The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Boss_Blue]

The environment we have as a country has changed very very little in the past decade.

Although I've almost fully accepted that I don't think my career is going to properly kick on until I'm in my mid 20s. But the thing about working hard to create opportunities for yourself - is that easier said than done? As of yet the only real opportunities I've had job wise have been incredibly basic and have carried very little responsibility, which is something I really would like and as of yet haven't had much of an opportunity to have it.

It is mate but the point I was trying to make was that (in my case at least) being encouraged into further education when you are talented academically means nothing if you don't have a clear career path to follow at the end of it.

I found the support for careers advice at every stage of further education to be substandard and I was taken by surprise at how difficult it was to secure meaningful employment as a graduate.

This was of course partly my fault for assuming that a degree guaranteed me a job regardless, however it would have been massively beneficial for me had I been made aware of the need to pursue things like work placements, voluntary work etc to gain meaningful experience before starting out in the 'real' world.

 

[Mrk]

very true, and yet if the poor had extra income they'd use it unlike the top 5% that squirrel it away, so it may not even make good economic sense for the party of the paralytic rich (The Conservatives) to keep the poor poor.

In a purely political sense, it suits the Labour party to keep the poor poor and reliant on the state, because people are more likely to vote Labour if they feel they are somehow reliant upon them being in power. The Conservatives never have and never will gain anything by having high unemployment and state reliance - hence why a lot of their policies have focused on job creation in this parliament.

 

[Groucho]

Monster Raving Looney Party lads, tellin' yers'....

 

[Chang Elephant]

In a purely political sense, it suits the Labour party to keep the poor poor and reliant on the state, because people are more likely to vote Labour if they feel they are somehow reliant upon them being in power. The Conservatives never have and never will gain anything by having high unemployment and state reliance - hence why a lot of their policies have focused on job creation in this parliament.

ffs

 

[Coach]

In a purely political sense, it suits the Labour party to keep the poor poor and reliant on the state, because people are more likely to vote Labour if they feel they are somehow reliant upon them being in power. The Conservatives never have and never will gain anything by having high unemployment and state reliance - hence why a lot of their policies have focused on job creation in this parliament.

lollollollollol

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Then the underclass will be left behind. The gap will continue to widen and children will continue to be penalised for being born in the wrong place through no falut of their own.

Not terribly satisfactory, really.

I'd say it depends on what skills they're given. A generation ago you could probably educate children with certain things safe in the knowledge that this knowledge will remain useful for most of their working lives.

I don't know if that's the case any more, so (imo), education should do more to equip the young with both the passion for learning, and the skills for how to learn. That way you're preparing the young for a life of learning, which I think is what will be required.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

All Governments prioritise what is important to them.

Poverty in the UK exists because the Government of the day have greater priorities than lifting the living standards of the poor.

It is really that simple.

That's the same for everyone though isn't it? I mean how many well meaning people are prepared to downshift their own lifestyles in a big way in order to free up money to help the needy? Very few do. How many of your friends in Kensington for instance would be willing to give up their luxurious lifestyle, downshift to somewhere cheaper, and use the money they've saved to help the poor?

As you say, it's about priorities, and I'd say the majority have very different priorities when the push comes to shove, and you know, that's perfectly ok. People have earned their money and their lifestyle, and they should be free to live how they want.

I don't think we can sit here moralising about a government not doing something though if we're not prepared to do it ourselves, can we? Duncan-Smith was rightly critisised a while back for his comments about the supposed low cost of healthy food, when he wasn't prepared to try and live on a similar budget for a while. Kinda helps if you walk the walk a bit, which is why even leftish political leaders struggle so much, because what would someone living in Highgate know about the lives of the poor? Miliband may have met lots of people on Hampstead Heath, but he doesn't tend to go out in poorer parts of town without a minder and a press crew. They're all the same.

 

[Clint Planet]

I'd say it depends on what skills they're given. A generation ago you could probably educate children with certain things safe in the knowledge that this knowledge will remain useful for most of their working lives.

I don't know if that's the case any more, so (imo), education should do more to equip the young with both the passion for learning, and the skills for how to learn. That way you're preparing the young for a life of learning, which I think is what will be required.

The trouble is, you think this can be achieved by intertesting little projects designed by private companies but that is just putting a plaster onto a gaping wound. The ruling class has no respect for the working class, for the unemployed, for the oiks in their trackies parading their rock hard dogs. There is a whole generation, a whole section of society, who are being treated like scum. And if you're treated like scum, you might as well behave like scum.

You think all of this is to do with a lack of innovation - it's to do with a lack of respect and belief in the newly-unskilled working class. You think it's to do with government waste - it's to do with lack of investment by self-serving corrupt goverments.

Why are we not fighting to give our children an equal chance in life? I'll tell you why - council estate kids don't matter because council estate people don't matter.

 

[Clint Planet]

People have earned their money and their lifestyle, and they should be free to live how they want.

Debatable. If there are barriers to social mobility and an endemic lack of opportunity in the British class system, then much of the money has been earnt on a less than level playing field.

I don't think we can sit here moralising about a government not doing something though if we're not prepared to do it ourselves, can we?

Of course we can. What a silly statement (though typical of a neo-libertarian losing an argument).

They're all the same.

Ah, that one. Right. Might as well not bother, then.

 

[Blue 1]

Anyone seen former Radio 1 DJ and bellend Mike Read has released a pro-UKIP calypso record which he sings in a cod - Jamaican accent.

This has actually made me wish I was dead.

 

[roydo]

Anyone seen former Radio 1 DJ and bellend Mike Read has released a pro-UKIP calypso record which he sings in a cod - Jamaican accent.

This has actually made me wish I was dead.

Off topic!

 

[Blue 1]

Off topic!

Will it be on topic if I mentioned that Nigel Farage has endorsed it?

 

[roydo]

Will it be on topic if I mentioned that Nigel Farage has endorsed it?

Deletion of "Mike Read, Radio 1 DJ" might do the trick!

Just messing. Bored.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The trouble is, you think this can be achieved by intertesting little projects designed by private companies but that is just putting a plaster onto a gaping wound. The ruling class has no respect for the working class, for the unemployed, for the oiks in their trackies parading their rock hard dogs. There is a whole generation, a whole section of society, who are being treated like scum. And if you're treated like scum, you might as well behave like scum.

You think all of this is to do with a lack of innovation - it's to do with a lack of respect and belief in the newly-unskilled working class. You think it's to do with government waste - it's to do with lack of investment by self-serving corrupt goverments.

Why are we not fighting to give our children an equal chance in life? I'll tell you why - council estate kids don't matter because council estate people don't matter.

There are more attempts to change the situation in those interesting little projects than in the entire state education system. Innovations typically happen on the edge and then get adopted by the mainstream. That's usually how change happens.

For what it's worth, and I've said this several times on this thread, I don't think there is a lack of innovation in education. I think we're living in a golden age of learning right now. Never before in the history of mankind has so much knowledge been available so easily and so cheaply.

That isn't the problem here. The problem is making the horse drink the water. That's why I think schools should be trying to enthuse children about learning and giving them the skills to find and digest the information they find. All the material is already out there. Schools don't have a monopoly on that any more.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Debatable. If their are barriers to social mobility and an endemic lack of opportunity in the British class system, then much of the money has been earnt on a less than level playing field.

Of course we can. What a silly statement (though typical of a neo-libertarian losing an argument).

Ah, that one. Right. Might as well not bother, then.

It is worrying how quick you are to give people labels. Is it really so outlandish to want people to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk? It's confusing. On one hand you bemoan the 'ruling class' for despising the poor, yet right here you suggest it's nonsense that this same 'ruling class' should live a little more humbly themselves to at least relate more with the poor.