Weather insurance policies. U-turns. Inequality. Piggie-protests.

A rather rainy Tuesday today. After some time spent listening to the rain, I decided to run in the rain anyway this morning. Once you have decided to do so, it’s not at all bad. I have become quite adept at circumventing or jumping over muddy puddles. At one point I had to balance on a bit of a plank that someone has put over a rather deep one. It’s turning into an assault course!

The weather cleared later, probably prompted by the fact that I had hung my washing indoors to dry. It’s a bit like an insurance policy. Had I hung it out in the garden, no doubt the rain would have returned immediately. Further rain, even torrential stuff, is forecast for later though.

Well, the news is that the government has made another u-turn, this time over those non-exam grades. It’s almost becoming a modus operandi. However, Ofqual has said that while teacher assessed grades will now apply to GCSEs and A-Levels, they won’t apply to B-Tecs, which are more specialist work-related and include more practical elements. This decision has caused a new bit of clamour. Some educationalists are saying that those studying BTecs – many of whom still haven’t received their grades, despite being due to get them last week – had been disadvantaged by the UK government’s announcement:

“Students who have taken BTECs, utterly disadvantaged by this decision but there won't be the media or social media clamour because they aren't middle class qualifications.”

This comment has an element of truth. Middle class aspirational parents will have pushed/persuaded their offspring onto more traditional academic courses. Here’s what Zarah Sultana MP had to say about it all: ·

“The Government has U-turned! Instead of their rigged algorithm, teachers' assessments will be used for A-Levels & GCSEs.

Let this be a lesson: Working class young people don't have to accept the Tories' rotten deal. When we stand up & fight back, we can win a brighter future.

We now need to push to ensure that unfair BTEC downgrades are corrected, that no one wrongly loses a place at university, & that financial support is made available for those who have to defer.

And Gavin Williamson should resign for causing this fiasco.”

There seem to be no signs of resignations any time soon. He really needs to sort things out since he sort of got us into the mess. Besides, who would they replace him with?

And now, of course, there is another fine mess: university admissions! I suppose they could just withdraw all offers confirmed over the last few days, pretend last Thursday never happened and just start the process over again. But that would provoke another lot of protests from those who have now accepted offers as they stood last Thursday. It’s a real dog’s breakfast, as some people say.

Some of the young people who have now accepted their second choice offer might even be happier with that one in the long run. I remember a student of mine who missed out on going to study English at Oxford by one grade in one subject. He went off to study English and creative writing, I think at Exeter. At the time he was devastated but since then he has said it was probably the best thing that happened to him. He thinks he might have found the atmosphere at Oxford too heady for him and it would have encouraged his tendency to be impractically dreamy. He did well at Exeter and now does something in journalism, as far as I know. A bit of serendipity.

Another kind of outcry has arisen from the follow-up to the story of the German nudist whose laptop, in it’s bag, was stolen by a wild boar recently. The wildboar and her offspring have since been sighted frequently at Teufelssee lake rifling through bathers’ picnic baskets and rucksacks. Shades of Yogi Bear and bis love of “pickernick baskets”.

The animals’ cheeky lack of timidity has prompted some folk to say they are a danger to humans - a full grown wild boar is rather large after all - especially if the said humans try to defend their belongings.

“This wild sow and her two young is a frequent visitor at Teufelssee,” Katja Kammer, the head of the forestry office in the district of Grunewald told the broadcaster RBB. “They phlegmatically forage in broad daylight over the grass looking for food wherever there are bathers. They have lost all sense of shyness.” 


Now it has been suggested that the picnic-loving greedy piggies should be killed. Inevitably a petition has been organised calling for the “cheeky but peaceful sow from Teufelssee” to be spared. More than 5,300 had signed it by Monday afternoon. Its organisers said that in contrast to other wild boar, which can pose considerable danger to humans and dogs, this female had built a reputation “over years” of being friendly towards bathers.

“There has been absolutely no account taken for the fact that this sow has peacefully shared her living space with bathers for years,” they said, adding that the creature’s very friendliness was in danger of leading to its downfall. “This wild boar has earned the right to live,” they said.

I wonder how Astérix and Obélix would have reacted to this turn of events.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!