Teachers and pupils will be “absolutely safe” when they return to school in England on June 1, the former education secretary claimed. He insisted that it was “absolutely safe for children to return, absolutely safe for teachers and other staff to return as well”, when questioned on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show this morning.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/gove-tells-teachers-it-is-absolutely-safe-to-return-to-school-9vjz9frff

Perhaps Gove's understanding of "absolutely safe" is different to mine. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of schools returning it is impossible to make any environment were people are mingling "absolutely safe". Is he back on class A again?

Because they're representing the interests of  their members and protecting their health/lives by seeking to make working conditions as absolutely safe as reasonably possible and getting binding - and national/universal - agreements in place before consenting to return.

That's the whole raison d'etre of unions.

The government is being reckless in trying to plough through restriction relaxations without the proper measures in place to stop this pandemic reaching the point again where it threatens to overwhelm the NHS and lead to death figures that dwarf the current 60k.

We all know you like to have the last word and be the master of put down and assume you have a higher education level than others (incidentally, what exactly is yours?) but if you look back it does say "per half," everywhere. You would do better pointing out to me that I have misinterpreted the meaning of half (have I?) meaning per half term than making cheap remarks about my maths abilty which of course is spot on if that does mean half term.

Yeah Eton call their terms 'halfs' just to confuse all non attendees, and convince even more people they can't afford it

It certainly is. My chavvy neighbours have decided the lockdown is over. Sitting in the back garden round the table with Mother in Law, daughter and grandchildren, all from different households. I was amazed that they lasted so long to be honest.

Thanks for that.   I accept I was in error, not realising that "half" was a full term. That's the trouble when you come from a Council estate and only have a state grammar school education - you don't know these little "in" things. Still - you do get a decent maths education. 

Their glossary is very strange! You can see it all here:

https://www.etoncollege.com/glossary.aspx#h

Thank you.   You would have thought they could make it less ambiguous than "£14,167 per half [i.e. term; there are three terms in a year]"

There have always been three terms in all schools but a "half" term means something different in the other 99%. Maybe they should have written it in Latin,  but before Gandalf points out I would have misunderstood that as well he would be right - Latin was the one GCE I did fail in 1965. 

The Telegraph really is a piece of sh1t these days as bad as the Mail.

No doubt the Telegraph will lead on this just as it claimed that London had only 24 cases a few days ago

Yesterday it was 166

There is no doubt Hospital deaths and admissions are falling but the recent breakdown of lockdown may only show itself in June

With all the dodgy self testing, no doubt it will do.

Remarkable how we are following America with the Govt and RWM now desperately downplaying Corona. 

Why only the migrants? What about all those richos in private jets? The Virus doesn't discriminate

To be honest, I think self testing will become the   norm.  I can't see that  having to trundle to a regional centre will work for the  numbers we will need.  My "regional centre" is near Oxford, which is a bit of a stretch and a bit inaccessible    to get to from where I am - Then it has to be by car - you don't want people who think they need a test going on Public Transport !  Do you even want ill people driving about in a car ??

What kind of test was she given?

Perhaps the Govt are using rubbish tests on purpose, to suppress the numbers? 

Wouldn't put it past this shower

He was tested  as a hospital in-patient, so it wouldn't  be self test.

That's more worrying if the proper tests are not working, or there is another virus in circulation, perhaps the one Darren had

A close friend of mine had her husband (who works as a postman) get absolutely floored by CV symptoms early last  week. He got taken to hospital and tested, meanwhile their daughter also came down with symptoms a day later that laid her low as well. Both tests came back negative!

Makes me wonder about false negatives.

Thanks for playing along 

India has extended its lockdown until May 31st

• Schools, colleges closed


• Bars, restaurants closed


• Passenger flights banned


• Metro rail services suspended


• Places of worship closed


• Shopping malls, gyms, cinemas closed

Monthly exams for the first three years studying 13 subjects. The pass mark was 70% and you were allowed 3 failures after which for each additional failed subject your reward was three strikes on each hand with a whippy cane delivered by a vicious Headmaster. How corporal punishment was ever supposed to improve your learning capacity I'll never know.

The best thing about my school was the fabulous canteen which offered chips everyday - unheard of at the time. Funny what you remember, well apart from "halves"   

Edit: For the purpose of clarification BTW, I didn't go to Eton, just a bog standard private school! 

No, Kevin.
For some reason a lot of retired sportsmen, sitting at home & bored, are demanding that journalists stop doing our jobs like you’ve all stopped doing yours. But our jobs have never been more important, so I will keep challenging & keep asking questions. Go play golf. https://t.co/7JSm3wlXd1

— *****Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 17, 2020

Or something else like his pal Portillo

As someone who's been colonised, this moment in #GreatAsianRailwayJourneys made me so uneasy in #michaelportillo's otherwise fascinating programme set in Indonesia. pic.twitter.com/gYm75FiDUV

— Candy Gourlay (@candygourlay) May 16, 2020

Look, you chose the style in which to post; you copied and pasted the information. But then you didn’t read it properly.

It says “£14,167 per half [i.e. term; there are three terms in a year”

So, when you start a post with ‘you’re both wrong’ I’ll make no apology for pointing out your errors.

But what about half term?