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Sunak, he’s just not up to it – politicalbetting.com

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  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 120,220
    edited December 2023

    What exactly are his flaws? He hasn't really done anything wrong in my view, that's why he's been so successful.
    He was prepared and worked to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister, that is huge red flag and flaw.
  • IMV (and as I've said boringly many times): parents matters just as much as school. If a relatively unscholarly kid has parents who are willing to invest time and effort into their kid(s), then that kid may bloom - even if it is only in finding something that does 'click' with them. If a relatively bright kid has parents who are not interested in school, or in getting the kid to school (as I fear is happening with one of my son's friends), then that kid will always struggle.

    Choice for parents is irrelevant if the parents are uninterested in educating their kids. IMV it is mainly of advantage to middle-class parents anyway.

    In my case, our son will probably have the choice of two secondary schools (village colleges in Cambridgeshire-speak). I like both of them; but the one that is furthest away is in big demand and I doubt he'd get in. So the 'choice' becomes either the very local school, a *really* long drive, or private.

    The 'choice' is not much of a 'choice' for many people...
    But real choice is expensive. You need lots of spare places, and probably benefit from smaller institutions than we currently have, which probably increases the load of overheads over what we currently have.

    In the absence of that, we get schools choosing pupils, one way or another. Whether by exam, church attendance or postcode.
  • Mortimer said:

    I have private health insurance and generally use a private GP because:

    1) the NHS in my experience is tremendous at saving your life, but terrible with just about everything else.
    2) I consider it a duty to not be too much of a burden on the state, and as I can afford it, I opt out.

    I highly doubt this factors into your decision at all but congratulations, you are a minority of 1.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,148

    Me too. Haven't got a clue what that means but count me in!
    Unsurprisingly, Moderate Hanoverian Tory
  • He was prepared and worked to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister, that is huge red flag and flaw.
    I can agree with that.
  • FishingFishing Posts: 5,189

    A

    The biggest problem with evidence based policy making is the horrifying danger that the evidence might go against our personal prejudices. And/or How Things Are Done
    It's a bit of a chimera anyway because people's definition of evidence differs and on any important issue you can never take all relevant evidence into account and selecting what you use is a subjective exercise.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,849

    Should we also take away tax breaks for private pension contributions?
    Very different. The pensions are taxed in payment, so there's a logic to not taxing the contributions.
  • Just because I don't think he's done anything wrong, it doesn't mean he doesn't have flaws.
    That wasn’t implicit in what you said, but whatever, I have mentioned some now as you asked.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,849

    I certainly agree that Tory Governments shouldn't be running things.
    They are not so much 'running things' as running things into the ground.
  • That wasn’t implicit in what you said, but whatever, I have mentioned some now as you asked.
    Good points, I gave you an upvote.
  • philiphphiliph Posts: 4,704
    Pulpstar said:

    It's not something my private school did back in the day. I couldn't be sure, but I got the impression that these are entirely different schools to the private schools for the slightly better off; various LA pay ALL the fees for every pupil there. There seemed to be huge mileage (And transportation charges) to and from them too as the effective catchments are enormous. The phone in was specifically should better off parents of SEND kids have to make a contribution towards the fees - with the balance of callers deciding "No".
    If the LA didn't pay, the guardians of child with Special Needs will argue that those needs are health based. They could then turn to the NHS for funding.
    While most adults living in homes requiring care are LA funded, health authorities have ICB (integrated care board) which will fund the cost of care for those with medical conditions that are ongoing and require care.
  • They are not so much 'running things' as running things into the ground.
    At this point I believe it is on purpose. Rishi should stop being a coward and call the election.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,148

    I highly doubt this factors into your decision at all but congratulations, you are a minority of 1.
    This is an absolutely commonplace motivation. At least, it is amongst the Tory activists I know!
  • Mortimer said:

    This is an absolutely commonplace motivation. At least, it is amongst the Tory activists I know!
    It isn't amongst anyone I've ever known or met and most of them have private healthcare.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,148

    At this point I believe it is on purpose. Rishi should stop being a coward and call the election.
    Is this the current incarnation of 'Lockdown NOW' that a certain non wired equine kept opining for?
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 43,067
    rcs1000 said:

    Personally, I would like to vote for a political party that had the following manifesto:

    Look, this is all rather difficult, and who knows what the future will bring. I can't make any definitive promises about getting the economy moving, of reducing taxes, but these are going to be our guiding principles:

    1. We're evidence based. Schooling. Policing. Health. You name it, we plan to run lots of trials. We have no idea which ideas will work. But unless we try things with a sensible system for evaluating results, we'll still never know.

    2. Iteration. Iteration. Iteration. We're not going to rest on our laurels. We're going to be constantly seeing if we can improve things. Everything will be based on publicly available targets, and you will be able to judge us on those goals.

    3. We're not that smart. We're going to make mistakes. Flip flopping is isn't bad, it's the correct response to new information that challenges existing views.

    4. We will look for root causes, not try and treat symptoms. Why is it that the British economy is importing (say) certain types of labor? What is it we can change with the tax, benefit and education systems that makes it so that British people are more likely to be employed in these roles? Why is it that there are so few homes being built?

    5. We won't lie to you. Things are going to be tough. There are an increasing number of people out there, all of whom want to live Western lives and they're willing to work longer and harder, because they're poorer. There's no free lunch and we can't simply shut ourselves off from the world.

    Much sense here - but you'll be labelled a (boo hiss) Technocrat and lose the election to a colourful 'character' with a Vision.
  • Mortimer said:

    Is this the current incarnation of 'Lockdown NOW' that a certain non wired equine kept opining for?
    So you are out of up to date points.

    If you wish to discuss lockdown, I now believe the entire thing was a mistake. I was wrong to call for a lockdown and I regret doing so.

    I am able to hold my hands up, will you ever apologise for supporting this bunch of arseholes?
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,723

    OK I am calling it. SKS derangement syndrome has achieved community transmission and is close to becoming endemic among PB Tories and fellow travellers. Signs of infection include going on about what school he went to and accusing him of avoiding scrutiny by going on the Today programme. More extreme cases may result in patients claiming he has photoshopped a picture with his wife to make him look taller than her when he is in fact taller than her. Scientist warn that no vaccine is likely to become available soon, and suggest that sufferers are quarantined to avoid secondary symptoms of extreme boredom setting in among uninfected individuals.

    Is it a mutation of the Johnson Variant?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,849
    edited December 2023
    tlg86 said:

    I believe he had grandfather rights to 16. He could have gone to a state sixth form college for his A Levels but instead was paid for by the state to stay on at Reigate Grammar.

    What I find odd about all this is that no one talks about the fact he passed the eleven plus and went to a grammar school. Not that social mobility is really that important politically, but he makes a big thing of his working class roots. I’d genuinely be interested to hear if he thinks he could have made it to DPP if he’d gone to a comprehensive.

    Deleted: sorry misread your question and answered another one.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,148
    edited December 2023

    So you are out of up to date points.

    If you wish to discuss lockdown, I now believe the entire thing was a mistake. I was wrong to call for a lockdown and I regret doing so.

    I am able to hold my hands up, will you ever apologise for supporting this bunch of arseholes?
    Vs Corbyn? Not at all, I think my spending a month helping to run a parliamentary campaign was time well spent.

    Just as I would take 3 months off to go and help a Scindy defence!

    I won't be voting for Sunak next time, however. We've had enough of this Lib dem-esque govt imo...
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,243
    Pulpstar said:

    My better half's Dad flunked his 11+ but did a PhD and had a lecturing career so who knows for Keir.
    That's interesting, and perhaps not all that uncommon as plenty of people are late developers. May I ask which subject?
  • Carnyx said:

    The other thing that confuses me about our PB SKS haters. They keep complaining that SKS is copying the Tories, only he is saner (which is what 'boring' means in the context of May/Johnson/Truss/Truss again/Sunak). So what are they complaining about?
    They're like aging prizefighters going through the motions to win their meagre share of the purse with zero expectation of victory.

    Entirely coincidentally I watched Scorsese's finest last night leading me to coin the phrase Raging Bullshitters, which is a rough approximation of where Tories are at the moment.
  • Mortimer said:

    Vs Corbyn? Not at all, I think my spending a month helping to run a parliamentary campaign was time well spent.

    Just as I would take 3 months off to go and help a Scindy defence!

    I won't be voting for Sunak next time, however. We've had enough of this Lib dem-esque govt imo...
    Lib Dem like? What planet are you living on?
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,543

    OK I am calling it. SKS derangement syndrome has achieved community transmission and is close to becoming endemic among PB Tories and fellow travellers. Signs of infection include going on about what school he went to and accusing him of avoiding scrutiny by going on the Today programme. More extreme cases may result in patients claiming he has photoshopped a picture with his wife to make him look taller than her when he is in fact taller than her. Scientist warn that no vaccine is likely to become available soon, and suggest that sufferers are quarantined to avoid secondary symptoms of extreme boredom setting in among uninfected individuals.

    And he supports Arsenal, who are sponsored by Rwanda, so he's a complete hypocrite and a total fucker.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,723

    I don't know of course but I suspect he'd say 'no'.

    That of course, is not an argument for grammar schools or the 11+, quite the opposite.
    That's the attitude that results in opportunities being taken away from working class people in the name of progress.
  • Sir Keir Starmer once went to a fancy restaurant, he's clearly a conman and a liar.
  • That's the attitude that results in opportunities being taken away from working class people in the name of progress.
    Like, erh, Sir Keir Starmer?
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,148

    Lib Dem like? What planet are you living on?
    Banning things, putting up taxes, growing the state etc etc

    Most left wing govt of my lifetime.
  • Mortimer said:

    Banning things, putting up taxes, growing the state etc etc

    Most left wing govt of my lifetime.

    You must be on a wind-up. Most left wing government of your life?
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,243

    Like, erh, Sir Keir Starmer?
    Yes, that's why I'd be interested to hear his thoughts on this subject.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,808

    Singapore has the death penalty for drug traffickers.

    Let’s run an @rcs1000 style empirical experiment to see if it works here too.
    This is a classic example about how we need to reframe political debate: what's the goal? What are the trade offs?
  • DougSeal said:

    Queen Anne Political Compass

    https://www.gotoquiz.com/political_compass_rage_of_party_queen_anne_ed

    I'm a Jacobite Crypto-Papist

    I love this but apparently I am a moderate Hanovarian Tory. Is that an eighteenth century centrist dad? Quite alarmed to be a Tory, anyway, might need to go and lie down for a bit.
  • All this SKS attacking is just to distract from the fact that the Tories are currently plunging the UK into a recession.

    The only attack they had left for Labour, that they cause recessions, is nearly dead. And for all that economic work, we've got the NHS in its worst state ever, nothing works anymore, the country is bitterly divided and people are leaving.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,723

    Like, erh, Sir Keir Starmer?
    Exactly. He benefitted from the 11+ grammar school system.
  • Sir Keir Starmer once went to a fancy restaurant, he's clearly a conman and a liar.

    There's nothing that grates with the working classes than. when upper/middle class people try and pass themselves off as working class.

    Speaking as a working class Northerner, it riles up Northerners the most.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,751

    I am just asking you to name some. I am sure we would agree.
    He has a distinctly unattractive voice.
    Needs a vocal coach.


  • This is what PB Tories spend their nights looking at
  • There's nothing that grates with the working classes than. when upper/middle class people try and pass themselves off as working class.

    Speaking as a working class Northerner, it riles up Northerners the most.
    Yes but SKS actually is working class though. That's the thing.
  • Nigelb said:

    He has a distinctly unattractive voice.
    Needs a vocal coach.
    Agree with that - and have said so before.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,751

    He was prepared and worked to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister, that is huge red flag and flaw.
    So was most of the party, though, so it's more of an objection to Labour than Starmer himself.
  • Mortimer said:

    Banning things, putting up taxes, growing the state etc etc

    Most left wing govt of my lifetime.
    I've said it again, the Boris Johnson government is delivering large parts of Michael Foot's 1983 manifesto.
  • Nigelb said:

    So was most of the party, though, so it's more of an objection to Labour than Starmer himself.
    But principled people in the Labour Party refused to serve under Corbyn, Starmer served in his shadow cabinet.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,849

    That's the attitude that results in opportunities being taken away from working class people in the name of progress.
    My answer (which I deleted) was to the wrong question (which I misread).

    I was thinking of Secondary Moderns when tlg86 asked about Comprehensives.

    If everyone went to a comprehensive then it would of course be true that you can become DPP. Starmer's successor went to a comprehensive, I believe.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 124,484
    Carnyx said:

    Whig Commonwealthman for me.
    Moderate Hanoverian Tory for me
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,751



    This is what PB Tories spend their nights looking at

    They've just photoshopped his head onto Trump ?
  • But principled people in the Labour Party refused to serve under Corbyn, Starmer served in his shadow cabinet.
    He resigned from the Shadow Cabinet and said he should resign.

    My view is that if he hadn't served, he would never have been elected. So whilst I agree with what you are saying, I do believe his decision is justified.
  • But principled people in the Labour Party refused to serve under Corbyn, Starmer served in his shadow cabinet.
    And if only Corbynites had served in the shadow cabinet Corbyn would probably have been succeeded as leader by another loon, so thank God he did.


  • Serious.



    Seriously?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,849

    Exactly. He benefitted from the 11+ grammar school system.
    How do you know he wouldn't have done just as well at a comprehensive?
  • HYUFD said:

    Moderate Hanoverian Tory for me
    OK now I am really worried...
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 124,484

    IMV (and as I've said boringly many times): parents matters just as much as school. If a relatively unscholarly kid has parents who are willing to invest time and effort into their kid(s), then that kid may bloom - even if it is only in finding something that does 'click' with them. If a relatively bright kid has parents who are not interested in school, or in getting the kid to school (as I fear is happening with one of my son's friends), then that kid will always struggle.

    Choice for parents is irrelevant if the parents are uninterested in educating their kids. IMV it is mainly of advantage to middle-class parents anyway.

    In my case, our son will probably have the choice of two secondary schools (village colleges in Cambridgeshire-speak). I like both of them; but the one that is furthest away is in big demand and I doubt he'd get in. So the 'choice' becomes either the very local school, a *really* long drive, or private.

    The 'choice' is not much of a 'choice' for many people...
    Hence the case for more free schools too
  • And if only Corbynites had served in the shadow cabinet Corbyn would probably have been succeeded as leader by another loon, so thank God he did.
    I can tell you from my experience at Labour Party meetings, SKS serving made people vote for him. We'd have RLB as leader now if he hadn't done that.

    Emily Thornberry is a reliable source on what SKS was like during Cabinet and she and Keir were most definitely against mostly everything Corbyn did and said.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,849
    Mortimer said:

    Banning things, putting up taxes, growing the state etc etc

    Most left wing govt of my lifetime.
    You voted for them!
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 124,484
    edited December 2023
    Carnyx said:

    Mm, I'm also struck by the Tories here and elsewhere. Not very logical are they?

    If SKS went to a private fee paying school, then that's no more than they think right and proper for our lords and masters.

    If SKS went the grammar route, ditto right and proper for the inferior middle classes (but only Etonians etc should rule).

    I expect most Conservatives would rather the grammar educated Thatcher as PM than most of the post war Etonian PMs we have had
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,148

    You must be on a wind-up. Most left wing government of your life?
    I was born in the 1980s, and it absolutely is the most left-wing govt I've experienced.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,723

    My answer (which I deleted) was to the wrong question (which I misread).

    I was thinking of Secondary Moderns when tlg86 asked about Comprehensives.

    If everyone went to a comprehensive then it would of course be true that you can become DPP. Starmer's successor went to a comprehensive, I believe.
    That's also the wrong question. It's not whether it's possible for anyone to go from a comprehensive to become DPP but whether it's possible for a specific hypothetical person - the person for whom going to a grammar school previously made the difference.
  • MortimerMortimer Posts: 14,148

    You voted for them!
    I voted for Truss, not Blair-lite Sunak
  • Mortimer said:

    I voted for Truss, not Blair-lite Sunak

    You can never speak of Labour economic incompetence again.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541

    I love this but apparently I am a moderate Hanovarian Tory. Is that an eighteenth century centrist dad? Quite alarmed to be a Tory, anyway, might need to go and lie down for a bit.
    I think it's centrist dad adjacent at least.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,243

    How do you know he wouldn't have done just as well at a comprehensive?
    We'll never know, of course, but I'd like to know what he thinks. Successful people tend to be nice about their school so it would be awkward for him to say "yeah, it was all me, so long as I had decent teachers I was always going to make it".
  • For too long, football fans have been treated as an afterthought.

    If I’m Prime Minister, I’ll make sure the European Super League doesn’t happen.

    It’s time to start putting fans first.

    https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1738183425817706527

    *grabs popcorn*
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 124,484
    edited December 2023

    How do you know he wouldn't have done just as well at a comprehensive?
    Like the great Liz Truss, our first PM fully educated at a comprehensive for her secondary education.

    Or those great election winners comprehensive educated William Hague and Ed Miliband.

    Regardless of whether privately educated Sunak or grammar and privately educated Starmer win the next general election we are still waiting for a fully comprehensive educated, general election winning PM
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541

    Is Wikipedia wrong?

    "He attended the selective state Reigate Grammar School, which became a private school while he was a student."
    "Is Wikipedia wrong?"

    The words that will be etched into the tombstone of Western Civilisation.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 52,723

    For too long, football fans have been treated as an afterthought.

    If I’m Prime Minister, I’ll make sure the European Super League doesn’t happen.

    It’s time to start putting fans first.

    https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1738183425817706527

    *grabs popcorn*

    Typical anti-European populism. ;)
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,614
    Nigelb said:

    A typically asinine comment.

    Colorado is a solidly Democratic state, so it is utterly unremarkable.
    Indeed if you had bothered to check out the justices themselves, you'd have noted that there is little about any of them that's politically ;as opposed to legally) notable.
    https://www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/Supreme_Court/Justices.cfm

    That a third of the U.S. Supreme Court participated as advocates for a political party on one side of one of the most politically charged (and legally unmoored in
    precedent) decisions in its history is slightly more worthy of note, to my mind.
    Only if you think they are incapable of doing their job
  • HYUFD said:

    Like the great Liz Truss, our first PM fully educated at a comprehensive for her secondary education.

    Or those great election winners comprehensive educated William Hague and Ed Miliband
    Oh HY :(
  • HYUFD said:

    Singapore tops the PISA rankings and spends and taxes less than we do.

    As it has good discipline in the classroom and high expectations of its pupils. So what is actually needed is more of that and more choice for parents
    Is there lots of choice for parents in Singapore? And Singapore dedicates a higher proportion of its spending to education.
    https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GB.ZS?locations=SG-GB
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541
    HYUFD said:

    Like the great Liz Truss, our first PM fully educated at a comprehensive for her secondary education.

    Or those great election winners comprehensive educated William Hague and Ed Miliband
    Good to see you catching the Truss Train, HY! All aboard!
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 124,484

    OK now I am really worried...
    Looks like in the 18th century we would have been on the same side with Mortimer, battling Whigs like TSE and Carnyx
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,849
    HYUFD said:

    Like the great Liz Truss, our first PM fully educated at a comprehensive for her secondary education.

    Or those great election winners comprehensive educated William Hague and Ed Miliband
    If only William Hague had gone to a grammar school, he'd have won that election. Right.
  • HYUFD said:

    Hence the case for more free schools too
    No, it is a case for more local schools.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 43,067

    Exactly. He benefitted from the 11+ grammar school system.
    Benefiting from something doesn't mean you have to support it or view it as a good thing. Eg I benefited from the venal bonus culture in the pre-crash City.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541



    Serious.



    Seriously?

    Helpful that he has a sign on his t-shirt explaining who he is though.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,243

    My answer (which I deleted) was to the wrong question (which I misread).

    I was thinking of Secondary Moderns when tlg86 asked about Comprehensives.

    If everyone went to a comprehensive then it would of course be true that you can become DPP. Starmer's successor went to a comprehensive, I believe.
    Well, yes, if we banned private and grammar schools then comps would clean up.

    Yes, Alison Saunders went to a comp and sixth form college (looks like her family moved around the country a fair bit too). Not that it matters very much in the social mobility debate, but I'd suggest her tenure as DPP wasn't a great advert for comprehensive education. The same can be said of our one PM who went to a comp.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 124,484

    No, it is a case for more local schools.
    You won't get many new local secondaries in rural areas beyond maybe free schools, once they leave village primaries most pupils have to travel to the nearest town or city for secondary school
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 124,484

    If only William Hague had gone to a grammar school, he'd have won that election. Right.
    Technically Hague did go to Ripon grammar briefly before moving to Wath upon Dearne comprehensive
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 43,067

    I love this but apparently I am a moderate Hanovarian Tory. Is that an eighteenth century centrist dad? Quite alarmed to be a Tory, anyway, might need to go and lie down for a bit.
    Same as HYUFD. That is a worry. Let's not dwell on it.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,849
    Mortimer said:

    I was born in the 1980s, and it absolutely is the most left-wing govt I've experienced.
    No way. Blair was only just left of centre but a long way to the left of the current govenment.

    You see 'inept' and assume it must be left-wing, whereas the ineptitude is available on both sides of the political spectrum (see Heath 1970-74).
  • viewcodeviewcode Posts: 22,637

    Governments shouldn’t be running things

    Good luck with your personal nuclear deterrent. :)
  • kinabalu said:

    Same as HYUFD. That is a worry. Let's not dwell on it.
    I know, terrifying, right?
    It's interesting to see how in the absence of mass suffrage the political questions of the time didn't really split down left/right lines. Standing army or no standing army? Stuarts or Hanovarians? Hard to care one way or t'other.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 43,067

    No way. Blair was only just left of centre but a long way to the left of the current govenment.

    You see 'inept' and assume it must be left-wing, whereas the ineptitude is available on both sides of the political spectrum (see Heath 1970-74).
    The 'bigger state' is mainly down to the pandemic.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,751
    edited December 2023

    Only if you think they are incapable of doing their job
    No, that's only Alito and Thomas.

    I don't see, though, why you would wish for the nakedly political past of the three to be ignored, in the context of a case like this, even if you acknowledged they are capable ?
    I said it was worthy of note, not that they should be disqualified. It seems bizarre to suggest it shouldn't be.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,541

    I know, terrifying, right?
    It's interesting to see how in the absence of mass suffrage the political questions of the time didn't really split down left/right lines. Standing army or no standing army? Stuarts or Hanovarians? Hard to care one way or t'other.
    Believe it or not, history students will be looking back at our great divides in 300 years (if we're still around then) and saying much the same thing.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,760
    HYUFD said:

    You won't get many new local secondaries in rural areas beyond maybe free schools, once they leave village primaries most pupils have to travel to the nearest town or city for secondary school
    How would you get a Free School there - the money available from the DfE wouldn't provide enough for the school to work...
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 42,291
    edited December 2023
    viewcode said:

    Good luck with your personal nuclear deterrent. :)
    I always saw Trident as a metaphorical sock down the trousers, perhaps SW will bring this into actual being.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,614
    geoffw said:

    I think it is wrong that a British citizen cannot bring his/her spouse to the UK unless they jump over an arbitrary income hurdle

    The issue is chain migration and a non-contributory welfare state

    To be honest a lot of issues are oils be meaningfully progressed by switching to a contribution based (or time served) welfare system.

    But no politician is going theee
  • HYUFD said:

    Looks like in the 18th century we would have been on the same side with Mortimer, battling Whigs like TSE and Carnyx
    What an incredible political force we would be.
  • kinabalu said:

    The 'bigger state' is mainly down to the pandemic.
    And the population aging.

    There is, of course, more than one left-right axis. On economics, this one isn't very right wing. It's protectionist, relatively high-spending, not worried about balanced budgets, and moving away from the free (or regulated) market in quite a few areas.

    It is, however, very right-wing on the authoritarian/liberal axis and the nationalist/internationalist ones, for example.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,751

    What an incredible political force we would be.
    Incredible is the word.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,614

    I've been impressed by my eldest
    daughter's sixth form college.

    Got to give them credit for that: selling parents to the navy is an innovative way of generating additional funds while simultaneously solving manning issues in the armed forces

    May be @rcs1000 should run a pilot study?
  • TimSTimS Posts: 13,466

    Typical anti-European populism. ;)
    The replies. Straight on to Gaza genocide and Starmer the infant murderer.

    Greetings all from the festive liminal space that is the motorway services at Aire de Langres Perruguey. 439m asl.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 43,067

    Only if you think they are incapable of doing their job
    Very capable of doing their job ... of removing women's bodily autonomy. They delivered.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,751
    The one following on the other is only too sadly predictable.

    Brianna Ghey’s parents call for compassion for her killers’ families
    Esther Ghey says teenagers who murdered her daughter have shown no remorse, but asks for empathy for their parents
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/20/parents-of-brianna-ghey-pay-tribute-to-beautful-daughter-after-pair-convicted-of

    Brianna Ghey trial: judge warns against threats towards killers’ families
    In written judgment stating two teenagers can be named, Mrs Justice Yip urges people to avoid ‘vitriol or malice’
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/22/brianna-ghey-trial-judge-warns-against-threats-towards-killers-families
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 72,751


    Got to give them credit for that: selling parents to the navy is an innovative way of generating additional funds while simultaneously solving manning issues in the armed forces

    May be @rcs1000 should run a pilot study?
    Ships' pilots ?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,265

    I can agree with that.
    Eliminate from the next election everyone who worked for any of Corbyn, Johnson or Truss to be Prime Minister, and the LibDems might stand a fighting chance….
  • kjhkjh Posts: 12,022

    That's the attitude that results in opportunities being taken away from working class people in the name of progress.
    The exact opposite tends to happen. Middle class parents get their children tutored for the 11 plus whereas working class parents often don't so the Grammar school system is biased against working class children.
  • TimSTimS Posts: 13,466
    edited December 2023
    I’m “Court - non-aligned”. Is that Lib Dem?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 50,265
    Mortimer said:

    Banning things, putting up taxes, growing the state etc etc

    Most left wing govt of my lifetime.
    You’re not thinking very clearly today.

    How does “most left wing” equate with LibDem-like?

    Tories love banning stuff.
  • DougSeal said:

    Queen Anne Political Compass

    https://www.gotoquiz.com/political_compass_rage_of_party_queen_anne_ed

    I'm a Jacobite Crypto-Papist

    Always fun, this sort of thing. Turns out I am (or would have been) 'Court - Non-Aligned':

    You epitomise the Court - you are interested in carrying on the Queen's government, governing pragmatically, and avoiding the extremes of party. You're probably also quite keen on feathering your own nest and gaining power for the sake of it - and war is usually a good way of doing that. You may have at some point been a Whig or Tory, or both, but you're really a partisan of the Looking Out for Number 1 Party

    Bit harsh on the corruption thing but not a million miles out on the 'no fixed party alignment' one.
This discussion has been closed.