Off Topic Political Debate

McDonalds for such a landmark birthday SH? - I would have thought that it would have been The George V at the very least, one needs to keep up appearances!

 

Fully agree Yorkie and SH below. It seems that like the "Bedroom Tax" the government is trying to tighten the Benefit belt and like the Bedroom Tax the planning and implementation has been crap. Problem for governments and all public bodies is that they cannot deploy cost effective changes and so invariably they spend more money on implementing a change than the change saves!

 

My wife has been telling me that I'm a cheapskate for 40+ years.!!

On another occasion at Mcdo's there was a demonstration by local producers who were freely dishing out their wares whilst arguing against american imports. We were actually filmed by a national television crew, giving our opinions, supporting our french friends.

After sampling their products we sneaked around the back to buy our big macs and beer, along with most of the french public!!

 

next rant....

The change of all schools to Academies.

As an educationalist I can only see one reason for this:

Centralisation of power of individual schools. This to likely to be disastrous as tick box methodologies and quasi-economic systems all geared up to penalize those schools who prove to not meet assigned targets will create a system where real dducation comes second.

I have seen it both from the inside and on the outside.

Local authorities in the main did a half-decent job and provided much needed support services and expertise.

When I worked overseas, Bhutan in the 80s adopted a British education system in which child-centred learning was acclaimed the world over. I use to bring in and support UK primary school teachers who were teacher advisers to clusters of schools across the country. Sadly Primary education has now been taken over by the poltical dictates of central government. I left education as a head-teacher of a special school as the job was virtually untenable for those who aspired to the ethos of child-centredness.

My brother in law is currently head of an Academy and he agrees that Education has now been so quantified and graded at every turn that the spirit has been virtually destroyed. .. and of course if he does not meet external targets his school and of course his job is on the line.

We were a great country and produced great people under the old system, many of us are examples of that..... how much improvement will there really be??

Take politics out of education IMO.

 

Have to agree with most of that again Yorkie - although a lot of LEA's and governors of some schools are also very politically minded...blimey, that is twice in 1 day that I am virtually in full agreement with you!

 

There are of course the political LEAs but a political LEA will i guess be more in tune with local people's needs than a Govt. Always amazes me how the Tories used to bang on about decentralization etc but seek more control locally...I guess it shouldn't as most parties are just the same. Labour as we all know have had some VERY loopy local politics.

IMO the present Govt is doing its best to spoil some great British institutions
NHS
Primary/Secondary Education
HE - done ... .thanks Cleggy
Welfare
Youth and children's services
Libraries

etc etc

 

Yougov poll puts Labour 1% ahead of Tories.


I've already started packing.....passport dusted down.

 

Labour now edging ahead in the Polls.... looking forward to a new Entente Cordiale ....... All the expats will have to go to ... erm where....?.
Spain -- no
Portugal -- no
Greece -- no

Where will they find Govt of their preferred persuasion..... Germany??

 

Fortunately most european countries have very advantageous tax schemes to attract high net worth ex pats.

 

By the time the next election comes round New New Labour will have imploded, there will have been a Brexit and we will all be living in a land of milk and honey (or sex, drugs and rock n roll for the more able...)
I just remember what the last big polling showed at the last election...

 

I'll unpack if that's the case.

 

As opposed to the Tory explosion I suppose!

 

I am banking on the resurrection of Clegg as a voice of reason

 

As a lib dem voter I'm hoping he remains dead and buried - in the political sense of course.

 

Sadly seems devoid of good judgement....

 

Are the Lib Dems the group that became almost extinct in many areas of the UK in 2015.? They suffered electorally due to them spoiling a decent coalition government between 2010 -2015.

They now need statutory protection similar to that afforded to newts to prevent the only sign of them appearing in museums, i.e. old kaftans and sandals.

 

Advised by Foggy and Compo of course...

 

Well well well:

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has resigned citing pressure to make cuts to disability benefits.

It comes after mounting controversy over £4bn of planned cuts to Personal Independence Payments, expected to affect 640,000 people.

Mr Duncan Smith said the cuts were "not defensible" within a Budget that "benefits higher earning taxpayers".

Earlier, a government source indicated the changes were going to be "kicked into the long grass".

The planned changes apply to the formula the government uses to calculate the daily living component of PIP, which will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and come into effect in January 2017.

Mr Duncan Smith, who was the Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition from 2001-2003, said they were a "compromise too far".

"I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self-imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest," he said in his resignation letter.

"Too often my team and I have been pressured in the immediate run up to a budget or fiscal event to deliver yet more reductions to the working-age benefit bill.

"There has been too much emphasis on money-saving exercises and not enough awareness from the Treasury, in particular, that the government's vision of a new welfare-to-work system could not be repeatedly salami-sliced.

"It is therefore with enormous regret that I have decided to resign."


I never saw that coming......

 

For once I agree with you. They did spoil what could have been a perfectly good coalition by riding roughshod over many of their own stated principles in order to cling onto the trappings of power. The cave in on student fees was utterly shameful.

 

No TRUMP land