i am still waiting for my TMA 03 mark.

So I decided to start my TMA 04 by doing the second part first.

I do like the second part of the TMA's. so self reflection or summation or engagement with previous feedback helps provide 10% of the mark.

Now we are at the business end of the module, both TMA 4 and 5 carry 25% weighting towards the final assessment score.

So making sure I have my part 2's done well can help secure some valuable marks towards my final mark.

so if ever asked for advice, I would suggest making sure you have time set aside to maximise the score of part 2's of TMA's to give yourself the best shot of a overall good assessment score.

Here's the link to the BBC news story about Brunhilde Pomsel who died today

Goebbels secretary... 

and her 106 year longevity...

Hard to see karma at work sometimes...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38793048

The Liberal and socialist sides of debate have recently been decrying populist votes in the media.

I.E Brexit and Trump. 

Well yesterday we got some news here on a very local level.

Southampton ( Tory ) and Portsmouth ( Tory ) councils have been pushing to create a Solent Combined Authority. The Two Isle of Wight leaders ( Tory's )quit over the plans ( they were replaced by independents)

Hampshire County Council ( more Tories) opposed the plan and yesterday the government ( tory's ) killed it dead and the cities of Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight will remain independent.

The most vocal critics of the plan have all been left wing supporters.

So when is a populist vote left wing and when is it right wing?

So I had made this infographic before Christmas to try and sum up the Solent Combined plan.

Yes I enjoyed block 4, I am so much more comfortable with compare and contrast concepts than the much broader questions from TMA 1,2and 3.

Hopefully my TMA 4 score will be my best one yet...

All I have to do now I get my head down and write it !

Just another bit of satire from me.

Just one more for the mean time, I would not want to wear out my self awarded welcome..

This one is philosophical again, economic and Portsmouth based.

For those of you not my from home town, a 'din' is a slang word for a foolish person.

Well i found some time yesterday to do something outside of Work and the OU !

I produced another cartoon, attached above, for the Star and Crescent micro news site.

Hopefully my editor, Sarah, will like it enough to publish it with my others.

I thought i would share it here, i am studying Politics after all.

I also did a written article, 1000 words, perhaps all this TMA writing is starting to blend into my life outside the OU and work.

I call them cartoons, actually i can not draw for toffee and so produce sarcastic infographics instead!

Block 4 is interesting, far less of a drag than block 3 'ideology'

Good to get back to so work that can be summerised and compared and contrasted.

First time in this module that we get some things that we can compare.

So I am happy this month, that might change when I start stressing about getting the TMA 4 done and the TMA 3 mark and feedback, back.

I said in my last blog I was struggling with ideology.

it has not gotten any better.

I chapter on ideologies of welfare is huge, dense and very contextual.

I think my tma 3 will be about the ideology of welfare, I think there is such a wealth of material to work with that I can edit down my tma 3 word count with it, rather than struggle to get to the word count.

however I think that after scoring 83 and 86 for my first two tma's, I will be hard to get a mark like that for my third one.

I will not let that bother me too much, as the module progresses then the material gets harder and more dense, it was like that last year as well. Bot of course as it becomes harder as the weeks pass, I have to make a definite effort to remain focused and motivated.

I had my first tutorial of the new year yesterday.

I enjoyed it greatly.

but the venue was poor, last year my tutorials were at the university of Portsmouth, great building and excellent facilities.

This year they are at the Richard Taunton 6th form college in Southampton. Which is in poor repair and painted in prison colours. Tony Blair and the PFI scheme certainly never made it as far as that college...

Any way, had good feedback and a good score form my first TMA, and I have uploaded my second TMA for marking next month.

So all is well,

I feel a theme is developing.

Level 2 is hard.

I started block 1 and though, wow this is hard. I had calmed down by the end of the block.

Then I started Block 2 and wow that was hard, I again felt calmer by the time I had worked through the block, but the TMA from this block will not be marked for another 6 weeks...

Just started block 3, and wow is it all hard again. So I need to keeping working through the block and hopefully some clarity will arrive by the end of the Block.

This is very, very hard.

Week 9 is another dense week.

Sovereignty is a lot of work. Probably made my biggest set of chapter notes this week.

I am glad I have made notes each week, the idea of going into an exam without the revision of chapter notes would be very scary!

So that's Block 1 and Block 2 complete. all the TMA's are written for both Blocks.

So I am happy with that situation, but still very wary of level 1 to level 2 transition, it is a big jump and a lot of work to keep up with it. hopefully I have kept up, until I get my tmas back and marked I will not know for sure.

I am much calmer about week 7 and the concept of equality.

I am also starting to see how pieces of the puzzle fit together and will start to input in ideology.

so much calmer this week, would not go as far as to say I am enjoying it, but not so many worry lines on my face this week-which is good because I do not have much face space left for many more worry lines...

I also have been watching the inside parliament programme on bbc 2. Very interesting and interesting to see how people like Jacob Reeces-Moog, the member for the eighteenth century, seem to avoid the moral complexities of political life by just focusing on the constitutional aspects and procedural aspects of parliament's activity.