Wanted: A PM who DID NOT go to Oxford – politicalbetting.com
Wanted: A PM who DID NOT go to Oxford – politicalbetting.com
With Johnson under police investigation we might be only days or possibly or just a few months away from a Tory leadership election and inevitably we are starting to see leadership speculation.
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It is also quite depressing and I agree with the general thrust. Non Oxford would be good
However I have no problem with most of our PMs being from Oxford, it is along with Cambridge the best university and most selective university in the country and one of the best in the world. Oxford also tends to be more PPE and humanities focused, Cambridge is more science focused (Cambridge has more Nobel Prize winners than Oxford). That is the main reason most of our PMs come from Oxford not Cambridge. Although Howard went to Cambridge and could have become PM had he won the 2005 general election and Portillo went to Cambridge too. Burnham went to Cambridge as well so if OGH really wants a non Oxford PM perhaps he could back Burnham not Starmer (Starmer admittedly went to Leeds for undergrad but still did postgrad at Oxford). Tugendhat the only Cambridge educated Tory contendor as mentioned.
Of other Tory leadership contenders to succeed the Oxford educated Boris, Sunak, Hunt, Truss and Raab also went to Oxford (Sunak went to Stanford as well) but Patel went to Essex University and as stated in the header Mourdaunt to Reading.
They should run that question past a thousand Scots.
My predilection made it to the header.
Out of interest, did any of these claim their MAs-by-assumption ?
"Far superior in every way to his Anglo-Saxon allies, the French President shows Statesmanship, maturity and common sense"
So says Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey.
Of Pravda.
https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/150165-superior_emmanuel_macron/
I understand Peter Hennessy has been complimentary towards Mordaunt. She might be my pick, it's pointless going for a Remainer given the Tory base. They should just get on with it.
Boris Johnson:
London -33
Rest of South -28
Midlands -43
North -43
Wales -43
Scotland -77
GB -40
Keir Starmer:
London +3
Rest of South -5
Midlands +11
North +8
Wales +18
Scotland +7
GB +4
Rishi Sunak:
London +16
Rest of South +45
Midlands +44
North +26
Wales +51
Scotland +27
GB +35
(Deltapoll/Daily Mirror; Sample Size: 1,515; Fieldwork: 25th - 27th January 2022)
‘St Andrews beats Oxford and Cambridge universities to top spot’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-58596714
As a noted PB royal arsecrawler, surely you must agree that if it’s good enough for the next heir apparent and his Stepford wife it’s good enough for a pm?
What struck me about that list was how far back you have to go to find one who was remotely as bad as Johnson. I'd actually have to go to Baldwin, who I have always despised. (Brown isn't listed I see, but he was merely poor and he did do good work during the Banking Crisis.)
I know this point of view is not popular with Hyufd, but it is Monday morning and I feel like annoying somebody.
Would you fancy being part of a political union where you never get to pick the government?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_associated_with_the_London_School_of_Economics
The people hanging their hat on lying are creating two hoops to jump through, when just one should suffice. Both the lawbreaking has to be proven, which ought to be enough, then that Boris knew what he said to be false at the time that he said it.
Its entirely possible to say something that is untrue, but not to have lied, because you were unaware it was untrue when you said it. That is not lying. Ignorance is no defence for breaking the law, but it is a defence against accusations of lying.
And its all utterly unnecessary. Lawmakers can't be lawbreakers, that's the only thing that should be said, ad nauseum. He made the rules, he broke them, he must go. No ifs, no buts, no equivocation.
You also get your own Parliament now too where Sturgeon gets to be FM of Scotland.
I would also point out Blair was born in Scotland, just educated at Oxford and Home was also from a Scottish landed family educated at Oxford. Bonar Law was PM in the last 100 years too and grew up in Glasgow but was a non graduate.
So Scots are actually slightly overrepresented in terms of UK PMs, even if Oxford education is overrepresented even amongst Scottish PMs
The Rt. Hon. Jim Hacker.
He's playing that stone from far too close.
Course. The rules don't apply to him.
In the global league table only Oxbridge and Imperial and UCL of UK universities are top ten.
1 MIT
2 Oxford
3 Stanford
4 Cambridge
5 Harvard
6 Caltech
7 Imperial
8 = Zurich and UCL
10 Chicago
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2022
Just as Jed Bartlet was the greatest President........
Monica Lewinsky did though.
Neither were Beaver students...
And HMQ has (honorary) degrees from the Uni of London and Uni of Wales.
I fear my legendary modesty would have held me back in politics.
41% of Oxford students went to private school but only 35% of Cambridge students went to private school.
Even St Andrews and Durham and Imperial have more ex private school pupils than Cambridge
https://thetab.com/uk/2019/09/19/uk-private-school-universities-125931
And Lady Penelope and Parker, too.
And Jack Ryan, Angelina Jolie and James Bond's Dad.
Albeit we do still expect our monarchs to go to private school or have private tutors
If the PM was caught doing 50 in a 40, or something similar, once, most people would shrug. I think.
If the PM was caught doing 80 in a 40, with multiple offences, complete with an unconvincing attempt to wiggle out of it, then many people would think that he should go.
https://twitter.com/jameskirkup/status/1490634706102202370
Wilson's book is good, and very fair about his predecessors (up to the ones he competed against, about whom he doesn't feel he can sensibly comment), and I'm surprised it's not better-known. I'd never heard of it until I saw it mentioned on PB.
"You know I think I could cope with that" says George.
The Devil is surprised and asks if he is sure and only when George confirms does he tell Monika she can leave now.
Gotta go - Speed Awareness Course. Wish me luck.
Despite much written about the Maginot line etc, if the fortifications had been used as part of a defence by flexible and mobile armies in an around them, the German attacks could have been held off. French strategy *and* tactics were lousy at the start of WWII.
The issue with lockdown isn't just that its the law, but its his law that he imposed upon us. To break your own laws is even more serious than to break pre-existing laws that you didn't necessarily support but hadn't repealed.
Its worth remembering that in Yes Minister it is a driving incident (albeit drink driving) that starts the chain of events that leads to Hacker becoming Prime Minister.
I received the paperwork today reminding me that I can have a 4th (booster) jab 3 months after my third (primary) dose.
Need to find out when I had the third one.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/scotland-environment-green-lairds/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
edited to add: beaten to it.
That makes it far more egregious to my mind.
More comparable to writing "except for me and my mates" below each speed limit sign.
Blair
Brown
Strang
Cook
Robertson
Lord Irvine of Lairg
Darling (morning Darling!)
Clark
And of course there was Alastair Campbell, son of Scottish veterinary surgeon.
That is a fairly high proportion.
Did any non-Scots complain about this? Not that I recall. As I said previously they were probably all race traitors in the mind of some of the ScotNat posters on here. Oh, yes, and to correct Mr Fake News himself, @StuartDickson , both the top two became PM.
Essex has 1.8 million people and has not yet had a single UK PM born and raised in the county! Priti would be the first if she ever got there. Churchill was MP for Epping but was born at Blenheim Palace and raised in London and educated at Harrow
The threshold for automatic ineligibility to be an MP is a jail sentence passed of 12 months or more.
Given that our system believes in rehabilitation (albeit sometimes theoretically, and lynching by media still operates), that is surely as it should be.
Though one could argue that PMs are different.
My beef with Baldwin revolves very much around his complacency, and not just in respect of rearmament. Nevertheless I remain outraged by the defence he offered for his policy which was along the lines of...'Well, the [Labour] oppsition was even more pacifist than the Government'. If you can't see the fatal flaw in that argument, well.....
Wilson was a decent enough PM, imo, but if I had to identify a major weakness it would be a certain complacency in the face of some rather serious developments. Maybe that helps explains why he was relatively kind about Baldwin!
I don't know much about the abdication crisis so find it hard to comment, but support for Churchill when he was vulnerable would definitely be a plus.
So maybe there we have it. Cambridge graduates don't become Prime minister because they are too busy spying for the Russians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Five
Green Man festival owner Fiona Stewart says her costs have risen 34.5% since 2016 against a 20% rise in ticket prices. This year, “we’ve started to see real problems with sourcing goods and services,” she says, adding that Brexit has also exacerbated issues for festivals. “A lot of the big touring infrastructure, which Britain was a world leader in, has been completely decimated. Now, because you can only make two stops if you’re a British vehicle in any European country, all those companies are moving to Europe so everything we utilise to do with infrastructure has increased in price.”
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/feb/07/how-live-music-joined-cost-of-living-crisis
On 30 July 1934, Labour moved a motion of censure against the government because of its planned expansion of the RAF. Attlee spoke for it: "We deny the need for increased air arms...and we reject altogether the claim of parity". Sir Stafford Cripps also said on that occasion that it was fallacy that Britain could achieve security through increasing air armaments.
Various interesting moves which formed the basis of later re-armament were taken by Baldwin.
Re-armament began *before* the Nazis came to power - it started when the previous German government laid down the pocket battleships.
Very soon after the Nazis came to power it became a matter of not how much money could be spent on re-armament, but of building the capability to use such money.
The UK armaments industry had been massively run down - simply waving money around couldn't conjure up steam turbines, armour plate, gun barrels etc etc. So money was spent on re-creating the capabilities. Which only much later began to produce the actual weapons.
A classic example was the decision to buy Sagans of Fairey Battles. Which was an obviously obsolete type quite soon after it was first procured. The reason for this was to build out the industry and RAF, with a relatively cheap aircraft, with a crew consisting of a pilot, navigator and air gunner. The plan was alway to replace it, once industry was up to the task of manufacturing heavier bombers - see B1.39 Standard Bomber project. The Battles would build up the RAF squadrons, and train the nucleus of the crews for the heavy bombers to come.
They were saturated in English Georgian and Victorian Classics (create an easily managed stereotype of Western societal values), brought much of their food with them (eg tins of meat) to save up hard currency allowances for consumer durables, and were very carefully supervised inside a well controlled section of the hall of residence.
It caused a bit of havoc when one of them converted to Christianity. It was equally interesting house-sharing with one of the students who went to Leningrad on the Exchange, and understanding some of the restrictions placed on the life of Baptist churches in the USSR.
Apparently, the "correct" term here is "Lunar New Year."
https://twitter.com/pratyushbuddiga/status/1490451465369841667?t=LwBQklKgLKuosTHLQhoRlg&s=19
Asked about the comments, Javid told Times Radio they were “horrid”. He added: “I think we all have a right to react to that. And one of the best ways anyone can react to that is show these platforms, what they think about Jimmy Carr by not watching or listening to him, and that will send him a very strong message.”
So that's two cabinet ministers criticising Jimmy Carr. If they said "personally, I don't find it very funny, but each to their own" then I could understand it. But it's disappointing to hear them saying how other people should behave towards Carr.
Millions watched it, the media will have as its part of their job and nobody commented. Then 6 weeks later it becomes an outrage.
The last time we had the boiler inspected, the plumber told me about going on his hydrogen certification course. Where they couldn't use actual hydrogen. Because they would need to rebuild the training centre to handle it safely.
In 2019 he got 64.6% of the vote. He may not be everyone's cup of tea but he is hugely popular in Romford
Walpole - Cambridge
Pitt The Younger - Cambridge
Gladstone - Oxford
Lloyd-George - n/a
Churchill - n/a
So two Cambridge, one Oxford and two who never went to university.
They came for Joe Rogan, a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Black & White Minstrel Show, Robertson's Marmalade and Jimmy Carr and every time I said loads of stuff on the internet.
I particularly remember the Nevsky Prospect and the ice cream. Some lads made a killing selling bic biro pens for eight times what they cost in England. English cigarettes were also popular but mostly the day passed pleasantly and uneventfully.