Iain Dale Dispenses Manna for Wonks

November 25th, 2009 by The Parallax Brief

A post on Iain Dale’s blog this morning had the Parallax Brief caught between enthusiasm and self loathing.

Eleven years ago, when I was at Politico’s, I produced a three hour video of Party Political Broadcasts. Incredibly, it became a bit of a cult hit and sold more than 6,000 copies. It even made the ‘And Finally’ slot on News at Ten.

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Tonight, Hanover Communications are sponsoring an event at the BFI which I hope to attend, which celebrates 75 years of PPBs. David Dimbleby is hosting a panel discussion I believe.

There’s a DVD out there with the best PPBs? And a discussion chaired by David Dimbleby dedicated to them? Awesome.

But wasn’t there a time when something, you know, actually cool, like a gig or a football match, would have been preferable to watching a three hours of PPBs or attending a meeting about a load of PPBs with a load of other wonks, geeks, nerds political junkies and pro-spinners?

What has the Parallax Brief become?

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Categories [ Miscellaneous Titbits, UK Politics ]

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Better Trained Nurses is a Good Thing

November 12th, 2009 by The Parallax Brief

RedCrossNursenIain Dale really needs to think harder about this:

“…when I heard this morning that the NHS was now going to insist on a degree before nurses could train, I was dumbfounded. Not all nurses are academically gifted and would want to do a degree. Does a degree in astronomy make a nurse better able to do his or job, than four years hands on training? I’d have thought not, and yet all the nursing bodies seem to approve of the policy.

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UPDATE: Several commenters are pointing out that the mandatory degree is in nursing. On the face of it that has a certain logic to it, but on the other hand there are plenty of perfectly good nurses around who would struggle to get a degree. And the point about foreign nurses still stands.”

It’s amazing that even when his readers have pointed out that his silly assumption that the NHS was going to try to recruit law or applied mathematics graduates into nursing, he still ploughs on with the idea that nurses are far too stupid to get degrees and that means we shouldn’t bother trying to have a better qualified nursing force.

The thing to understand is that any nursing degree of this kind won’t be an academic degree but a purely vocational qualification that will simply better train new nurses for the job. So people good at nursing are going to get good results from the degree.

It’s not like someone with the special talents required to have potential to be an exceptional nurse is going to be told that he or she can’t become a nurse until they’ve grasped string theory or the implications of Wilsonian foreign policy.

Seeking to build a workforce of better qualified nurses is not something to be criticised.

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Categories [ UK Politics ]

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Dale vs Cash: Ask and Ye Shall Receive

October 21st, 2009 by The Parallax Brief

No sooner had the Parallax Brief wrote that he hoped for continuation rather than conciliation of the deliciously catty Twitter tete-a-tete between Iain Dale, the Tory uber-blogger, and Joanne Cash, a candidate for the Conservative selection for Westminster North, and both sides are out for round two, swinging for the knockout — or at least clawing and hair-pulling.

Joanne_Cash @iaindale U know I have been one of ur vocal supporters incl a week ago when you were attacked on gay issue? Why are you silent on this?

IainDale @Joanne_Cash FFS, Now you’re whining about something I didn’t say, rather than something I did. Just accept there are 2 sides to this.

Joanne_Cash @iaindale “Just accept there are 2 sides to this” You have to laugh ;)

Dale seems royally rattled by Cash’s attack; Cash is apparently dumbfounded by Dale’s objection on women-only lists as a method to combat under-representation. Certainly, neither side is ready to do the mature thing and back down for decorum’s sake. A favourite moment of the Parallax Brief’s was when Cash put her metaphorical hands in her pockets, looked sulkily at the ground, gently kicked an imaginary stone and sniffed “didn’t want to tell you that I am actually one of his supporters.” Comedy gold.

The Parallax Brief is only surpised that the whole episode seems to have gone unmentioned elsewhere on the blogosphere. It’s as if two members of the same political party not only airing differences of opinion publicly, but descending into schoolyard name calling on Twitter (!), is commonplace. Obviously, it’s not going to be top story on The World at One, but this is more than a spat between spotty, self-regarding members of a university Young Conservatives Club: Dale is a high profile figure in Conservative circles and in the increasingly important blogosphere, while Ms. Cash could soon be a sitting MP. Or perhaps the Parallax Brief has got it wrong, and in the new world of social media, this kind of thing is par for the course. Can we arrange a Twitter meeting between Ken Clarke and John Redwood immediately, please?

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Dale In Twitter Row With Tory Candidate

October 21st, 2009 by The Parallax Brief

Iain Dale, arguably the UK’s most influential Conservative blogger and recent losing candidate for the Bracknell Conservative selection, crossed swords with Joanne Cash, a candidate for the Conservative selection for Westminster North, in a tetchy Twitter exchange yesterday.

Iain Dale Twitter Rant

As the Parallax Brief reported yesterday, Dale was one of the most outspoken critics of Tory leader David Cameron’s decision to impose all women short-lists for constituency seats which become open from January. Dale’s stance on the matter drew Cash’s ire, however, leading to an unseemly but entertainingly catty altercation between the two Conservative would-be MPs.

The exchange in full:

Joanne_Cash @iaindale & @timmontgomerie on DC’s shortlists SO depressing. Politics not representative Needs more women Urgent No other way Get over it

IainDale @Joanne_Cash I agree. But this is not the way to do it. And less of the ‘get over it’ if you please.

Joanne_Cash @iaindale U cd have made huge diff to Party today and raised ur own standing by supporting selection of women over equal men to avoid need

Joanne_Cash @iaindale contd Instead you missed chance to advocate change at grassroots and fuelled all the old cliched prej. I thought you had more guts

IainDale @joanne_cash who do you think u r to accuse me of lacking guts? Perhaps if u knew more about me u wouldn’t utter such inanities.

Cash did strike a more conciliatory tone at the end, but as of the time of writing it had gone unheeded, and the Parallax Brief rather hopes this simmers on. First, it’s hilarious to see two supposed allies going at it, and second, it’s further proof of the unvarnished joy of Twitter. You can tell it’s not some sappy PR lackey posting these for Dale and Case — those are genuine people genuinely losing it with eachother. The Parallax Brief supposes it just goes to show what an emotive subject positive discrimination is. Either that, or Dale is still smarting from the Bracknell loss and was in no mood to be told he lacked guts.

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Categories [ UK Politics ]

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