DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Well that's that then, exam and course over.

Well, the DD203 politics exam went pretty much as well as I could have hoped for.

Question 3 : Politics and Power in the UK
The question was some thing pretty close to "Is the power of the UK Prime Minister unlimited". Pretty much what I had hoped for, and indeed revised for. It wasn't 100 miles away from the TMA for this subject, change a couple of words and twist the question and it is pretty close.

Unlike the Philosophy exam last year,  I made a point of spending 10 minutes actually planning and setting out the question and I have to say it really helped. I wrote pretty much for the rest of the 50 minutes available for this question and it seemed to flow and make sense. If I knew about it (with regard to the PM's powers, the UK constitution, systems of power, devolution and the EU) then they know I knew about it, 'cos it all got written down.


Question 9 : Evidence and Argument
Not the question I was looking for, as it was something like "Studying politics is all about evidence, not argument and opinion, discuss". So had to come at this through 'studying politics' angle, not ideal but I managed to get about 4 different points across about evidence being evaluated or only available through opinion. Managed to write for about 40 mins or so (after a 10 minute plan) and had covered everything and really had nothing else to add.


The last question was a bit of a lottery. I had wanted to do Question 2 about comparative politics, but the two options of what to compare did not suit me. The options were a bit tricky and there was a real problem that you could drift off track and answer a different question - so I plumped for the obvious banker..... wonder if this is risky.


Question 1 : What is Politics ?
The question was something like, "Politics is not just done by politicians, it is also done by people, is this correct ?". Of course it is correct.

Worked in Woomera- felt compelled to do this, local HS2 campaign, mother-in-laws constant complaints against local supermarket for not stocking local produce, decisions to obey the law or not, people withholding tax or anti-poll tax riots as protest, people writing letters to local council regarding school places or planning permission.

Time was running out and this was not as content rich an answer as I would have liked, however after some Lucazade and chocolate I had a sugar high and possibly became slightly delirious as my conclusion started with something like "politics is like love in that it is all around" although I may not have properly referenced The Troggs or Wet Wet Wet, and continued that "possibly a more interesting question than do people engage in politics would be can people escape engaging in politics - I may have been a bit bored by then. Anyway finished with enough time to re-read two of the essays, so must have got the timing about right.


The rest of the Theme questions looked a bit difficult, although I could probably have had a stab at Power and Structures if necessary, but I'm glad it didn't come to that. I didn't even read the other questions from Part A, so I've no idea if Q4 & Q5 were good or not.

So, I guess that is about that, well until the beginning of August when the results should be through. I can look forward to some free evenings and no guilt-trips for not studying, so what to do until then.......

........ having come across this video on Youtube, I may have a go at brushing up on my Musical Spoon technique, this guy is seriously good.

In fact he is the actual 'Spoonman' on Soundgarden's single and video.

So if you don't hear from me for a while, if may be because I've been raiding the cutlery drawer, although this may all change when the sugar rush dies down.