tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-357943202012-05-26T13:40:20.927+01:00notes from an exiled academicOxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comBlogger448125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-31524546162052150802012-05-26T13:37:00.000+01:002012-05-26T13:40:20.935+01:002012-05-26T13:40:20.935+01:00

In relation to my recent post regarding the shifting of the bell curve, it is interesting to note that there has recently been a spate of newspaper articles commenting on a perceived lowering of ability amongst schoolchildren. An article in the Daily Mail (9 May 2012) quotes a Department of Education official, Dr Sidwell, as saying: ‘Even the outstanding primaries tell me that children at five

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-19112602293691926382012-05-21T20:08:00.001+01:002012-05-22T13:04:08.717+01:002012-05-22T13:04:08.717+01:00

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness, for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-43182942575781581482012-05-05T17:27:00.000+01:002012-05-26T13:28:38.625+01:002012-05-26T13:28:38.625+01:00

One expects any variation in the IQ bell curve to show up most noticeably at the upper and lower ends, where the percentages approach zero along the x-axis. It used to be said that the female bell curve was narrower than the male; so women were much less likely to be geniuses, but also much less likely to be idiots. The shift in the bell curve subsequent to the onset of the Welfare State may

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-89491838921603839342012-04-28T17:49:00.000+01:002012-05-18T14:22:17.648+01:002012-05-18T14:22:17.648+01:00

State-funded pensions will cost £5 trillion, today's Daily Mail informs us.Laid bare for first time, £180,000 burden facing every British family (headline, 28 April 2012)But why is this being ‘laid bare’ for the first time, one wonders, and not any of the other burdens facing the British taxpayer? Such as, for example, the cost of social workers to take babies away from their families and

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-45762974540012351982012-04-27T13:05:00.001+01:002012-04-27T13:09:02.219+01:002012-04-27T13:09:02.219+01:00

Extract from an article by the Daily Mail's Alex Brummer:Roughly one-sixth of construction output consists of putting up new homes. In the final quarter of last year housing starts were just 20,400 which is half the level of five years ago. Yet commercial housebuilders like Redrow and Persimmon are doing very nicely. How can this be the case? Having cleaned up their balance sheets after the Great

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-16529841667631999102012-04-26T00:19:00.000+01:002012-05-12T17:41:46.783+01:002012-05-12T17:41:46.783+01:00

This is something I drafted a long time ago but did not send because of lack of staff, money, and everything else that makes life tolerable. copy of a letter to a senior academic As the oppressive state closes in, there are protesters against capitalism camped outside St Paul’s, and a good deal of sympathy with them is expressed in many quarters. I hope I shall be able to fit in writing

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-25443524914378968392012-04-25T14:42:00.000+01:002012-04-27T23:28:08.132+01:002012-04-27T23:28:08.132+01:00

David Cameron has suggested that the NHS and the education system should ‘close the gap’ between rich and poor. Recently a grandfather of 29 was in the news. The low-IQ population seems to have a shorter generation length, i.e. seems to reproduce faster than the high-IQ (‘educated’) population. If at the same time it produces more offspring, say twice as many, as the high-IQs, it takes a

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-72680187842961460732012-04-18T12:55:00.000+01:002012-04-18T12:57:27.105+01:002012-04-18T12:57:27.105+01:00

I have a book entitled The Great Pensions Swindle* which, 40 years ago, made some useful points about the likely unreliability of state pensions. The following, however, is unrealistic:The breaking point is not postponable indefinitely. The resistance to periodic increases in ‘social insurance’ contributions will begin all the sooner when the ‘contributors’ realise they are paying not insurance

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-64515143362366366952012-04-12T16:57:00.003+01:002012-04-16T22:12:40.607+01:002012-04-16T22:12:40.607+01:00

It is objected that directors and shareholders of water firms continue to receive substantial ‘rewards’ in salaries and dividends, although the companies are failing to provide consumers with an efficient water supply.It may be that it is simply impossible to run such a company efficiently in a country so far gone in socialism as Britain now is. It may be that it is necessary to pay directors at

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-46445131129358900662012-04-02T13:23:00.000+01:002012-04-02T14:53:23.851+01:002012-04-02T14:53:23.851+01:00

Mention the world ‘tax’ to most people and their first – and often only – reaction is to ask for ways they can cut their tax bill. But once you ask those self same people if they want cuts in education, the national health service, road building or local street cleaning and their response is almost invariably ‘no’. (Tax Handbook 2011/12, published by Which?)It seems disingenuous, to say the least

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-25468977657812320842012-03-28T22:15:00.000+01:002012-03-30T09:02:58.960+01:002012-03-30T09:02:58.960+01:00

I see that those on pension credit (the means-tested supplement to the basic state pension), along with others receiving benefits, are to be able to buy a certain number of Royal Mail stamps at reduced prices.(Daily Mail, 28 March 2012.) The cost of this, including the cost of time spent by Post Office staff, will have to be borne by someone, presumably by those not on pension credit or receiving

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-42539988398454348722012-03-25T15:08:00.001+01:002012-04-12T17:14:14.817+01:002012-04-12T17:14:14.817+01:00

This is a letter sent to Bel Mooney, the ‘agony aunt’ of the Daily Mail. Dear Bel Every day I wake up and pray: ‘Please God let today be a good day — don’t let me think that I want to die’. Fifteen months ago, at the age of 56, my youngest sister died very suddenly of pneumonia. The whole family is devastated. Our parents don’t really talk of her and I can’t believe she’s dead. I have to keep

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-8770596344748119652012-03-23T20:58:00.001Z2012-03-24T12:46:44.363Z2012-03-24T12:46:44.363Z

(This is an update on the blog post of 25 April 2011, commenting on the government’s plans to tax property.Looking at the recent Budget, it now appears that the ‘mansion tax’ has been avoided or, more likely, deferred. Instead, stamp duty on ‘expensive’ (over £2 million) properties has been increased from 5% to 7%.)It appears that they have it in mind to tax property, which is bad for us as we

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-50115160064541353162012-03-22T17:00:00.000Z2012-03-22T20:26:24.896Z2012-03-22T20:26:24.896Z

George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announcing the Budget yesterday, said: ‘I regard tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance as morally repugnant’. (Daily Mail, 22 March 2012)What this means is that society must be free to use subjective criteria to decide what people’s intentions were when they acted within their legal degrees of freedom.Some decades ago there was a principle that

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-45550154732209198712012-03-10T21:36:00.001Z2012-03-12T11:20:06.228Z2012-03-12T11:20:06.228Z

text of a letter to an academicI have had to attempt to claw my way back to a tolerable life after the ruin of my career and family life caused by the so-called ‘education’. And I have had to do this in a society ever more dominated by the ideology that was responsible for causing the ruin in the first place.Ever more damaging legislation is continually proposed, and the relevant departments of

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-62817541953030229822012-03-03T15:16:00.000Z2012-03-07T16:01:58.345Z2012-03-07T16:01:58.345Z

A recent article from the Daily Mail on the Government's plans for pensions tax relief:Higher earners should lose higher rate tax relief on pension savings, Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander believes. The Lib Dem Cabinet Minister says the Government cannot afford to keep paying such a generous allowance on retirement investments. The changes, which could be included in next month’s Budget,

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-64801949059738700722012-03-02T16:28:00.000Z2012-03-07T16:02:14.212Z2012-03-07T16:02:14.212Z

How can it be that I complain of the lack of support for my work? Well, of course, lack of support for ‘my work’ is lack of support for me in the most basic sense, and there has been a plentiful lack of support, to the point of active opposition and obstruction.When I was at school (at a school which I was forced to attend against my will, having told my parents at the end of the first day that

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-51053141734267235592012-03-01T12:15:00.000Z2012-03-07T16:08:23.004Z2012-03-07T16:08:23.004Z

Once upon a time a headmistress said of me, ‘It will be good for her not to be treated as an exception.’ I found it very difficult to understand how she could even imagine that she honestly meant something by this, let alone something benevolent, since the sentence seemed to me to have the status of ‘It will be good for this horse to be treated as a dog’. The use of the word ‘good’ in particular

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-75175806193268926902012-02-21T16:39:00.000Z2012-03-07T16:02:41.505Z2012-03-07T16:02:41.505Z

text of a letter to an academicEverything goes from bad to worse, as it is intended to do.Professor David Eastwood, the vice-chancellor of Birmingham University, has been getting £419,000 a year, and others in comparable positions something similar.If my education had not been so deliberately ruined, or if recognition had been given to my ability to do things whether or not I had been allowed to

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-82913183919306269452012-02-13T16:01:00.000Z2012-03-07T16:09:05.968Z2012-03-07T16:09:05.968Z

Middle-class families face a battering in next month’s Budget after the Chancellor ruled out major changes to his plans to slash child benefit payments to higher earners. The Conservatives and Lib Dems will hold crunch talks this evening on a Budget that is expected to pave the way for tax raids on the better-off that will continue until 2015.George Osborne is set to ignore Conservative calls to

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-83552731594776966742012-01-22T11:00:00.000Z2012-01-23T03:46:25.558Z2012-01-23T03:46:25.558Z

Elderly should be encouraged to downsize ...[Housing Minister Grant Shapps] said that authorities should encourage elderly homeowners to move to more suitable accommodation by helping them rent their old homes to families. He pointed to the example of a pilot scheme in east London where Redbridge council has helped elderly people move without having to sell their homes in a bid to tackle the

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-80716992203014119422012-01-19T08:00:00.000Z2012-01-19T18:06:45.601Z2012-01-19T18:06:45.601Z

Below is the text of a letter of application to Oxford University recently sent with regard to a professorship in Education.Dear ...I am applying for the Professorship of Education being offered by the Department of Sociology in association with Green Templeton College, as advertised in the University Gazette, and attach my CV, which includes the contact details of three referees, together with

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-12886407082857948182012-01-16T15:00:00.000Z2012-01-16T19:06:52.380Z2012-01-16T19:06:52.380Z

In connection with the absurd claims by Alan Ryan (former Warden of New College, Oxford) that it is 'crazy' to look for a genetic element in determining intellectual ability, I may comment that I have never known, or known about, a family in which the innate variations in IQ and other aptitudes between the various members were not very definitely recognised by both parents and siblings. My

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-75029014642418084692012-01-02T16:30:00.000Z2012-03-07T16:09:22.322Z2012-03-07T16:09:22.322Z

The basic moral principle is that one should avoid imposing on other people one’s own interpretation of the existential situation, and overriding their reaction to it. This principle is weakly, and occasionally, recognised in human societies, and best protected, more or less unintentionally, in capitalist societies in which you can only get other people to do anything for you if you are willing

Oxford Forumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35794320.post-70938498188326930682012-01-01T12:01:00.000Z2012-03-07T16:09:38.441Z2012-03-07T16:09:38.441Z

The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. (Professor Albert Bartlett)I do not know that I would agree that unawareness of the exponential function is the greatest shortcoming of the human race, but certainly this unawareness (real or apparent) facilitates legislation which is designed to reduce the advantages of one section of the

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