it was my second lectureship, not my first, and the previous one was similar.<br />
<br />
So no teaching talk, just a seminar about one small piece of work instead of giving a vision for how I was going to revolutionise the field, not waffle about how perfectly I would fit into the department, no list of grants I was going to apply for, no suggestions for new modules I could introduce, and no suggestions for existing modules that I was desperate to teach (preferably ones that nobody else wants to teach). <br />
<br />
In short, this isn't a talk that would get anybody a lectureship now.<br />
<br />
That doesn't <i>automatically</i> mean that things are tougher now, just very different. I mean, Computer Science was a smaller discipline then so there were less jobs to go around, although there were also fewer people chasing the jobs. Though in fact yes, I do think it's tougher now to get a lectureship in CS now than it was then.<br />
<br />
The amazing thing that hasn't changed - actually is far more true now than then, was the title of the talk. By coincidence, my talk had maybe the most appropriate possible title for a modern lecturer candidate: "The Importance of Being Flawless". <br />
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<br />Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-48019056104107704502016-05-23T07:51:00.001+01:002016-05-23T10:40:20.862+01:00Happy 10th Birthday to Deborah Underwood<a href="http://www.randomhousekids.com/media/images/books/cover_images/9780375833236.jpg.172x250_q85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.randomhousekids.com/media/images/books/cover_images/9780375833236.jpg.172x250_q85.jpg" /></a>I'm not very good at birthdays, but I want to say this.<br />
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<b>Happy 10th Birthday, Deborah! </b><br />
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I was browsing Deborah Underwood's bibliography the other day and noticed that <i>Pirate Mom</i> came out on May 23, 2006. Which is ten years ago. Ten years ago today!<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.stepintoreading.com/book/pirate-mom">Pirate Mom</a> </i>is the story of a pirate-loving kid, Marco, whose mom is hypnotised into believing she is a pirate, but the hypnotist is rushed to hospital before he can deprogram her. Obviously life becomes tough for Marco.<br />
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Why am I so interested in Deborah's books? Because I'm her brother-in-law. You read that right. I'm the brother-in-law of the extraordinary <a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/index.html">Deborah Underwood</a>, writer of many children's fiction books, for example <i>The Quiet Book, Here Comes The Easter Cat, Bad Bye, Good Bye, Interstellar Cinderella, </i>and (just out the other day) <i>Good Night, Baddies. </i>I didn't know when I married Deborah's sister what an extraordinary writer my sister-in-law was. That's mainly because neither did she. And not because she is modest (though she is) but because she didn't know she was a children's writer.<br />
<br />
To celebrate Deborah's 10 years of being an extraordinary children's fiction writer, I want to do two things. I want to say a few words about her life as a children's book writer. Then I want to pick out her best children's book and what makes it and her so awesome.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Part 1: A Twenty Year Journey</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
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<div>
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/MouseholeCat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/MouseholeCat.jpg" width="183" /></a>I know what you are thinking: umm, you said it was 10 years, pal, that 20 years in the subheading is a typo!</div>
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Ha. Ha. Ha. The sheer number of rungs on the ladder to becoming a successful children's author is simply astonishing. </div>
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While it's 10 years since <i>Pirate Mom,</i> it's been a 20 year journey. The germ of becoming a children's fiction writer came to her when she read <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mousehole_Cat">The Mousehole Cat</a> </i>(in the place of Mousehole itself in Cornwall: it's pronounced "mouzzal") and found herself crying over it. From that germ to being a published children's fiction book writer took about 10 years.</div>
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<a href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTqsoARLpeHJx6VnpRLH6I6Wmj_5OyeV2UgOCVe74Hek_Rt0b3T" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTqsoARLpeHJx6VnpRLH6I6Wmj_5OyeV2UgOCVe74Hek_Rt0b3T" height="200" width="158" /></a>I keep adding the word "fiction" because she published children's nonfiction first. She's published 28 nonfiction books for children. (Yes you read that right again, it's twenty-eight.) The very first was <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/Deborah-Underwood-Nonfiction-Books.html">Northern Lights</a></i>, published in 2004. I saw the Northern Lights for real a few months ago for the first time in my life, and I couldn't resist telling the people standing next to me that my sister-in-law had written a book about it! If I have counted right, she's published 19 fiction books for children. That's an impressive total. As a lover of counting, I can't help noticing that - with some more books in the pipeline, Deborah should pass fifty published children's books sometime in 2017. That's an awful lot of brilliant text for children to come out of reading <i>The Mousehole Cat.</i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>My dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realised that girls grow quicker than books... — C.S. Lewis, </i>The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe</blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page1/page5/files/stacks_image_38_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page1/page5/files/stacks_image_38_1.png" height="199" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page1/page8/files/stacks_image_64_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page1/page8/files/stacks_image_64_1.png" height="199" width="200" /></a><br />
That C.S. Lewis quote means a lot to our family, because exactly this happened with Deborah playing C.S. Lewis and my daughter playing Lucy. Remembering that the germ for children's writing happened in August 1996, and by 2002 a draft of <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page1/page5/page5.html">Granny Gomez & Jigsaw</a> </i>was being read to my three year old and winning an honorable mention in a Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition. I mean 6 years is a long time, but hey, you have to learn your craft. Well, yep, but the book was actually published <i>eight years later </i>in 2010<i>. </i>C.S. Lewis had it right.<br />
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Another one which took almost as long was <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/Deborah-Underwood-A-Balloon-For-Isabel.html">A Balloon For Isabel</a>. </i>Deborah started that one in 2004 and it <i>also </i>came out in 2010. Along the way the central character changed her name. She started out as Emily but then an unrelated book came out called <i>Emily's Balloon. </i>Emily had to go and she was replaced by Isabel. The name change was suggested by my other daughter, who was zero when the book was first written and about seven when it was published.<br />
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Both these books are charming and highly recommended, by the way. <i>Granny </i>is the story of a lonely granny, who adopts a pig and sorts out their living arrangements. <i>Isabel </i>is about a porcupine who is desperate to graduate with a balloon instead of a boring old bookmark, and comes up with a solution to the age old porcupine-balloon-popping dilemma. They're both lovely but probably not Deborah's best book. So what is her best book? Let me move on to part 2, where I will tell you.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Part 2: Deborah's Best Children's Book</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
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Ok. I was lying. I can't possibly pick out her best children's book. There are so many extraordinary ones. Can we call it a tie? I don't know. But each of the following demonstrates Deborah's extraordinariness in a different way. </div>
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<b>The Quiet Book</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page1/page7/files/stacks_image_51_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page1/page7/files/stacks_image_51_1.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
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<i>The Quiet Book </i>is about quiet. But based on a deep insight, that there is not just one type of quiet but many. The quiet when you are waiting for a concert to begin is not the same as the quiet when you are the last one to picked up from school, or when you are with your best friend and you don't need to talk. </div>
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What this book showed, as do many of her others, that Deborah knows the rules but knows how to break them. Being "too quiet" was and is a standard phrase used to reject children's books. Indeed, the rule-breaking of <i>The Quiet Book </i>meant that it was rejected by several editors before Deborah managed to sell it on her own, but the good news is that it found the right home in the end. The editor who did pick it up paired Deborah's quiet text with amazing pictures. </div>
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<u><br /></u></div>
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Part of the success of <i>The Quiet Book </i>are the wonderful illustrations by <a href="http://www.renataliwska.com/">Renata Liwska</a>. If you're not in the children's book business, you might not realise that the writing and illustration of books are usually completely separate (unless the author and illustrator are the same person.) The writer just submits text, with no illustrations and as few hints as possible about the illustrations. Typically the writer doesn't even choose the illustrator, that would be the editor at the publisher. In this case, for example, everyone fell in love with Renata's adorable animal illustrations, which Deborah had never imagined. The book ended up on the <i>New York Times </i>bestseller list.</div>
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<a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page14/files/stacks_image_186.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page14/files/stacks_image_186.png" height="200" width="146" /></a><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page0/files/stacks_image_981.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page0/files/stacks_image_981.png" height="200" width="166" /></a>Two sequels followed, <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page13/page13.html">The Loud Book</a> </i>and <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page14/page14.html">The Christmas Quiet Book</a>. </i>Both excellent and successful of course. Though don't get carried away with what success means in children's publishing. As one of her friends said, he thought that becoming a <i>NYT </i>bestselling author meant you had an ATM printing money in your apartment. Not so. Deborah's success - a very real and tangible reward for 20 years of hard work, tenacity, and brilliance - has been so high that she has not had to move out of her single bedroom apartment in San Francisco. (Though it's only supported her in this dazzling lifestyle because the apartment is rent controlled). If you've ever read about J K Rowling's wealth, I mean it's wonderful, but not common. </div>
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So without doubt <i>The Quiet Book </i>must be Deborah's best book. Unless it's ... </div>
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<b>Here Comes The Easter Cat </b><br />
<a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page17/files/stacks_image_382.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page17/files/stacks_image_382.jpg" height="175" width="200" /></a><br />
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In <a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page17/page17.html"><i>Here Comes the Easter Cat</i></a>, the author is speaking to a Cat around Easter time who is upset at the attention the Easter Bunny is getting, and decides to take over. Cat has an attitude which the author has to try to work around, but in the end it works out.<br />
<br />
You know I said that writers don't submit illustrations? And that Deborah knows when to break the rules? Yep, Deborah drew draft illustrations for the Easter Cat. It just happened that she was talking to Cat and Cat started answering back by holding up signs. They were such an integral part of the story that she had to include them - instead of just including extra text like "cat holds up sign with picture of ..." The illustrator <a href="http://www.claudiarueda.com/">Claudia Rueda</a> used those as a starting point, though of course making the illustrations her own.<br />
<br />
Also, by the way, the book was far longer than picture books are expected to be. Another rule she knew how to break. And it worked because it works and kids love the book. Like <i>Quiet, Cat </i>has led to a series, with <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page20/page20.html">Santa Cat</a>, <a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page18/page18.html">Tooth Fairy Cat</a>, </i>and <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page23/page23.html">Valentine's Cat</a>, </i>with more to come. The interaction in all of these between the Cat and the author/narrator is beautiful.<br />
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So without doubt <i>Easter Cat</i> must be Deborah's best book. Unless it's ...<br />
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<br /></div>
<b>Interstellar Cinderella</b><br />
<a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page21/files/stacks_image_382.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page21/files/stacks_image_382.jpg" height="200" width="181" /></a><b><br /></b><br />
Not too surprisingly,<i> <a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page21/page21.html">Interstellar Cinderella</a></i> is a sci-fi version of Cinderella. An empowering one for young girls since the hero is a space mechanic. (Totally unrelated of course to her sister and my wife who is a techy hero, though not in space.)<br />
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But as per usual, Deborah knows how to break the rules. <br />
<b><br /></b>
First of all, the ending is not what you might expect (but I hope that is not too much of a spoiler.)<br />
<br />
And second, <i>Interstellar Cinderella </i>is in rhyme. What? You think that isn't breaking the rules? You might be thinking "<i>Dr Seuss wrote in rhyme, So don't kids books all the time?" </i>Well no. Actually children's books often don't rhyme and if they do it makes them harder to sell. And it's not just me saying this, it's widely known in the industry, as for example in this article: <a href="https://taralazar.com/2012/03/13/why-do-editors-say-not-to-write-in-rhyme/">"Why do editors say not to write in rhyme?"</a> By the way, one reason not to rhyme is the difficulty it causes translations. But <i>Cinderella</i> has already been translated into Korean. (I don't know if that version rhymes.)<br />
<br />
But somehow, and I doubt even Deborah knows why, <i>it works </i>for <i>Cinderella. </i><br />
<br />
So without doubt<i> Interstellar Cinderella</i> must be Deborah's best book. Unless it's ...<br />
<br />
<b>Bad Bye, Good Bye</b><br />
<b><br /></b><i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page19/page19.html">Bad Bye, Good Bye</a></i> is about the pain of leaving when your family pack you in the car to move across the country. And the fact that maybe things will be ok in the end.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Td3TnrC%2BL._SY373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Td3TnrC%2BL._SY373_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><br />
The book has 80 words in it (I don't mean 80 different words, I mean 80 words.) Of those 79 are single syllable words and the eightieth is the barely polysyllabic "stuffed". The 80 words come in 10 sets of 8 words, each set a rhyming couplet of two pairs of 4 words. And the 4 words themselves are in two pairs of two words each. There are no verbs. Just to put it in context, this paragraph itself is longer than 80 words.<br />
<br />
Ok this is starting to sound confusing, but honestly it isn't. The 80 words in that complicated structure tell a beautifully simple story with a beginning, middle, and a happy ending.<br />
<br />
The illustrations by <a href="http://www.jonathanbean.com/booksset.html">Jonathan Bean</a> are also masterful, gradually lightening as the story progresses. The story starts out in the dark and ends in the light. Even the cover mirrors the progression. How this didn't win the Caldecott medal for children's book illustration is beyond me (I'm sure the winner was really good that year, but it can't have been better.)<br />
<h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">So without doubt <i>Bad Bye, Good Bye </i>must be Deborah's best book. Unless it's ... </span></h4>
<div>
<a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page24/files/stacks_image_382.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page24/files/stacks_image_382.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Good Night, Baddies</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The first 10 years of Deborah's publishing as fiction author have neatly finished with the release last week of <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page24/page24.html">Good Night, Baddies</a>. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
What do fairy tale villains do at night? I mean they have a hard day persecuting Princesses and people called Jack, and what are they going to do to rest? Why, they will meet up and share stories of the day while getting ready for bed in their shared pad. Then get a good night's rest, and then get on with it the next day.<br />
<br />
<br />
By the way, <i>Baddies </i>also rhymes, but you're fed up of me talking about Deborah breaking the rules by now. In fact the text makes a lovely song, and you can hear Deborah's beautiful singing voice in the trailer she made (yes apparently "Book trailers" are a thing now.") And you can even have her sing the <a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page24/page24.html">whole book to you as a lullaby</a> if you want!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ulWq0YRpA1Q" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
But I do want to add one reason I have a particular soft spot for <i>Baddies</i>. Deborah said that one of the inspirations for it was hearing me talk to my daughters about "baddies", since we live in Britain and that's a less common phrase in the US.<br />
<br />
So without doubt <i>Good Night, Baddies</i> must be Deborah's best book. Unless it's ...<br />
<br />
<b>Ok I have no idea which is Deborah's best book. </b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/Deborah-Underwood-Chapter-Books_files/stacks_image_25.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/Deborah-Underwood-Chapter-Books_files/stacks_image_25.png" height="200" width="134" /></a><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page15/files/stacks_image_17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page15/files/stacks_image_17.jpg" height="200" width="154" /></a>And I haven't even mentioned some of Deborah's classics. Like <i><a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/page15/page15.html">Part-time Princess</a>, </i>about a little girl who has adventures at night such as putting out fires caused by a dragon who she then invites to tea.<br />
<br />
Or an entire six book series, the <a href="http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/Deborah-Underwood-Chapter-Books.html"><i>Sugar Plum Ballerinas</i></a> about a ballet class in Harlem, co-authored with Whoopi Goldberg (yes, that Whoopi Goldberg.) When they auditioned for a co-author and Deborah was picked, she was shocked that they had signed her for the entire six book series. I told her it was natural because either the first book would flop in which case there would be no series, or it would be a success and why would they want anyone else for the later books? Of course it was a success.<br />
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<b>The Secret Part 3: Secret Deborah Underwood Books.</b></div>
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There are Deborah Underwood books that I have read almost nobody else has. How lucky does this make me? Very. There must be others but the ones that spring to mind are <i>Sarah Visits The Teletubbies, The Purple Hat, Ojo's Birthday Treasure Hunt, Penguin Aloha, Baby Again, </i>and perhaps the most special of all, <i>Pizza Rat. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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If I was to tell you more about these books, it would spoil the surprise when the scholarly edition of Deborah's previously unpublished works come out. (I haven't heard this has been planned, yet, but it must surely be in the works.)</div>
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Our copies of these books are for sale by the way, if you make me a good enough offer. Sadly, you can't afford a good enough offer! </div>
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<b>A somewhat-insane career change</b></div>
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I can imagine you are thinking, how can I emulate Deborah Underwood's success (what with the rent controlled apartment and everything)? </div>
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<br /></div>
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From outside I can comment with no confidence at all that here are three key tips. </div>
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<ol>
<li>It's a ridiculously long road. The number of steps is incredible, so you need stickability and dedication, and the desire to do it even though it's almost certainly an objectively bad idea.</li>
<li>Don't try to copy Deborah's or anybody else's style, you need to have your own.</li>
<li>You need all the support you can get. </li>
</ol>
On the last point, here is something Deborah wrote to family and friends 10 years ago today, when <i>Pirate Mom </i>came out.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support during this five-year (!) process. I feel incredibly fortunate that all the people in my life have championed this somewhat-insane career change. Without your encouragement, I certainly would have thrown in the towel long ago. So thank you!"</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">
</span></blockquote>
</div>
It's been a pleasure to be a spectator and borderline participant on the journey. Thanks Deborah.<br />
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-55940902753727718472016-05-04T18:47:00.000+01:002016-05-04T18:48:10.926+01:00When we used to be told half the population was asexualNowadays one comes across articles in mainstream media about asexuality, such as this one at the BBC: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36153289">What's it like to date someone who's asexual?</a><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.asexualityarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AceFlag.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.asexualityarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/AceFlag.png" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The asexuality flag. <br />
I didn't know there was one<br />
until a few weeks ago. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The general tone of this article and others like it is to express bemusement at the idea of asexuality. I.e. how could <i>anyone </i>not have sexual feelings? <br />
<br />
I've got used to these kind of articles: they are quite common.<br />
<br />
Then it struck me. When I was young (umm about 40 years ago), it was common knowledge that just under <i>half the population was asexual. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I mean women. Women were asexual. Women never wanted sex and never had sexual arousal.<br />
<br />
Except for a small percentage who were nymphomaniacs. Women were either asexual or nymphomaniacs. <br />
<br />
So now we are told that it is seriously weird that somebody could not have sexual feelings. When I was young it was seriously weird to think that a woman <i>could </i>have sexual feelings.<br />
<br />
This is pure anecdata. I don't have evidence to back it up, but as somebody who grow up in the 1970s I think this is what pop culture was back then. I'm not even saying that it was what adults believed then, but it is what pop culture pretended to believe.<br />
<br />
There isn't an enormous point to this. <br />
<br />
Except one.<br />
<br />
Remember that our view of human sexuality is so strongly driven by what popular culture says it is, that a reasonable assumption is the following.<br />
<br />
Just assume you know nothing about somebody else's sexuality unless you ask them and they are happy to tell you.<br />
<br />Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-21712572091367532532016-02-20T13:37:00.002+00:002017-03-14T13:23:57.170+00:00The Society For Not Letting Politicians Who Call Referendums Decide Their Rules<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>News Release: 13:40 GMT, 20 Feb 2016, Cupar, Scotland</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I have two important announcements to make.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">First, I am pleased to announce the formation of TSFNLPWCRDTR.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">As is obvious from the acronym, this is </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>The Society For Not Letting Politicians Who Call Referendums Decide Their Rules</b>.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The reason for this is that in the l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">ast bloody referendum (for independence in Scotland) we had a interminably long campaign because the politicians who called it decided it was their best chance of winning, and they rigged the demographics of the referendum to disenfranchise people with a deep interest in the result.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In the upcoming bloody referendum (for exit from the EU) we have a very short campaign because the politicians who called it decided it was their best chance of winning, and they rigged the demographics of the referendum to disenfranchise people with a deep interest in the result.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />Last time many people who would have been citizens on day one of a new Scotland were not able to vote.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />This time most non-British EU citizens settled in the UK are not allowed to vote in a referendum which critically affects their future.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />Either of these positions are tenable, but its totally ridiculous that if these critical things about how the referendum is run are decided by the people trying to get a particular result. You don't have to be a huge fan of the US Constitution to appreciate that at least how the constitution is changed doesn't depend on whether or not the President wants it changed.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This leads to my second announcement. As it's first act, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">TSFNLPWCRDTR has decided that</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> in future, politicians can decide to call referendums, but </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">TSFNLPWCRDTR </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">will decide when they are held, and what the electorate is, and other important stuff at its discretion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">We are strong believers in democracy, and have therefore decided that </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">this issue will be decided by referendum.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />The referendum will be on Thursday 25 Feb 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />The electorate will consist only of me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />I'm predicting it will pass.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Please feel free to show your support at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TSFNLPWCRDTR?f=tweets&src=hash">#TSFNLPWCRDTR</a></i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>p.s. if you noticed the misplaced apostrophes in "its totally ridiculous" and "it's first act" then you are the kind of picky person who would be a perfect member of our society. Please join. </i></span></div>
Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-38189663926058526672015-11-03T13:59:00.001+00:002015-11-03T13:59:05.862+00:00Thanks Lisa, and SorryIn my <a href="http://blog.ian.gent/2015/09/dear-bt-when-youve-mis-sold-me-your.html">previous post ranting about BT</a>, I said what I'd like the nice people from BT to say to me.<br />
<br />
Eventually I got a very nice woman from BT, Lisa, who was able to handle my case properly. She couldn't fix the underlying issue or restore my overall faith in BT, but she was able to say more or less all the things I wanted BT to say, and provide good customer service. Indeed at one point Lisa said to me that I shouldn't have had to go through such an "ordeal", and that was her word, not mine.<br />
<br />
So I want to say Thanks Lisa.<br />
<br />Also Sorry, because I promised to give her positive feedback through their commenting system, but it took me a month to get round to it and the link had expired. So I didn't get the chance to tell BT that Lisa had handled the case very well.<br />
<br />
So Thanks Lisa, and Sorry.<br />
<br />
Actually there's another reason for saying Sorry, I'm worried that I might be making BT Care's job harder because I want to say this to anyone having problems with BT. Get in touch with <a href="https://twitter.com/BTCare">BTCare</a> because you have to wait a few days, but then you get somebody who actually handles the case instead of doing whatever it is everybody else in BT "Customer Service" does.<br />
<br />
To BT as a whole, I would say this: make all of your customer service like BT Care. People who provide customer service and handle the cases. Whatever it is you are doing at the minute .... does. not. work.<br />
<br />
Incidentally, for those following my adventures, it looks like we really can get internet TV at our address now, but I can't face doing that through BT, and the only other company who does it is ... TalkTalk. So I don't think so.<br />
<br />
<br />Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-28937542515635586332015-09-19T13:14:00.004+01:002015-11-03T14:00:41.685+00:00What I want the nice man from BT to tell me after they mis-sold me TV three times<b>19 September 2015</b><br />
<br />
The first time BT mis-sold me TV was when they brought fibre-to-the-cabinet to my address.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Excited!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We signed up immediately for the best possible BT broadband service, and added whichever TV package happened to be appropriate. They sent out a tv box and we waited for the broadband to work. </div>
<div>
<br />
The broadband worked. The tv didn't. I mean the freeview bit worked but none of the channels that come through the internet did. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Obviously lots of calls to helplines.</div>
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<br /></div>
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On one of those a very nice and helpful lady upsold me onto a different package, explaining that would fix the problem. I mean, odd but ok, I would get nice tv.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I didn't. </div>
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So that was the second time I was mis-sold TV by BT. </div>
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Eventually after a lot of calls, it turned out that no, they were unable to supply internet TV at all at our address. It turns out that there is a thing called "fibre multicast" which our cabinet did not support. (As an aside, yes this means that if you have the better broadband at our address you can't get BT TV, while if you have ADSL broadband you can.) </div>
<div>
<div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
I had paid a £35 installation fee which was pointless, but I never complained about that because they had given me what has been serving as a fairly nice freeview box, so fair enough. </div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
So yeah, my first week or so as a BT broadband customer involved being mis-sold tv twice. </div>
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<br /></div>
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They told me they would call back in a couple of months when it was available. </div>
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Well they never called back, but it turns out that is the only good thing they ever did, because for the next year and more I occasionally checked their website and (to be fair) they never offered to sell me a tv package as it was not available at my address. I also checked a <a href="https://www.dslchecker.bt.com/pls/adsl/ADSLChecker.TelephoneNumberOutput">publicly available broadband checker</a>, and the date for fibre multicast kept being pushed back. It seemed like it was due to come every two months, until about a week before the end of the month when it would go back a couple of months. </div>
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<br />
I happened to check it on July 31, 2015, and amazingly, it was available!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
So I logged onto the website and sure enough they were prepared to sell me BT TV. This meant I could watch the Ashes without having to use <a href="http://blog.ian.gent/2013/06/sky-tv-nuisance-calls.html">Sky TV</a>. For some reason they were only prepared to sell me the ultra-hd package, which I didn't need, and this came with a £44 engineer charge, which was unnecessary because I had already laid the ethernet cable to my tv. But ok, and the ultra-hd box comes with a nice large hard drive.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So the great day came at the start of August and the engineer came round. He was delighted not to have to do anything except plug in the box. First of all he installed the wrong box, a non ultra-hd one, and then he installed the correct one. The TV didn't work, but he said that was because he installed the wrong box first, and it would work soon. </div>
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<br /></div>
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It didn't. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So I booked a second engineer visit for the Monday. He walked in the door and within about a minute said: nope, you are not getting tv and you are not going to get it until at least September 30. The fibre multicast at my cabinet is not getting installed until at least then. Or indeed for any other cabinet in the postcodes KY14, KY15 or KY16.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I rang up BT to complain while he was here and put the engineer on to talk to them. They accepted finally that indeed I had been sold tv that wouldn't work. Since it was going to start working on September 30 (maybe) I agreed to hang on until then on the basis I wouldn't pay for tv services until then. I got a note of the complaint reference number. I unplugged the new box and put it away so that it would be clean if I ever needed to return it - if the tv service never started for example.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And yes, that was the third time I was mis-sold BT TV. For some reason, they had falsely believed that they would be able to supply me with broadband TV, but they were not able to. </div>
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For some weird reason I thought that I wouldn't get charged until the end of September - because they had told me that. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Until I checked the bill today and discovered I'd been charged the £44 and lots of money for the TV services that I'd never received. And that I never had any possibility of receiving, because our cabinet can't supply it, and there has never been a single day since it was installed that it was able to supply this address with TV over fibre-to-the-cabinet. Oh, and unsurprisingly the date has moved again from September 30 to October 30. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So I rang up to complain again. Well actually first I tried the online chat thing, but it turns out that he wasn't able to help with billing so they got billing to ring me up. Which meant of course starting with the explanation again. </div>
<div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
Both the chat guy and the woman on the phone told me that the fault had been resolved. I.e. they thought I was getting TV. Even though this - as I might have made clear - is impossible. So after raising a complaint it had been logged as resolved, and they started charging me for a service which (have I mentioned this?) they are not able to supply.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The woman I talked to took a very long time to understand that we can't get tv. She kept telling me she would put me onto another package. Eventually she went off to talk to some techie people, and when she came back she accepted that we couldn't get BT TV at this address. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
At that point she finally agreed that it would be reasonable to cancel my tv, I could return the box, and she would refund all the tv charges after installation. But I would still have to pay £44 for the installation where the guy came and installed the wrong box, then the right box, then told me it would work soon when it never did. When I said that was unacceptable, she said I had to pay it because I had had 14 days to cancel it after ordering on the net. I suppose I could have cancelled it, but I had been told I was going to start getting the service on September 30, and (I'm good with a calendar) the end of September is more than 14 days after the start of August. (If they had not promised this then obviously I would have cancelled it way back then.) She said that she couldn't authorise the refund of the £44, but could flag it up to the manager, which means being called back on Monday because he doesn't work weekends. So now I'm waiting to be called back. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So for clarity this is my complaint towards BT TV.</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>I've been mis-sold BT TV three times. Three times I have agreed to take on the service in exchange for money, and three times BT has failed to supply it. </li>
<li>BT has claimed the fault as resolved even though it wasn't - as another part of BT was able to confirm.</li>
<li>I've been explicitly told that I would not pay TV fees until the end of September, then been charged those fees. </li>
<li>BT has claimed I should pay an installation fee for a service that (I may have mentioned this) had zero chance of ever working. </li>
<li>In the process of mis-selling me TV three times and failing to resolve the issue, I've spent much time on engineer visits which did me no good, and lots of time on the phone and chat line, trying to resolve the issue.</li>
</ol>
<div>
But actually what really galls me is not so much the catalogue of incompetence and mistakes, but the fact that there is no history there. Somehow it seems to me that when a company sells you a product three separate times that they can't supply, the company should kind of have it recorded that they are treating this customer very badly, and if something goes wrong please be very nice to the customer. Instead of which, this morning I had a BT TV rep trying to tell me I needed a different TV package, which would have been the fourth time I'd been mis-sold if I hadn't firmly told her I can't get TV - and when she checked she confirmed this. </div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And that's why I've written this blog post. And also so the manager can read it on Monday instead of me explaining everything yet again. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So, Dear Manager, Hi! </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What would I like you to say to me? Something like this:</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Obviously BT will refund the £44 that we should never have charged because our systems incorrectly thought we could supply a service that we couldn't.</li>
<li>BT will take back the commitment we make new TV customers make to at least another year calls+broadband because that was undertaken as a result of mis-selling.</li>
<li>As a no-fault ex-gratia gesture of apology we will do this nice thing for you, because when we say we are sorry for mis-selling and then charging you after promising not to, we actually mean it.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div>
<b>Update: 21 Sep 2015</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<i>Following was originally a comment by me but now I've started updating the post so it makes more sense to go here.</i><br />
<br />
Ok for those of you following this adventure, the manager rang up in the advertised slot. I mentioned this blog post but I got the impression he didn't read it. He did quickly agree to refund the engineer visit. He said he couldn't cancel the termination condition of the contract but said he would add a note on the account that if we cancel early we shouldn't be charged a termination fee.<br />
<br />
So that - more or less - deals with the key points 1 & 2.<br />
<br />
I did emphasise that while it was good that the immediate issues were dealt with, I'm still extremely unhappy with the way I have been treated with lots of inconvenience and mis-selling. He promised me a letter of apology, and I guess I will have to wait to see what it says before I can judge whether point 3 is satisfied or not.<br />
<br />
I can certainly imagine accepting the apology - it's hard to imagine what BT can do to make me want to stay with them instead of waiting the minimum possible time before looking for a broadband supplier with customer service.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div>
<b>Update: 22 Sep 2015</b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
So yesterday I talked to the manager, and you can see my reaction immediately afterwards above.<br />
<br />
A few minutes later I got two emails about refunds. One was for £44 for the engineer visit. The other one was for £8.48. Which was a weird amount as we'd paid just over £52 in TV fees. I thought maybe the rest was coming.<br />
<br />
Well 24 hours later nothing had happened. So I rang up again. A perfectly polite person I talked to said that the other refund (of about £44) was not there yet. When I asked if it had been issued he couldn't tell me. Obviously this is not his fault, but BT was <i>literally unable to tell me </i>whether or not the refund promised to me yesterday had been acted on. He seemed to think I was being unreasonable in wanting him to be able to confirm or deny that the refund promised yesterday was in chain or not (obviously I can see it might take a while to process, I just wanted to know if it was in process.)<br />
<br />
This agent verbally guaranteed that the full amount would be refunded on my next bill. He also said he would contact the manager who promised the refund to find out if the rest had been issued, and then email me the answer.<br />
<br />
But it does seem to me that if a refund has been promised it should show up in their system (even if not actually credited to my bill yet). If that is not the case it's a horrific systems failure.<br />
<br />
Let's remember the summary: I have been mis-sold tv three times. The last time I was promised I would not be charged for a few months. I was charged. Then (yesterday) I was promised a refund. Today BT cannot even tell me whether or not that promise has been fulfilled.<br />
<br />
The agent also asked what he thought BT could do to make me happy. All I could say was to let me get out of their clutches as soon as possible. Which (I didn't say this) means waiving any future commitment (we did commit to a year in about May), and also it would be nice to get an actual refund instead of a credit to our account.<br />
<br />
Actually I can think of something BT could do. Remember that I am only a BT broadband customer because I expected to get TV. My daughters would still like BT TV. Since you can't deliver it via FTTC, why not lay another phone line to my house and give us BT TV via ADSL, obviously at no cost to me except ongoing TV charges?<br />
<br />
Please please please, somebody from BT read this either tell me I've been badly let down, or if not let us conclude that the way I've been treated is par for BT customer service. Comments are open.<br />
<br />
<b>Update 23 September</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
It's 24 hours on and no information about my refund. It might exist, it might not. I never got an email from the representative I talked to yesterday - the one who thought it was unreasonable for me to try to find out if a refund had been actioned or not.<br />
<br />
I did get one email from BT about the TV service though. It offered me an upgrade for my existing service for three months for a cheap price. Brilliant! I mean I know it's a generic email, but it is quite amusing. Amusing, though still incompetent, since it was targeted at me as a customer, so they should have known I can't get it.<br />
<br />
I did decide to dig out the three confirmations of the three times I've been mis-sold BT TV... so for your enjoyment here they are (click for larger versions).<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2sFmM-DUNJTxLvCqnQdNz2H3oP1p-onz_rkgoXQ3XF7gPYBC6DZF_6T4t2pG3glBaBUz_pAR8ZTrq-g2oBNjfSFkRptcxWDm1gN4EeGSPv9B5bQYb57skviHm1vYLS7l7bzeHMv5tHyc-/s1600/BTOrder1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2sFmM-DUNJTxLvCqnQdNz2H3oP1p-onz_rkgoXQ3XF7gPYBC6DZF_6T4t2pG3glBaBUz_pAR8ZTrq-g2oBNjfSFkRptcxWDm1gN4EeGSPv9B5bQYb57skviHm1vYLS7l7bzeHMv5tHyc-/s200/BTOrder1.png" width="100" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirVYgB4qdjbSHD3t6mB980naLA0w1eZ1WJzCkYndAaf6X_-XeuwuuMm859MMt03WgbXJ_OlcN4uJXn_HXCI3m_DIRj3MwZMMgSJyInJyq-99TfZ1mUGgQcfSJ3eHZULR2tyx11YDdAeh7Z/s1600/BTOrder2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirVYgB4qdjbSHD3t6mB980naLA0w1eZ1WJzCkYndAaf6X_-XeuwuuMm859MMt03WgbXJ_OlcN4uJXn_HXCI3m_DIRj3MwZMMgSJyInJyq-99TfZ1mUGgQcfSJ3eHZULR2tyx11YDdAeh7Z/s200/BTOrder2.png" width="83" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcvETrS4Q5kuxePDYTJSirCulJlzNWdpUD5yjtjhA-RdZRrso1wPOfC6jnZfIs_47aNAT00tLgDXm2vHIK6aJU81u2U1IBZAXcnSUHy384QKcDXKfcEdefpwUsiNSEMQAJNyKjh7HgfPc5/s1600/BTOrder3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcvETrS4Q5kuxePDYTJSirCulJlzNWdpUD5yjtjhA-RdZRrso1wPOfC6jnZfIs_47aNAT00tLgDXm2vHIK6aJU81u2U1IBZAXcnSUHy384QKcDXKfcEdefpwUsiNSEMQAJNyKjh7HgfPc5/s200/BTOrder3.png" width="146" /></a><br />
<br />
The first two are from June 2014, the third from July 2015.<br />
<br />
Although my current upset dates from the last occasion, in many ways I find the first one the most interesting. I was never charged the £7.50 per month, I assume because somewhere in BT's system they figured out I couldn't get TV. But I was never notified of this and given the chance to change. And indeed before any human at BT told me I couldn't get TV, the middle order was enacted.<br />
<br />
So yeah, I've finally realised I became a BT broadband customer after a bait-and-switch. I took it on the basis we could get TV, and not only has it never been available but BT never told me about the switch. Well actually, that's not true, since eventually in June 2014 a technical support person told me I couldn't get TV, and they admitted the second order (not the first) was mis-selling. But BT took an order (the first one) and never informed me they couldn't fulfil the order until after everything was installed, and I was committed by inertia to their broadband product.<br />
<br />
So it's not just BT TV I was mis-sold three times, I was mis-sold BT Broadband as well.<br />
<br />
<b>Update 23 September 2015 (2)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Just had a call from a member of the @BTCare team. I tweeted this blog post and eventually they asked me to contact them and eventually they got back to me.<br />
<br />
It was a pleasure to talk to somebody from BT who had actually read this blog post. Of course she said that obviously the refund should have been actioned immediately on Saturday without me having to go through managers and figure it out.<br />
<br />
We had quite a long discussion about exactly what the refund should be. It turns out, for example that a line of -£30 for rental adjustment on my last bill was actually an earlier attempt to make good the lack of supply of TV - but then I was never told in person or email about this. I'd seen the line in the bill but had no idea what it was. So in fact I had been partially refunded but not yet completely. The BTCare person is going to email me exactly what they think they have charged and refunded so we can compare notes to make sure we agree what the refund situation is.<br />
<br />
Actually the exact details of the refund are not critical to me - I'm sure we can resolve that between us. What is probably most important to me is that she said she has taken ownership of this and I will have her contact details. This is what is most frustrating about dealing with BT customer services. It's not that you don't always get the answer you want (inevitable), or even that quite often the answers are completely wrong (unfortunate but we are all human). What is most frustrating is the fact that you are always starting from a blank slate, and can never talk to somebody who you have previously talked to. <br />
<br />
I did take the chance to emphasise that actually the refund issue should never have even come up, and while I'm sure it can be resolved, I'd also like at least some gesture about the fact that I'm a broadband customer on the basis of mis-selling, even though I don't expect them to be able to supply TV.<br />
<br />
So I'm feeling a lot happier, and mainly because, as I just said, I feel like I have a contact who knows the situation and what things I am and am not worried about, rather than just hitting whichever sequence of buttons gets me off the phone.<br />
<br />
<b>Update 3 November 2015</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Wrote a new blog post with a brief update and to say <a href="http://blog.ian.gent/2015/11/thanks-lisa-and-sorry.html">Thanks to Lisa from BT Care, and Sorry</a>.</div>
Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-40533896139645646032015-06-26T12:29:00.001+01:002015-06-26T12:31:29.748+01:00We need to make it all about her, not all about him<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want to discuss what I think is the fundamental problem about the Tim Hunt sexist remarks situation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I should mention straight away that I'm now going to stop using his name, for a reason I'll come to. But also, I should perhaps mention that you may or may not know who he is, so I want to give some kind of summary of what he said, what happened to him, and what the reactions to his comments and his situation has been. This is more or less off the cuff, so may be inaccurate and I might get some details wrong. He went to an event on raising women's profile in science in Korea (and kudos to him for getting off his backside to do that.) He made some ill-judged remarks about how the problem with women in labs is that they fall in love with men and men fall in love with them. The next day he appeared on the Today programme and gave a classic non-apology apology, where he didn't actually say he was wrong, merely that he shouldn't have said it in public. That's when his situation went viral and caused a twitter storm. He resigned from an honorary position at UCL (an unpaid position with no duties) and from a couple of committees he sat on to award funding (these may have been paid or unpaid, I don't know) although there were several other positions he didn't resign from. A few days later a backlash against the consequences of his actions began. He gave a lengthy interview to the Guardian putting his point of view. He said that he had been "hung out to dry" and that he was "finished". His wife said that he had been pressured into resigning from UCL. Many of his friends including some senior women - and indeed many people who don't know him - leapt to his defence as being a good guy who was only joking. Later, The Times discussed his situation with eight Nobel laureates and led their responses on its front page. Later still, The Times reported that a leaked document transcribing his original remarks showed he was only joking. This led Richard Dawkins to demand an apology to him and his reinstatement. And yes, believe it or not this is just a summary! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why did I decide to stop using his name? Let me show you, by quoting the para in full:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="font-size: small;">"<span style="color: #999999;">I should mention straight away that I'm now going to stop using </span></i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="font-size: small;"> <span style="color: #999999;">name, for a reason I'll come to. But also, I should perhaps mention that you may or may not know who </span></i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> is, so I want to give some kind of summary of what </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> said, what happened to </i><b><u>him</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;">, and what the reactions to </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> comments and </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> situation has been. This is more or less off the cuff, so may be inaccurate and I might get some details wrong. </i><b><u>He</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> went to an event on raising women's profile in science in Korea (and kudos to </i><b><u>him</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> for getting off </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> backside to do that.) </i><b><u>He</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> made some ill-judged remarks about how the problem with women in labs is that they fall in love with men and men fall in love with them. The next day </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> appeared on the Today programme and gave a classic non-apology apology, where </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> didn't actually say </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> was wrong, merely that </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> shouldn't have said it in public. That's when </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> situation went viral and caused a twitter storm. </i><b><u>He</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> resigned from an honorary post at UCL (an unpaid position with no duties) and from a couple of important committees </i><u style="font-weight: bold;">he</u><span style="color: #999999;"> </span><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;">(these may have been paid or unpaid, I don't know) although there were several other positions </i><u style="font-weight: bold;">he</u><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> didn't resign from. A few days later a backlash against the consequences of </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> actions began. </i><b><u>He</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> gave a lengthy interview to the Guardian putting </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> point of view. </i><b><u>He</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> said that </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> had been "hung out to dry" and that </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> was "finished". </i><b><u>His</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> wife said that </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> had been pressured into resigning from UCL. Many of </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> friends including some senior women - and indeed many people who don't know </i><b><u>him</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> - leapt to </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> defence as being a good guy who was only joking. Later, The Times discussed </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> situation with eight Nobel laureates and led their responses on its front page. Later still, The Times reported that a leaked document transcribing </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> original remarks showed </i><b><u>he</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> was only joking. This led Richard Dawkins to demand an apology to </i><b><u>him</u></b><i style="color: #999999; font-size: small;"> and </i><b><u>his</u></b><i style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #999999;"> reinstatement. And yes, believe it or not this is just a summary!</span>"</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This debate has become all about <i>him</i>, i.e. a man. It should be all about <i>her, </i>a woman,<i> </i>well actually about <i>them</i>, lots of women, but English doesn't have a gender-specific plural pronoun.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me say some things. I don't happen to think that Tim Hunt has been badly treated, but that is not my point at all. Lots of people do think he's been badly treated, and they are quite right to stand up for him if so. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want Tim Hunt to be treated right. Just like I want women in science and tech to be treated right. And women in science and tech are treated badly over and over and over again and in far worse ways than what happened to Tim Hunt. And it's happening right now, not a historical problem. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A random example, from Julie Libarkin:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The senior emeritus faculty who…this is a hard one to put delicately…Came up behind me at an on-campus retirement party, dropped his knees, and pushed himself up against me several times. Trust me – I had NO idea how to react, and recovering from that violation took me about 6 months. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"That’s my reality of sexism in science. I can’t possibly be alone.." </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's just the last one of 9 examples that Julie bravely posted about in her post "<a href="https://geocognitionresearchlaboratory.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/my-experiences-with-sexism-in-science/">My experiences with sexism in science</a>". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No, she's not alone, but most women are not brave or foolhardy enough to talk about it in public. For example, take Dorothy Donald (an alias, which is relevant as you will see) writing on <a href="http://blog.depressedacademics.org/2015/06/there-once-was-sexist-called-hunt-by.html">Depressed Academics</a>: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I never ever post what I have written because I do not have the energy to be a woman writing about sexism on the internet right now... I berate myself for my cowardice while despairing at the fact that their courage is still required in 2015. We are still here. Is it hopeless?</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You know what women like Julie and Dorothy have been hearing recently? They've been hearing two things. <i>His </i>mistreatment matters, and <i>hers </i>doesn't. And if <i>she </i>complains about <i>his </i>behaviour, many people will leap to his defence while knowing almost nothing about the details of the situation, meaning that <i>he </i>turns into the victim. Good luck encouraging a culture of condemning sexist behaviour when that's the result. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Am I saying you shouldn't stand up for Tim Hunt or anyone else you firmly believe is being mistreated? Absolutely not, you should do so. Which is what I am doing right now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe that women in science are being mistreated right now and we should do what can to fix it. But we need to make it all about <i>her, </i>not all about <i>him.</i></span><br />
<br />Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-25745636017441922482015-05-07T08:35:00.000+01:002015-05-07T13:17:01.671+01:00In which I feel unexpectedly elated about votingIt's a glorious day today and I just voted in the general election.<br />
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I feel unexpectedly elated.<br />
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The last time we had a vote - the Scottish referendum - that ended up with me taking two months off work with anxiety. This time there are no parties I can wholeheartedly support. I've avoided almost all the coverage because I don't want to get sucked in. But the little I've seen indicates that very many people will vote for the Conservatives and the SNP, two parties who have led their governments for five years or more and led their countries in awful directions (very different directions for the UK and Scotland but both awful). </div>
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<a href="http://www.capetown.at/heritage/history/images/tutu%20vote.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.capetown.at/heritage/history/images/tutu%20vote.JPG" /></a>I was always going to vote though, so I went out a few minutes ago. It's a glorious sunny day here, and I chatted to a neighbour who said she often sees me running and I obviously enjoy it. I walked across the park to the polling booth a few yards the other side of it. </div>
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When I got there I waited a little in a short queue, and then went to a booth, thought for a moment, put down an X, and put my paper in the ballot box (actually couldn't find the slot for a second but did and put it in.) </div>
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I walked home feeling unexpectedly elated.</div>
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I'm reading a book called <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/She-Wolves-Women-England-Before-Elizabeth/dp/0571237061">"She-Wolves</a>" about the female rulers of England before Elizabeth. I'm reading now about the Empress Matilda, who had a civil war with King Stephen in the 12th Century. They wandered around the country besieging castles and trying to take over from other one. Every once in a while they made the political mistake of not executing the other one. </div>
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20 odd years ago I saw footage of Desmond Tutu voting in the first free South African elections. After he voted, he celebrated by pumping his arms above his head. Not for his party but because he had been allowed to vote. That came after the white South Africans had voted in a referendum to allow everybody to vote. I can't find a picture of the celebration, but there is him voting. </div>
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After the election it looks like there will be messy coalition building or minority government forming. There will be backroom deals and frontroom deals and lies told with a straight face to camera. But none of the leaders will be taking their opponents prisoner, putting them in irons, and deciding whether or not to murder them. And if Cameron is ousted, he will leave Downing Street because of millions of Xs on bits of paper, not because his castle has been starved into submission. The amazing glory of democracy is leaders willingly giving up power peacefully. </div>
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I was unexpectedly elated, but it shouldn't have been unexpected. I love democracy.</div>
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-83482215302057010422015-03-19T16:29:00.002+00:002015-03-23T20:46:31.409+00:00My eponymous domain name: ian.gentThere's not a lot to say in this post. Simply that I bought the domain name<br />
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<a href="http://ian.gent/">http://ian.gent</a></div>
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This is possible because recently the Belgian region of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghent">Gent</a> (usually spelt Ghent in English) started its own top level domain <a href="http://www.nic.gent/">.gent</a></div>
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I don't know how people have domain names which are their name, i.e. eponymous domain names. It's not that unusual to have a domain like <a href="http://iangent.com/">iangent.com</a>, which I also own. </div>
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Right now I've just pointed these URLs to my university address, but it's nice to be able to point people at <a href="http://ian.gent/">http://ian.gent</a>. It's basically a modern-era version of a vanity number plate.<br />
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<i>Update</i>: I've now moved my main blog URL to be<a href="http://blog.ian.gent/"> http://blog.ian.gent</a>. I wouldn't have done this but it looks like all the old links still work, which is nice. So e.g. if somebody sends you to the Petrie Multiplier blog post at <a href="http://iangent.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-petrie-multiplier-why-attack-on.html">http://iangent.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-petrie-multiplier-why-attack-on.html</a>, you should find yourself at <a href="http://blog.ian.gent/2013/10/the-petrie-multiplier-why-attack-on.html">http://blog.ian.gent/2013/10/the-petrie-multiplier-why-attack-on.html</a></div>
Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-11788649382195273362014-09-20T12:03:00.001+01:002014-09-20T12:03:26.730+01:00How Cupar Food Bank Made Me Happy<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I am incredibly fortunate that I have never had to go to <a href="http://cupar.foodbank.org.uk/">Cupar Food Bank</a>. Today I was incredibly fortunate that I went to Cupar Food Bank.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">From Cupar Food Bank you can see my house. Though you can't see Cupar food bank from my house. Sounds impossible but the bits of my house you can see aren't the bits with windows.</span></div>
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I have passed it many times. Also, many times I have paid for my shopping at Tesco and passed the box that you can donate food in and gone "oops, forgot to buy any." I have occasionally remembered and donated a small amount of food to it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicI7iLUM6-tI1MpgZNB6JxjScAeNPcvn3Qr5CXmUagNvhusSZEyEh2HPB0tBrQB729DOi16OIAs9HeF5FTwcQZDn1Gq6cKv-Ez1B-cm8xrNOQZ0fX4QrGwmSd3qns8U4TfY6hKhI3UN95K/s1600/3photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicI7iLUM6-tI1MpgZNB6JxjScAeNPcvn3Qr5CXmUagNvhusSZEyEh2HPB0tBrQB729DOi16OIAs9HeF5FTwcQZDn1Gq6cKv-Ez1B-cm8xrNOQZ0fX4QrGwmSd3qns8U4TfY6hKhI3UN95K/s1600/3photo.JPG" height="320" width="238" /></a>Food banks became a political football during the referendum. It was only yesterday that I suddenly realised what should have been obvious all along. Food banks are not a bad thing, they are a good thing. It's the need for food banks that is a bad thing. Absolutely I believe that current UK government policy is a major factor behind the need for food banks. Benefits penalties, forms you have to fill in online when not only the £300 computer but the £3 bus fare to the library might be impossible. But I don't believe the need for Food Banks will ever be zero.</div>
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You're a woman with an abusive husband and two toddlers. You take them for a walk in the park, maybe the beautiful park between my house and the Cupar Food Bank. You decide you can never go back. You can't even risk going back for your handbag. What are you going to eat tonight? What are your children going to eat tonight? If your baby is in nappies, where is the next one coming from? If they're out of nappies what are you going to wipe their bottom with tonight?</div>
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This is the kind of problem the Cupar Food Bank deals with on a daily basis - they deliver food to the refuges and safe houses in Cupar so that the women don't have to come out at risk to themselves.</div>
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It had literally never occurred to me that Food Banks need to provide nappies and toilet paper. But it occurred to them and they do it because they are wonderful.</div>
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Rewind.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/NwEMJiKA6AY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Because the referendum moved me so much I decided to donate my modest winnings gambling on it, and the stake, slightly less modest, to the Cupar Food Bank. </div>
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I looked online and watched the video (not of Cupar) there. Everything is about no shame. There is no shame in going to the food bank. It's not an easy thing but the hard part is needing to go there. It's not your fault that you need to eat. I was incredibly moved by the bit where somebody said to them "You saved my life", they say "Well I mean thanks but it's just a bag of food" and he says "No, I mean I was going to kill myself. You saved my life."</div>
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So I decided donating to Cupar Food Club was a good idea.</div>
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Picked up my daughter from After School Club and stopped off at the Food Bank. I asked if I could give them some money. Not to my total surprise, they said yes.</div>
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I thought we'd be in and out in a couple of minutes. We were there about an hour. A wonderful hour that made me very happy.</div>
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We had a cup of tea and juice for Sophie. A jammie dodger each. I explained why I was there - because of the referendum - and we chatted about it and this and that. A couple of the volunteers quickly picked out our house and said extremely nice things about our new extension. Not guilt tripping about me having a nice house, just neighbourly interest.</div>
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They didn't offer us a biscuit because I was donating, it's because they offer it to everyone who walks in. People less lucky than me come in and shove half a packet down their throats. Just as they are starting to apologise for their greed (hunger) the volunteers ask if they'd like another packet.</div>
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Anyway, it's time for a tour. I think it's going to be a room with some food in it. Still think I'll be out in ten minutes.</div>
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The first room is where they sit you down if you are a client. They talk to me and my daughter like we were clients. Pro tip. Talk to an 11 year old like she's an adult. Guess how the pros at Cupar Food Bank talked to my daughter? "Wow, that's a house captain badge, were you chosen for that or elected?"....</div>
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What do you like for breakfast? Cereal or porridge? Cereal? Ok, yeah, most people say cereal. Tick that box. Do you like full fat or semi skimmed milk? Tick that box.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqeVZJtdrmpPCx6dgvFB1Dgs3sYD-QGyD7yhyphenhyphenWKbNUH2GhAFWZNohjlkVhLPyCbIFamNuxWpNsW96sYATN3oZRA64Hc9jpKlkJ-91BuBygyjP7CtAUuPoF682yPIfk4jYBYJgeOrQGFdW3/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqeVZJtdrmpPCx6dgvFB1Dgs3sYD-QGyD7yhyphenhyphenWKbNUH2GhAFWZNohjlkVhLPyCbIFamNuxWpNsW96sYATN3oZRA64Hc9jpKlkJ-91BuBygyjP7CtAUuPoF682yPIfk4jYBYJgeOrQGFdW3/s1600/photo.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>Do you like tea or coffee? Or both? Do you have sugar with your tea? Ok, tick those boxes.</div>
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What about the kiddy? What's his treat? Sweeties? Crisps? Once they had a two year old come in and mum said he loved tomato soup as his treat. No problem, here's some tomato soup.</div>
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And so on and so on and so on. Nothing is: you'll take this and be grateful. Everything is: you need food but you also need to be happy with what you are given. And by the way, do you have a can opener to get into these cans? No? Here's one. That's a lovely dog, do you need dogfood?</div>
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That's the first room. The next room is where they pack the food. They've got the shopping list so they go next door and pack the bags.</div>
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Unless it's today and they ask if my daughter would like to help pack a bag. They shove an apron on her and she starts to pack. This family likes porridge. It's over there. They're a tea family, get that down from there. They like sugar in their tea. You can't reach? Let me get that for you....</div>
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Somewhere in Cupar or nearby, somebody maybe tonight is eating food that my daughter packed for them. It might be one of her classmates. If you can think of a better lesson in civics, let me know.</div>
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I'm off exploring more with another volunteer. There's another room with more food in it. The one my daughter is in is the supplies to be used up next. This is the one with longer term storage. It's on rotation, with each section labelled with the expiry date. Some things will be labelled October 2014, but there'll be jams labelled 2017.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDGza_EFpUXskKbl4QJ_K9oFj7umsxw0ruuXSFudRfZ_7tCwtlsr-jeTo8R4bpYRkr7XgU3SjOAGRfqmCrxws1c3QVMX6TH3oCTZd5cRjDM-or1KDcwFO5E9nw8JcsIeFbiOLpY7FoGS3E/s1600/photo+f2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDGza_EFpUXskKbl4QJ_K9oFj7umsxw0ruuXSFudRfZ_7tCwtlsr-jeTo8R4bpYRkr7XgU3SjOAGRfqmCrxws1c3QVMX6TH3oCTZd5cRjDM-or1KDcwFO5E9nw8JcsIeFbiOLpY7FoGS3E/s1600/photo+f2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>There's the milk - UHT of course. Sometimes we run out of milk. We email the churches and they get the word out to their donors so that our clients can have milk that weekend.</div>
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No nappies though. Too many sizes for it to be sensible to stock all the options. If somebody needs nappies a volunteer will pop to Tesco to get the right size. Remember that bin at Tesco in Cupar? As well as passing on the food, Tesco donates 30% of the value in cash. If they need nappies they've got that money to get them. Every little helps.</div>
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Saved the best for last. They get lots of plastic bags from all the shops, CoOp, Tesco, Lidl, whatever. If you go in to the Cupar Food Bank and leave with four bags of food, they are all bags from the same shop. If you pass somebody in the street they'll just assume you are walking back from that shop. Somebody. Thought. Of. That.</div>
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They didn't even tell me this. They told my daughter and she told me. I love my daughter so much. She is incredible.</div>
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Just like the people at the Cupar Food Bank are incredible.</div>
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While we try to get UK government's disgraceful policies changed, let's change the world we live in as well as the world we want to live in. And along the way let's make ourselves happier as well.</div>
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People talk about the "democratic deficit". But the democratic <i>surplus </i>from the referendum is just immense. Yes or No, I know you voted the way you did because you want a better Scotland. I say this:</div>
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Make it so.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">And if you can't think of anything else to do, take your daughter to a food bank. It made me incredibly happy today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: transparent;">Cupar Food Bank is at 21 St Catherine Street, C</i><i style="background-color: transparent;">upar, </i><i style="background-color: transparent;">Fife, </i><i style="background-color: transparent;">KY15 4TA, right on the corner of the War Memorial roundabout. Email</i><i style="background-color: transparent;"> info@cupar.foodbank.org.uk. Telephone</i><i style="background-color: transparent;"> 07474 453153. Web is </i><i style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><a href="http://cupar.foodbank.org.uk/">http://cupar.foodbank.org.uk/</a></i><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></span></div>
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<i style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">If you need to go to Cupar Foodbank as a client, here's what you need to know. </i><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><span style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><i>The Cupar Foodbank opening times are: </i></span></span><i style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Monday, 11am - 3pm, </i><i style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Wednesday 4pm - 6pm, </i><i style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Friday 11am - 3pm then 5pm - 6pm. </i><i style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">You need to be referred by one of the front line agencies - but honestly, if it's too urgent for that, just walk in. They'll help you get in touch with the right people. </i></div>
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<i style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">If you are not local to Cupar, find your nearest food bank here: <a href="http://www.trusselltrust.org/map">http://www.trusselltrust.org/map</a></span></span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For this post "today" means 19th September 2014. Photos were taken with permission of the Food Bank volunteers, and posted here with permission of my daughter.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-58384595567882655962014-09-14T16:32:00.000+01:002014-09-14T16:37:02.163+01:00Please vote No. Don't make Scottish poverty worse.<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38; overflow: hidden;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
Why am I voting No? </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx5mYZBk1K_wfKNWCVdrZOif3R4ueWVWFbRmNh-C9rVFR7RBuhNTIfMfhjyyPKa6NLICMvQIMtrkFkMtn79vmhhWxrFvI7ElwfXM9d3fbp0QjQSgjPNV0C6L8RudVu5OAW0WmQALDlpg3r/s1600/IMG_2446.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx5mYZBk1K_wfKNWCVdrZOif3R4ueWVWFbRmNh-C9rVFR7RBuhNTIfMfhjyyPKa6NLICMvQIMtrkFkMtn79vmhhWxrFvI7ElwfXM9d3fbp0QjQSgjPNV0C6L8RudVu5OAW0WmQALDlpg3r/s1600/IMG_2446.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This was Cupar yesterday. Please keep it like this.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
There are two main reasons. One is my love for my country, which is the United Kingdom. That's no reason for you to vote No if you don't feel that.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But please please <i>please</i> vote No because of poverty.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
For the longest time it's inflamed me that so much of the Yes campaign is about making Scotland richer and England poorer - as if that was an axiomatically good thing. It's incredibly selfish, and will increase poverty in the UK and I oppose it vehemently.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But apparently most Yes campaigners don't care about that at all. Ok, so be it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But it's now become clear that a Yes vote is the best guarantee of an increased level of poverty in Scotland.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Yes campaigners can shout "food banks" and "UK inequality" as much as they like. Do you think I think those are good things? No.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Surely all that Scottish oil wealth will eliminate poverty? It's not *quite* impossible but I'd certainly take a bet at say 3-1 that in 5 years after Independence Scottish poverty will be worse. (I'm serious, I'll take the bet if I know you, and you can even choose the measure of poverty). </div>
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Why am I so sure?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Scotland will start off with - assuming geographic share of oil revenues - a deficit which is roughly the same percentage as that of the UK as a whole. There is no such thing as "Scottish Oil Wealth." There is major income from oil, but it's not a game changer for Scotland - because without oil Scotland is significantly poorer than the rest of the UK. So that's roughly neutral.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And it will start off with a decimated financial services industry. Which employs 100,000 people. I use the term decimated carefully, since probably the rapid loss of jobs will be about 10,000. Probably over time it will be far worse. That's just one industry. If we lose thousands of jobs, take a wild guess who will be the losers? Right, it's not middle class people like me, it's the poor.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And Scotland will start off led by politicians who have spent their whole careers aiming for independence for richer or poorer. That's noble and I respect it, but remember what it means. They literally will take independence at the cost of making people in Scotland poorer. Their entire career is founded on that basis. Remember what that means. <i>Whatever </i>your hope is for an independent Scotland, many longstanding campaigners on the Yes side would grab at an independent Scotland even if it meant the exact opposite of that.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And it will start off in a country where the bogey words "Westminster" and "Tory" have become hate filled code for the unacceptable use of the word "English" as an insult. Led by a party who use this code as much as they can. Just the other day Salmond was talking about "Team Scotland" versus "Team Westminster". You know what, Alex? We are all on Team Scotland. And you can choose not to believe it, but Westminster politicians are too. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Food banks? Bad that we need them - but where is the SNP support for making them full of food for the poor? At a trivial cost to the taxpayer the government could have made them (literally if they wanted) flow with milk and honey.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Inequality? Where are the SNP policies for redistribution? What have they done to help? I give them credit for exactly one thing - giving money to councils to help ameliorate the bedroom tax. They didn't even have the guts to boast about it - as they had every right to - and I assume that's because they don't want people to know that the bedroom tax is not a big issue in Scotland now. And then they didn't even bother to show up for a vote to eliminate parts of it nationally.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Health poverty? I have watched in disbelief - and fury - at the health minister of my country using the terrible horrible life expectancy in parts of Glasgow as a reason for separation. For example, arguing <i>as a positive point</i> that the reduced life expectancy in Scotland makes pensions more affordable. The health minister of Scotland! I know it's not an easy problem to fix, but my god if it was my responsibility and it was this bad after 15 years of devolution and 7 years of SNP, I would be looking everywhere I could to find solutions, not saying it was all the bogeyman's fault.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Poverty full stop? Why am I paying the same tax rate as my friends in England and Wales? Because the SNP government for 7 years has not raised it to help people less lucky than me. They even let the power to change tax rates lapse.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Yes, some of the reasons I just mentioned are criticisms of the SNP. I've already blogged about how <a href="http://iangent.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/its-not-vote-for-yes-its-vote-for.html">Salmond tells us that a Yes vote is a vote for him</a>: and indeed he made it even clearer in the second tv debate after I wrote that. But my main point is that - with most of the powers necessary to make things better for the poor in Scotland - the Holyrood government has failed after 15 years. Actually, to be more precise, I'm sure they have succeeded in various ways, but not as much as we would have liked. And for complete clarity, I absolutely believe we'll see increased poverty whether Scotland had an SNP, Tory, LibDem, Labour or any coalition government.</div>
<div style="display: inline; margin-top: 6px;">
Please vote No. Don't make Scottish poverty worse.</div>
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-48579684748905867112014-09-12T12:13:00.001+01:002014-09-12T12:13:20.692+01:00Public service announcements on the Referendum. <div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">These are </span><span style="font-size: 13.63636302948px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Public service announcements on the Referendum. Honestly! Not a disguised attempt to sway your vote. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/image/0008/173456/SIR-Stakeholder-Resources-Digital-Web-Button-Polling-Station-Hours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/image/0008/173456/SIR-Stakeholder-Resources-Digital-Web-Button-Polling-Station-Hours.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For more information go to <a href="http://aboutmyvote.co.uk/">aboutmyvote.co.uk</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">If you've got a vote in the referendum, please use it. I think I can say that people who know me know that I want people to vote even if I think they are voting the wrong way.</span></div>
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The result of the referendum is decided on 50% + 1 vote of the valid votes cast. Actually 50% + 1/2 vote if it's an odd number. I was surprised that somebody I thought was well informed thought there was some additional bar, like needing to get 66% or a certain turnout. Nope, it's majority winner.</div>
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So if you've got the vote and hadn't made up your mind, please do think about it - if you consciously choose to abstain, great, but please either vote or not deliberately.</div>
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If you've got the vote and are in one the non British categories like Commonwealth or EU citizens, please use it too. You mean just as much to Scotland as anyone else who lives here.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
My hunch is that high turnout is good for No and I'm a No voter but honestly - and I can't believe I'm saying this - I'd rather Yes won on a 90% turnout than No won on a 50% turnout.</div>
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And please please please do NOT take a photo of your ballot paper with the X on it and put it up on twitter or facebook. We have a secret ballot for a very good reason, and that reason is that people can lie about their vote and get away with it. It might not matter to you or me, but if our culture makes that acceptable, it brings back intimidation to the ballot box. Because the person intimidating the voter can beat them up for not taking a picture.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-top: 6px;">
End of public service announcements.</div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span></span><div>
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p.s. if somebody is forcing you to take a picture of your ballot, take a picture, then after that spoil your ballot paper and ask the desk for another one. Also report them to the police if you can.</div>
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-25613992076426722662014-09-03T21:31:00.002+01:002014-09-04T10:10:39.892+01:00Counterfactual Conditionals and the Fundamental Flaw in an Otherwise Powerful ArgumentSexy title, huh? I bet you can't get enough counterfactual conditionals in your blog posts!<br />
<br />
I want to explain why an argument - which looks at first sight enormously powerful - is actually fundamentally flawed. The argument is one used by George Monbiot in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/scots-independence-england-scotland">this very powerful piece</a> which argues in favour of independence. I've always thought that the central argument here is a powerful one: "<i>If it was the other way round, and Scotland was independent, would it vote to join the UK?"</i> It's a powerful argument because it <i>looks</i> like the answer is obviously no, but it ain't so obvious. In fact it's so fundamentally flawed, all we can say is "well, nobody knows one way or the other." <br />
<br />
To see why it's so flawed, we'll need a bit (quite a lot) of history and a bit (much less) about counterfactual conditionals. We'll do that second bit first.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztwyWVGRpjFQXF-wusFrx7emSf_nOoZN1cul4X2w4SOT06QPoLhLfLI9hiA5QPnqL1hoJmhnOEw6B9Ba6wfrZM5c-HvaSTMG7a1CQO2ZTL0nM9WiT4cNOrcenESK7F-H3FZD_uUuvvoh1/s1600/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztwyWVGRpjFQXF-wusFrx7emSf_nOoZN1cul4X2w4SOT06QPoLhLfLI9hiA5QPnqL1hoJmhnOEw6B9Ba6wfrZM5c-HvaSTMG7a1CQO2ZTL0nM9WiT4cNOrcenESK7F-H3FZD_uUuvvoh1/s1600/Untitled.png" height="320" width="204" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks fun, huh? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have a little bit of a history with counterfactuals. My late father taught me what they were: they are an if-then statement where the if-part is not true (counter-factual) and so expresses what might have been or what could be. E.g. "If my father was alive today he would be wearing a monocle". My father also taught me that the truth of counterfactuals is essentially unknowable: since we don't live in a world where my father is alive, how do we know he would wear a monocle - even though he did regularly when alive.<br />
<br />
Yes, my father he was a monocle-wearing logic-imparting kind of <a href="http://astrogeo.oxfordjournals.org/content/39/2/2.38.1.full.pdf+html">father</a> and he was exactly as awesome as he sounds. My favourite quote from him: "When you've discovered the furthest known object in the universe, the rest of your career is a a bit of an anticlimax". It was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_distant_astronomical_objects#Timeline_of_most_distant_astronomical_object_recordholders">QSO B0642+449</a>, since you ask.<br />
<br />
Years later - and now years ago, my <a href="http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?verb=Display&version=1.0&service=UI&handle=euclid.ndjfl/1093634402&page=record">first academic paper </a>was about the logic of counterfactual conditionals. The picture shows an excerpt from it to add to your life's store of entertainment. <br />
<br />
Now onto the history.<br />
<br />
Monbiot writes as if no state has ever been crazy enough to form a union with another state.<br />
<br />
Absolutely states have formed unions in their best interests. We are not talking about minor little countries here and there. We're talking about the USA, Germany, and Italy. The idea of German and Italian nations existed for centuries - in fact millennia - before the unions that formed the countries were formed. (In the 'Social Wars' of about 90BC, the rebellious Roman Allies hopefully called their capital "Italia", but no such country existed as a state until 1861). The USA did not exist as an idea for centuries, but was formed as a federation of thirteen separate colonies in 1776. Thirteen colonies fighting for independence and forming a union to help them be the greatest they could be.<br />
<br />
Oh but obviously that is all ancient history, right? Well, if you regard 1990 as ancient history when the two Germanies unified.<br />
<br />
The example of East and West Germany illustrates the other problem and the fundamental flaw with Monbiot's argument.<br />
<br />
The argument is flawed because it has a hidden false (well actually unknowable) premise. The argument is actually:<br />
<br />
<i>If Scotland was independent, <b>and was basically exactly the same as it is now</b>, would it vote to join the UK?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
If Scotland was independent, it would not be the same as it is now.<br />
<br />
What would it be like? Obviously nobody knows: that's the nature of counterfactual conditionals. But the case is strong that Scotland would be exactly the kind of place - like East Germany in 1990 - that would love to join its larger neighbour.<br />
<br />
If you are interested only in Scotland's economy, it obviously benefitted massively - I mean absolutely ludicrously massively - from being in a Union with England and Wales. Economically, being in one country where the industrial revolution was taking place was exactly where you wanted to be. And then as that finished exploding, it wasn't half bad for your economy being in the same country as had a massive empire with things like India as parts of it. Scots were pretty good at empire too: for example it was basically the Scots who colonised Canada (I'm sitting writing this in Cupar, Fife: the only other Cupar in the world is in Canada.)<br />
<br />
Without the Union, it's clear that Scotland could have been massively poorer than it was at least until oil kicked in about 30 years ago. Of course the rest of the UK would have been poorer too. Everybody would have lost.<br />
<br />
What about since oil? Well, if Scotland had magically gone independent on the right day, then fair enough, it would have made a lot more money from oil than it did. Also we wouldn't have had Thatcher. But don't fantasise about a beautiful liberal social democracy with a Norway style oil fund - or if you like fantasise about it, because it would have been a fantasy. At exactly the same time - early 80s - was the peak of the hard-left labour party. Hard left labour have been in total control in Scotland and would absolutely not have been interested in investing billions in the stock markets. Certainly there would have been no Thatcherism in Scotland, and while that would have been much better in many ways, not necessarily in all of them. How much of Scotland's oil money would have been spent on loss making steel, coal, and ship production? Yes, people in those industries would not have lost their jobs. But would the economy be better than it is now? <br />
<br />
So basically, my version of the counterfactual history is that Scotland would now be a deeply impoverished country if it had never been in a union, or at best (independence in about 1980) throwing its oil money away on deeply uncompetitive industries.<br />
<br />
So my counterfactual conditional I offer in response to Monbiot is:<br />
<br />
<i>If Scotland was independent, we'd have grabbed at union as eagerly as East Germans did in 1990.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Yes, my counterfactual is as deeply and fundamentally flawed as Monbiot's. But now I hope you can see why his piece - while undeniably powerful - is a powerful piece built on foundations of air.<br />
<br />
I leave you with a joke, and I think it may be the best joke I know in an academic paper. In his <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0004370286900676">paper on counterfactuals</a>, Matt Ginsberg says that counterfactuals are sometimes used to indicate precisely no linkage between the if and the then. He gives an example:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>Even if I was free for dinner tonight, I still wouldn't go out with you."</i></blockquote>
and then he says<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I am indebted to a former Miss Texas for this example.</i> </blockquote>
Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-50229219636987514842014-08-21T14:16:00.002+01:002014-08-21T14:38:42.815+01:00It's not a vote for Yes, it's a vote for Salmond and the SNP - according to Salmond.A common line of argument from Yes campaigners for Scottish Independence is:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"It's not a vote for Salmond or the SNP, it's a vote for Yes"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02877/salmond_2877187b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02877/salmond_2877187b.jpg" height="124" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Vote for Yes is a vote for theWhite Paper</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</i></blockquote>
Well I agree that's what it should be. But oddly I don't often hear the same people saying (as they should)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"It's not a vote for Cameron or the Conservatives, it's a vote for No"</i></blockquote>
<div>
But that's an aside. It turns out that Alex Salmond says that those Yes campaigners are just wrong. He said this in the Scottish Parliament. Answering a question from Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, he said on 14th August: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>I say to Ruth Davidson that, on September 18, if people in Scotland vote for what is in the white paper and the proposals to keep the pound, that is exactly what will happen and any Scottish politician who does not recognise the sovereign choice of the Scottish people will pay a heavy price. Incidentally, that is something that the Conservatives are long used to in political campaigns in Scotland."</i> <i><a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/sp/?id=2014-08-14.12.0">theyworkforyou.com</a></i></blockquote>
I've put in the full quote to avoid being accused of quoting out of context. I don't care about the barb about the Tories, I care about this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>on September 18, if people in Scotland vote for what is in the white paper and the proposals to keep the pound, that is exactly what will happen... the sovereign choice of the Scottish people"</i></blockquote>
Until I read that I really did believe that this was a vote for Yes, not for Salmond or the SNP or the white paper. But now the First Minister has told me - in the most sacred forum of Scottish democracy - that a Yes vote is a vote <i>in toto </i>for the white paper. The white paper is exactly what will happen.<br />
<br />
You can feel free to disagree with me. But I'm quoting the First Minister.<br />
<br />
If you vote Yes but don't agree with what Salmond, the SNP, and the Scottish Government have written in the white paper, then you are going against the "sovereign choice of the Scottish people". You don't want a lower corporation tax on the first day of independence? No, you can't oppose that because it's against the sovereign choice of the Scottish people. <br />
<br />
Maybe Alex Salmond misspoke. Well, maybe all those other people he delights in quoting out of context in debates misspoke too. Maybe he was joking. Like <a href="https://twitter.com/andyburnhammp/status/496748066385715201">Andy Burnham was</a>.<br />
<br />
But whether he meant to say what he said or not, it's essentially true.<br />
<br />
There's an odd point of view that many Yes campaigners have, that somehow Scotland will be fundamentally more democratic as an independent country than the UK is. <br />
<br />
Obviously, it will be more Scottish, but more democratic? <br />
<br />
Let's assume that independence occurs on the timescale the Scottish Government wants, by March 2016. There are no Scottish Parliamentary elections before then. There is no suggestion of a second referendum on the outcome of negotiations, or a draft constitution. There is no democratic control over the process except that exerted by The First Minister of Scotland (SNP), the Scottish Government (SNP), and the Scottish Parliament (absolute SNP majority). Salmond has said (to his credit) that he would invite non-Yes campaigners into the negotiations, but the SNP will have absolute control of what happens.<br />
<br />
Just like the rUK you say, with Cameron in control? Apart from anything else, rUK will enter negotiations with a two party government instead of one party, a two chamber legislature instead of one, and no referendum which they can say represents the "sovereign choice of the rUK people". And there is guaranteed to be a UK election before independence in which the negotiations are certain to be a central issue if Yes wins.<br />
<br />
Scotland will be more democratic than rUK? You can guess what I think.<br />
<br />
To close, please remember what the First Minister implies:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"It's not a vote for Yes, it's a vote for Salmond and the SNP"</i></blockquote>
<div>
Or if you still insist I'm wrong (and I wish I was), remember that if you think </div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"It's not a vote for Salmond or the SNP, it's a vote for Yes"</i></blockquote>
then at the very least you must also think:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"It's not a vote for Cameron or the Conservatives, it's a vote for No"</i></blockquote>
<br />
<br /></div>
p.s. I'd like to thank Mulder1981 on Twitter for tweeting the picture below, which alerted me to the quote. I spent a few minutes googling to confirm the quote was correct, since it seemed so unlikely. But it's true.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
“<a href="https://twitter.com/NTSI_VoteNo">@NTSI_VoteNo</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yesbecause?src=hash">#yesbecause</a> Salmond told you to” <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IndyRef?src=hash">#IndyRef</a> <a href="http://t.co/D4XRFnxKJA">pic.twitter.com/D4XRFnxKJA</a><br />
— Mulder1981 (@Mulder1981) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mulder1981/statuses/502373282445025280">August 21, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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<iframe id="iagdtd_frame" src="https://d19tqk5t6qcjac.cloudfront.net/i/410.html" style="height: 1px; left: -9999px; position: absolute; width: 1px;"></iframe>Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-19760567118686150432014-08-13T18:01:00.001+01:002014-08-13T18:03:18.629+01:00Why is Maths Hard?Some slight thoughts about maths being hard.<br />
<br />
Prompted by a couple of things I saw in quick succession.<br />
<br />
First, this exchange on twitter about an interesting post about politeness. That post is interesting in its own right but not the point. The point is that Michiexile is a mathematician.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/quinnnorton">@quinnnorton</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ftrain">@ftrain</a> That first tip hits a bit of a personal nerve. As a mathematician, "that sounds hard" is top 3 reactions to my job. >.<<br />
— michiexile (@michiexile) <a href="https://twitter.com/michiexile/statuses/499586365018083330">August 13, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
Second, this post about the <a href="http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/06/30/the-lottery-of-fascinations/">lottery of what you happen to be interested in</a>, where maths is definitely not in the author's bag.<br />
<br />
This certainly strikes a chord with me. I happen to like maths and be good and it and it is seriously fascinating. But I have a couple of memories that are slightly discordant...<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I once went at a job interview at HP Labs Bristol, where I did their logical thinking test and they said I'd got their third highest score ever (amongst many smart people.) But I didn't find it impressive because I thought "You gave me the kind of test I am good at, so what?" It didn't help that the same day they had some charlatan psychologist who administered a personality test and nearly gave me a nervous breakdown. </li>
<li>A few years later I was talking with a good friend in a pub during my PhD, and he stopped and looked at me and said "You did Maths... at Cambridge... you must be very intelligent." What was odd to me was that we had known each other for a couple of years, and surely his view of my intelligence shouldn't then have been judged by my CV.</li>
</ul>
<br />
The point I'm trying to make here is this. Why should skill at Maths or Logic make you more intelligent that somebody skilled at something else. Why do people think Maths is hard?<br />
<br />
Is it because maths is the school subject with the highest ratio between compulsoriness (100% for a long time) and difficulty to some students (some reasonable percentage of people find it hard)? So for example English language (in British schools) is similarly compulsory but not as obviously difficult. Almost everyone can write essays even if they are not actually very good. But in Maths, if you are really not very good at it, you can't do certain things at all.<br />
<br />
I really don't know why people think Maths is hard but just asking the question.<br />
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<iframe id="iagdtd_frame" src="https://d19tqk5t6qcjac.cloudfront.net/i/410.html" style="height: 1px; left: -9999px; position: absolute; width: 1px;"></iframe>Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-40699237204596413342014-08-10T22:01:00.002+01:002014-08-10T22:22:18.939+01:00Why I Decided to vote No in the Independence ReferendumThis post's title is very carefully worded: this is about why I decided to vote No. This is not the same thing as why I am voting No. This is about the deciding moment: the straw that broke the camel's back, if you like. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvNlN1kM8k4Khj4scisUao2693k5tq8qnM6X7WMsCft6HZNdzwaeLGc7A0Qx1nr9ia8l4H4_ImhOEw8ZnSyJLj1GNfaitMmhpYRHUOuXZ5EeW0bZnKosTLVN7rgLHYsMskcr7NB1ULZFs/s1600/Slide1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLvNlN1kM8k4Khj4scisUao2693k5tq8qnM6X7WMsCft6HZNdzwaeLGc7A0Qx1nr9ia8l4H4_ImhOEw8ZnSyJLj1GNfaitMmhpYRHUOuXZ5EeW0bZnKosTLVN7rgLHYsMskcr7NB1ULZFs/s1600/Slide1.png" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>We don't celebrate this enough!</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Before I start, let me just say one thing that neither side has given the other enough credit for. We are having a referendum, and a 50.01% vote will decide it. The Yes side have not given the Noes, and David Cameron in particular, enough credit for the fact that they will accept the country being ripped apart by a wafer thin vote. Compare situations like Quebec in Canada or Catalonia in Spain, where even a solid referendum majority might not be accepted.<br />
From the Noes, there's not been enough credit to the Yes side for the fact there's been no hint of serious violence at any point, not just now but for decades. Maybe the odd barfight or twitter trolling, but compare almost any other country's independence fight. This shows all of us what a great country we live in, both Scotland and the United Kingdom.<br />
<br />
I always expected to vote No because I always felt I was a unionist. Much of it is emotional more than logical. I was brought up in England by a Scottish mother and English father. I have degrees from English and Scottish Universities. I have lived in Scotland for more than 20 years. I have spent years of my life in Wales - split up over many family holidays throughout my life - and my sister and mother now live in Wales. All of these have always felt to me to be part of the same country, they still do, and I want them to remain that way. <br />
<br />
But while I always expected to vote No, I wasn't sure. Maybe there would be the killer argument that convinced me to swap to Yes. While this never came, neither did the killer argument to vote No.<br />
<br />
What was it that decided me finally? <br />
<br />
It was the currency union issue, which came to the front earlier in the year. But not in the way you might expect.<br />
<br />
I don't think it matters very much whether there is currency union between between Scotland and the rest of the UK (from now on just "rUK", since it's important not to use England as shorthand for England and Wales and Northern Ireland.) The other options are all credible and not obviously disastrous. Scotland could use the pound without formal currency union, it could form its own currency (either linked to the pound or floating), or it could join the Euro. <br />
<br />
Compare and contrast the standard Yes position on currency union and the debt.<br />
<ul>
<li>It's Scotland's pound as much as rUK's! We are leaving the UK. We get to keep control over the pound whatever rUK says!</li>
<li>It's the UK's debt! We are leaving the UK. We get to throw away the debt if we feel like it!</li>
</ul>
The two issues are the same yet many Yes people treat them exactly opposite. On the debt, all government debt was by definition taken out with the UK government. Scotland would leave the UK and would therefore not be liable for it. For that reason the UK government committed in January to honour 100% of the UK's debt whatever happened in the independence vote. But this doesn't mean that Scotland gets to wave goodbye to its debt. But the Yes campaign talks as if Scotland's share of UK debt is some kind of optional extra which Scotland can take or not as it wishes.<br />
<br />
The situation is exactly the same with the currency as with the debt. By voting to leave the UK the Scottish people would be voting to leave the pound. Just as it is voting to leave the formal legal obligation to the debt, it is voting to leave the formal legal control of the pound. But unlike the debt - which is treated as a "maybe aye and maybe hooch aye" deal - Scotland's choice is taken as absolute over control of the pound. If it wants it, it gets it. Apparently, Scotland can decide if it has control over the rUK currency, but rUK is not allowed to decide if an external country controls its currency.<br />
<br />
What is often said is that Scotland should receive it's fair share of the Bank of England's assets, and I completely agree. The assets are things like its gold reserves, debt it is owed, and so on. (Not the key point, but interestingly there are several hundred <i>billions </i>of UK debt owed to the Bank of England because of quantitative easing, of which Scotland should get its share.) So if the Bank of England's assets are (say) $500 billion, then an indy Scotland should get about $40 billion. <br />
<br />
On the other hand, many people treat the pound as part of the assets of the Bank of England. The pound as a currency is <i>not </i>an asset. It's a medium of exchange in the UK. It's not as if the UK is still on the gold standard and theoretically has reserves equal to all the money in the country. In any case, it's indivisible. And being indivisible, it would obviously devolve onto the rUK. But it's not an indivisible asset, because it's not an asset.<br />
<br />
If you still think the pound is an asset, here's what to do. Put a value on it and ask in negotiations for about 8% of its value. If you think the pound is an asset worth a trillion dollars, ask for $80 billion. Obviously, as an asset, people can get different valuations but they'll be in the same ballpark. For example, the UK embassy in Washington might be worth $100 million or it might be worth $200 million, but some kind of estimate could be reached. If you're convinced the pound is an asset, value it. This is more or less a thought experiment: I can't imagine anyone being able to put a value on the pound, because it's not an asset. <br />
<br />
The argument is pretty much the same as this: "We like having a permanent seat on the security council of the UN, and this seat is as much Scotland's as rUK's. So after independence we'll have a permanent seat one month a year and rUK can have the seat the other 11 months." Insisting as an absolute right to partial control of the pound after independence makes as much sense as asking for a permanent seat at the UN one month a year. <br />
<br />
So my position is this, and is the same for both pound and debt.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>If Scotland is independent, negotiations should include a fair solution to the question of what currency Scotland should use. </li>
<li>If Scotland is independent, negotiations should include a fair share of existing UK assets and debts, on an agreed payment basis. </li>
</ul>
<div>
And there is one final point</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>There is no direct linkage between debt and currency. Both are important negotiating points, along with very many others. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
And it is precisely because of this last point that I decided to vote No. After the currency question came into focus earlier in the year, with Osborne's intervention, it gradually became clear to me that pretty much all the SNP establishment believes it's reasonable to say that if they don't get their way with currency, they do not take on any debt. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is completely wrong. It's immoral and - probably worse from the current point of view - it shows that the people involved have no idea how countries work when they are independent. Countries have debt and - except <i>in extremis </i>- they don't renege on their debt. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
It's completely reasonable - of course - for the Scottish negotiating position to start as wanting currency union. It's also reasonable to expect some recompense if they don't get their way on currency union. What kind of recompense would be reasonable? For example, denominating debts in a new Scottish currency instead of pounds, or in dollars or in euros. Or agreeing that the debt would be on the interest rate the UK pays instead of the rate that Scotland would have to pay on the open market (higher since it would have no credit rating.) There are probably lots of other options.<br />
<br />
But that's not the way the Yes campaign thinks. It takes as axiomatic that no currency union = no debt. So an important but not critical point is equated with hundreds of billions of pounds of debt. Scottish politicians talk as if deciding to refuse currency union is <i>the same thing </i>as giving away debt.<br />
<br />
What does getting currency union mean? For all practical purposes it would mean Scotland getting to appoint one member of the Bank of England monetary policy committee. That currently has 9 members, the Scottish Prime Minister would get to appoint a new one, with probably another one from rUK to make a total of 11 for an odd number to avoid ties. There's been talk of the Bank of England becoming lender of last resort to rescue Scottish banks, which is a big deal, but if this happened it would probably mean massive contributions from the Scottish government. <br />
<br />
And is currency union sustainable? Ask the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They agreed currency union in the velvet divorce. It lasted 6 weeks.<br />
<br />
What does discarding its share of UK debt mean?<br />
<br />
Well, the number Salmond uses is about £120 billion. With roughly 5.3 million people in Scotland, this is close enough to £20,000 per person in Scotland.<br />
<br />
The SNP position is - seriously - each Scottish person should get a present of £20,000 from the rUK government, if it doesn't get its way on currency union.<br />
<br />
Except it's not £20,000, it's close to £40,000 per person. Why? Because the debt of about £120 billion as Scotland's share is <i>net. </i>The UK's "<a href="http://www.nao.org.uk/highlights/whole-of-government-accounts/">whole of government accounts</a>" say that "in 2012-13, the public sector liability was £2.9 trillion. Taking into account its assets of £1.3 trillion, the net liability was £1.6 trillion." I assume that the £120 billion comes from £1.6 trillion times 0.08 = £128 billion, close enough. <br />
<br />
Obviously Scotland wants (and should get) its fair share of current UK assets. But the Yes campaign want the assets independent of debt, they want the assets and no debt if they don't get currency union. So actually the position is that it wants to forego about £230 billion of debt, while taking about £100 billion of assets. So it wants a present of about £230 billion from rUK. Roughly £40,000 per person in Scotland.<br />
<br />
The Yes campaign wants to found Scotland as an independent nation on the idea that we take a present of £40,000 per person from citizens of rUK. And this is on an imaginary equation between this outrageous pickpocketing, and a fairly minor negotiating point on the currency, which on nobody's imaginings can be worth £40,000 or even £20,000 per person.<br />
<br />
I think I would like Alex Salmond if I met him. I also think he's an incredibly able politician. But he - and people who think like him on the debt-currency equation - are far too dangerous to be allowed anywhere near control of a major independent nation like Scotland.<br />
<br />
It's often said by Yes campaigners who understand that not all potential Yes voters are SNP supporters, that this is not a campaign for one man or one party to lead Scotland. This is true enough. But the currency/debt equation seems to be widespread, and not in one man's head. And on the current plans of the Scottish Government, not only will all negotiations for independence be under their control, but there will not even be an election before independence. That is, the first prime minister of Scotland and guider of negotiations and writer of provisional constitution would be Alex Salmond (or possibly his successor as SNP leader).<br />
<br />
Alex Salmond is smart. From the very start of the serious independence debate, he has known that currency union won't happen. This is not because of statements made by Osborne or Balls or Alexander. The UK has spent years not joining the Euro because of the potential loss of sovereignty. Can anyone imagine ceding even partial sovereignty over UK finances to Edinburgh moments after Scotland has left the Union? It's totally irrelevant whether or not it's in the rUK's best interests or not. (Every country has the right to do things that are against its best interests.) For political reasons, even if not for economic, certainly rUK will not form a currency union with an independent Scotland.<br />
<br />
And under Alex Salmond - or any credible successor - the intention is to found Scotland on taking £40,000 per person in Scotland from the people of the rest of the UK. <br />
<br />
No thanks.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<div>
<br /></div>
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<iframe id="iagdtd_frame" src="https://d19tqk5t6qcjac.cloudfront.net/i/410.html" style="height: 1px; left: -9999px; position: absolute; width: 1px;"></iframe>Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-64430356510849484852014-06-10T23:00:00.001+01:002014-06-10T23:07:58.270+01:00Why The Passing of the Turing Test is a Big Deal<i>June 10, 2014. </i><br />
<br />
A lot of my friends don't agree with me, but I think we should be celebrating the passing of the Turing Test.<br />
<br />
Quick summary of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test">Turing Test</a>? Can people tell the difference between a computer printing responses on a screen and a person typing? If not then .... well I think I'll leave what the consequences are.<br />
<br />
Three days ago was the 60th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing. The same day, there was a big announcement: The Turing Test had been passed. Among others, for example, see <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10886389/Computer-passes-the-Turing-Test-Im-not-convinced.html">this BBC News item.</a><br />
<br />
Since this happened, and it got all over the media, there's been a bit of a backlash, with many in the "Artificial Intelligentsia" commenting negatively. (I think the lovely name for the community I am a fully signed up member of comes from John Searle.) I think the main points in the backlash have been:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The narrow definition of the Turing Test that was passed is not important. Interrogators only had a 5 minute conversation and the chatbot only had to get a 30% pass rate (or fooling humans rate.)</li>
<li>The winning entry cheated, or more precisely gamed the rules, by pretending to be a thirteen year old Ukrainian boy, with limited English. </li>
<li>The competition was organised by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Warwick">Kevin Warwick</a>, who does not have a high level of respect in community, being viewed as a stunt-organiser. </li>
</ul>
Taking the arguments in reverse order:<br />
<br />
<br />
As an ad-hominem argument, the last point does not deserve response, except to express disappointment that it's even been brought up by people. And of course to criticise it is also to criticise serious members of the AI community like <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10886389/Computer-passes-the-Turing-Test-Im-not-convinced.html">Aaron Sloman and John Barnden</a>, who took part.<br />
<div>
<br />
There's no question the entry gamed the system. In fact in my AI teaching at Strathclyde and St Andrews Universites for more than 15 years I've been talking about the wonderful paper "<a href="http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/courses/mindsandmachines/Papers/hutchens96how.pdf">How To Pass The Turing Test By Cheating"</a> by Jason Hutchens. He won an earlier competition (without actually passing the Turing Test) and wrote a paper about how the tricks he used meant the Turing Test wasn't really worthwhile. </div>
<div>
<br />
The narrow definition of the Turing Test? Well let's be fair here. This comes from <a href="http://www.csee.umbc.edu/courses/471/papers/turing.pdf">Turing's original paper</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"I believe that in about fifty years' time it will be possible, to programme computers ... to make them play the imitation game so well that an average interrogator will not have more than 70 per cent chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning."</i></blockquote>
Let's take a moment to remark on Turing's remarkable prescience. I think most people would agree that 60 years from his death (64 from the paper publication) is "about fifty years". This man was absolutely amazing. In fact, and I've said this before, I think Turing ranks as one of the three greatest British scientists, with Newton and Darwin. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofibNrYDjdY&feature=kp">What a guy</a>.<br />
<br />
So yeah, the Turing test that was passed comes from Turing's original paper. It's hard to criticise on that basis. <br />
<br />
But no, the Turing test that was passed is definitely <i>not </i>important. But it's not important in the sense that it is not driving research in Artificial Intelligence. This is the sense that academics mean when they say whether something is important or not. In that sense, I agree it's not important.<br />
<br />
But here's my point. The passing of the Turing Test is a big deal.<br />
<br />
I mean this in a few senses. <br />
<br />
The first one is this. Computers are getting very good at fooling people. This is something it's good for people to know. I'd be surprised if the likes of John Barnden and Aaron Sloman were fooled, because they know what to look for in a chatbot. But people were fooled, and let's remember they knew they were participating in the Turing test. When you talk online to somebody, you might not be talking to a person even if they appear to be one. If you're not a Ukrainian teenager, I'm not sure you should be talking to 13 year old Ukrainian boys on the internet, but still: if you think you are talking to a person, maybe you are not.<br />
<br />
(Random aside: my surprise is that interrogators didn't wonder where the organisers had rustled up a Ukrainian teenager with good but not perfect English.)<br />
<br />
Here is the sense in which I think the passing of the Turing Test is a very big deal indeed.<br />
<br />
If people get the impression that Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and is playing a huge part in everyday life, they would be <i><b>absolutely right.</b></i> And this is something that we in the Artificial Intelligentsia don't shout about enough. <br />
<br />
It used to be said that Artificial Intelligence is the stuff we don't know how to get computers to do. Because once we do know how to get them to do it, researchers in Artificial Intelligence move on to something else. It's still true to an extent, but less so<br />
<br />
Computer Chess? You might remember a computer beating Garry Kasparov. Since then computers have got <i>much </i>better. Nowadays computers are dramatically better than the human world chess champion, but you don't hear about it because the champion doesn't want to get whupped by a computer so they never play. A few years ago a mobile phone won a grandmaster level chess tournament. That's Artificial Intelligence. But - by the way - computers have massively improved the quality of human play, because talented teenagers can learn by playing against world class competition many times a day on their home computer. <br />
<br />
Big data and data mining? That's Machine Learning, probably the largest area of Artificial Intelligence. <br />
<br />
IBM Watson beating champion quiz players in punning quizzes? That's Artificial Intelligence.<br />
<br />
Voice recognition, handwriting recognition? That's Artificial Intelligence.<br />
<br />
Computer chips do what they are meant to do? That's Artificial Intelligence proving mathematically that they do. When the Pentium chip first came out, there was a bug that cost Intel hundreds of millions of dollars (in mid 1990s dollars). Now they avoid that cost through Artificial Intelligence. <br />
<br />
Google translate? Certainly not perfect but gives you an idea of what something written in another language is about? That's Artificial Intelligence.<br />
<br />
Robots who can walk? That's Artificial Intelligence.<br />
<br />
Self driving cars on everyday roads? That's Artificial Intelligence. A few years ago that seemed like a ridiculous dream. Now they're real. <br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Artificial Intelligence has pretty much done what it set out to do. The above achievements are exactly the kind of things that the visionaries who founded Artificial Intelligence wanted to do. All of the above achievements once looked like being close to science fiction: and I don't mean a long time ago, but in my memory. To give you an idea, today happens to be my 50th birthday.<br />
<br />
Like any other science there is much still to do. And there are many grand challenges to overcome. The key challenge that we are nowhere close to achieving is what you might call general intelligence. All the examples above are incredibly specialised, and don't play nicely together. So I promise that the Artificial Intelligentsia is not worried yet about running out of interesting things to do with computers. <br />
<br />
Artificial Intelligence has been just incredibly and remarkably successful. The passing of the Turing Test three days ago is not a big deal on the scale of the achievements above. But it does give us a chance to mark the very big deal that Artificial Intelligence has become. If this stunt makes people more aware of this - to mark the anniversary of the tragically early death of a very great man - I think that is a good thing. <br />
<br />
And finally, here is a punning sense in which the passing of the Turing Test is a big deal. It's been passed, in a reasonable sense. We can stop talking about it. The Turing Test has passed in another sense: it's over. You can get computers to pass the Turing Test. Big deal.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6915942954402781501.post-19889481877245483942014-06-04T20:34:00.002+01:002014-06-04T20:34:28.354+01:00Yes For Independence, Because EtonLast night I attended a debate about Scottish Independence at the University of St Andrews. It was very good and well tempered on both sides. <br />
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One of the arguments from the Yes side was that the UK Cabinet is dominated by Etonians. Obviously this is a major problem with Westminster politics, since one only needs to look at the education of the last few prime ministers. I've examined the evidence and present it to you now, and you can see the point is completely definitive. <br />
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cameron#Education">Eton</a>. There you are. David Cameron went to Eton. You see! The point is proved. </li>
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You might want to look away now, because is there any necessity to look back further? You want to? Ok.<br />
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Brown#Education">Kirkcaldy High School</a>. Well the exception that proves the rule, I suppose. </li>
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair#Education">Fettes College</a>. Well that is an Edinburgh school, but it has been called "Eton of the North". So maybe we can count it. So yep, let's count it as showing the dominance of Eton, or at least posh public schools. </li>
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Really, look away. Stop reading. The point is made! <ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Major#Early_life_and_education">Rutlish Grammar School</a>. Perhaps not a surprise that John Major didn't go to a major public school. Or even a public school. But again, he's the Conservative exception to the rule.</li>
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher#Early_life_and_education">Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School</a>. Maggie obviously couldn't go to Eton, as a woman. As the Conservative hate figure of recent times, she must have gone to a posh public school. Though oddly the school's history seems to suggest it was a grammar school. <br /></li>
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Really, there is no need to carry on reading. A couple of Tory Prime Ministers didn't go to Eton, and one of them was a woman so she couldn't. <br /><ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Callaghan#1912_to_1944:_early_life_and_career">Portsmouth Northern Secondary School</a>. Sunny Jim Callaghan. Labour.</li>
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Wilson#Education">Royds Hall Grammar School, Huddersfield</a>. Harold Wilson may have been photographed on the steps of Downing St as a boy, but he went to a grammar school. </li>
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Heath#Early_life">Chatham House Grammar School, Ramsgate</a>. As did his predecessor as Prime Minister, Ted Heath. That good old Labour, no ... umm, ok another Tory grammar school boy.</li>
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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Douglas-Home#Early_years">Eton</a>. There you are! The point is confirmed. Of course it's a bit embarrassing that this was a Scottish Prime Minister, Alec Douglas-Home, but perhaps we could pass a law banning First Ministers from having attended Eton. </li>
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From now on backwards it's really easy to see the point, because it goes Eton (Macmillan), Eton (Eden), Harrow (Churchill), and Haileybury (Attlee). More public schoolboys back to the Second World War. So there you have it, from 1940 to 1964 and from 2010 to 2014, the UK has been governed by English public school pupils. </div>
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Pay no attention to the period between 1964 and 2010, because it's irrelevant. The fact that not a single Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 46 years attended an English public school is totally irrelevant.<br />
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So if you don't like Eton, vote Yes for Independence. </div>
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<i>Author's note. Like my <a href="http://iangent.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/i-shall-vote-yes.html">previous piece</a>, for avoidance of doubt I will state that this piece is not serious. The point is to show that dominance of UK politics by Etonians, or even public school pupils, is not true. </i></div>
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<i><br />For avoidance of any more doubt, I don't think the educational makeup of the current cabinet is reason to vote against them. The reason to vote against them is because you don't like their policies. I think that is a very good reason to vote against them: whether or not that is a good reason to vote for independence is another question. </i></div>
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Ian Genthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14390523974279353420noreply@blogger.com0