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Otto English

@ottoenglish.bsky.social

95K followers 1.1K following 12K posts

Pen name of writer Andrew Scott. Professional irritant. Represented by Pew Literary NOTORIOUS is out now! Link to it and other three below: https://linktr.ee/OttoEnglish

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 5d

NOTORIOUS is STILL on offer as an ebook for just 99p.

Rob me while you can on kindle and kobo before the Feds catch up with you - it's a time limited offer ...

Links below

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0F2...

a man in a suit and tie standing in a room

ALT: a man in a suit and tie standing in a room

media.tenor.com

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 22m

Absolutely epic thread. He was a former head teacher of the secondary school I went to. Just an old picture on a wall with the other former heads. No post-nominals. No fuss made. I expect now all this is known the school would make a bigger deal of him. It's the kind of school that would.

Coates is Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 1h

It’s the 111th anniversary today of the birth of Harry Rée, who was a teacher and conscientious objector when the Second World War broke out, and by the time it ended, when he was 31, had invented ‘blackmail sabotage’ and got a DSO, an OBE, a Croix de Guerre, and a Medaille de la Resistance

b/w photo of a man in socks and sandals, jacket, short and jumper, in front of a wall with a bike leaning on it, and with a pipe in his mouth. If you wanted one image to sum up the word ‘nonchalant’, this would be it

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 5m

Presumably want to give it a point of reference people can understand

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Adam @adamcobb.bsky.social · 1h

It is basically B1 (and in some cases B2). What they mean is, the equivalent of an A-Level pass in a foreign language. The explaining is just dreadfully misleading (possibly deliberately for headlines...) bsky.app/profile/otto...

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

All of this is being put out to placate the right wing press...

In the meantime, it's causing fear & confusion. As I understand it:

● this only applies to some people on skilled visas
● it's not "A level English" it's something called SELT
● much the same requirement exists elsewhere in EU

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 1h

Under the Tories they used a test called IELTS. So as far as I can tell there's nothing that different going on here. It's just a combination of very bad messaging and a hunger to please the press/GB News

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ashic @ashic.bsky.social · 1h

There's always been an English language requirement for work & student visas. You'd need IELTS, TOEFL, etc unless you graduated from a course taught in English. I expect the vocabulary isn't designed for those that know, rather the intellectually challenged who cling to slogans. "Reformed wording".

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 1h

It does seem a bit random

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 1h

Yup

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 1h

I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect that people in senior positions of trust can speak the local language. Important even.

But you're right - they're selling it as another "hard on migrants" policy and the people they're aiming that at just hate foreign people anyway

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

Good point

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

I think it's only for skilled work. So the example given is doctors and church ministers at B2 - which doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Not sure what jobs require a B1

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

Yes this

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

Maybe they simply don't care about anything other than headlines

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

My thanks to @danielrooney.bsky.social who explains that B2 is equivalent to a good A level grade in a modern "foreign language" hence the A level reference.

But most people won't require that score it's just for people like doctors and church ministers

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Daniel Rooney @danielrooney.bsky.social · 2h

A good A-level in a modern foreign language is around a B2, which is where the (very confusing) reference to A-levels came from.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

Ah got you. That makes sense

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

None of that detail is in the announcement and required some digging.

I'm happy to be corrected by anyone if I've got it wrong but in fact from what I've read it's not that unreasonable... and isn't that different to what already existed.

Why this government wants to make enemies is another issue

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

The required level is a B1 or B2.

Equivalent to intermediate or upper intermediate English.

I worked as a TEFL teacher many moons ago, and that's most certainly not A level grade English - or at least it wasn't back then.

In its rush to appear tough, this government is losing what friends it had.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

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Nelly Carr @aliceec.bsky.social · 2h

The author also thought Truss had a good plan. Bless.
1828.org.uk/2022/09/07/t...

Truss has a radical vison - but will she deliver? - 1828 - Championing Freedom

As Johnson resigns from office, it’s hard to deny that our country has been left in a quite damning economic situation. Many will be hoping that the new Prime Minister represents a change in direction...

1828.org.uk

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 4d

anyway, I am pleased with this column, I think it is good, I hope you read it rather than just shouting at me for what you think it might say

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

By Jonn Elledge

Illustration by Roy Scott / Ikon Images
“Acomputer terminal,” Douglas Adams once wrote, “is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about.” In the same way, while the platform known in happier times as Twitter is famously not the real world, that’s never meant it can’t affect it.

One of the less upsetting ways those effects can manifest is outlined in a new report from “reputation management consultancy” (euch) Montford Communications. Posting to Policy explores the way wonks, politicos and shitposters alike drive government action through the raw power of their takes. “A niche account posts something punchy. It lands,” the report explains, with more full stops than is acceptable anywhere but LinkedIn. “Traditional media pick it up. Politicians respond. And policy follows. This is the ‘posting to policy’ pipeline and it’s fast becoming the new normal.”

Not all the examples the consultancy gives of this pipeline in action are entirely convincing. The “Nick, 30 ans” meme may have generated discourse, but it has not, as far as I’ve noticed, led to attempts to actually rethink intergenerational fairness; and while Robert Jenrick’s fare-dodging video made some waves, the shadow justice secretary is not, appearances notwithstanding, a shitposter. The most persuasive example offered is the transformation of Motability from a worthy but obscure scheme allowing those in receipt of mobility allowance to lease cars, to a “something must be done”-level spending scandal through noise on X alone.

Montford’s argument isn’t wrong: it’s abundantly clear by now that things that happen on the internet rarely stay there, and while hacks and wonks hang out on the same platforms as those with actual power it’s unsurprising that ideas sometimes migrate from the former to the latter. That, though, does not mean these conclusions are either new or significant. I can think of things I put on the internet ten years ago that g…

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 13h

Fun fact. Alex Jones is three years younger than Aled Jones.

All that hate is not good for a man.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 13h

If you have tears to weep - shed them in mocking laughter.

It's all this monster deserves.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

US Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones appeal in Sandy Hook shooting case

The right-wing conspiracy theorist has not yet paid any of the more than $1b in damages he owes Sandy Hook families.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 13h

The Supreme Court upholds decision requiring Alex Jones to pay $1.4 billion for saying Sandy Hook was a hoax.

Good. His slanderous statements caused unnecessary trauma.

Pay up.

Then start advocating for better gun control.

It’s long past time.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 13h

I took a deep dive into that one in my second book. He really didn't try - and the only people who claim otherwise are family and those with a vested interest in his legend. His second wife suggested this is why he went so over the top politically later on. Making up for it by over compensating.

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 1d

going viral here is worse than it used to be on twitter because half of the replies will just be pure pedantry

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