It seems Britain at least has a leader

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As the coronavirus death toll in the UK rose to 422 people as of Wednesday, the UK government called on fit and healthy adults to deliver vital supplies such as food and medicines to up to 1.5 million vulnerable people, drive them home after being discharged from hospital and make regular phone calls to those in self-isolation.

Overnight the number of British volunteers who had pledged support topped 170,000, and as the day went on the target was smashed. “That is already, in one day, as many people as the population of Coventry,” said Boris Johnson in the daily Downing Street press conference.  Announcing on Wednesday morning that the government’s volunteering scheme was two-thirds of the way to reaching its target just 15 hours after it was set in motion, NHS England’s national medical director, Stephen Powis, said he was “bowled over” by the “astonishing” response.

“Yesterday we sent out a call to arms for an army of NHS volunteers, looking for a quarter of a million volunteers, and I can say that overnight we’ve already had 170,000 people sign up … It’s an absolutely astonishing response,” he told BBC Breakfast.

The overwhelming response has prompted the NHS to extend its target to recruit 750,000 volunteers in total. Those volunteers who have already signed up will start next week.  The figure already today stands at 504,303.

In addition, 12,000 recently retired NHS staff came forward to rejoin the frontline following a separate call for help. The government has announced plans to set up a makeshift hospital with a capacity for 4000 beds, in east London.

The difference with the US is that the British love, and feel they own,  their health service, support it fiercely and want to help it triumph over the virus and help the old and the sick.  Prime Minister Johnson is not a personal favorite, perhaps, but on this case he is leading.

The spirit is Epicurean, even if the participants have barely heard of him!  Bravo!

A sign of the times

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MPs in Britain have rejected an attempt to force the Government to seek continued membership of the Erasmus+ programme, which funds the studies of 16,000 British students in Europe a year. The vote on a Lib Dem-backed amendment to the withdrawal agreement bill was lost by 254 to 344 votes. However, the Government says it is hoping to continue the “academic relationship” with the EU.

Those who believe in education and open minds, not to mention learning foreign languages will be appalled that Parliament, the new, very right- wing British parliament, could be this short- sighted and petty.  Epicureans regard themselves as citizens of the world and will regard the Erasmus+ programme as highly desirable and civilized.  ( The Week, 18 January 2020)

(P.S:  32% of Britons aged 15 to 30 can read and write in a second language, making the UK the worst performer in Europe. In the next worst country, Hungary, the figure is 71%. In Germany, it is 91%.    (European Commission)

The decline of customer service

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The service industry was meant to be the “engine” of our economy.  Whatever happened?  Where did “service” disappear to?

Supermarkets now want to charge you for service but get you to do the work yourself.   You pick from the shelves and often bag the goods yourself. One member of staff supervises six or eight self-check-out machines, watching while you fumble around trying to find the price of a pound of bananas, and reluctantly approaches when the machine won’t work.

Airlines now want you to use a check-in machine, scan your labels, attach them to the luggage and take them to the loading machine, all of which takes longer than if a human being did it for you. Everywhere companies are so-called “empowering” the customer, while actually cutting staff and service. You can be certain that the reduced staff will be paid no more, but the resulting profit will find its way in the pockets to the senior executives.

So big business has managed to reduce face-to-face contact with other human beings (ever spoken to a CEO?) held down wages and made the world a more unequal place

I am no admirer of socialism, but modern capitalism ( which has heralded unprecedented inequality of incomes into the bargain) is letting us down and helping only the rich minority.  It needs an overhaul, along with the health system.

Foreign languages “protect” the brain

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The theory that learning a foreign language has a protective effect on the brain has been boosted by a new study showing that people with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience less cognitive decline if they are bilingual. When a team at the University of Reading compared the mental abilities of bilingual and monolingual MS patients, they found that the former performed markedly better, and particularly in an area known as “monitoring”, which is connected with people’s ability to think laterally.

That bilingualism provides some protection against neurodegenerative decline was first suggested by studies that found evidence that the symptoms of dementia develop later in bilingual people. Bilingual people have also been found to be better at remembering shopping lists and at distinguishing quickly between important and irrelevant information.  (The Week, 1 Feb 2020)

My take:  When I tried to learn a foreign language, in this case Italian, at the local university, I made the mistake of joining a class of 18 and 19 year olds, most of whom already spoke fluent Spanish.  I desperately tried to keep up, but it was like trying to race a group of Olympic athletes.  I had to admit defeat.  Learning German as an adult for business reasons was also a bit frustrating. The  Germans only wanted to practice their excellent English.

I do think born English speakers are at a disadvantage growing up to speak the main world language -a moral one anyway. However the shoe will soon be on the other foot. Soon  English speakers will have to learn Chinese.  Good luck with that!

Pathetic!

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It’s the taking part that counts. That used to be the great mantra of school sports at Britain’s old private schools.  You don’t hear it so much in the fee paying sector these days. The focus today has dramatically shifted to the importance of winning at all costs. Where school sports were once run by academic staff, today they’re increasingly managed by ex-professionals, especially hired as directors of sports.

In rugby, in particular, success on the playing field is now seen as a potent marketing tool for impressing prospective parents. One rugby coach has revealed that whenever the 1st XV lose a Saturday fixture, the headmaster calls an urgent meeting to demand an explanation. There has also been a surge in schools offering bursaries or scholarships to talented rugby players – some even poach top players from rival schools with offers of fee discounts. And along with this professionalisation of school rugby comes an obsessional focus on year-round weight training to bulk up the players.

Now, following a recent influx of ex-pros into school coaching jobs, hockey and netball look set to follow suit. It may be the way to get results, but it isn’t really cricket. (Robin Hardman, The Spectator)

My take:  My father played for the England international rugby side against France.  One appearance only, but you can imagine the pressure on me, having a top-class player in my own Dad.  But I was big and ran fast and did well at it in my turn – but thought it all ridiculously overblown, even in those Dark Ages.  Keep fit, yes, and learn to work as part of a team, yes,  but the emphasis on such games, especially, in England, rugby was, well, totally out of proportion.  I was hailed at school for my sporting ability, but no one even commented, including the teachers, when I got into a good college of a good university (no names, no pack drill).  As for the year-round weight training for teenagers, this sounds definitely dodgy, if not obscene.  I have heard of kids taking drugs that bulk them up and help them run faster.

These adults have their priorities seriously messed up.  I’m glad I don’t have teenage kids at schools such as described here.  And where are the parents and what on earth are they thinking?