Off Topic Political Debate

I was obviouly stereotyping. You could have picked out my 10 kids quote. How many people do you know who have that.

I said i supported the benefits cap of was it 26k.

I dont think jsa is a lot at all but for certain people i think once you top up a lot of allowances it would probably amount to quite a lot.

As with the housing situation i dont see a clear solution. Obviously we need to build more houses and let them out to the needy. Although i think the selling of council housing is a nice idea it has got to the stage where we should stop this policy until there is plenty of stock. Maybe put a yearly tax on people who own more than 2 houses.

 

If you need to find employment in France again, perhaps you could offer to sort out the problems with Cultura.fr website which is a nightmare. It dispenses e-mails that are wrong, it does not have updated tracking information, it tells you that stuff has been returned as no address exists when it has not even been despatched. All in all it is a shambles. Please come back and sort them out.

 

As I have stated before , both my daughters have graduated from Oxford . No silver spoon in their mouths , went to second worst primary school in Bucks ( it was a great school ) , grew up on a council estate , but fortunate enough to go to an excellent grammar . Their dad is problaby in the bottom 20% in terms of income and was poorly educated at school , self taught thereafter .
"Ordinary "people can still achieve . It just takes hard work , belief and a fair dollop of luck .
University should not be about jobs and income ... It's more about experience and enlightenment . Both girls have travelled the world in their chosen fields of Geololgy and Physics . And met a diverse group of interesting people .
Labours mantra of "Education , education , education" served my family and millions of others very well . God bless Tony Blair I say .
Life is more than trinkets , status and bank balances ...from observation this is where I believe many Tory voters are out of touch with reality .
As a society we should be proud of our Universities , Libraries , social and health services .. and focusing the nations resources on care of the elderly , vulnerable and disabled .
It is a disgrace that the wealthy grow ever richer , while a very significant part of the population are suffering . I really do hate it when the nasty party have their grubby hands on the levers of power .
Rant over for now . I used to be such a mild mannered young Englishman ... I suppose that is what happens when you mix with the yobs who fill the stands at Vicarage Road .

 

Most of what you have written apart from specific names and places can be read here everyday from people commenting on news items. The trouble is that the nasty party here is the ruling socialist government.

 

I wonder how the Islamic parties will fair when they get into power in Britain and France in 20-30years time ? I'm guessing they will be every bit as divided as we are now .

 

I think that whatever country you live in, there is only x amount of money to go round. You can encourage companies to make more and hope they pay more tax, or you can tax them first, give it to people to spend and hope they spend it which will stimulate the economy. What we see happen is companies finding ways to reduce their tax bills, or the people failing to buy more because they are simply trying to pay the increased taxes on what they really need.
I often wonder here how many shops survive when I go in and find myself descended on by six assistants because I am the only person in there. Mind you last time I was in the UK and wanted something from B&Q I couldn't find an assistant anywhere to point me in the right direction.

 

I'll drop them an email

 

They are even more divided than we are now, already. The divisions in Islam are as great as the divisions in Christianity but all we hear about are the extremists. Even within IS, apparently, there are major divisions between the members from European countries and those from the Middle East. The Taliban hate IS in Afghanistan and they are both Sunni. IS theology believes that Shia are apostate and should die. Islam is going through the same sort of theological battles that Christianity went through up until the eighteenth century (and which some of the fundamentalist Christians around the world want to re-ignite).
There is no such thing as an agreed Muslim world view. The Koran, which I am currently reading, can be interpreted in a number of ways (though it says it shouldn't be) and certainly there are some very unliberal instructions in it. At the same time there are some very positive, and socially uplifting instructions, such as treatment of the poor etc. Different groups give an emphasis to the bits that suit their current needs - just as various Christian groups do with the Bible.

All social systems, whether they are based on religion, economics, or politics have periods of utter ruthlessness and contempt for human life. Currently the horrors of Islamic fundamentalists are foremost in our minds, but what they are doing share similarities with the worst aspects of capitalism (slavery, for example), Communism (Stalin et al), Christianity (treatment of other religions and Christian sects), Imperialism, etc etc. The common factor is that people can be very nasty to each other when they are persuaded that that is what they should do.

 

Well put.

I myself feel we have a responsibility for those less fortunate. We are all in it together truly.

Agree what you say about Universities ... unfortunately after 20+ years of work in one... I see the effects of tick box targets and false profit and loss accounting.... the student experience has dropped and they pay more for it than ever.

 

Another well considered post.

I have some very good friends and many many great ex-students who are all out there in the world contributing etc etc who are Muslim. We can always find a horror story.

Some of the greatest scholars, inventors, philosophers and theologians have been Muslim.

It is tragic what has happened under the banner of Islam.

 

I think the Oxford experience is still something special and they do have far greater resources ...ie one to one to tuition , great labs , heavily subsidized trips / accomodation . Both girls were stretched to breaking point . They had breezed through the school system ( which I think fails to challenged the brightest ) .
If any of you who have young children , don't be put off by Oxbridge elitist reputation . If you are from an ordinary background , it has to be the least expensive way to get a worldclass education . There is just a very high element of luck involved in getting through the interview process .
My lad went to Birmingham at the same time , his experience was far less intense , he possibly did half the work to achieve his first ,as the girls who got 2.1 . ( that's coming from them ) . In his case 4 years of study could have possibly been squeezed into 2 years .
They are all now 23 years old , I'm hoping they will stear clear of the big money available in the city . They are scientists and as they mature , will hopefully use their education for good , not merely shallow personal gain .

 

I can heartily recommend shallow personal gain. It makes it so much easier to pay the mortgage.

 

Extremely low interest rates also help in that respect ,
The Love of money ..blah , blah blah .... Over emphasis on material gain is pure folly .

 

Your are right money is not so important in the bigger scheme but not worrying about paying bills is quite liberating.

 

Former M16 chief, Sir Richard Dearlove has suggested leaving the EU would improve Britain's security. He said Britain's borders could be strengthened and extremists could be deported more easily, security gains with little apparent downside. He said 'Brexit would bring two potentially important security gains, the ability to dump the European Convention on Human Rights and, more importantly, greater control over immigration from the EU'.

This comes as reports that ISIS had sent 400 fighters from Syria to Europe, where they can move freely across the continent with the aim of carrying out terror attacks.

 

"The scale and level of the integration the UK now has with its EU partners in this domain is considerable. I see the benefits of that for British police authorities everyday."

But speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, its boss, Rob Wainwright, said police co-operation across the EU to fight terrorism and crime had improved considerably over the past decade - and that the UK had been a "driver" of that work.

He said that as a part of the EU, the UK was able to take advantage of the European Arrest Warrant and had access to a network containing details of 300,000 wanted criminals and missing people.

"By making an argument that we would be better off by not having these arrangements at all I don't think stands much scrutiny," he told Today, adding that it was a "serious miscalculation".

 

Over 700 potential terrorists have left the United Kingdom in order to carry out jihad in the Middle East, according to London’s Metropolitan Police Service.
“It is a fairly even balance between those still out there and those who have come back".

 

The European Arrest Warrant has been under pressure recently for its disproportionate use for trivial offences and the difficulties reconciling the 'mutual recognition' concept with variable criminal justice standards across member states.

The Polish have been using it to extradite people for minor offences and UK citizens have languished in foreign jails without trial.

Only a small very percentage of EAW's are ever successfully completed.

 

We should keep out of the UK those that went to Syria along with the hordes of european terrorists re-entering through Europe's back door.

 

The Met are saying they are back.