The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Eggs]

....I understand the principle of collective Cabinet responsibility but today's revelations from Danny Alexander about what the Tory's wanted to do to Child Benefit and other payments make me even more convinced that the Liberals were drunk on power. All I saw from Alexander was him acting like a nodding donkey agreeing and shouting 'hear' 'hear' when Osborne addressed Parliament. Now his own seat is in jeopardy he's dishing the dirt, I hope he's too late.

 

[Seanjd]

The reporter was saying what the majority of the world was thinking: "Brand, how can you talk about distributing wealth when are you living in a three million+ house and earning truckloads? Are you just trying to be controversial to sell copies of your new book?"

Brand had no response. Brand's wealth has everything to do with his views. You simply can't go off protesting about people living in extreme poverty while there are people wiping their backsides with twenties if you're one of those people.

Basically, anybody who wants to speak out against the inequality should reject any income which would bring them above the poverty line? The guy is a multi-millionaire, yes, but that doesn't mean he can't have views about poverty because doesn't live in poverty does it? If we all thought like yourself and that interviewer, that Brand has no right to discuss wealth distribution because he's too rich, the poverty-stricken would have no voice at all - many journalists and politicians who highlight these issues probably earn too much too.

The interviewer clearly wasn't good at his job.

 

[davek]

http://www.newstatesman.com/politic...n-fine-wine-couldn-t-wash-away-taste-my-mouth
Journo writes about a meeting with that vile waste of oxygen Ian Duncan Smith.

 

[Fresh Prince of Belle Val]

Haven't said its a doddle. I've merely stated a fact, as has been grudgingly agreed with, that anyone can go to uni. I'm not denying that some many find that path easier than others, but the path is open to all. No-one is excluded from being able to go to uni.

This is very true. Uni is there for anybody who wants it.

 

[Blue 1]

Why do they bother doing all these Polls?

Far easier just ask an old Australian bawbag called Rupert who he wants to win.

 

[bluemangroup]

This is very true. Uni is there for anybody who wants it.

But some students are more inhibited than others getting there. There are a number of obstacles facing a state school student in a low income area that a grammar or private school pupil will never have to face. There shouldn't be that disparity.

 

[The Esk]

@peteblue

Working-class children are no more likely to move up the social ladder and hold a middle-class job if they attend a grammar school, rather than a comprehensive, a study has found.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/02/grammar-school-improve-social-mobility

 

[The Cowboy]

But some students are more inhibited than others getting there. There are a number of obstacles facing a state school student in a low income area that a grammar or private school pupil will never have to face. There shouldn't be that disparity.

But what are those obstacles? it would appear some of it (some of it, I repeat) is a mental barrier, kids looking back at generations before them not going to uni and assuming they also can't go. A bit of encouragement and helping them to see how they could benefit would go a long way.

Feels strange arguing this as I'd say we need fewer kids going to uni and better alternative pathways for the less academic. A handful of lads in my year, who completely failed at their GCSE's, went on to run successful and lucrative repair garages. A practical mind should not be deemed inferior to an academic mind.

 

[The Esk]

Feels strange arguing this as I'd say we need fewer kids going to uni and better alternative pathways for the less academic. A handful of lads in my year, who completely failed at their GCSE's, went on to run successful and lucrative repair garages. A practical mind should not be deemed inferior to an academic mind.

For a change I'm going to agree with you on this excellent point

 

[bluemangroup]

But what are those obstacles? it would appear some of it (some of it, I repeat) is a mental barrier, kids looking back at generations before them not going to uni and assuming they also can't go. A bit of encouragement and helping them to see how they could benefit would go a long way.

Feels strange arguing this as I'd say we need fewer kids going to uni and better alternative pathways for the less academic. A handful of lads in my year, who completely failed at their GCSE's, went on to run successful and lucrative repair garages. A practical mind should not be deemed inferior to an academic mind.

Should it not be a choice though? Vocational colleges are no bad thing and people can find it suits them infinitely better. Every option should remain available to them though and that isn't the case.

 

[daylightrobber]

http://www.newstatesman.com/politic...n-fine-wine-couldn-t-wash-away-taste-my-mouth
Journo writes about a meeting with that vile waste of oxygen Ian Duncan Smith.

Not one word of that article surprises me.

 

[TheAlmightyFloater]

But what are those obstacles? it would appear some of it (some of it, I repeat) is a mental barrier, kids looking back at generations before them not going to uni and assuming they also can't go. A bit of encouragement and helping them to see how they could benefit would go a long way.

Feels strange arguing this as I'd say we need fewer kids going to uni and better alternative pathways for the less academic. A handful of lads in my year, who completely failed at their GCSE's, went on to run successful and lucrative repair garages. A practical mind should not be deemed inferior to an academic mind.

Bang on. Our education system across the UK is shockingly neglectful of individual needs. It's time someone revitalised it and realised everyone is different and has different expectations from life.

Pupils should be taught how to live life and deal with it's complications, not how to frantically memorise equations for a piece of paper that's irrelevant to the job they want to have.

Some people will want to go to uni and become physicists, some people want to go to college and be a photographer and plenty others want to build or landscape or whatever else. It's time our politicians realised that the number of uni graduates and degree holders is not the be all and end all of our society.

 

[Eggs]

But what are those obstacles? it would appear some of it (some of it, I repeat) is a mental barrier, kids looking back at generations before them not going to uni and assuming they also can't go. A bit of encouragement and helping them to see how they could benefit would go a long way.

Feels strange arguing this as I'd say we need fewer kids going to uni and better alternative pathways for the less academic. A handful of lads in my year, who completely failed at their GCSE's, went on to run successful and lucrative repair garages. A practical mind should not be deemed inferior to an academic mind.

.......yep, some of the cleverest people I know are not that bright in practical reality. Whilst it's understandable that qualifications are a recruiting requirement for certain occupations, once through the gateway progression should be based on broader competency range and not on how many a-levels or what degree a person has.

 

[peteblue]

@peteblue

Working-class children are no more likely to move up the social ladder and hold a middle-class job if they attend a grammar school, rather than a comprehensive, a study has found.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/02/grammar-school-improve-social-mobility

The report keeps changing the objects of comparison......

........... Attending a grammar school did improve a working-class child's chance of earning slightly more than their parents. But children from middle-class homes, who went to grammar schools, also earned slightly more than their parents had done.

However, across the sample, the advantages of going to a grammar school were cancelled out by the social disadvantages experienced by those who went to secondary moderns. These adults did not have a different social class or earning power to their fathers.

[so the report is saying that those that went to Grammar School, whether from working class or middle class, earned more than their parents, as opposed to those that went to secondary moderns who did not]


Her co-author, Adam Swift, a politics lecturer at Oxford, said that grammar schools "confer no more advantage" to working-class children than to those from slightly more wealthy backgrounds.

[so he is saying you do get an advantage but no more than to those from slightly more wealthy backgrounds]

Not sure what this 'proves' tbh........

 

[peteblue]

.......yep, some of the cleverest people I know are not that bright in practical reality. Whilst it's understandable that qualifications are a recruiting requirement for certain occupations, once through the gateway progression should be based on broader competency range and not on how many a-levels or what degree a person has.

Private companies and industry do work this way. Once you're in it's all about performance..........I'm not so sure about the Public sector.......