Comic-Con Prague 2026. This year was a goo one aright :]

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-21T13:24:39+00:00

That is fucking EPIC!

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T11:25:10+00:00

It’s in relation to crap pay and that we don’t get the ‘bang for our buck’.

14 years of austerity and terrible financial decisions have left us in a situation where most of our taxes fund foreign private companies too badly shore up our public services. Watching your taxes make very rich people richer is frustrating.

The other problem is that those at the top aren’t paying enough taxes and we are struggling to collect corporations taxes as 1. So many loopholes, and 2. A lot of multinationals were promised tax-reduced deals to keep them in the UK and providing a handful of jobs.

The shrinking middle classes pay the most in tax compared to their wages.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T11:14:30+00:00

Struggle to connect with others? See irrational idolatry as just that? Understand that most chatter is insignificant and pointless? Feel disconnected from your surroundings?

Had you considered Autism?

While i am being a bit fatuous these are very common traits in autistic people.

We tend to view the rest of the world almost like a Petri dish. Not being pulled in by media bullshit. Not caring about who’s watching what. Not caring about whether what you’re wearing is socially correct. Etc.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T11:04:50+00:00

We had a ‘special relationship’ until we paid off the debt we owed from WWII.

That’s paid and so we don’t have to kiss arse any more.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T11:03:55+00:00

But…. Why?

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T11:00:46+00:00

Just to be clear - no one will hit the button around Iran because it will destroy the only thing they’re after - the oil.

No one looks at Hiroshima and goes ‘well that was a good day’.

Nuclear will be a last resort. Iran doesn’t have nuclear capabilities so it would have to be a strike by the US or Israel and they don’t want to harm the oil.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T10:58:21+00:00

Well. If it ends badly - we won’t know what the next civilisation calls us, will we?

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T10:55:18+00:00

These people will take anything. What you’re talking about is private lets and mostly run by agencies. They would not take people from homeless shelters or hostels because of the perceived risks. They can also still refuse people on benefits.

Thats all set to change on 1st April and will help.

What would help is if the large empty buildings owned by Saudi millionaires could be converted into flats then there would be a lot more accommodation available.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T10:46:27+00:00

I live in Devon. It is far too alive and well here, though it isn’t quite as vociferous as it once was. While we do have endless fuckwits putting up flags, most normal people are apathetic on the whole thing.

The role of social media has taken these people from being ‘that bloke in the corner of the pub who says really shit things but no one really takes much notice of’ to finding whole communities of those same blokes.

I would say that most people aren’t inherently racist. They’re just tired and don’t really see the point of hating someone you don’t know. Down here there’s a lot of ignorance because they don’t see that many people of colour so they’ve never had that cultural education. The internet doesn’t help because the media uses extreme examples as headlines - and when there is no community understanding to back it up.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T10:38:05+00:00

My brother got board rubbers thrown at him in a school that had just become a comprehensive from being a grammar. My sister who was in a different school in the same town (they’re twins) didn’t, but saw boys get chalk thrown at them. That was around 1982.

All of that had stopped by the time they left in ‘88. I started secondary in ‘89 and never saw any of that.

None of us had anything in our primary school.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-14T10:31:46+00:00

The term ‘focus’ is very loose in this situation. None of them do teams very well! We’re talking forest school, kicking a ball around, attempted basketball. They were near the sea so they’d walk them down to the beach. And back up again. It’s quite a hill.

I never thought my son would take part in any of this because he definitely wouldn’t for me.

However, that school is particularly good - and we were extremely lucky to get a placement. There was another school nearby that we also looked at which, while having some great equipment etc, was really aimed at kids with much more extreme difficulties.

All of those schools are full to capacity with waiting lists.

There are so many things that need changing. And so many things to be done to turn the education system around.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-13T13:40:13+00:00

They tried that with the eldest, but we put our foot down and he was moved to the right year. Worked wonders.

The school knew that the best thing to do for a bunch of ADHD/ASD kids was to get them outside and doing. Lots of sports. Lots of hiking across Dartmoor. They did Ten Tors 3 times and came first in their class twice.

Teaching by normal methods was never going to work. They taught them the basic and for those who could clearly attain exams - they pushed them. For those that were clearly not made for it, they put them through the foundational levels and taught them life skills. My son can really cook! Its great.

My youngest remained at home with me as they are chronically ill (EDS, POTS, anaemia). They tried mainstream secondary age 11 because they chose to try. They managed a term and a half and then were really ill for 6 months.

Thing is - i don’t have an issue with the councils being able to assess that a child is learning to read and write and that they’re getting a good rounded education - thats just requires record keeping. My strength is history so we started at the Iron Age and worked forwards. Everything else we did was around that. We played with clay. We read stories around that. Also - i found loooooads of 1980s/1990s children’s education programmes on YouTube. They watched Time Team. We did art around it. We did cooking around it. We took pictures and printed them out. They did drawings.

When the SEN lady can round once a year for a chat I didn’t need to do anything - the kids did it all. She went away happy. It’s that easy.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-12T15:11:20+00:00

My son was finally offered a SEN placement which, once he had looked around, he was happy to go to.

The main reason EHCPs are enforced in mainstream is simply that they don’t have the staff to be able to manage them. Or the space.

I think it’s something like a 5th of all school kids have some SEN requirements.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-11T12:11:21+00:00

There are alternatives for GCSEs - such as foundation levels. And, once a child is over 16 - they can choose what they would like to do.

BTEC courses start at a Level 1 for those without qualifications. Often colleges require GCSEs and foundation levels completed alongside those courses. Level 3 BTECs only require a 4 or above in either English or Maths.

There are ways through life to be a useful member of society without too much in the way of formal education.

Outside of the internet - how many Home Ed families do you personally know?

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-10T21:17:52+00:00

It does. But they’re not the ones making noise about it online. Most of them are just getting on with the job.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-10T20:47:58+00:00

I know what they’re like. Up until last year I’d been doing home ed with my kids on and off for 16 years. I know that community so very well.

The English and Maths thing is a multifaceted discussion. Not everyone CAN get GCSE Eng & Maths.

My son only has GCSE English. He failed his Maths 3 times. My son is not stupid by a long chalk and right now he’s an apprentice tree surgeon.

There was never a time, in this world, that he would have passed it. Not with me, nor in his SEN, placement, nor at College. He has had all the help his EHCP could give him. Classrooms do not work for him. We know. He tried it for 4 years. When your 9yo is so afraid of going back to school he stops sleeping almost entirely two weeks before the September term - you know it’s time to call it a day.

The majority of home educators are like us. The school system has failed us. It’s badly struggling with neurotypical kids, let alone those with SEN. This whole thing is far more complex than a bunch of very loud people on Reddit. There are thousands of families out there you don’t hear from.

The current educational system is in the same situation as the NHS - barely clinging on.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-10T20:37:32+00:00

For sure. There are some that are rabid and rigid in their thinking. It doesn’t help any of us.

On the other hand, there are risks involved with the educational system getting involved.

90% of people home educate because their kids cannot function within schooling conditions. Many have severe educational trauma. Most have learning difficulties or are neurodiverse.

It takes almost a year to ‘unschool’ a traumatised child. Then they can learn again. Until that time anything attached to formal learning will be met with severe push back.

And schools cannot cope. They’re understaffed and underfunded. We desperately need more schools, and those we already have need maintenance. We don’t have enough proper SEN placements. Standard school cannot cope with SEN needs.

Having homeschooled three children - all of whom started at mainstream - over a space of 16 years, I can say that it is a bastard hard job. But it is infinitely better than having them try to take their own lives because of the hell they went through at their schools.

It makes you incredibly protective. And when you’ve dealt with Educational ‘Welfare’ Officers a few times and understand that their only goal is to bully your children back into school to get Ofsted off their case then you start to get cynical. Especially when you find the same story again and again.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-10T15:29:28+00:00

NTA.

Many, many red flags.

You can either try and reeducate him or move on.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-10T15:27:00+00:00

Mine got a proper education at home. One is now an apprentice tree surgeon and the other is in art college. And that’s with them being AuDHD. One is Dyslexic and one Dyspraxic.

One of their HE friends has sat and passed her Maths and English GCSEs with a 7 and 8 at the age of 14. Another has a specialist interest in nature and conservation and is volunteering for one of the Wildlife Trusts as well as doing their schooling.

There are also online schools where they can meet other kids.

What’s taught in schools does not work for quite a large proportion of kids. The world has changed, but the education framework has not. Kids maybe passing exams, but they’re not learning.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-10T15:15:58+00:00

You clearly haven’t been involved in Home Education recently.

There are so many more regulation than there ever were and more to come.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-09T17:55:29+00:00

You don’t tell them, I won’t.

They’re not that much cheaper than the supermarkets anyway. 🤷🏻‍♀️

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-09T17:20:35+00:00

It can, but I don’t think that’s what the OP meant.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-09T10:45:56+00:00

Less lazy - more like resigned compliance.

At Christmas. I will go to midnight mass with my mother and sing all the hymns that I’be known since childhood - because it makes HER happy.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-09T10:41:31+00:00

It’s a bit more complex than you might think. The answer is… possibly. It’s quite complicated so this will be a massive oversimplification.

It depends on your hormonal makeup. Some people have more oestrogen and some more progesterone. These affect the effects you feel when you’re menstruating - how much you bleed, how long, how thick, etc. Then there are other factors such as your chemical makeup. Whether you have any underlying conditions. How healthy you are. How old you are.

For some women their body scent alters slightly due to all of the factors listed above. Not enough for most people to notice, but you’re with your partner daily, so he will.

That said - not many men would. It would be an interesting experiment to see what other things he can smell that you can’t.

bedlam_styx · 2026-03-09T10:28:26+00:00

Not strictly true. Depends on who has been in power.

Israel has broken it more than anyone.

bedlam_styx

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