David Davis may be in Austria but his mind is on dystopian Australian visions. Below, our readers share their thoughts on Brexit, young people and cosmetics spending, and whether flexible working is a viable way to solve the teaching recruitment crisis.
To join in the conversation you can click on the links in the comments below to expand and add your thoughts. We’ll continue to highlight more comments worth reading as the day goes on.
Brexit dystopia?
David Davis, the Brexit secretary, plans to tell business leaders that Britain’s departure from the EU won’t lead to a “Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction”, which our readers did not find terribly reassuring.
I like how the bar for successful Brexit has been moved down to ‘the peoples of Nuneaton and Plymouth will not have to fortify themselves against attacks from roving gangs of post-apocalyptic raiders’.
BuckHucklebuck
Brexit won’t be the least little bit like Mad Max. For starters, no-one will be able to afford to run a car.
Peter Thompson
Davis is right. Mad Max’s battles were over fuel. The April 2019 riots will be for food.
ochongodeo
So, young girls love lipstick – that’s not the problem
The Office for National Statistics found that girls spend more on their appearance than boys do from the age of seven; on Opinion, Daisy Buchanan argued the lipstick imbalance highlights wider structural gender inequities. Some of our readers were optimistic that things will improve in future.
Children play at being adults its part of human development and how knowledge is passed on - this play has developed to encompass greater human complexity as we evolved.
Boys are now developing greater awareness of makeup and image and it’s not unusual now for them to use [things like] concealer again. This is mimicking what they now see of adults they wish to emulate. I would expect that cosmetics and toiletries spending gap to close over the next decade.
HelenWilsonMK
Flexible working sounds lovely, but it would make the teacher shortage worse
Could flexible working fix the burgeoning teaching crisis? Laura McInerney, editor of Schools Week, was sceptical, and teachers responding below the line also doubted that four day weeks would be possible with the current workloads.
Unfortunately after my 9 hour teaching day (I get 30 minutes for lunch during which I usually have kids around) at the end of every day I’m expected to complete a wide range of marking, data input and then analysis and reporting, and then plan all my lessons for the next day.
This doesn’t take into consideration responding to the 100 emails I haven’t had time to read throughout the day, plan trips and other activities, meet with my line manager - which invariably gives me another two or three tasks to complete - and then tidy up, make sure all the equipment is secure and in working order, and then lock up and go home. That’s assuming there weren’t any child protection issues that had cropped up during the day or other various immediately important issues.
carolinamoonks
Comments have been edited for length. This article will be updated throughout the day with some of the most interesting ways readers have been participating across the site.
