I believe a party's representation in Parliament should reflect its share of the vote. I also believe that safe seats dissuade voters of other parties turning out and swing seats encourage tactical voting. Neither of which makes our major parties accountable.
That's what the Lib Dems wanted but we got a referendum on alternative vote instead. Problem was apart from the Lib Dems there was little campaigning, that whole thing was a bit of a waste of time.My memory must be blurred. I thought we had a vote on PR and decided it was an unsuitable voting system.
So if a vote went 52 to 48 you'd accept they view and just move on?
Look at what is happening now with nobody to hold them back. The LDs aren't my cup of tea right now but if you look at it across the 5 years they prevented some of the worst Tory ideas coming to fruition.
Though it is funny to see Grendel agreeing that tuition hikes are bad.
What is happening now? What is this big right wing idea you think they are pushing through that they couldn't if there was somebody keeping them in check? You hear this sort of thing parroted endlessly, but I'm not sure what it refers to.
As for tuition fees, it is the biggest political myth out there. My wife went to University. She had a free education in effect, qualified as a teacher and now pays £15 per month for her student loan - taken direct from her salary. It is not a 'debt' in the true sense - she may never pay it back, and if she stopped work tomorrow she'd have zero obligation. It amounts to an effective 1% in income tax, and as the Tories keep increasing the personal tax allowance, is pretty much wiped out anyway as it stands.
Scotland has free University education, and has a far more elitist system. People from poorer backgrounds are far less likely to go to University, places are capped, and the overall proportion of people entering further education is substantially less than in England.
Let's see shall we. The Tories have announced plans to sell off student debt to third parties and to raise interest on it to be in line with inflation. Maintenance grants will also be scrapped meaning that student debt will go through the roof. I am becoming a teacher at the moment, for which I am charged £9,000 on top of the 5 years spent earning my integrated Masters in Scotland to bring my total student debt to over £30,000. When I enter the profession properly my pay rises will be capped at 1% and I will be teaching classes of over 30 in classrooms not built for that purpose because Theresa May values the military more than education. Furthermore I will be blamed if I can't pull rabbits out of hats with the resources I am given to do my job.
My Scottish other half meanwhile will not have a slice out of her pay cheque for pursuing higher education and to boot the Scottish government guaranteed her an NQT position in return for training there. I have not had such opportunities down here. Don't sit there and tell me how great Mrs May is and how hard work gets you what you want.
Equally, don't sit there and lecture me on the challenges facing teachers. I hear it for two hours a night every night. I get it.
We're talking here about tuition fees. Not every graduate is a teacher, and teachers are not adequately compensated for what they do (agreed) - but the 1% cap is misleading because that will not stay in place permanently, and there are plenty of opportunities to progress through the pay grades, my wife has seen a 20% increase in two years. Regardless, this is reflected in the rate at which graduate teachers repay students loans - a system tiered based on earnings which is far from crippling.
Many people who graduate go on to earn very large salaries - good for them - the very people who we are often told should contribute more. Ultimately they'd pay for it anyway one way or another - somebody has to. Scotland - a perfect example of how people value ideology over reality. Their 'free' system has shut out many people from poorer backgrounds, it is decidedly more elitist than the system in England because it is underfunded and universities there are increasingly taking on fee paying students from England and overseas at the expense of Scottish youngsters who would otherwise operate on a level playing field if this system was structured like it is in England.
As for May valuing defence over education, that is just emotion talking. All she has done is committed to the 2% of GDP target, no more no less (which is lower than it was throughout the last Labour government). It's like saying she values deprived children in India (with its ever growing collection of billionaires) more than the UK because she has chosen to maintain the foreign aid budget.
I don't think May is great, I'm not even a Tory really, but my politics are in the centre ground, and despite lame and baseless claims of a lurch to the right, the Tories dominate that territory. They're all over it. Which is why they will win. It is where elections are always won.
My point to you is that the Conservatives want to sell student debt to third parties and raise interest on the loans. This is clearly going to have an impact on how these loans are repaid and combined with the scrapping of maintenance loans, is going to significantly raise the cost of higher education. The 1% cap has been in place for years now and Home Secretary Rudd told police officers it is going to stay for the foreseeable. I don't see any MPs volunteering for such a cap on their own salaries.
As for Scotland, I don't know if you lived there or went to university there, so apologies if you have. But I saw few affluent Scots in my 8 years at uni there. Just a load of people, including the OH, who emerged from university debt free and with a high quality degree. I spent most of my student career perennially maxing out my overdraft to stay afloat and that was with the maximum financial support available. While I have no time for identity politics I agreed with my Scottish friends on nearly everything else, and saw the Labour Party go into oblivion over its cosying up to the Tories. We have accepted the narrative that austerity is simply being responsible and that the Tories know what they're doing and cannot be questioned. If the Scottish tuition fee system isn't to your liking, the German one is arguably even better. Though they tend to do a number of things better, so it should be no surprise.
And no, she has not just committed to the existing NATO target. They have vowed to increase military expenditure by 1.5% above the rate of inflation. They have also removed commitments to not raising particular taxes, which will give them a green light to do so in the future. The woman herself is a vacuous robot who continuously repeats slogans fed to her by focus groups in the knowledge that the media is never going to put her or her party under scrutiny. A chancellor who makes cock ups bigger than Abbott gets away with it. A manifesto commitment to building more grammar schools, which will cement and widen inequality, is seen as being in the 'centre ground'. All the while, a man proposing policies which have the backing of most voters is derided as a 'hard left' extremist who is out of touch with the average Joe.
What the hell is centrist about this party? How can anyone believe that the 'centreground' has not shifted to the right over the past few decades? What does it matter, I'm just a brainwashed liberal in any case.
Well that does fit in with the theory that uni's are liberal brainwashing strongholds. 8 years as a student!
How many degree's do you have?
You missed my point. Taking it from all means removing from those who need it. Those that pay for breakfast clubs (and I am one of them) don't need it - we get by, and there are childcare vouchers that take the edge off.The fuss over this is odd. It was the Tories who introduced free school meals for infants. Labour never saw fit to introduce such a measure did they?
It was a nice idea, but wasteful because it wasn't means tested. I don't see the sense in funding free school meals for the children of wealthy families. Those most in need will still get free school meals anyway - as they always have.
For some middle/lower income families that do not qualify for free school meals it will be an additional expense - I am in that bracket. I'll have to fund meals for my daughter again, but do you know what, I'm not going to object to feeding my own children - and if I were unable to I would be claiming free school meals anyway and would also be receiving thousands in tax credits every year to support those children. There are much better ways of supporting children living in poverty - ways in which money is properly targeted at those in need. Just like fuel poverty payments going to millionaire pensioners. Where's the sense?
Would much rather this money be diverted and used as part of a schools investment program. As sensible policy in my opinion.
BTW, my wife is a year 1 teacher working at a deprived primary school in Coventry, so I guess we'll have to toss a coin over whose professional word we take on it.
Unless you have a pension fund silly.No one gives a fuck apart from the top 5%
Unless you have a pension fund silly.
I'm so angry about this in particular, in order to do the free school meals Primary schools and infant schools have all had to have kitchens built if they didn't aleady have them. My kids school had theirs installed about 6 months ago, cost around £100k. The breakfast idea is a shit one, the kids that need a proper breakfast and are being neglected, parents struggle to get them in for 9 o'clock, they aren't going to get them in for 8.00-8.15 so they can have breakfast first.Latest Tory manifesto commitment announced is ending universal free school meals for infants. Tax cuts for millionaires, lunch cuts for infants-good deal.
I'm so angry about this in particular, in order to do the free school meals Primary schools and infant schools have all had to have kitchens built if they didn't aleady have them. My kids school had theirs installed about 6 months ago, cost around £100k. The breakfast idea is a shit one, the kids that need a proper breakfast and are being neglected, parents struggle to get them in for 9 o'clock, they aren't going to get them in for 8.00-8.15 so they can have breakfast first.
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My point to you is that the Conservatives want to sell student debt to third parties and raise interest on the loans. This is clearly going to have an impact on how these loans are repaid and combined with the scrapping of maintenance loans, is going to significantly raise the cost of higher education. The 1% cap has been in place for years now and Home Secretary Rudd told police officers it is going to stay for the foreseeable. I don't see any MPs volunteering for such a cap on their own salaries.
As for Scotland, I don't know if you lived there or went to university there, so apologies if you have. But I saw few affluent Scots in my 8 years at uni there. Just a load of people, including the OH, who emerged from university debt free and with a high quality degree. I spent most of my student career perennially maxing out my overdraft to stay afloat and that was with the maximum financial support available. While I have no time for identity politics I agreed with my Scottish friends on nearly everything else, and saw the Labour Party go into oblivion over its cosying up to the Tories. We have accepted the narrative that austerity is simply being responsible and that the Tories know what they're doing and cannot be questioned. If the Scottish tuition fee system isn't to your liking, the German one is arguably even better. Though they tend to do a number of things better, so it should be no surprise.
And no, she has not just committed to the existing NATO target. They have vowed to increase military expenditure by 1.5% above the rate of inflation. They have also removed commitments to not raising particular taxes, which will give them a green light to do so in the future. The woman herself is a vacuous robot who continuously repeats slogans fed to her by focus groups in the knowledge that the media is never going to put her or her party under scrutiny. A chancellor who makes cock ups bigger than Abbott gets away with it. A manifesto commitment to building more grammar schools, which will cement and widen inequality, is seen as being in the 'centre ground'. All the while, a man proposing policies which have the backing of most voters is derided as a 'hard left' extremist who is out of touch with the average Joe.
What the hell is centrist about this party? How can anyone believe that the 'centreground' has not shifted to the right over the past few decades? What does it matter, I'm just a brainwashed liberal in any case.
I'm so angry about this in particular, in order to do the free school meals Primary schools and infant schools have all had to have kitchens built if they didn't aleady have them. My kids school had theirs installed about 6 months ago, cost around £100k. The breakfast idea is a shit one, the kids that need a proper breakfast and are being neglected, parents struggle to get them in for 9 o'clock, they aren't going to get them in for 8.00-8.15 so they can have breakfast first.
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So, to get this right. The centre ground is to cut universal free dinner meals for infants to fund the cuts in the education budget.
Nice one.
Excuse me for pointing out the obvious here but isn't the cause of cuts originate from the banking sector.
Seems a well balanced argument.
Let's take away universal school meals from infants in part for paying for the misfortune of corporate greed.
No cuts to education budget? Serious?
Are we talking about the same thing here because every teacher and teaching assistant I know tells me their heads are making redundancies with the exception of someone I know who works in a special needs school and that class sizes will increase next school year.
Spending per pupil has increased over the last 10 years, is now stagnating and may fall in real terms going forward. This is the biggest issue I have with the government - I would like to see a greater commitment in this area.
There is a slight deception here by the government - it is certainly true that education spending is at record highs - but when you factor in increasing pupil numbers (a combination of immigration and a baby boom), there is a danger of spending declining in real terms.
Anecdotally you here different stories - one like you describe, and the other of a teaching shortage where schools are desperately trying to recruit. This brought about in part because of the number of teachers who leave the profession, a sad indictment of how teachers have been treated by successive governments.
The question I suppose comes back to the economy I guess. In order to be able to support a real-terms increase in investment, you need to have a successful economy and buoyant private sector to fund that. We clearly differ on who will think is most likely to deliver that, but ultimately there is only so much you can achieve by shifting money from one department to another - you still need growth and wealth generation to sustain the investment. I don't mind borrowing to fund infrastructure investment when you ramp up borrowing to fund essential services, you're just deferring the problem and creating even bigger issue further down the line. It's all got to be funded somehow. Politics eh?
No cuts to education budget? Serious?
Are we talking about the same thing here because every teacher and teaching assistant I know tells me their heads are making redundancies with the exception of someone I know who works in a special needs school and that class sizes will increase next school year.
Yup. I find it very sad that raising taxes has become an unspeakable act.Your last couple of sentences pretty much agree with my philosophy - every one pays a bit more towards health and education and further down the line we all, and more importantly, all of our children and grand children benefit.
A healthier more educated population will create a more wealthy country in the long term and a better living environment for everyone.
It's worth noting where I work us not a school but has an education arm. Our cuts are something crazy like 65%.Our schools budget for next year has been cut by 25% - through a combination of reduced income and also the increase of costs - a big one being NI and pensions.
That is consistent with pretty much every secondary school in the county.
Most of these children will continue to get hot meals, especially those most in need because they will get them for free, like they always have.
Yup. I find it very sad that raising taxes has become an unspeakable act.
Raising taxes for a purpose that benefits us all certainly isn't.
It's worth noting where I work us not a school but has an education arm. Our cuts are something crazy like 65%.
Somebody will have to pick up what we can't do anymore.
How would raising taxes for state education benefit everyone.
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