It's just a personal observation but I just wonder how stupid Britain's young are.
As someone who has always been in favour of free education, it worries me that those kids protesting the other day about tuition fees, have no idea about where blame needs to be apportioned.
Increasingly desperate and corrupt Labour appear to have no qualms or indeed scruples in manipulation of student anger, over increases in tuition fees despite the fact that Labour introduced them.
It's my belief that Labour ought to bare the brunt of criticism despite Tony Blair, being elected with the meaningless mantra "education, education, education his man Blunkett agreed to screw the poor within a couple of weeks of the 1997 election.
Labour have in my view been very cynical and although the daily Mail is not known for it's impartiality this article ( click here) is worth a gander.
Their smart enough to know when they have been betrayed by a morally bankrupt party. A party who wooed them with lies and at the first sniff of power sold their liberal principles down the river. Labour may be the culprits others will argue the validity of that argument, but we did not vote for them! They did not dupe many with hollow promises of fairness and they are not the Tory led party currently screwing the poor they claim to represent. I wonder how stupid the Lib Dems are if they think that they will still exist after the next general election.
ReplyDeleteAnother trot
ReplyDelete"It's just a personal observation but I just wonder how stupid Britain's young are."
ReplyDelete---------------------------------------
I don't want to say anything to add to the pile of annoyances that LibDems have on their plate at the moment because they as a Party and as individuals are performing well above any reasonable expectations in the Coalition. They really are doing the Nation' Business even though they didn't want to go down this path. Lot's of credit is due.
That said, don't you think think that before making that University Pledge way back in pre-meltdown days. someone might have taken the time to really look into the University situation a little more carefully ? Is now the time to see that many (most ?) people going to University are simply going to fill in time, are perhaps unsuited to the task, and will emerge with a useless degree which will offer them no hope of gainful employment ? Was offering to extend and even expand the current failing system really a great idea or was it simplistic pandering at a time when no-one expected the LibDems to ever have any chance of following through ?
I don't think that the phrase 'the best and the brightest' could possibly be used to describe the mass of wannabe University attendees under the current intake guidelines. But now it HAS TO.
If nothing else perhaps this has taught the Party something. It 'might' be called upon to sit in Government at any time, and what it says it will do if in a position to do so, has to be FIRMLY separated from what it might want to do in a perfect world.
Bottom line --- it's a little late to see that the idealized picture of University students bears little resemblance to reality. Lot's of them ----- not too swift.
Lot's of them ---- shouldn't be there and it has not too much to do with money.
There were about 200 involved at Millbank though most of the damage was done by 4 o5. Out of more than a Million students. How about an apology.
ReplyDeleteI know the tests for student stupidity
ReplyDelete(1) Do you know how much does a degree in Arts increases income over a lifetime ?
(2) Do you know how much debt a student runs up ?
(3) Are you too stupid to do a difficult degree (Control Engineering or Physics)
(4) Are you too stupid to do an easier degree which is less demanding of scientific and mathematical ability (Medicine, Law)
If you answered "Yes" to one or more of the above then if you go on to university you are both stupid and parasitic.
Foundation funded anarchists, useful idiots, sometimes police officers in 'anarchist' garb usually make up the troublemakers at these otherwise peaceful demonstrations. There have been numerous cases internationally, particularly at the G8/G20 mafia mob-meets, of coppers out of uniform, but still wearing their state-issue jackboots (lol), stirring up a ruckus and then disappearing before their armoured colleagues steam in to the peaceful protestors with clubs. TV cameras rolling for the evening propaganda download, ahem, I mean the evening news and the corporate print media briefed on the next days shock horror report, tarring all concerned with the same brush.
ReplyDeleteAs regards your question, Tony, yes we are all being dumbed down, but the youngsters even more so as the vaccination program has been stepped up from when we were young and through increased chemical additives in our food, which will have a more dramatic effect on a developing young brain.
ReplyDeleteNeither do popular media or state run education achieve much in the way of creating intelligent university material, not that anything being taught there is of much use in furthering the cause of humanity, only the cause of the greedy robber barons that run the whole show.
The whole education thing is just another racket to create a new generation of debtors before the poor things have experienced anything of life.
Better to homeschool your kids, feed them organically and not let the quacks anywhere near them with a syringe. At least then they may have a shot at Oxbridge and possibly go on to make some real changes in this whole corrupt system.
Retired, what kind of a society would we have if everyone was a Control Engineer or Physicists. No great writers in the mode of Shakespeare or artists like Constable. No musicians, no entrepeneurs, no doctors or nurses, no carers, no soldiers, sailors or airmen, nothing other than your idea of some graduate elite.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think a degree in English Literature, or Mathematics or History or Medicine is easy. Pray tell me what exactly did you graduate in.
I find your comment this time insulting to me, my kids and all the other folk who have worked, studied and or, aspire, to gain a higher education. We need them all to have a well rounded nation.
Thank you 1 29 Labour activist (Black Ops) for your skewed and warped spin
ReplyDeleteWell said paul barker indeed how about an apology for attacking democracy, students ought to have more depth than to be egged on by ruthless Labour and other militant nuts
The youth of today are alot smarter than many of the elderly who unfortunately stand-by and let our future generations be sold down the river.
ReplyDeleteStop Education Cuts Protests Man Gets Brutally Arrested
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q_7eOq4WtY&feature=player_embedded
Clegg – the man who betrayed us all
ReplyDeleteTwo months before the general election, Nick Clegg warned there would be "riots" on the streets if the Conservatives introduced extreme cuts. Now they have begun – and Clegg himself is the chief cutter.
There was a whiplash moment this Wednesday. Inside the House of Commons, a pale-faced and barely coherent Clegg was championing the trebling of tuition fees at Prime Minister’s Question Time, despite the fact he promised before the election to “implacably oppose” this move because it would be “a disaster”. Then, in a low rumble, the chants of the 50,000 betrayed students massed outside began to echo into the chamber. He began to stumble: “We have stuck to our ambition? our wider ambition?” (Laughter, jeers). “Our policy is more progressive?” (Hoots from all sides, including his own.) “The truth is before the election we didn’t know...” The chants got louder, and the excuses got more contorted.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-clegg-ndash-the-man-who-betrayed-us-all-2131652.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUj2c2pzMNA&feature=player_embedded#!
ReplyDeletethis shows the youth of today have a far better handle on whats goes on today than we ever did
Returning to the original question, in some ways smarter than you infer, Tony. One welcome return of student protest is the quality of the banners - I was particularly taken with the one which read -You haven't got a cLEGg to stand on!
ReplyDeleteThe topic of higher education funding is rather more complex than the debate here allows, and says much about the law of unintended consequence when governments make policy decisions.
At the heart of the funding crisis is the assertion that it is in the interests of society to have 50% of young people attending university, which begs a whole host of unanswered questions about the quality of the degrees available, the quality of the jobs they will find, and what happens to the whole area of vocational education. Much of the justification for this is then driven by the equality agenda, retrofitted into the calculation as an additional justification.
The equality agenda fails students long before university, in schools and colleges where young people do not get the quality of education required because of the differentials between schools, and the attrition of middle class and disadvantadged class ghettos in certain catchment areas.
Add to that the undermining of the quality of the A level, particularly damaged by the introduction of the AS level exams, and their requirements to double numbers of markers and others involved at a stroke, and the rigidity of marking system.
The net effect is an entry wave of students who are being taught in larger and larger format, with an increasingly varied quality of university lecturer (they have had to reproduce extra numbers as well), and a more varied quality of academic achievement in entrant.
If you want to know about some scandels in public funding, I suuggest you research the salaries paid to university vice chancellors to oversee this huge, and chaotic, expansion. Some are paid very well indeed, whilst overseeing a product of dubious quality, that certainly does not have the confidence of many employers, who know very well which universities do a good job, and which are sophisticated baby sitters.
This is reflective of the change in education earlier, when all students were forced into the single GCSE examination system, damaging both the ability of the less academically inclined to achieve, and the ability of the best to shine.
We (society) tell young people they need these qualifications; do not quality assure them in any meaningful way; and now say they can pay the burden of cost of this dubiously expanded system, with no guarantee of meaningful employment, nor incremental reward through pay afterwards.
And then we wonder why they are revolting........
11 23 Nice try, the biggest betrayal was Labour's two weeks into Blairs 1997 victory Blunkett introduced student fees not in Labour Manifesto this was before your cynical colleages in the Labour party had plundered the nations financial reserves, destroyed private pensions, attacked working people by ruthlessly exploiting immigrant labour whilst conducting illegal war just so that the elite like Blair Brown Mandelson Campbell etc could look after themselves, as we know from the top Gordon Brown had the mind set that working people were just bigots and there is no evidence that these views were not shared across much of Labour probably down to local level.
ReplyDeleteChris as you will appreciate, I find your views on education flawed, you support, what is a clearly a socially exclusive system in Kent, most accept that in Kent Grammar schools proportionately more kids from middleclasses go than those of working classes or welfare dependant fammiles, even worse some kent schools are taking money from kent and cherry picking across southern england in a blatant attempt to make their job easier and good in league tables.
Why shouldn't kids go to university, we might not need to import doctors for instance if we trained more, yes of course, a lot of colleges run mickey mouse courses, media, business, politics and all that malarkey rather than science and engineering its the direction of education needs changing
Why shouldn't kids go to university, we might not need to import doctors for instance if we trained more, yes of course, a lot of colleges run mickey mouse courses, media, business, politics and all that malarkey rather than science and engineering its the direction of education needs changing Well said Tony . The thing that concerns me is the lack of fore sight of those that will go on to earn bigger salaries than the average and there fore can afford in the future to pay back the costs and it is virtually interest free.
ReplyDeleteMr Flaig, you are of course free to condemn Labour - as you do almost daily despite them no longer being the Party of Government - but you, as a Liberal Democrat, are in no position to criticise them for broken promises and acting outside their manifesto. Your Party has turned its beliefs, pledges, promises and objectives upside down in order to gain seats in Government, with the salaries and trappings of privilege that go with those seats.
ReplyDeleteYour Party is supporting cuts which even many Tory observers are now agreeing are driven by Tory ideology and policy rather than economic necessity. One only has to reflect on the Tory cheers at Osborne's cuts announcement to see what turns them on.
I guess you will turn your usual offensive comments in this direction, so to save you the bother of your customary misguided inaccuracies, I am not a Labour activist or a member of any political party. Nor am I apologising for anything. I am attacking you and your Party.
I wonder if all those 'financial experts' that comment on Labours's failure to manage the economy have degrees in economics and could have done better. Britin is not alone in the economic crisis. The world's leading economists cannot agree on the best way forward and only time will tell whether Britain is heading in the right direct. The experts at the Bank of England are unsure and they have the best resources and computer models at their diposal. The USA where the trouble started has nearly 10% unemployed and we seem to be heading the same way which cant be good news for Thanet.
ReplyDeleteHow can Scotland manage its budgets so that students pay no fees and England cant?
10 51 despite your protestations I am taking the liberty of assumeing your extreme views are part of some grisly Labour "black ops" propaganda unit and clearly you have some incite "I guess you will turn your usual offensive comments in this direction.
ReplyDelete10 51 your perverse and malign attitude encourages a response not least this revealing comment "I am attacking you and your Party.
Firstly its apparent that your full of hate, secondly your rather stupid in asking anyone to think your not representing Labour in a more proactive way than I do my party.
Lastly your so honest and confident in yourself that you are to frightened to use your own name.
Perhaps I shall refer to you infuture as insignificant labour lackey
You are free to say whatever you like, of course, Mr Flaig, as it's your blog. But dealing in half-truths, complete untruths, spin and cheap insults, does you no favours. Nor does it say much for the Party of which you are a member. Clearly neither of you have any principles, or integrity.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 11.43 said...
ReplyDelete"I wonder if all those 'financial experts' that comment on Labours's failure to manage the economy have degrees in economics and could have done better. Britin is not alone in the economic crisis. The world's leading economists cannot agree on the best way forward and only time will tell whether Britain is heading in the right direct. The experts at the Bank of England are unsure and they have the best resources and computer models at their diposal. The USA where the trouble started has nearly 10% unemployed and we seem to be heading the same way which cant be good news for Thanet.
How can Scotland manage its budgets so that students pay no fees and England cant?"
Oh my God! Where to start?
University degrees in economics are about as worthless as the dollar bill will soon be. Why? Because they are teaching the flawed 'Austrian Model' economics that got us into this mess.
Unfortunately many people cannot seem to grasp that we are being taken for a ride by the privately owned central banks, and that this 'double-dip recession' is a carefully engineered plan designed to enslave us financially. The Revenue and Customs department have already called for all salaries to be handed directly to them, after which, I assume, they will deduct a raft of old and new taxes (yet to be announced) and pay the wage-slave the pittance remaining.
Britain is certainly not alone in this crisis, but they are one of the main protagonists of it's creation. Your 'experts' at the Bank of England know damn well what is going on, and I can tell you what their answer to it will be: Draconian austerity measures to tax the living daylights out of anyone still lucky enough to have a job, while the unemployed will be given government snooping jobs in the burgeoning police-state sector in return for their dole money and rent allowance. Environmental taxes to finance the new world government, taxes on breathing, taxes on farting, older retirement age.
In a phrase "Neo-feudalistic serfdom".
American unemployment is closer to 25-30%, which for a nation of 'go-getters' would indicate that something must be seriously amiss in the Land of the Free. Don't blame the Americans for this crisis, or the British for that matter. The blame lies with the global power elite, who have no allegiance to anyone but themselves. These people control everything, because we have allowed them to, and we in the West have been cushioned to a degree from the tyranny that is meted out to those less fortunate (in the lesser developed countries). Now that same tyranny is being unleashed on us, we are slowly waking up to the real paradigm of the world we live in.
Do we want to live like third world slaves? I know that I don't.
Mr Flaig, this is just another example of ephebiphobia (fear of youth). And your ignorant generalisations about young people's intelligence are hardly lent any credence by citing a Daily Mail article - hardly the most veritable of media outlets to base one's views on. But I'm sure young people will get the last laugh. You just wait.
ReplyDelete12 59 lets just wind this one up clearly you are in that same range of intellectually challenged Labour activist as Mark Nottingham who like you are so deeply involved in party politics cannot comprehend that an individual might just comment from their own perspective.
ReplyDeleteCllr Mark Nottingham continues to refer to this blog as "Liberal Democrat News Margate" and like you cannot distinguish being an individual having opinions who happens to accept the general principles of political party but does not speak for them
2 19 Labour activist I will be honest I myself sometimes misread stuff I suggest you forget you Labour manipulators and re read and understand where I'm coming from.
ReplyDeleteStill the next half assed comment will be deleted
With leaders like Milleband and Hart locally is it any wonder your getting abuse rather than reasoned debate Tony.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very cheap to hurl 'Labour activist' accusations at people willy nilly. For your information, I have never voted Labour, and I deeply oppose those Blairite hypocrites as much as you do, so to accuse me of being a party activist shows how one-dimensional you've become as a blogger. You've lost touch. I was merely defending the young people you're quite happy to label 'stupid.'
ReplyDeleteMr Flaig, you have rightly condemned those who have been to rude you in the past and questioned your knowledge and capability. I would support you in that. So do NOT refer to me, or anyone else whose views you do not like, as "intellectually challenged". You are rapidly descending to the politics of the gutter.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I guess you are in good company with your Liberal Democrat colleagues, since it now seems they planned to ditch their opposition to university tuition fees BEFORE the General Election. So not only are you in a Party that has sacrificed many of its principles, beliefs, policies and objectives in order to gain seats in Government, you are in a Party that LIES in order to get its candidates elected.
And before you start huffing and puffing and referring to Labour propaganda, the revelation has come from the Tories. Just watch the news.
I think you should pack away your anti-Labour phrase book for a while.
Sorry 3 18 or should I say Woolas, how's the BNP section of labour movement
ReplyDeleteI also happend to be defending young people from Labour manipulators
If you have any integrity do please send me an email with your identity just as a good will measure from someone wishing to attack me
Same old CONDEM/LIBDUM/LABLIES
ReplyDeletesame party just different faces they are all part of the same corrupt cabal and the young people can see it
There is a constant thread running through debate after debate about the Lib/Dem treachery and how they sunk their principles for a few cabinet seats. I wonder if those same people would have criticised if they had done a deal with Labour for a few seats or would that somehow have been OK!
ReplyDeleteIn order to provide stable government in a time of need for our country, the Lib/Dems, in my opinion courageously having regard to the flak they are getting, formed a coalition with the party with the most seats and votes. The alternative to a coalition was another election.
Oh, and don't you just love all the people who will never vote Lib/Dem again having never done so in the first place. Must think we are all as simple minded as they are.
You keep telling it as you see it, Tony, and good luck to you. Too many Thanet bloggers have bitten the dust already including, it would seem, the deselected Mark Nottingham. Wonder if he still sings the Red Flag in his bath!!
dont believe we have ever had a stable government they are all corrupt and work for the international bankers
ReplyDeletejudge them not by their false words but by their actions
thank heavens for the youth of today
Bluenote, the Liberal Democrats have acted out of self, not national, interest. And I for one would have condemned them in just the same way they had set their principles aside to climb into bed with Labour. I cannot speak for others.
ReplyDeleteAs for you Mr Flaig, I am still laughing at your ridiculous statement that you are protecting the young from Labour manipulation. If you are, then you are a political Fagin - "believe the shiny lies from the LIb Dems, my dears". Your posts are becoming a joke reminiscent of the junior school playground.
During the general election I went over to my son's house share in Canterbury to deliver his postal vote. All the other students in the house told me they were voting Liberal democrat because of their policy on the tuition fees. My son may have voted lib dem and to be honest I haven't a clue who he voted for.
ReplyDeleteA few days ago I popped into see him and believe you me the mood has really changed. The Lib Dems have turned a army of students against them and it is going to cost them dear.
Please note the constant theme of labour, since they now realise that they have caused great damage to working people they now seek to blame lib dems rather face facts
ReplyDeleteTony beach being a prime example of this
Sorry, Mt Flaig, I have held back from resorting to your gutter tactics, but you are an idiot.
ReplyDeleteStrange how experiences differ, Tony Beachcomber, I also recently visited my daughter's university campus and she, and all her friends, remain staunch members of Conservative Future. I guess it is down to who you mix with, eh!
ReplyDeleteThe Conservatives mix in very well with these as did Labour
ReplyDeleteCommon Purpose (CP)
- a hidden menace in our government and schools
http://www.stopcp.com/cp.htm
See the nutty conspirator is alive and kicking with yet another cunning web link! Wait until you get to the pearly gates and find they won't let you in without the right handshake. What then?
ReplyDelete4:10, you seem to think there is only one of us.
ReplyDeleteYou may be surprised at just how fast the resistance is growing to your lot's grotesque agenda; so grotesque that it does not have a hope in hell of succeeding, and straight to hell is where you lot are going! So don't concern yourself with pearly gates and funny handshakes, matey.
Can't wait for the action to kick off, old fruit, for I fancy slotting a few roundheads, especially those with nothing but fantasies between the ears.
ReplyDeleteZbigniew Brzezinski in a recent address to the Council on Foreign Relations:
ReplyDelete"... Most people know what is generally going on in the world, and are consciously aware of global inequities, inequalities, lack of respect and exploitation.
Mankind is now politically awakened and staring."
He might have said it but I doubt whether many people in Thanet, or the UK for that matter, heard about it or could give a toss anyway.
ReplyDeletePlease try and wake up to the fact you are worrying yourself into an earlier than necessary grave and enjoy whatever time you have left.
You are in danger of becoming a BB!
Are you kidding? This is the most exciting time in the history of the world.
ReplyDeleteThese cold-blooded fascists are about to get their rear ends kicked to kingdom come, and I wouldn't miss it for all the tea in China. (Not that I drink tea; it's full of sodium fluoride, dontcha know).
Not a jihad by the great unwashed no less! You cannot be serious for they are all far too busy watching the 'telly' and stuffing their faces with fast food. The only exciting thing about now is seeing how long before some of them burst from over stuffed obesity.
ReplyDeleteFor heavens sake, man, wake up. There is no facist plot, the establishment is but a mythical villain invented by the extreme Left, freemasonry these days is a mens club dwindling in numbers because it has a lack of appeal to today's young and the plight of half the world is of little concern to most of the other half.
The conspiracies are all in your head and nowhere else.
Not a jihad matey. Just a realisation by an increasing number of level headed people, around the world, that they do not need to put up with this nonsense any more.
ReplyDeleteIt's over, you lost, get used to it.
Level headed people around the world? What like those in Iran or Somalia maybe, or on the Afghan border or with ZANU/PF in Zimbabwe? Now I know you are are on a wind up.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more, unless you are a nautical man you really should stop using the term 'matey' for it makes you sound like a pirate, or could that be parrot!
As to "you lost" and it being over. Well I have had a good look round and nothing has changed. All my old army mates still send me dirty jokes and the beer still tastes good. Not that you would have time for such in your miserable world of rallying the revolutionaries.
I wish you no harm but you do have my sincere sympathy.
You seem awfully determined to dispel any notion that there is a global conspiracy in the works.
ReplyDeleteSurely, if I were just "some nutter", you would have been better off ignoring me.
As for "nothing's changed", of course it will take time, but the huge majority targeted by this nefarious eugenics plan are beginning to cotton on, it is only a matter of time, matey boy.
We shall see but, having lived through an awful lot of 'end of the world' dates predicted by various other fruit cakes I won't be holding my breath.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, how do we recognise those that are revolting and those who are about to get their come uppance. Don't answer that for I think I can guess - your lot all have eye patches, parrots on their shoulders and call each other matey.
PS I don't THINK you are a nutter, honest!!
ReplyDeleteNo matey, don't hold your breath, it will take a bit longer than that, and an end of the world is not on the cards either.
ReplyDeleteThe next decade will herald a renaissance across the globe and mankind will again be allowed to to reach for his true potential.
There will be an end to all the death, destruction, mayhem, chaos, greed, secrecy, torture, perversion, corruption, tyranny, poisoning, usury, suffering, hunger, starvation & exploitation of the present and recent past.
Call it nuts if you like, but it WILL happen... ;-)
OK, I am convinced about you but not converted to the cause.
ReplyDeleteJust remember that every revolution, collapse of empire, wind of change or new era has simply seen one set of leaders replaced by another, and often not for the better.
Look at Zimbabwe and its freedom from white minority rule. All that happened was that most of the white minority simply left to build new lives elsewhere and it was the poorer Africans who were left to be beaten and persecuted by the new regime. Bet they really enjoyed their liberation!
By the way, the end to death bit is rather suspect. Surely you are not one of these 'the second coming is nigh' folk for a few of those have finished up with egg on their faces in my time.
Whatever, have a nice weekend and keep taking the tablets.
JP Morgan... short selling silver it doesn't have... naughty, naughty!
ReplyDeleteThanks old fruit, and a fine weekend to you too.
STUDENTS PROTESTS, THE MURDERING MET COPS AND POLICE STATE
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KwAtbmNKuQ&feature=player_embedded
Student Power 3
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1Hr7Hz_wY&feature=player_embedded
thank heavens for our brave children it is a disgraceful state of affairs
... no mention of this mounted police attack in the media ... no surprises. still as least we get to watch it objectively instead of having some insane voice over and editing hacks ...
ReplyDelete