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MMT is the solution to A Level marking problems

Young people, whatever their aspirations, and those who work in universities, businesses and other institutions who need to rely on exam grades to help them achieve their ambitions have all been failed by a body politic that has shown insufficient ability to rise to the challenge that coronavirus has created.

And yes, the alternative is MMT

He also runs through a list of why all politicians are ignorant bastards and then says we should give politicians more power.

Sigh.

22 thoughts on “MMT is the solution to A Level marking problems”

  1. It’s a list of politicians who have failed to give him the peerage, job or grant he is desperate for. Hence his call for a revolution led no doubt by Ritchie himself.

  2. From Spud’s comments:

    “Gordon Liddle says:

    In March I registered a company at Companies House, The Green New Deal Party.”

    This are the type of opponents ‘evil gangster capitalism’ will have to contend with.

    The company was formed in January not March.

    He’s director of some other companies too.

    Ichigo ichi-e Limited – formed July 2010. Been dormant ever since
    Krowddaddy Ltd – formed February 2012. Been dormant ever since
    Aztec Overseas Trading Limited. Formed January 2000 – last accounts filed were to 31 January 2019, micro entity accounts. Balance sheet shows capital and reserves at minus £61,493. A review of last accounts which gave any meaningful info on trade were 2003 – 2006 which showed combined turnover of £0.

    These socialists just KNOW how businesses should be run.

  3. BiW – Walter Ulbricht, Erich Honecker, Egon Krenz, Erich Mielke, Karl-Eduard v. Schnitzler, Markus Wolf, Günther Mittag and Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski were all told that there time was up which, fittingly, it was.

  4. Alfie, you made a great fist of it on Captain Potato’s ludicrous assertions about stagflation. Sadly, your time was called too fast

  5. Wrt A level results.
    The only fair method was to hold the exams and mark them.
    Whatever is substituted will be unfair and cause problems.
    It isn’t a kindness to allow a substandard applicant onto a course he can’t cope with, bearing in mind that he has to give up time as well as money.

  6. Pat
    “It isn’t a kindness to allow a substandard applicant onto a course he can’t cope with, bearing in mind that he has to give up time as well as money”

    In many cases the course requirements will adjust to allow him to cope.

  7. Bloke in North Dorset

    What’s been learned these past few days is something should have been more widely known. As a method of sorting students:

    Exams aren’t fair
    Teacher assessments aren’t fair
    Course work isn’t fair

    and added to that government sanctioned algorithms aren’t fair.

    Whilst the latter hadn’t been demonstrated in the past anyone with a couple of brain cells would have known that would be the outcome had they given more than a minute’s thought.

  8. Van_Patten

    De Beers holding a sale on Murphy’s blog:

    ‘And the far right is now so deeply embedded in the Tories (as evidenced by the ghastly videos coming out of Dover) that there is no room for anther party there, thankfully.’

    ‘And it’s pointless for the left to say that Corbyn would have done better, because there is not a shred of evidence that he would have done. His shadow education secretary is now deputy leader, and has not delivered.’

    ‘And yes, the alternative is MMT, because it says government is not limited by finance as all neoliberal schools of thought – including neo-Keynesianism – say it is. Right now it’s the only basis for a democratic alternative to this complete shambles that we have got.’

    To describe him as a halfwit would be being kind. I have never seen anyone, even in the comments section of the Broadsheets whose estimation of their intellectual heft and capacity is so out of kilter with the reality. Most people that ignorant would keep a low profile I think, rather than continue blindly on displaying their overt lack of knowledge or intelligence. Just mindblowing – like a demented Manure spreader powered by plutonium.

  9. Bloke in North Dorset

    I’m curios, what the difference between Keynesianism and neo-Keynesianism?

    It sounds to me like he’s just making up shit (again), like all those people who throw around neo-liberal and haven’t a clue what it means other than it’s obviously bad and signals they are good guys.

  10. Exams aren’t fair

    Incorrect. Well written and properly marked exams are completely fair. School students are given the exact scope of the course, and prior exams to study from. I can predict my student’s grades with precision, because they are so predictable. Also known as fair. If a surprising result comes through, it invariably turns out that they upped their study, or conversely gave up trying. Few students are given genuinely outlier results.

    If exams don’t test what you want to test, then the exam writer is at fault. Not the concept of exams. That’s why they are ubiquitous.

    Some crappy teachers and many educationalists don’t like them, because they expose their own limits. Students are rarely so stupid, unless fed grievance by the teachers/educationalists.

  11. Result of Williamson surrendering to left activists by raising grades and removing Uni cap:

    Sh1t Unis (eg Nottingham Trent*) now demanding Gov aka Taxpayers bailouts as inflated grades mean no thickos rejected by better Unis applying to them

    @Pat
    Spot on

    @Chester Draws
    Agree. Exams are best way to assess ability & knowledge in an unbiased way

    * Nottingham Trent University, Guardian University of the Year 2019

  12. Bloke in North Dorset

    Chester,

    They aren’t fair in that we can all have a bad day or even a good day*, and yes, I know that there’s an appeals procedure. But anyway, I was lazy and should have said, people complain they aren’t fair and to that extent you are right.

    *In one engineering exam I had looked up something on Fast Fourier Transforms the night before and lo and behold it was needed for one exam question. I don’t think I’d have got the full 20/20 if I hadn’t and I was the only one who did, which bumped me up the table.

  13. @Chester Drawers

    +1000

    Anybody really can compose an exam that everybody could pass – or hardly anybody could.

    Not too difficult to see which path has been taken over the last few decades.

    “It’s SO unfair and I blame brexit. I was expecting 700 A star star star star……..stars and I only got 695”

    Forlorn hope I know but is the real world finally making a guest appearance?

  14. I do remember ‘superstar’ intellects at my school back in the late 70s, early 80s, people who seemed to have brains the size of planets. Most of us took 3 A levels, they were only allowed to take 4. More than that was considered too much even for them. Now I routinely see reports of pupils taking 6. They get 6 A* grades. We didn’t even have A*.

    And I’m told it isn’t because of grade inflation or dumbing down of exams, it’s because they work hard and have great teachers. As if no-one worked hard or had great teachers back then…..

  15. In other news, inflation is rising in the UK.

    Asked for comment, Professor Richard Murphy said “It is widely accepted that inflation is a neoliberal invention, designed by Rupert Murdoch to discredit MMT. Who pays you? Anyway, you’re wasting my time. Your time here is done.”

  16. BIND

    *In one engineering exam I had looked up something on Fast Fourier Transforms the night before

    I looked FFT up and I’m no fvcking wiser from having read the explanation. Maybe I should ask Professor Muprhy to explain

  17. We didn’t even have A*.

    In the late 60s we had ‘S-levels’ that were significantly tougher then A-levels, but based on the same syllabus and taken at the same time – they were graded 1, 2, or Unclassified. I’m not sure why or when they were stopped. Only the best students (those expected to cruise an A grade) were entered for S-levels as an addition to A-levels.

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