Jungle are cool!

Over Christmas I paid a lot of attention to the BBC's 'Sound Of 2014' competition and got a few new artists to listen to. Amongst them were the likes of George Ezra, Luke Sital-Singh and of course the winner Sam Smith but my favourite by far were the wonderful Jungle.

The London based duo have an old school feel to them that makes leaves you nodding your head to every track. They have been pretty secretive about who they are but are supposed to be releasing their debut album this year and so I'd expect they'll reveal themselves at some point in the near future. All I know is they are a band I keep coming back to every once in a while and loving them!

Here is the awesome video for 'The Heat':




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Bowie made me cry!

The BRITs all in all were a bit shit - either commercialised artists won an award or if someone decent won, the creepy commercialised fans would kick off. Twitter was a warzone last night! Noel Gallagher sold out and presented an award after spending years slagging off a lot of the people in that arena but did redeem himself a little when it turned out that the award was going to David Bowie. This pleased me because it showed that even if the music industry is full of crap, the public can say that they don't want it. 'Best British Solo Male' was, for me, the best category. With Jake Bugg, James Blake and David Bowie nominated, my hopes for the ears of Great Britain were raised.

Of course, Bowie was too cool for the BRITs and asked Kate Moss to accept his award for him and read out a speech which ended in "Stay with us Scotland." As I am so against Scottish independence and think that the English aren't doing enough to stop it happening, I was so touched by those words from such a God.

Of course, some of my fellow Scots didn't think so. I have seen many tweets with this kind of message: "PAH! David Bowie saying 'stay with us' when he lives in America... well nawww!" but of course, like everything to do with the SNP, this is under researched and flawed. The fact that SNP activist Alan Cumming, who has recently picked up an American citizenship, and Sean Connery another SNP activist, who lives in Greece, are hailed as heroes by the party and it's supporters shows how narrow-minded and hypocritical they are.

If you choose to vote SNP in the autumn that is up to you and I respect that decision but hypocrisy is not the answer. If you have a problem with Bowie's comment last night, you should also take a balanced and un-biased opinion and disregard those who support the SNP from a distance. These people pretend to be the voices of the people but when hardship comes (which it will because that is the reality of reform) they will be hundreds of miles away from you under someone else's government. I appreciate that the likes of Cummings and Connery believe independence is the way forward for Scotland but I also appreciate David Bowie doesn't and that is politics.

I was so touched by David Bowie's comments because it shows he cares unlike so many English celerities and politicians. It was a nice comment made by a nice man about a fabulous country.

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Losing all faith in my generation...

Often I think what it would have been like to have grown up in the '80s like my parents. Yeah, Thatcher was in charge and life in Scotland was pretty grim but the fashion, the films, THE MUSIC. On top of this, the '80s was a time where we weren't all completely dominated and controlled by the media and so, teenagers weren't a bunch of mindless morons! I was able to put up with it - the hashtags and slang was just times changing and the boyband craze has been around since the Beatles but over the weekend things have changed.

Before I start, I'm going to tell you that I like a drink and I do drink often. I'm not pretending for a second that teenagers don't sometimes binge on alcohol - of course they do and it is not a recent thing. Drinking alcohol underage is one of the first hints of rebellion and growing up in a teenager's lives but it gets to the point where is becomes ridiculous. I am of course talking about "neck nominations".

This is going to be short. I really don't understand it - PEOPLE HAVE DIED! Naively, I thought this was something that a select bunch of idiots did to make a tit of each other and that it would fizzle out in a few days like most Twitter trends. To a degree yes, it is a bunch of idiots making a tit of themselves and yes, this time next week it will probably be old news but I never thought that people who I'm friends with on Facebook would be stupid enough to do it. If you don't know yet, "neck nominations" is a current internet trend where people down a pint of an alcoholic beverage (originally beer) as quickly as possible and then "nominate" their friends to do the same.

These people on my Facebook are 16/17 and well educated individuals who surely must know that a pint of vodka, Budweiser, whiskey and cinnamon is so stupidly dangerous to drink in less than a minute..? Very stupidly dangerous especially when the news has been scattered with stories about how people have died as a consequence of doing it. To me, this internet trend has shown just how ridiculous social media has become and how easily led my generation has become. Where is the logic in the whole thing? 'OOOooh, my friend has tagged me therefore I must DO IT!' ??? Why do people crumble into peer pressure so easily? It's the stupidest thing to come out of  social media EVER.

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Gove is an arsehole.

I've made it clear in the past that Michael Gove to me is a perfect example of an absolute idiot with the Uni fees and the academy status (to name a few) and now he is beating out Labour peers from their posts with no reason and no warning? This man needs to leave politics and not come back.

This man is reluctant to allow the working class to have an equal right to education as the middle and upper classes and so triples University fees causing current students to be in debt until their 40. On top of this he enforces the Tory philosophy "If you're not a striver, you're a skiver." into compulsory education by making exams harder and harder for less able students to succeed. Somehow the man thinks these ridiculous changes will somehow raise the standard of the U.K's economy.

Some people may say that these proposals are a good idea and that we just have to wait and see yet almost 3/4 of the way through the Conservatives' term we have fallen out of the Pisa Top 20 and are now ranked at 26th place overall. To top this, Scotland (which is run by a separate government) are currently top in the U.K for the survey which tests 15 year old students on their maths, science and reading skills. Regardless, Mr Gove still insists that his new oppressive system which is pushing teachers out of their profession is exactly what the country needs.

It came to light over the weekend that Sally Morgan, OFSTED chair and Labour peer, had been sacked in order to, in Gove's words, "bring a fresh perspective" and insisted on the Andrew Marr show that it had nothing to do with the fact that she leaned towards the left and was a woman. Morgan and Shadow Deputy Prime Minister Harriet Harman seem to disagree. Morgan said in a Radio 4 interview that "I am the latest of a fairly long list of people now who are non-Conservative supporters who are not being re-appointed." which shows that Gove has an agenda to fulfil over the next year and a half to make weaken Labour's influence in organisations such as OFSTED. Harman stood up to Gove on the Andrew Marr show and asked why so many female's post were being replaced by men also saying "It's like raining men in the Tory party!" she continued to question Gove and asked "What is your problem in government with women?". I agree with her, apart from Nadine Dorries and Theresa May I wouldn't be able to name a recent female Conservative MP off the top of my head.

As much as I sympathise with Sally Morgan, OFSTED aren't in my good books either. They to me are a spineless organisation that seem too scared to stand up for what education is really about and go along with Gove's 'children are numbers' strategy to reforming the British education system. They do not motivate schools, they push them down and create tension in the work place and between the school and its peers. Yes, of course if a school need to improve, it needs to improve but the fact that some inspectors observe lessons and then don't give the teacher feedback afterwards (I am saying this from experience) renders the whole operation as a complete waste of time.

Maybe OFSTED does need a fresher outlook and maybe teacher need to improve standards because obviously schools in the U.K are not doing as well as they should be, as Mikey has told us that enough times, but how long can he put the blame on other people? The facts are simple: since the Conservatives came into power, standards in education have gone down and who is meant to be in charge of education? Yes, Michael Gove.

Sources:
Sally Morgan's radio interview - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25997102
Gove on Andrew Marr - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26005917
2013 Pisa results - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25187997
Harriet Harman on Gove - http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/02/harriet-harman-mocks-gove_n_4711813.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

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Hello old friend!

Hope your new year is off to a good start! I am so very sorry for going away, A-Levels eh? (Ohh a rhyme). So everything is well and good - although a little busy but I'm living comfortably in the same place I was the last time we spoke.

Since going back to school in January, I have found a lot to write about and have formed a lot of opinions that I didn't know I had or had forgotten I was bothered about. This has mainly come from my Media classes as we have started talking a lot about representation and in particular representation of women and the working class. Also my eyes are being opened to the importance of hard rock and trance in Music Tech and have fallen in love with Haydn in Music. English is pleasant though we are doing drama and as I hate reading aloud, I am keeping my head down a lot unless it is to voice something of importance. NO ACTING. 

I have decided to make a late new year resolution (yes I am aware it is now February) and try very hard to write at least one post a week on things that are happening round and about me in my life. Whether it is about music, the news, books or whatever I hope that you enjoy it!

Until then, you can follow me on twitter or tumblr. Tah-tah!

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