The state of education: more classic politics on YouTube
This scene from Yes, Prime Minister is an absolute beauty - working on so many levels.
Bush shoe incident
With all that’s going on at the minute, I hope these clips brings some light relief…
read more...»Top US Politics YouTube clips
Having covered a fair amount of UK highlights, I thought I’d link to some top clips I use in US politics teaching.
These are all pre-Obama. I’m working on bringing video material on the current POTUS together for a future posting.
Happy viewing!
read more...»My top 9 UK politics You Tube clips
Gordo’s famous smile didn’t quite make it
Any ideas as to what should complete the 10?
Here are my 9 so far…
read more...»Useful reading list link
Chris Mullin, ex Labour MP for Sunderland South, and political diarist chooses his 10 best political biographies.
Helpful if you still can’t decide where to start when preparing your personal statement!!
The Big Society & Volunteering - Govt Minister Caught Short
BBC Radio 4’s Eddie Mair has a reputation for asking left-field questions of his interviewees that go right to the heart of an issue and put the interviewee on the spot. Here is a classic example, when Mair interviewed Francis Maude (current Minister for the Cabinet Office) about a project he has to drive through government - the Big Society. The Coalition has called for every adult to play their part in the Big Society by supporting voluntary organisations. You can guess what the next question might be - why wasn’t Maude prepared?
read more...»Why football and politics shouldn’t mix
Bolivian President Evo Morales fails to play fair
read more...»Lesson Activity - UK Politician Bingo
Here is a starter activity that might help get your new Politics students (and the old, experienced, cynical ones too) working well together at the start of term.
This is a series of bingo cards, each of which features a 4x5 grid of well-known UK politicians. I say well known - but will your students know them too?
The bingo game works so simply. At the back of the file (linked below) are a couple of call cards. You dont have to shout them out in the order provided, so long as you tick the names off as they are called.
Call out the politician’s name from the call card. If the student (s) recognise him/her, they can tick it off their bingo card.
First student / team to get a column of four correct can win a prize or points. Then the first to get a completed row of five correct. Finally, more points or prizes available for the first to complete a whole card. There are two bingo cards on each A4 page, and 40 pages in total - so plenty to use (and they are all different). Enjoy.
If you like this resource, come over to our Facebook page and let us know. Perhaps suggest some other politicians you’d like us to include in the next version. Perhaps suggest another list we could could use for a new image-based bingo game (e.g. international politicians, world leaders, famous political buildings or events?).
Download UK Politicians Bingo (1)
The worst campaign ad ever?
The demon sheep ad produced as part of the Republican Senate primary campaign in California is being widely hailed as a pythonesque absurd spoof, but is actually a sign of poor political taste…
read more...»The Daily Show does Palin
I’m sure teachers of American Politics won’t need reminding about the virtues of watching the Daily Show, but students may need a gentle reminder.
The episode broadcast in the UK last night contained a hilarious analysis of Sarah Palin’s major speech at the Tea Party conference in Nashville. Palin is a phenomenon and never quite manages to steer herself away from unintended controversy. If you’re not sure what I’m on about watch a replay from the Channel 4 website. Of course, Jon Stewart is presenting from a left wing perspective and I share many of his personal biases, so it may not be to everyone’s taste!!
Glenn Beck: the renegade running the opposition to Obama
Want to get a flavour of the degree of partisanship in modern American politics?
Say the Observer:
“Glenn Beck is a TV host, bestselling author and the most influential voice on the rightwing Fox channel. Now, even some Republicans worry that the extreme and maverick views of Beck and his supporters will make their party unelectable. Is the TV tail wagging the political dog?”
Read the rest of the article and listen to this classic five minute radio rant by the man himself. It takes a little time to load up, but it is hilarious. And just a little bit scary!
read more...»American Politics revision: seven exam tips
I’ve just sent this to my upper sixth sets. It may be of some wider use.
Don’t mess with Texas?
For reasons that are possibly too mundane to go into I have just read the special report on Texas from a summer edition of the Economist.
It is absolutely fascinating as a means of gaining a deeper insight into a rapidly changing state, and is a treasure trove of Americana. Did you know for instance that Texas is one of four states where whites are a minority, or that tequila was invented there?
I recommend:
Lone Star rising
The best and worst of Texas
The red and the blue
The new face of America
The New Conservative Policy on Europe - What Really Happened
Iain Martin has an exclusive over at the Wall Street Journal. He has been been handed a dodgy dossier which details the Conservative leadership’s fraught decision making process as they attempted to come up with the new policy. It is based on minutes of top secret meetings held in recent months and for historians offers a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the Tory high command.
Congress argues over BAT tactics
Just for fun…Members of Congress struggle to address a pressing issue - how the heck to get rid of that pesky Bat…
read more...»In case you didn’t already know
Hillary Clinton is the Secretary of State!
read more...»Did you know?
Sometimes the process of examining means that you learn new things. According to one candidate it is illegal to eat chicken with a fork in Gainesville, Georgia.
read more...»Just for fun - dramatic footage from a Congressional hearing
The Chairman of the Congressional hearing on Market Data Protection reform found himself regretting his earlier decision to bring his five year-old son to work…
read more...»Geronimo!
The Independent’s Big Question carries a feature on an intriguing and beguiling piece of Americana.
read more...»Mayor Boris takes a dip
Not even some knee-length waders could prevent Mayor Boris from getting that sinking feeling…
read more...»President Obama on Top Form as the Stand-up Comedian-in-Chief
Obama has them rolling around in laughter at last weekend’s Washington Correspondant’s Dinner. His speech was on the 10-day anniversary of his first hundred days 
Part two includes some bold claims about what he hopes to achieve in the second hundred days, including a target of getting the second hundred days completed 28 days early!
read more...»The West Wing way in
How one of this blogger’s favourite TV shows may help with revision
Politics Podcasts
I was talking today to my AS class about easy ways to keep up to date with politics as they are so reluctant to read a “proper paper” (no, I tell them, the Metro doesn’t count). I suggested that they dip into some of the range of excellent podcasts that are available.
read more...»“They misunderestimated me.”
Continuing the Bush focus (we will really miss him when he’s gone, and it will be difficult to believe he really was president for 8 years), here is a link to a BBC feature on Bushisms, those verbal dyslexia moments when 43 was unable to say what he meant.
There is a special section on Bush in the G2 section of today’s Grauniad. This is the web edition link. The print edition has a cut and keep Bush mask. Scary
Bush in pictures
Teachers
If you happen to be looking for suitable pictures to pepper your school’s intranet page with, or, say, want to add a bit of humour to a class handout, then try the Ind’y selection of George W Bush images. This link takes you to one of my favourite moments of the Bush presidency; the so called Pretzel incident.
Student’s caveat emptor
It’s fair to say that the British, and Europeans in general, can be somewhat smug when viewing goings on in the USA. On the one hand we want them to do the right thing: scrap the death penalty, tighten gun laws, etc. But on the other hand we like to sneer at their ability to get it wrong: proving what a barbaric and mixed up place it is. This is partly since it makes us feel superior. But it’s also because Americans seem overly proud of their country and their political system - viewing it as an extension of the democratic process that began with the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, habeas corpus, and the War of Independence, yet seeming to ignore that a raft of other countries in the world have made significant political advances since the birth of their nation. This explains how we can be simultaneously proud that they have elected Obama, but can also be incredulous that they elected Bush - not just once, but twice.
Anyway, reservations aired. They are funny pictures of a man that remains, to me at least, something of an enigma.
Bush shoe incident
See here for CNN’s take on another lowlight of the Bush administration
read more...»Cleggover puts his foot in it (again)
Sometimes I get asked by students whether there will be a relaignment of the parties, and if the Liberal Democrats have a chance of supplanting the current big two. Some Lib Dems believe that if they can break through the 100 MP barrier in the Commons then this will be a tipping point. But without a system of proportional representation this looks unlikely.
As for my penny’s worth I just don’t think that the media and the electorate consider them a serious party. Some studies suggest that many of the voters who have cast ballots in their favour have done so as a protest vote and probably would reconsider voting for them if they had a realistic chance of forming the government. Partly it is also because it is hard for us, and them, to say what they are for. Lastly, I don’t want to write anything libellous here. But type the following word combinations into any search engine:
“Paddy Ashdown adultery”
“Mark Oaten rent boy”
“Charles Kennedy alcohol”
“Lembit Opik Cheeky Girls”
So part of their problem is of their own making. Their current leader, Nick Clegg, had some explaining to do to this week after a journalist apparently overheard him laying into his front bench team. The Indy reports some of what he said:
‘...he had damning words for three of his most high-profile frontbenchers as he travelled on a 90-minute flight from London to Inverness with his chief of staff, Danny Alexander. With reporter Adam Lee-Potter eavesdropping, he reportedly said of Steve Webb, his energy and climate change spokesman: “He’s a problem. I can’t stand the man. We need a new spokesman. We have to move him. We need someone with good ideas. At the moment, they just don’t add up.” But he added: “We need to keep him in the cabinet. As a backbencher, he’d be a pain in the arse, a voice for the left. And we can’t move him before the spring.”’
Read the rest of the report here.
Bushisms: why we’ll miss W when he’s gone
In response to a string of misdemeanours by students in the fag end of this term, I have been quoting the current incumbent of the White House. It is likely that during this speech, Bush attempted to say “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”. This is what he actually came out with (lol as facebookers are inclined to write)...
Independent resources
The Independent today contains a feast of politics for students and teachers.
First off is their Great American Quiz The same links takes you to the answers. Teachers should be able to plunder this for many end of terms to come!
Some entertaining presidential trivia here
Why The Economist came out for Obama
Away from the US elections, here’s a good feature for UK issues coverage on the allegedly increasingly fluid nature of social mobility in the UK in the Big Question
Ex-England boss in clip with a funny accent
What is zeesh stupid youtube cleep doing on zem Politics Blug?
read more...»
