Alexandole Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

[Vic]

I've got no problem with where a person is brought up as long as it doesn't inform their lack of compassion for people from a different class. I have problems with certain advantages/disadvantages conferred to people in society but not with the people themselves. Coincidentally, I think May's grammar school plan is one of the best plans to improve social mobility as long as there is enough regulation to ensure it is used for that purpose and not abused by parents whose kids already have a socio-economic advantage.

Seriously? You'll spy on parents to make sure they're not hiring private tutors to help their kids pass the 11 plus?

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

There's a lot of doubt. Clever people then who went to grammar school went on to great things. Clever people who went to comprehensive schools now go on to great things.

They do, but to a lesser extent. Politics, as well as the legal and medical professions are dominated much more by privately educated people than they were a generation ago. Your postulation also depends on which comprehesive school. Some are brilliant, others aren’t fit for purpose.

 

[Fame Monster]

Seriously? You'll spy on parents to make sure they're not hiring private tutors to help their kids pass the 11 plus?

No, the regulation would require a fair mix of kids from all backgrounds (read parents incomes) so it wouldn’t be filled by children from middle class parents. It won’t destroy the class system but at least some kids would have the chance to break through rather than none.

 

[Vic]

No, the regulation would require a fair mix of kids from all backgrounds (read parents incomes) so it wouldn’t be filled by children from middle class parents. It won’t destroy the class system but at least some kids would have the chance to break through rather than none.

So the poor kids will be in a grammar school with rich kids with better educational attainment. Perhaps they would have to arrange the classes to get a fair mix, in some sort of system that we could call, ooh let me think, comprehensive classes.

 

[bluethrunthru]

No, the regulation would require a fair mix of kids from all backgrounds (read parents incomes) so it wouldn’t be filled by children from middle class parents. It won’t destroy the class system but at least some kids would have the chance to break through rather than none.

looks like a return to the days of fagging to me Mr Flashman............

 

[Ricster]

Top article here comparing Trumps 'mini me' to Enoch Powell.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/1.3594689

 

[bluethrunthru]

This is the kind of shit house self serving wanker he is - £20k to fly him to Afghanistan where it was reported he spent less than 45mins on the ground all to enable him to avoid the Heathrow runway vote - shabby man and poor excuse for a politician - I hope he does get a crack at the top job I will love watching him ruffling his hair and going blah blah blah trying to explain all these events that show his true colours - I cannot believe anybody would see him as leadership material - he is as poor at decision making as is Mayday.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45201308

 

[bluethrunthru]

No he is not fit to be an MP let alone any position of government.

he can't be...............its become clear that he baled from the post Cameron leadership election because he was shagging another woman him and his advisers seem to think that somehow getting news of his impending divorce ( based on serial infidelity the latest episode being revealed and condemned by his own 25 year old daughter ) is best got out before the Tory party conference so he can launch a leadership bid..................don't any of them realise that being a lying cheating duplicitous twat that is not universally liked in his party is somehow good for the country? His personal life would be fucking laid bare in any GE campaign by the press...............he would be fucking shitty toast. Bring it on.

 

[BobKowalski]

No, the regulation would require a fair mix of kids from all backgrounds (read parents incomes) so it wouldn’t be filled by children from middle class parents. It won’t destroy the class system but at least some kids would have the chance to break through rather than none.

It will face the problem that led to the demise of Grammar schools in the first place. Middle class parents who vote Tory objecting to their child not getting in over some kid from the local estate. To bring in kids from low income backgrounds you would need a degree of positive discrimination and middle England will kick off. The point of Grammar schools in their eyes is to give their kid a leg up in life not fall victim to social engineering in the pursuit of equality.

The only way you can do it is to make all schools ‘good schools’ and give all kids a shot. In practice it only works in patches and is dependent on the money put into the system.

I have sympathy with your argument I just don’t think it would work in practice.

 

[Damocles]

It will face the problem that led to the demise of Grammar schools in the first place. Middle class parents who vote Tory objecting to their child not getting in over some kid from the local estate. To bring in kids from low income backgrounds you would need a degree of positive discrimination and middle England will kick off. The point of Grammar schools in their eyes is to give their kid a leg up in life not fall victim to social engineering in the pursuit of equality.

The only way you can do it is to make all schools ‘good schools’ and give all kids a shot. In practice it only works in patches and is dependent on the money put into the system.

I have sympathy with your argument I just don’t think it would work in practice.

I went to a fantastic Grammar School and my experience of it was generally that it was full of overly pretentious twats living off Daddy's reputation and full of cliques from the Prep schools they all went to.

However, it also afforded people who weren't from that background an insight into the social norms and opportunities to network. One of my best mates in school came from a similarly lower middle class background and drank on the streets and ran with bad crowds as a teenager. But thanks to the education and connections he received there he's now a leading local politician.

Works both ways. Hell, one of my first ever clients in IT was an old school friend and another was my first accountant.

Yes, you got the silver spoon brigade but those were an irrelevance anyway and most of them are now massive sniff heads ragging round Hale like they're 16 still or wasting their live at Mere with the occasional jaunt to the Dominican Republic. The real winners out of those schools tended to be the lads who went in from diverse backgrounds and learned how to shoulder the previous sneering but graft anyway.