The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Mrtallywacker]

Romans 13:7
Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

http://www.news.vcu.edu/research/VCU_UVA_and_Swedish_researchers_discover_that_childhood_environment

Another study showing how parenting influences education for a child. The education level of the parent (rather than their wealth) is what matters.

"Many studies of environmental effects on cognitive ability are based on special programs like Head Start that children are placed in for a limited amount of time," said joint-first author Eric Turkheimer, a U.Va. professor of psychology. "These programs often have positive results while the program is in place, but they fade quickly when it is over. Adoption into a more educated household is the most permanent kind of environmental change, and it has the most lasting effects."

Previous studies have found that educated parents are more likely to talk at the dinner table, take their children to museums and read stories to their children at night.

"We're not denying that cognitive ability has important genetic components, but it is a naïve idea to say that it is only genes," Kendler said. "This is strong evidence that educated parents do something with their kid that makes them smarter and this is not a result of genetic factors."

 

[Clint Planet]

http://www.news.vcu.edu/research/VCU_UVA_and_Swedish_researchers_discover_that_childhood_environment
Another study showing how parenting influences education for a child.

Of course it does. As does poverty. The two are linked. Poor people tend not to enrich the lives of their children as much as wealthier children.

The education level of the parent (rather than their wealth) is what matters.

You seem determined to justify poverty and inequality! Oh, and blame the poor for their own circumstances, of course. Has it ever occured to you that education levels tend to be quite closely linked to wealth?

Have some self-respect, Bruce.

 

[Clint Planet]

"We're not denying that cognitive ability has important genetic components, but it is a naïve idea to say that it is only genes," Kendler said. "This is strong evidence that educated parents do something with their kid that makes them smarter and this is not a result of genetic factors."

At least you're easing off on the eugenics line.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Of course it does. As does poverty. The two are linked. Poor people tend not to enrich the lives of their children as much as wealthier children.

You seem determined to justify poverty and inequality! Oh, and blame the poor for their own circumstances, of course. Has it ever occured to you that education levels tend to be quite closely linked to wealth?

Or maybe education levels lead one towards wealth? All I'm saying is that the behaviours and habits that lead to the accumulation of knowledge are not really something that can be bought. My other half grew up in extreme poverty (in a country with none of the social programs we take for granted), and yet she has the right mindset because her dad understood the importance of learning.

Pretty much every study that I've seen on success in life has listed conscientiousness and openness to new experience as the key personality traits. Are you saying they are only things that can be bought somehow?

And please leave off with the personal insults, I'll have to complain to the mods about bullying or something

At least you're easing off on the eugenics line.

I haven't mentioned eugenics at all, but have pointed out that parents play a huge part in the educational prospects of a child, and yet your ideas around reducing educational inequality don't seem to mention parenting, or even sex education, whatsoever.

 

[The Mighty Quint]

Won't raise VAT, my arse, they raise it everytime they get in, Cameron has proved you can't trust him to keep his word.

If he got back in, give it 6 months and they'll trot out we have to raise it to keep on track with the recovery, sorry we lied, but you can all swivel on it, we're in for 5 years now.

 

[Eggs]

....I really don't know how anybody who works in the public sector can vote Tory. I'm not talking about attacks on both pay and pension, I'm talking about the lack of recruitment and the significant reduction in provision of service. We are there to provide a service to the public and I would say regardless of where you work (local govt, national govt, NHS, police, fire service, forces etc) you have a real concern about the quality of service provided. Also, the lack of recruitment results in an ageing workforce and lack of opportunity for school leavers and graduates.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

....I really don't know how anybody who works in the public sector can vote Tory. I'm not talking about attacks on both pay and pension, I'm talking about the lack of recruitment and the significant reduction in provision of service. We are there to provide a service to the public and I would say regardless of where you work (local govt, national govt, NHS, police, fire service, forces etc) you have a real concern about the quality of service provided. Also, the lack of recruitment results in an ageing workforce and lack of opportunity for school leavers and graduates.

Depends how much perspective they have though I'd have thought? I've done a number of bits of work in the public sector, and the amount of wastage was incredible. One job, for instance, there was a guy down from me who was asleep at his desk for about an hour before anyone even noticed. A more recent one saw a bunch of people (probably paid comfortably over 40k a year) take 12 months to build a simple Wordpress website. Speaking to people at the time, the vast majority had no other experience than in the public sector, so I'm sure they'd say they work really hard and really effectively, but they have nothing to compare it against.

Now, before the usual suspects misread the above, I'm not saying that everyone in the public sector wouldn't know a days work if it bit them on the bum. Certainly not, and I'm well aware that many/most are both incredibly well meaning and hard working. It could be made way more efficient without costing any more money.

 

[Clint Planet]

And please leave off with the personal insults, I'll have to complain to the mods about bullying or something

Is that a reference to a private matter you've just made?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Is that a reference to a private matter you've just made?

Shall I prepare the gallows?

 

[Ashtonian]

Depends how much perspective they have though I'd have thought? I've done a number of bits of work in the public sector, and the amount of wastage was incredible. One job, for instance, there was a guy down from me who was asleep at his desk for about an hour before anyone even noticed. A more recent one saw a bunch of people (probably paid comfortably over 40k a year) take 12 months to build a simple Wordpress website. Speaking to people at the time, the vast majority had no other experience than in the public sector, so I'm sure they'd say they work really hard and really effectively, but they have nothing to compare it against.

Now, before the usual suspects misread the above, I'm not saying that everyone in the public sector wouldn't know a days work if it bit them on the bum. Certainly not, and I'm well aware that many/most are both incredibly well meaning and hard working. It could be made way more efficient without costing any more money.

to be honest it is like that everywhere. where i work there is a complete tolerance level no matter on ability or action. There is a load of bosses 'kids' who work here and one in particular (whom i replaced after they left for another job) could not do the job properly. I mean they disappeared for like 45 minutes a day in the afternoon, sent emails to people from someone else's account, could not do anything substantial in their job without making a mess of it every time (which considering the job, pretty big deal to do) and nothing was ever done about it.

There is less emphasis on actual efficiency and more on jobsworths and management making decisions higher up which change the way the bottom staff work without even knowing what they do. As a result the place is nowhere near efficiency and they don't have the staff in place to improve that either.

 

[Eggs]

Depends how much perspective they have though I'd have thought? I've done a number of bits of work in the public sector, and the amount of wastage was incredible. One job, for instance, there was a guy down from me who was asleep at his desk for about an hour before anyone even noticed. A more recent one saw a bunch of people (probably paid comfortably over 40k a year) take 12 months to build a simple Wordpress website. Speaking to people at the time, the vast majority had no other experience than in the public sector, so I'm sure they'd say they work really hard and really effectively, but they have nothing to compare it against.

Now, before the usual suspects misread the above, I'm not saying that everyone in the public sector wouldn't know a days work if it bit them on the bum. Certainly not, and I'm well aware that many/most are both incredibly well meaning and hard working. It could be made way more efficient without costing any more money.

...I absolutely agree about the amount of (financial) waste, which is why a government change is welcome in focusing on this. This is beyond becoming more efficient, this is about political ideology. There is a myth about cushy public sector jobs. It's the same as the private sector in that there is a mix. Personally speaking and without going into detail, my own job is intense, it really is and that goes for the majority of folk I work with.

This isn't about public v private, there should never be a war on that issue. It is about the necessary public service and I have real concerns about this going forward.

 

[Brennan]

Depends how much perspective they have though I'd have thought? I've done a number of bits of work in the public sector, and the amount of wastage was incredible. One job, for instance, there was a guy down from me who was asleep at his desk for about an hour before anyone even noticed. A more recent one saw a bunch of people (probably paid comfortably over 40k a year) take 12 months to build a simple Wordpress website. Speaking to people at the time, the vast majority had no other experience than in the public sector, so I'm sure they'd say they work really hard and really effectively, but they have nothing to compare it against.

Now, before the usual suspects misread the above, I'm not saying that everyone in the public sector wouldn't know a days work if it bit them on the bum. Certainly not, and I'm well aware that many/most are both incredibly well meaning and hard working. It could be made way more efficient without costing any more money.

Both of my parents worked in the NHS away from the front line and both said that the amount of laziness, incompetence, and financial mismanagement is staggering. Heard the same from a co-worker whose daughter was sent into a trust down south to work out why hundreds of thousands of pounds was being spent on agency staff and 'consultant fees'.

We could have a lot more nurses and doctors if some of that was sorted out.

 

[jaycee]

Nice to see all mps getting a free i pad must be difficult for them to buy their own in times of austerity

 

[rascal]

Just registered to vote in my local area. I'm pretty much torn on who to vote for, I think the current incumbent (Tory) has done a decent job and shares many of my views, however he remains neutral on the issue that matters most to me and that's my local football club moving back to the city. The Labour candidate is very much in favour, and every political test I've done has put me closer to Labour. That said, I don't like the two Ed's and feel that they would be an embarrassment on the international stage, and would be bent over a barrel by far more skilled foreign leaders. I don't really want to contribute to that. However, I also don't want to contribute to another 5 years of the poorest paying for mistakes that the richest have made.

This would have been an easy decision had Labour done the right thing and installed the brother as leader.