The 2015 Popularity Contest (aka UK General Election )

[Walken]

Well I disagree.

taking an isolated case, with a very rare amount of assistance, doesn't really amount to a great deal of evidence on a population wide problem

 

[chewee]

I was as Labour as you can get but we had 13 years of Labour before this crowd and they did little to change education or welfare.(min wage was a good start though).

Blair was a tory in all but name. His policies at times left me dismayed, I've always been a staunch paid up party member but I was close to jacking it in at one point. He began NHS privatisation and introduced student tuition fees amongst many other controversial issues.

Blair commanded a massive majority but such was the opposition within the party he came very very close on a few occasions to losing a vote of no confidence. (I think the tuition fee Bill passed by maybe 5 or 6 votes).

If David Miliband was elected party leader then I'm pretty certain Labour would be well out infront right now. He has the charm and charisma the public love but I'm delighted he wasn't chosen, he is a Blairite and would have been a disaster. Ed may lack that X factor but he is far more left wing, his views are much closer to mine and much closer to where a Labour leader should be on the political spectrum.

 

[glorydaze]

?

It was not my place, as part of the mentoring programme, to discuss personal life. But the fact he was going to uni proves it is available to all, as the programme is specifically for under privileged kids.

40% of 18/19 year olds entered higher education in 2013, a record according to UCAS.

 

[Whistlin' Dixie]

40% of 18/19 year olds entered higher education in 2013, a record according to UCAS.

All very well, but what about them scrapping the EMA the second they got into No10 and trebling student fees not long after?

Then sending the same kids out tostack shelves "work" for their benefit because they couldn't afford uni or get the grades required?

 

[daylightrobber]

Having come from a disadvantaged background together with many of my friends, we had the opportunity via the 11plus to get into the top schools in Liverpool that would otherwise have not been available. It had the effect of raising expectations as well as giving a first class education. This was also brought back into the communities we grew up in and raised aspirations of those who hadn't passed the 11plus. I regard the abolishment of the 11plus and Grammar Schools as the greatest educational vandalism this country has ever made. The fact it was pursued by Labour dogma on the issue, against the very people they said they represented, made it all the worse........

Did you climb the social ladder though. If you did then research would suggest that your experience was exceptional rather than the norm.http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/02/grammar-school-improve-social-mobility

 

[The Cowboy]

I CAN borrow £1000 from wonga, get meself on a course that MIGHT land me a better-paid job.


But like an aspiring student, I have to weigh up whether I can afford to, or how it benefits me long term.

No, I made it through uni on a standard student loan and a part-time job. Could I have made it through without the part-time job? It would've been tight, but it was also a part-time job anyone could get.

Fact is, I got through uni on the standard loan available to all (in fact, there is additional funding available to poorer folk) and a regulation part-time earner. The same as anyone.

No-one needs to resort to wonga to get through uni.

 

[glorydaze]

All very well, but what about them scrapping the EMA the second they got into No10 and trebling student fees not long after?

Then sending the same kids out tostack shelves "work" for their benefit because they couldn't afford uni or get the grades required?

Student fees went up in 2011/12. The figures are for 2013 intake.

 

[daylightrobber]

It's looking like the LDs being part of any coalition with the Tories could be on the rocks.

 

[The Esk]

It's looking like the LDs being part of any coalition with the Tories could be on the rocks.

Correct - looks likely that the Con/LD coalition would only garner 300-302 seats between them.

Shame..............lol

 

[daylightrobber]

Correct - looks likely that the Con/LD coalition would only garner 300-302 seats between them.

Shame..............lol

News reports are suggesting that the LDs simply don't want to be in coalition with the Tories. I'm not talking Clegg, rather the grass roots supporters.

 

[The Cowboy]

News reports are suggesting that the LDs simply don't want to be in coalition with the Tories. I'm not talking Clegg, rather the grass roots supporters.

That's handy, cos no-one wants them anywhere near govt again anyway.

 

[peteblue]

Did you climb the social ladder though. If you did then research would suggest that your experience was exceptional rather than the norm.http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/02/grammar-school-improve-social-mobility

Depends what you mean by social ladder. If it means holding down very senior positions across the world in multinational companies, then yes I did, if it means mixing in company that a scruff from Liverpool would not otherwise have been invited to then again I did, if it means raising a family who then all went to university and have the confidence to believe in themselves then yes I did. Winston Churchills grandson and I held similar senior positions within the same company at the same time, is this the social ladder of which you speak?. Would this have happened without access to a Grammar School?, almost certainly not...........I may well have gotten more out of the experience than others, but all of my friends did well as a result. Our single road, within a large council estate, had a bloody good smattering of dentists, doctors and lawyers come from there which is perhaps unlikely to happen now, after all this 'progress'.........

 

[peteblue]

Correct - looks likely that the Con/LD coalition would only garner 300-302 seats between them.

Shame..............lol

The Tories got 306 themselves at the last election. Labour are going to be missing the whole of their Scottish battalion and the SNP will scare the English voters. I think Labour are toast..........shame....... lol

 

[daylightrobber]

Depends what you mean by social ladder. If it means holding down very senior positions across the world in multinational companies, then yes I did, if it means mixing in company that a scruff from Liverpool would not otherwise have been invited to then again I did, if it means raising a family who then all went to university and have the confidence to believe in themselves then yes I did. Winston Churchills grandson and I held similar senior positions within the same company at the same time, is this the social ladder of which you speak?. Would this have happened without access to a Grammar School?, almost certainly not...........I may well have gotten more out of the experience than others, but all of my friends did well as a result. Our single road, within a large council estate, had a bloody good smattering of dentists, doctors and lawyers come from there which is perhaps unlikely to happen now, after all this 'progress'.........

Fair play to you sir. It's a real shame that the kids who were thrown by the wayside because they didn't pass an exam at the age of eleven never got the same opportunity though hey?

 

[daylightrobber]

The Tories got 306 themselves at the last election. Labour are going to be missing the whole of their Scottish battalion and the SNP will scare the English voters. I think Labour are toast..........shame....... lol

There's a suggestion that upto 10m people intending to vote are still undecided. I'd say it's impossible to call.