How much better off, would the UK be, if just the oil and gas industry not been privatised? "Kristin Skogen Lund, head of Norway’s employers’ body, the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, pointed out: “We are not successful because we are outside the EU, we are successful because we have a lot of oil.” Both the UK and Norway discovered North Sea oil and gas in the 1970s. But while successive UK Governments opted to make a fast buck with Britoil privatised in 1982 and British Gas in 1986, Norway kept most of its assets nationalised. That meant the UK Government got £2.1billion from oil and gas revenues last year, while Norway raked in £27billion."
Plans to force universities to publish information about the amount of time students spend in classes and lectures, as well as the jobs they are offered and average graduate earnings are due to be revealed in the White Paper on Monday. Institutions that score highly in terms of teaching quality will be able to raise their annual tuition fees above the maximum £9,000 – a move that is expected to spark indignation among higher education groups, who say students are already saddled with enormous debts. www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/student-tuition-fees-set-to-rise-as-government-unveils-university-teaching-reforms-a7030671.html
Amen to this. And I say this as someone on a Sport Journalism degree. There's no need for me to even be here, let alone some of the other people on other courses. The only reason I'm still here is to pick up the certificate at the end so that someone will consider employing me. It's why I spend so much time just working evenings and weekends. Far more important, in my opinion. (Although I will concede that being at university opened up opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise)
For £3250 per year, I had 6 hours of lectures, 6 hours of tutorials per week. I know people now who get 9 hours total per week, at £9000 per year.
To a certain extent, the great rush to University has resulted in a mass of far better educated unemployed people. One can go to Uni, and afterwards get on one's bike [as Norman Tebbit famously said], but if the UK economy isn't big enough to employ everybody there will still be people losing out. Of course, by keeping the economy just smaller than the total able population it keeps them thrifty, efficient and dog-eat-dog. Perfect for business, but not for people.
Don't forget the real reason for wanting so many people at university - keeping the unemployment figures down.
Leaked Letter shows David Cameron plotting against leave campaign (EU) "I am working with Peter Chadlington and Stuart Rose [head of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign) with a view to contacting FTSE 500 companies who have annual reports due for publication before June and persuading them that they should include Brexit in the list of key risks. All public companies are required to set out in their annual report an analysis of key risks." Labour MP Gisela Stuart, chair of the Vote Leave campaign, said the Prime Minister had “serious issues” to answer. “We now know he has been doing deals with businesses to exaggerate the risk of a vote by the UK to leave the EU,” she said. “He must now tell us urgently how many businesses he cut secret deals with? Who are they and what were they promised in return?” Downing Street said it did not comment on leaked documents. In a letter to Mr Cameron from Serco chief executive Rupert Soames, sent 11 days before the renegotiation deal was completed, and the EU referendum formally announced, the business leader refers to talks held with the Prime Minister earlier in the month. He writes that, following up on the meeting, he is planning to contact FTSE 500 companies to urge them to mention the risks of Brexit in their annual reports. At the time of the meeting and the letter, dated 8 February, Mr Cameron’s official position was that he could still campaign for a Leave vote if his renegotiation failed to secure the changes he wanted. He told the House of Commons on February 3: “I am not arguing – and I will never argue – that Britain couldn’t survive outside the European Union…If we can’t secure these changes, I rule nothing out.” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a7033186.html
Shock and double shock pro European sorts out his tactics early.. We knew he was a liar (wash my mouth out), sorry economical with the truth, when he said 'no top down reorganisation of the n.h.s.' prior to the 2010 election. That he was already playing the Euro game before kick off comes as no surprise. I would be surprised if he hadn't been.
