General Election - 4th July 2024

Who will you be voting for in the General Election?

  • Labour

    Votes: 266 56.8%

  • Conservative

    Votes: 12 2.6%

  • Liberal Democrat

    Votes: 40 8.5%

  • Reform

    Votes: 71 15.2%

  • Green Party

    Votes: 28 6.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 51 10.9%
  • Total voters
    468
threespires said:
I think the reason we are so far adrift from it, is that whilst what you describe might be the objective for the majority of the population, there is a much smaller percentage for whom accumulation of vast wealth at the expense of others is their main objective. This has probably always been the case; but for decades we have allowed policies and created a culture where this greed and favouring of capital has rolled back the progress we made in the 20th century in creating a more equitable society. Worse than this we've encouraged a culture were those a bit further down the ladder from the super wealthy are also able to exploit their fellow citizens without being viewed as social pariahs.

The groundwork was laid for this in the 1980s and we're now reaping as we sowed. Unless something catastrophic happens to wake us up or people consciously decide that they don't want to live in an increasingly inequitable society I fear little will change. Electoral reform might help a bit but ultimately we need to recognise what type of society we are allowing to be created in our name.
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I am absolutely with you.
Society has to be run for the benefit of the majority.
 
My mate's a retired electrician * but still gets an occasional chance to fill in tutoring. OK, he says, unless it's a group who don't really want to be there. You can lead a truculent 18-year-old to a course but you can't make them learn.

* Last job he was known as Jurassic Sparks.
 
Vic said:
My mate's a retired electrician * but still gets an occasional chance to fill in tutoring. OK, he says, unless it's a group who don't really want to be there. You can lead a truculent 18-year-old to a course but you can't make them learn.

* Last job he was known as Jurassic Sparks.
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Watt’s that got to do with this current thread?
 
inbetween said:
I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was 18 so I went to university and came out with a ton of debt and no job and then I started from the bottom, it was 4 years of my life wasted. The current system doesn't work and it still won't work even if fees are free because the fact is the country does not need more people with university degrees.

Older people had free or cheaper university fees but that misses the point that is less older people went to university at all, many of them were working at 16. Somebody who started work at 16 will have 5+ years of experience and earnings in the bag versus a university leaver.

How many young people are in full time work today at 16? It's basically zero. Young people nowadays are only starting work in their early to mid-20's, is it any surprise that they can't afford houses? How can you save for a house when you are 21, getting pissed every night, lying in bed and attending a handful of lectures per week whilst you pay for it all with money you haven't got?

The university system is the greatest marketing scam of the last 50 years. It has made parents think that without a degree their kids can't be successful and a degree is critical to get the top jobs, it's not true. The biggest companies are begging for kids with experience, skills and a good attitude, they do not care about degrees because they'll pay for them to do degrees if it's really needed.

National service is perhaps a bad idea but only because of the military aspect. The idea of getting kids out there to gain experience, skills and do something fulfilling is an extremely good idea.
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Nobody can be in full time work in England at 16.
It is compulsory to be in full time education or training to 18

I find your utilitarian view of the value higher education totally depressing.
All three of my kids went to top unis , had their horizons expanded, met echelons of society they otherwise would never have met and hold top professional jobs.

I think your problem with it lies in you, not the system.
 
inbetween said:
Which part of it is false?

Starting life at 21 with £30k+ of debt, no job and no tangible skills isn't ideal but that is exactly what the university sector sells to people.

I was sold it and I regret it completely, it was 4 years of my time wasted where I could of got a job and worked my way up in something. My degree has made no difference whatsoever and the irony is the company I work for offers to pay for degrees anyway which means I would of been £30k better off as well.
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The part where you generalised all young people based on your anecdotal experience of not having a good time at university.
 
There are lots of jobs now that need a degree whereas it did not use to be necessary. Nursing and teaching, to name but two. If it comes to that, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, arguably one of the greatest engineers in history, did not have a degree.

A degree course ain't for everyone. I took mine as a mature student (part-time) and wished I'd done it earlier. Another question is whether it needs to be stretched out over three years.

My views on the education system are unconventional, to say the least. I think a lot of it is nothing more than bourgeois bollocks. But education, as such, is greatly undervalued in this country. We need more of it, not less, because all too many citizens are close-minded, narrow-minded or just plain pig-ignorant. How you deliver it effectively is the $64,000 question. Certainly not by Gove-style gradgrindism, or by letting religious nutters get involved in running it.
 



chris-sutton-slide-tackle.gif
 
Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese said:
I think we are now firmly into the time when the govt realises it's so unlikely to get re-elected and have to deliver that they can say any shit.
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Exactly this!

Next week it will be "free Unicorn in the colour of your choice for every adult in the Country" IF the Tories get elected.

And the BBC will dutifully report this without any challenge.
 
I learned earlier that it takes 200 hours to train a Special Constable - if you do it the Sunak way a weekend once per month for a year at best you will have done 168 hours - so not even trained to the level needed to pass out. Thats how much of a distraction policy this is. None of it stands up to basic scrutiny
 
Saw sunak pitching this idea as a safety issue for the country, to keep us secure , he has invented yet another problem so he can look as if he is saving us from danger, they decimated the armed forces , ships , planes and men and women , put this proposed money into getting businesses to bring back apprentices and more college places so kids can learn a trade

Let those go to uni as planned or a gap year travelling .****

Bet putin is laughing his cock off that we are being told kids will plug all the above gaps , we are in nato you fuck bucket sunak
 
kaz7 said:
Saw sunak pitching this idea as a safety issue for the country, to keep us secure , he has invented yet another problem so he can look as if he is saving us from danger, they decimated the armed forces , ships , planes and men and women , put this proposed money into getting businesses to bring back apprentices and more college places so kids can learn a trade

Let those go to uni as planned or a gap year travelling .****

Bet putin is laughing his cock off that we are being told kids will plug all the above gaps , we are in nato you fuck bucket sunak
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And
If you want a job in ANY of the public sector, teaching, nursing, etc. it will be a requirement to have done your conscription service
Is their latest update.
 
denislawsbackheel said:
And
If you want a job in ANY of the public sector, teaching, nursing, etc. it will be a requirement to have done your conscription service
Is their latest update.
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It’s not worth engaging with, just another dead cat to keep people busy and not talking about the real things like cost of living, education, NHS, shit in your water, and all ends of stuff that they’ve failed on.

Distraction and division, people need to see past their ploy as they’re not going to deliver anything that we really need. And there’s lots needed.
 
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