I’ve just posted the following to this article about the tendency in the UK to see being bad at Maths (and Science) as a mark of pride.

It really annoys me every time a presenter on the news ‘jokes’ that they can’t do maths or science. Melvyn Bragg on the usually excellent “in our time” is another. If you can’t do it, then research your topic - or at least stay quiet!

I grew up with Johnny Ball. I really miss him on TV - he was enthusiastic and willing to find out about things which he didn’t know about. Today’s “science” shows are more about blowing things up in the microwave, or the caravan (yes, Braniac, that means you).

An honourable exception is discovery’s mythbusters (UK site) - they don’t always get the scientific terms right (misusing terms like force, pressure etc, the narrator in the UK is especially guilty of this) - but they have the sense of the scientific method, and of exploration.

On UK TV, there is no modern equivalent. We need a modern day Johnny Ball! (Maybe next year it won’t be ‘You could be Nancy‘, but ‘You could be Johnny’ - I can only dream)

I really like the idea. Each week, wannabe Johnny’s would present a piece about some aspect of science. It’d need to be fun, accessible, as well as being good science. The panel would consist of, a non-scientist, a scientist (not Adam Hart-Davies!) and the ‘Lloyd-Webber figure’ - Johnny Ball himself.

Each week, Graham Norton would tell the contenders ‘You could be Johnny’.

The theme tune would end with Jack Nicholson bursting through a door saying “Here’s Johnny!”

The public would vote (usually on style over substance) and there’d be a ‘present-off’ between the two who had the lowest public vote, they’d explain some particularly gnarly bit of science or maths. Johnny would save one of them.

I could be a getting a little flippant here, but I’m deadly serious about the issue at hand. Personally, I think some sort of contest might be a lot of fun, as well as helping to increase interest in science and maths. It could work, couldn’t it?

Ha!

Labour’s got a hammering in the local elections. I’m pleased. Why? Not because of the 10p tax rate, or because of the continual tinkering Labour has done to our constitution without a clear plan. Not because of the imbalance they’ve created in our constitutional settlement by giving each part of the UK a degree of self determination except England. Not because of the spin or the lies. Not because of the wars. Not because of the increased cost of living with house prices much higher than incomes.

Well, maybe I’m a little annoyed for those reasons.

Why am I mostly annoyed with Labour?

Mostly because of the way they’ve systematically undermined civil liberties in the UK. It’s been a little chip-chipping away. Detention for 90 days without trial. No? 28 days then… let’s make it 42… ID cards (if you have nothing to hide), terrorism bills used on people who shout ‘nonsense’ or wear a T-shirt in the wrong place, removal of the right to protest in central London (people have had problems having a tea party in parliament square, must have been the protest cake).

All done with the best of intentions, and, as it’s to ‘help the fight against terror’, done in a way that the vast majority won’t mind; until, like the proverbial lobster, they find the water temperature has been gradually increased and it has become too hot.

When I grew up, the IRA were regularly blowing places up (yes, I know about July 7, I was in London, that doesn’t change the point). Regularly. They blew up central manchester in one of their last acts before the ceasefire. They blew up parades, children got killed. They even blew up the government of the day during their party conference.

The UK never took measures like the current lot feel are necessary. It’s Orwellian… keep the populace scared of the ‘invisible enemy’ and you can keep power….

Gits. They’ve done more to disrupt the ‘way of life’ in the UK for the long term than any mis-guided bomber(*).

For that reason alone, they deserve to lose the power they temporarily wield.

Next week on More 4 at 10pm, a documentary called ‘Taking Liberties’ will be shown This is repeated at 11pm on more 4+1. Please try and watch it.

(*) Yes, it’s true that really devastating attacks are possible, dirty bombs and all sorts. However, one can never totally shield against things like that. Even if we choose to live in a full-blown totalitarian regime. Is that truly how we want to live, on the off-chance that it might stop a theoretical risk?

By the way, I’m feeling much better now. It’s all good. Thanks for asking (or not).

Promote this Pledge

Make Votes Count has re-branded their campaign, and produced an action plan, which I reproduce below:

If you would like to post this to your website, see the previous post for the code.

Regarding the recent data leak:

The Conservatives say the crisis is down to “systemic” errors at HMRC - but the government insists it was the fault of low level civil servants.’

Source

Rubbish - why was it possible for a low level civil servant to download the entire database in one go and burn it to CD? (i.e. the potential is there to steal it).

A low level civil servant should only be able to view a record at a time, and not export the records at all. This is trivial.

I still can’t believe that they thought it’d be too expensive to drop sensitive fields.