Michael Merrick

Michael Merrick

@michaelmerrick.bsky.social

Northern. Catholic. Father of 7. All views my own. AMDG Mostly on twitter: @michael_merrick - website: michaelmerrick.co.uk

719 Followers 64 Following 254 Posts Joined Aug 2025
3 weeks ago

If you're an educationalist and you're angry with Labour on SEND reforms, you have to recognise that this government is probably the most ideologically-aligned you're ever going to get and they're still disappointing you. Suggests the problem is not the politics

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3 weeks ago

I note Andrew is still 8th in line to the throne, having never done anything so bad as become a Catholic.

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3 weeks ago

Pleased with how this one has done - although most of the traffic has been from the, err, *cough*, other place

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3 weeks ago
Preview
Losing Faith in Education I do like a paradox – they’re useful little things. They can convey a great truth whilst appearing to demonstrate foolishness on the part of the one uttering it. This probably speaks to…

We have AI coming squarely for the knowledge economy and service sectors, that very space our school system is primarily set up to support, and our politicians' main preoccupations are breakfast clubs and phone bans. We need better. michaelmerrick.co.uk/2026/02/17/l...

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3 weeks ago
Preview
Losing Faith in Education I do like a paradox – they’re useful little things. They can convey a great truth whilst appearing to demonstrate foolishness on the part of the one uttering it. This probably speaks to…

We have AI coming squarely for the knowledge economy and service sectors, that very space our school system is primarily set up to support, and our politicians' main preoccupations are breakfast clubs and phone bans. We need better. michaelmerrick.co.uk/2026/02/17/l...

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3 weeks ago
Preview
Losing Faith in Education I do like a paradox – they’re useful little things. They can convey a great truth whilst appearing to demonstrate foolishness on the part of the one uttering it. This probably speaks to…

New post - on the paradox of a society that talks so much about education, whilst appearing to care so little. michaelmerrick.co.uk/2026/02/17/l...

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3 weeks ago
Preview
Losing Faith in Education I do like a paradox – they’re useful little things. They can convey a great truth whilst appearing to demonstrate foolishness on the part of the one uttering it. This probably speaks to…

NEW POST: Losing Faith in Education - michaelmerrick.co.uk/2026/02/17/l...

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3 weeks ago
Preview
Losing Faith in Education I do like a paradox – they’re useful little things. They can convey a great truth whilst appearing to demonstrate foolishness on the part of the one uttering it. This probably speaks to…

NEW POST: Losing Faith in Education - michaelmerrick.co.uk/2026/02/17/l...

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3 weeks ago
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Between 1900 and 1970, around 2000 country houses were lost - for a bunch of reasons, but death taxes was right up there. Just an unimaginable loss of heritage. Here, Crofton Hall just outside Carlisle, home to the Brisco family for 500yrs, demolished 1955

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1 month ago
Print featuring the silhouette of a bare hedgerow under a purple sky filled with birds flying in group formation

'Storm light' by UK contemporary printmaker Mikki Bowers #WomensArt

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1 month ago

😊

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1 month ago
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From Rates to Ruin - Policy Exchange Download Publication Online Reader This paper warns of the looming crisis of local authority SEND spending in England. In just 6 years, local authority spending on SEND provision has increased 58.5% i...

'In just 6 years, local authority spending on SEND provision has increased 58.5% in real terms – equivalent to over £5 billion in additional spending.' - Policy Exchange.

Some eye-watering stats in this - read the report here: policyexchange.org.uk/publication/...

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1 month ago
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It's a dereliction of duty. Headteachers, parents and children deserve better than this

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1 month ago

ok

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1 month ago

1) for goodness sake 2) as we have learned already, the caveat to informing parents is so wide you can drive all sorts of horrors through it

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1 month ago

So I keep being told!

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1 month ago

Been in London. Thoughts:
1) £6.45 a pint
2) Not seen a single buggy/pram/pushchair, or any young kids that weren't obviously tourists
3) rainy day in Feb but much quieter than I remember ever being before
4) and cleaner
5) what's the point in Warren St station?
6) £6.45

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1 month ago
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want

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1 month ago
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Christ Walking on Water, von Klever

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1 month ago

I was referring to the colonisation point! Much more a cultural claim than financial - and I think it's that cultural claim that is most prominent (and incendiary tbf)

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1 month ago

You keep reverting motivated reasoning about money, but that is moot because it only holds so far as your explanation is accurate. The point is if people in radically different financial circumstances make similar (non-financial) claims, then attributing it financial-priors is unfalsifiable

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1 month ago

I meant the view about immigration and your view that it is motivated reasoning of the rich

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1 month ago

But people with very little money often say the same thing - of course this logic might apply there too, but as a theory it becomes a bit unfalsifiable

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1 month ago
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Bookstall outside Ye Olde Rovers Return pub, Manchester, January 1954. The 14th century building was demolished in 1958 (Getty/Manchester Evening News).

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1 month ago

Love that book.

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1 month ago
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Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, 2023. It’s a dark and rainy day in Portland, Oregon, and I felt the need for some color in my life. I think this fits the bill. #Photography #Architecture #Interior #Paris #France 📷

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1 month ago

If this is the adults back in charge I'm at a loss for what we are supposed to do next

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1 month ago
Stylised art deco painting featuring a sitting white woman with blonde waved hair in a green dress, large white hat and white gloves

Young Lady with Gloves, 1930 by Tamara de Lempicka, Polish Art deco painter #WomensArt

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1 month ago

problem is there's never relegation

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1 month ago
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When The West With Evening Glows, 1901, painting by Joseph Farquharson, Scottish artist. Painted Deeside landscape in various weathers.

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