Axing road and rail project to plug a black hole seems opposite to be build, build, build to growth.
Indeed. Everyone wants growth but how you achieve it and the choices you make to get it are always the problem...
We'll just have to hope the doctors spend their 20% pay rise in the wider economy
Its not exactly great look on what Bad Al used to call the Media Matrix, to have 20% pay rise vs no money must cut all this spending on infrastructure. Need to space it out to different weeks.
It's the nurses I feel sorry for. They only got 5%.
Only 5%.
I mean 5% pay rise is nice but it's nothing compared to 20% for doctors, and nurses work just as hard if not harder than doctors (it's the nurses who have to do all the shitty jobs like dealing with bedpans etc)
If I was leading the nursing unions I'd be putting in for 20% when their next pay around comes up.
Isn't your bedpan more likely to be dealt with by a healthcare assistant now?
Hasn't this been looked at before and these kind of benefits that are only worth a £100-200, any savings are soon eaten up when you have to check who is / isn't eligible. Like free bus passes, you could go through and start disallowing people, but it just starts adding cost to the whole scheme.
They need to win back the headbangers now happily installed in the home of headbangers; they need to win over those who fled to the sensible shores of Labour and Lib Dems; they need to stop their residual voters dying.
Should be easy.
One Nationers should take over the Lib Dems.
Question to our Lib Dem members, how many in the voluntary party support the Orange Book policies now?
Possibly the 2015 election was disastrous in that it destroyed Orange Book Liberalism and left a party barely distinguishable from SKS Labour.
Clegg's problem in 2015 was Cameron was already offering Orange Book Liberalism in all but name anyway, while the social democrats who had voted for his party before defected to Ed Miliband's Labour Party
Tuition fees. And not to so much what was done as the way it was done.
Orange Book LDs back tuition fees and ideally based on the graduate premium from and cost of the degree. Social Democrat LDs however largely want university education to be free
That's me told then; I've always been against tuition fees. Although I was a Liberal before I was a LibDem.
Tuition fees are arguably the greatest unforced error in the history of the universe.
Not a small claim when you consider that includes Operation Barabarossa, Alexander's trek through Gedrosia and the Emperor inviting the Rebellion to attack the second Death Star.
Not only did they nearly destroy the Lib Dems, they are actually a disaster in terms of funding HE.
They aren't, their problem is they are one size fits all not set at market rate.
If they were then economics at Cambridge or law at Oxford or medicine at Imperial for example would have the highest fees and arts degrees would be cheapest
You clearly don't have a clue how markets work (but then again nor did anyone else who implemented the scheme).
Because no university is going to charge less than the full rate because
1) it implies their course is less good than other courses 2) it leaves money they could otherwise get 3) the money is borrowed so it's never going to be fully repaid in many cases anyway...
They would cut fees soon enough if it was that or not fill the places.
Rationing student loans for fees by performance with only people with 3 A's able to borrow the full amount and proportionate amount for lower grades down to £3,000 for 2 E's would concentrate their minds.
And force the lower grade ones to shut or return to focusing on vocational qualifications.
So you force the closure of the university which a pride and joy of the local area.
1) how do you deal with the economic fallout of doing so 2) how do you handle the local MPs who know they've just lost any chance of re-election...
Yes. About 40% of the capacity is a job creation scheme for acadamics administrators and sundry hangers on, teaching weak subjects that are pointless to do a degree in and vocational subjects like Nursing and Policing that should never have required a degree in the first place.
Shut them.
1) Same way as Liverpool in the 80s. Through transition grants etc. The better ones can be supported to revert to being Politechnics and Technical Colleges concentrating principally on vocational non degree courses and day release courses for apprentices.
2) Tell them tough.
The whole sector will implode once some entrepreneur gets their act together for online courses at a fraction of current fees in any case.
£9,250 a year for six hours of lectures (which is about it for many arts/humanities subjects) and use of a library is outrageous.
Use the money saved to increase the number of Engineering, Science and Medical Doctor places and reduce the fees.
John Major has a lot to answer for by destroying the Polytechnics and turning them into Poundshop Universities.
Jordan Peterson is trying to launch just such a cheap and accessible online university at the moment. He has a whole load of world-leading academics delivering lectures on a wide variety of subjects.
The sticking point, as always, is the awarding (or otherwise) of a degree at the end of the course. It’s a very big if, but if he can find a way to award accredited degrees it has the potential to turn the whole university sector upside-down.
Surely the sticking point is Jordan Peterson being involved!
Also, none of this is new. Lots of places have MOOCs (massive open online courses) now. Standford, for example, has a great set that you can sign up for free, but you pay for the certification. When MOOCs were first a big, new thing a few years back, everyone said they had the potential to turn the whole university sector upside-down. The challenge is that it's harder to learn that way than if you are immersed in the university environment with fellow students and access to staff. (COVID-19 kind of proved this when everyone had to go online.)
But for some people, MOOCs are great. If you can make yourself work through them, they are huge boon.
It's also really quite impressive (to me, old-ish bloke) how many world-class researchers and teachers there are putting out amazing content on youtube for free. Not going to get you a bit of paper and a gold star at the end of it of course.
I do wonder about the fees the OU is charging though for largely remote self-learning.
Karpathy has put out some excellent stuff.
Much of this argument strikes me as very similar to the arguments around home schooling.
Can a student learn the content of a university degree in a self directed fashion? Absolutely.
The problem is that the proportion of students who are capable of doing this off their own bat is ... small. The rest benefit enormously / actually need the structure that a university provides in order to learn anything at all.
If you want to teach a decent fraction of the population at university level, then you‘re going to need to stand up an institution that looks an awful lot like a university. Teaching staff cost money. Lecture halls cost money. Libraries (virtual & otherwise) require Librarians & subscriptions to journals which, guess what, costs money. And so on...
Axing road and rail project to plug a black hole seems opposite to be build, build, build to growth.
Indeed. Everyone wants growth but how you achieve it and the choices you make to get it are always the problem...
We'll just have to hope the doctors spend their 20% pay rise in the wider economy
Its not exactly great look on what Bad Al used to call the Media Matrix, to have 20% pay rise vs no money must cut all this spending on infrastructure. Need to space it out to different weeks.
It's the nurses I feel sorry for. They only got 5%.
Only 5%.
I mean 5% pay rise is nice but it's nothing compared to 20% for doctors, and nurses work just as hard if not harder than doctors (it's the nurses who have to do all the shitty jobs like dealing with bedpans etc)
If I was leading the nursing unions I'd be putting in for 20% when their next pay around comes up.
Isn't your bedpan more likely to be dealt with by a healthcare assistant now?
Healthcare assistants are not paid well.
No no.
The Healthcare Assistants are going to get pay rises etc. Which will create an opening for cheap, badly paid, badly treated skivies to be pushed around and given the literally shit jobs.
Then in a few years.....
The beauty of this methodology is that there is no limit to how long this can carry on.
The way the Tory leadership contest is structured makes it possible that there won't need to be final vote. Unless there's a big difference of opinion between party members and MPs then it will surely be obvious who the consensus choice by then.
The joys of using the exhaustive ballot system which is a form of quasi-AV.
None of this first past the post crap.
Oh God, not this again.
An exhaustive series of ballots is nothing at all like AV.
Multiple rounds of voting where the lowest ranked candidate is eliminated and we have a winner when somebody gets over 50%.
How is that not like AV?
Get to change your mind after each round. Can't change your order with AV.
Indeed, so it's quite like AV, but not exactly like AV. So calling it "quasi-AV" is more accurate than the claim that is "nothing at all like AV".
And some PBers wonder WHY yours truly calls him "Musko"?
The Hill - Elon Musk takes fire for posting fake video of Kamala Harris
Elon Musk is being accused of violating the policies on his own social platform, X, after he shared a fake video of Vice President Harris that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) voice mimicking Harris to spew insults about her campaign and President Biden.
The video musk shared Friday mocks a Harris campaign ad and features voiceover calling Biden “senile” and Harris the “ultimate diversity hire.”
he video does not contain any disclaimer that it uses AI to mimic Harris’s voice, though the original post from the account @MrReaganUSA labels it a parody. Musk made no such distinction in his own post, a move that appears to violate X site policy barring “misleading media.” . . .
Hasn't this been looked at before and these kind of benefits that are only worth a £100-200, any savings are soon eaten up when you have to check who is / isn't eligible.
If they are only going to those getting credits, then DWP should be able* to pay them as part of that rather than as part of the state pension per se. By definition DWP will have the data.
*I know, I know.
Edit: you may be thinking of prescription charges? The Scottish Gmt found that the real cost of making them free for all was almost completely covered by the sweeping away of all the admin.
Paul Johnson @PJTheEconomist Reforms to adult social care charging not happening. I presume this is the end of the "Dilnot" reforms which would have meant a cap on what people have to pay.
A dreadful shame. Another episode in generational failures to fund and reform social care.
The way the Tory leadership contest is structured makes it possible that there won't need to be final vote. Unless there's a big difference of opinion between party members and MPs then it will surely be obvious who the consensus choice by then.
The joys of using the exhaustive ballot system which is a form of quasi-AV.
None of this first past the post crap.
Oh God, not this again.
An exhaustive series of ballots is nothing at all like AV.
It's like AV, only more fun - it goes on for ages and allows for all sorts of gossip and intrigue and being in the limelight. Of all the parties, the Tories bring themselves by far the most amusement with their leadership elections.
Paul Johnson @PJTheEconomist Reforms to adult social care charging not happening. I presume this is the end of the "Dilnot" reforms which would have meant a cap on what people have to pay.
A dreadful shame. Another episode in generational failures to fund and reform social care.
Every government just kicks this issue into the long grass. At some point, its going to come out the long grass like Godzilla.
Axing road and rail project to plug a black hole seems opposite to be build, build, build to growth.
Indeed. Everyone wants growth but how you achieve it and the choices you make to get it are always the problem...
We'll just have to hope the doctors spend their 20% pay rise in the wider economy
Its not exactly great look on what Bad Al used to call the Media Matrix, to have 20% pay rise vs no money must cut all this spending on infrastructure. Need to space it out to different weeks.
It's the nurses I feel sorry for. They only got 5%.
Only 5%.
I mean 5% pay rise is nice but it's nothing compared to 20% for doctors, and nurses work just as hard if not harder than doctors (it's the nurses who have to do all the shitty jobs like dealing with bedpans etc)
If I was leading the nursing unions I'd be putting in for 20% when their next pay around comes up.
Isn't your bedpan more likely to be dealt with by a healthcare assistant now?
Healthcare assistants are not paid well.
No no.
The Healthcare Assistants are going to get pay rises etc. Which will create an opening for cheap, badly paid, badly treated skivies to be pushed around and given the literally shit jobs.
Then in a few years.....
The beauty of this methodology is that there is no limit to how long this can carry on.
This is called the professionalisation conveyor belt. See also community support officers. I'm not certain it's a problem: just a reflection that the world is more complicated than it once was.
They need to win back the headbangers now happily installed in the home of headbangers; they need to win over those who fled to the sensible shores of Labour and Lib Dems; they need to stop their residual voters dying.
Should be easy.
One Nationers should take over the Lib Dems.
Question to our Lib Dem members, how many in the voluntary party support the Orange Book policies now?
Possibly the 2015 election was disastrous in that it destroyed Orange Book Liberalism and left a party barely distinguishable from SKS Labour.
Clegg's problem in 2015 was Cameron was already offering Orange Book Liberalism in all but name anyway, while the social democrats who had voted for his party before defected to Ed Miliband's Labour Party
Tuition fees. And not to so much what was done as the way it was done.
Orange Book LDs back tuition fees and ideally based on the graduate premium from and cost of the degree. Social Democrat LDs however largely want university education to be free
That's me told then; I've always been against tuition fees. Although I was a Liberal before I was a LibDem.
Tuition fees are arguably the greatest unforced error in the history of the universe.
Not a small claim when you consider that includes Operation Barabarossa, Alexander's trek through Gedrosia and the Emperor inviting the Rebellion to attack the second Death Star.
Not only did they nearly destroy the Lib Dems, they are actually a disaster in terms of funding HE.
They aren't, their problem is they are one size fits all not set at market rate.
If they were then economics at Cambridge or law at Oxford or medicine at Imperial for example would have the highest fees and arts degrees would be cheapest
You clearly don't have a clue how markets work (but then again nor did anyone else who implemented the scheme).
Because no university is going to charge less than the full rate because
1) it implies their course is less good than other courses 2) it leaves money they could otherwise get 3) the money is borrowed so it's never going to be fully repaid in many cases anyway...
They would cut fees soon enough if it was that or not fill the places.
Rationing student loans for fees by performance with only people with 3 A's able to borrow the full amount and proportionate amount for lower grades down to £3,000 for 2 E's would concentrate their minds.
And force the lower grade ones to shut or return to focusing on vocational qualifications.
So you force the closure of the university which a pride and joy of the local area.
1) how do you deal with the economic fallout of doing so 2) how do you handle the local MPs who know they've just lost any chance of re-election...
Yes. About 40% of the capacity is a job creation scheme for acadamics administrators and sundry hangers on, teaching weak subjects that are pointless to do a degree in and vocational subjects like Nursing and Policing that should never have required a degree in the first place.
Shut them.
1) Same way as Liverpool in the 80s. Through transition grants etc. The better ones can be supported to revert to being Politechnics and Technical Colleges concentrating principally on vocational non degree courses and day release courses for apprentices.
2) Tell them tough.
The whole sector will implode once some entrepreneur gets their act together for online courses at a fraction of current fees in any case.
£9,250 a year for six hours of lectures (which is about it for many arts/humanities subjects) and use of a library is outrageous.
Use the money saved to increase the number of Engineering, Science and Medical Doctor places and reduce the fees.
John Major has a lot to answer for by destroying the Polytechnics and turning them into Poundshop Universities.
Jordan Peterson is trying to launch just such a cheap and accessible online university at the moment. He has a whole load of world-leading academics delivering lectures on a wide variety of subjects.
The sticking point, as always, is the awarding (or otherwise) of a degree at the end of the course. It’s a very big if, but if he can find a way to award accredited degrees it has the potential to turn the whole university sector upside-down.
Surely the sticking point is Jordan Peterson being involved!
Also, none of this is new. Lots of places have MOOCs (massive open online courses) now. Standford, for example, has a great set that you can sign up for free, but you pay for the certification. When MOOCs were first a big, new thing a few years back, everyone said they had the potential to turn the whole university sector upside-down. The challenge is that it's harder to learn that way than if you are immersed in the university environment with fellow students and access to staff. (COVID-19 kind of proved this when everyone had to go online.)
But for some people, MOOCs are great. If you can make yourself work through them, they are huge boon.
It's also really quite impressive (to me, old-ish bloke) how many world-class researchers and teachers there are putting out amazing content on youtube for free. Not going to get you a bit of paper and a gold star at the end of it of course.
I do wonder about the fees the OU is charging though for largely remote self-learning.
Karpathy has put out some excellent stuff.
Much of this argument strikes me as very similar to the arguments around home schooling.
Can a student learn the content of a university degree in a self directed fashion? Absolutely.
The problem is that the proportion of students who are capable of doing this off their own bat is ... small. The rest benefit enormously / actually need the structure that a university provides in order to learn anything at all.
If you want to teach a decent fraction of the population at university level, then you‘re going to need to stand up an institution that looks an awful lot like a university. Teaching staff cost money. Lecture halls cost money. Libraries (virtual & otherwise) require Librarians & subscriptions to journals which, guess what, costs money. And so on...
Indeed.
The latest comedy is that the parents who are putting their children through state education 6th form (after a lifetime of private education) are realising that they can save money on all the tuition.
By Chloe and her best friend Betsy sharing a tutor - they are doing the same A level. Or even having a class of 3.... or 4....
One parent has converted the garden room office into a learning space. The teacher is mostly remote, the children sit at desks facing the big Zoom screen.
It all reminds me of something. Can't quite put my finger on it.
Winter fuel allowance scrapped for those not getting credits.
Damn, that’s bad news for Emirates airline, at least as far as my parents are concerned. They’ve used their WFA to fly somewhere warmer for the past few years.
pdanderson @pdanderson Wes Streeting specifically said it would go ahead when questioned by Laura K on BBC.
I believe a certain head EU honcho lush once said 'When it becomes serious, you have to lie'
I told my daughter Duggee would be making a surprise appearance at the nursery this morning to get her in the car. Bit like politicians and the electorate.
The way the Tory leadership contest is structured makes it possible that there won't need to be final vote. Unless there's a big difference of opinion between party members and MPs then it will surely be obvious who the consensus choice by then.
The joys of using the exhaustive ballot system which is a form of quasi-AV.
None of this first past the post crap.
I'm going to trot out one of my favourite pointless hobbyhorses again: the not-AV system for electing a single candidate shouldn't really be called FPTP, because there is no post - or rather, the location of the post is dependent on the behaviour of the voters, thereby stretching the horseracing analogy to breaking point. Single member plurality vote is more accurate.
Paul Johnson @PJTheEconomist Reforms to adult social care charging not happening. I presume this is the end of the "Dilnot" reforms which would have meant a cap on what people have to pay.
A dreadful shame. Another episode in generational failures to fund and reform social care.
Every government just kicks this issue into the long grass. At some point, its going to come out the long grass like Godzilla.
I s\uppose it's possible that Labour want a bit more time to tackle the issue by developing a consensus. Any sign of that today?
Paul Johnson @PJTheEconomist Reforms to adult social care charging not happening. I presume this is the end of the "Dilnot" reforms which would have meant a cap on what people have to pay.
A dreadful shame. Another episode in generational failures to fund and reform social care.
Every government just kicks this issue into the long grass. At some point, its going to come out the long grass like Godzilla.
Godzilla comes from the ocean depths, not from long grass!
They need to win back the headbangers now happily installed in the home of headbangers; they need to win over those who fled to the sensible shores of Labour and Lib Dems; they need to stop their residual voters dying.
Should be easy.
One Nationers should take over the Lib Dems.
Question to our Lib Dem members, how many in the voluntary party support the Orange Book policies now?
Possibly the 2015 election was disastrous in that it destroyed Orange Book Liberalism and left a party barely distinguishable from SKS Labour.
Clegg's problem in 2015 was Cameron was already offering Orange Book Liberalism in all but name anyway, while the social democrats who had voted for his party before defected to Ed Miliband's Labour Party
Tuition fees. And not to so much what was done as the way it was done.
Orange Book LDs back tuition fees and ideally based on the graduate premium from and cost of the degree. Social Democrat LDs however largely want university education to be free
That's me told then; I've always been against tuition fees. Although I was a Liberal before I was a LibDem.
Tuition fees are arguably the greatest unforced error in the history of the universe.
Not a small claim when you consider that includes Operation Barabarossa, Alexander's trek through Gedrosia and the Emperor inviting the Rebellion to attack the second Death Star.
Not only did they nearly destroy the Lib Dems, they are actually a disaster in terms of funding HE.
They aren't, their problem is they are one size fits all not set at market rate.
If they were then economics at Cambridge or law at Oxford or medicine at Imperial for example would have the highest fees and arts degrees would be cheapest
You clearly don't have a clue how markets work (but then again nor did anyone else who implemented the scheme).
Because no university is going to charge less than the full rate because
1) it implies their course is less good than other courses 2) it leaves money they could otherwise get 3) the money is borrowed so it's never going to be fully repaid in many cases anyway...
They would cut fees soon enough if it was that or not fill the places.
Rationing student loans for fees by performance with only people with 3 A's able to borrow the full amount and proportionate amount for lower grades down to £3,000 for 2 E's would concentrate their minds.
And force the lower grade ones to shut or return to focusing on vocational qualifications.
So you force the closure of the university which a pride and joy of the local area.
1) how do you deal with the economic fallout of doing so 2) how do you handle the local MPs who know they've just lost any chance of re-election...
Yes. About 40% of the capacity is a job creation scheme for acadamics administrators and sundry hangers on, teaching weak subjects that are pointless to do a degree in and vocational subjects like Nursing and Policing that should never have required a degree in the first place.
Shut them.
1) Same way as Liverpool in the 80s. Through transition grants etc. The better ones can be supported to revert to being Politechnics and Technical Colleges concentrating principally on vocational non degree courses and day release courses for apprentices.
2) Tell them tough.
The whole sector will implode once some entrepreneur gets their act together for online courses at a fraction of current fees in any case.
£9,250 a year for six hours of lectures (which is about it for many arts/humanities subjects) and use of a library is outrageous.
Use the money saved to increase the number of Engineering, Science and Medical Doctor places and reduce the fees.
John Major has a lot to answer for by destroying the Polytechnics and turning them into Poundshop Universities.
Jordan Peterson is trying to launch just such a cheap and accessible online university at the moment. He has a whole load of world-leading academics delivering lectures on a wide variety of subjects.
The sticking point, as always, is the awarding (or otherwise) of a degree at the end of the course. It’s a very big if, but if he can find a way to award accredited degrees it has the potential to turn the whole university sector upside-down.
Surely the sticking point is Jordan Peterson being involved!
Also, none of this is new. Lots of places have MOOCs (massive open online courses) now. Standford, for example, has a great set that you can sign up for free, but you pay for the certification. When MOOCs were first a big, new thing a few years back, everyone said they had the potential to turn the whole university sector upside-down. The challenge is that it's harder to learn that way than if you are immersed in the university environment with fellow students and access to staff. (COVID-19 kind of proved this when everyone had to go online.)
But for some people, MOOCs are great. If you can make yourself work through them, they are huge boon.
It's also really quite impressive (to me, old-ish bloke) how many world-class researchers and teachers there are putting out amazing content on youtube for free. Not going to get you a bit of paper and a gold star at the end of it of course.
I do wonder about the fees the OU is charging though for largely remote self-learning.
Karpathy has put out some excellent stuff.
Much of this argument strikes me as very similar to the arguments around home schooling.
Can a student learn the content of a university degree in a self directed fashion? Absolutely.
The problem is that the proportion of students who are capable of doing this off their own bat is ... small. The rest benefit enormously / actually need the structure that a university provides in order to learn anything at all.
If you want to teach a decent fraction of the population at university level, then you‘re going to need to stand up an institution that looks an awful lot like a university. Teaching staff cost money. Lecture halls cost money. Libraries (virtual & otherwise) require Librarians & subscriptions to journals which, guess what, costs money. And so on...
I guess I'm mostly thinking about people who want to learn more off their own bat (like me). But it does increase the questions around diversity in the options offered to school-leavers about how (and when) they learn and how much they pay for it. Again - the fees charged by the OU look increasingly difficult to justify as time goes on.
Paul Johnson @PJTheEconomist Reforms to adult social care charging not happening. I presume this is the end of the "Dilnot" reforms which would have meant a cap on what people have to pay.
A dreadful shame. Another episode in generational failures to fund and reform social care.
Every government just kicks this issue into the long grass. At some point, its going to come out the long grass like Godzilla.
Godzilla comes from the ocean depths, not from long grass!
The ball has been booted so often its gone off the pitch like Peter Kay Have it advert and into the ocean 250 miles away from where it started.
Paul Johnson @PJTheEconomist Reforms to adult social care charging not happening. I presume this is the end of the "Dilnot" reforms which would have meant a cap on what people have to pay.
A dreadful shame. Another episode in generational failures to fund and reform social care.
Every government just kicks this issue into the long grass. At some point, its going to come out the long grass like Godzilla.
Godzilla comes from the ocean depths, not from long grass!
Re: Godzilla, maybe FU was referring to long SEA grass?
They need to win back the headbangers now happily installed in the home of headbangers; they need to win over those who fled to the sensible shores of Labour and Lib Dems; they need to stop their residual voters dying.
Should be easy.
One Nationers should take over the Lib Dems.
Question to our Lib Dem members, how many in the voluntary party support the Orange Book policies now?
Possibly the 2015 election was disastrous in that it destroyed Orange Book Liberalism and left a party barely distinguishable from SKS Labour.
Clegg's problem in 2015 was Cameron was already offering Orange Book Liberalism in all but name anyway, while the social democrats who had voted for his party before defected to Ed Miliband's Labour Party
Tuition fees. And not to so much what was done as the way it was done.
Orange Book LDs back tuition fees and ideally based on the graduate premium from and cost of the degree. Social Democrat LDs however largely want university education to be free
That's me told then; I've always been against tuition fees. Although I was a Liberal before I was a LibDem.
Tuition fees are arguably the greatest unforced error in the history of the universe.
Not a small claim when you consider that includes Operation Barabarossa, Alexander's trek through Gedrosia and the Emperor inviting the Rebellion to attack the second Death Star.
Not only did they nearly destroy the Lib Dems, they are actually a disaster in terms of funding HE.
They aren't, their problem is they are one size fits all not set at market rate.
If they were then economics at Cambridge or law at Oxford or medicine at Imperial for example would have the highest fees and arts degrees would be cheapest
You clearly don't have a clue how markets work (but then again nor did anyone else who implemented the scheme).
Because no university is going to charge less than the full rate because
1) it implies their course is less good than other courses 2) it leaves money they could otherwise get 3) the money is borrowed so it's never going to be fully repaid in many cases anyway...
They would cut fees soon enough if it was that or not fill the places.
Rationing student loans for fees by performance with only people with 3 A's able to borrow the full amount and proportionate amount for lower grades down to £3,000 for 2 E's would concentrate their minds.
And force the lower grade ones to shut or return to focusing on vocational qualifications.
So you force the closure of the university which a pride and joy of the local area.
1) how do you deal with the economic fallout of doing so 2) how do you handle the local MPs who know they've just lost any chance of re-election...
Yes. About 40% of the capacity is a job creation scheme for acadamics administrators and sundry hangers on, teaching weak subjects that are pointless to do a degree in and vocational subjects like Nursing and Policing that should never have required a degree in the first place.
Shut them.
1) Same way as Liverpool in the 80s. Through transition grants etc. The better ones can be supported to revert to being Politechnics and Technical Colleges concentrating principally on vocational non degree courses and day release courses for apprentices.
2) Tell them tough.
The whole sector will implode once some entrepreneur gets their act together for online courses at a fraction of current fees in any case.
£9,250 a year for six hours of lectures (which is about it for many arts/humanities subjects) and use of a library is outrageous.
Use the money saved to increase the number of Engineering, Science and Medical Doctor places and reduce the fees.
John Major has a lot to answer for by destroying the Polytechnics and turning them into Poundshop Universities.
Jordan Peterson is trying to launch just such a cheap and accessible online university at the moment. He has a whole load of world-leading academics delivering lectures on a wide variety of subjects.
The sticking point, as always, is the awarding (or otherwise) of a degree at the end of the course. It’s a very big if, but if he can find a way to award accredited degrees it has the potential to turn the whole university sector upside-down.
Surely the sticking point is Jordan Peterson being involved!
Also, none of this is new. Lots of places have MOOCs (massive open online courses) now. Standford, for example, has a great set that you can sign up for free, but you pay for the certification. When MOOCs were first a big, new thing a few years back, everyone said they had the potential to turn the whole university sector upside-down. The challenge is that it's harder to learn that way than if you are immersed in the university environment with fellow students and access to staff. (COVID-19 kind of proved this when everyone had to go online.)
But for some people, MOOCs are great. If you can make yourself work through them, they are huge boon.
It's also really quite impressive (to me, old-ish bloke) how many world-class researchers and teachers there are putting out amazing content on youtube for free. Not going to get you a bit of paper and a gold star at the end of it of course.
I do wonder about the fees the OU is charging though for largely remote self-learning.
Karpathy has put out some excellent stuff.
Much of this argument strikes me as very similar to the arguments around home schooling.
Can a student learn the content of a university degree in a self directed fashion? Absolutely.
The problem is that the proportion of students who are capable of doing this off their own bat is ... small. The rest benefit enormously / actually need the structure that a university provides in order to learn anything at all.
If you want to teach a decent fraction of the population at university level, then you‘re going to need to stand up an institution that looks an awful lot like a university. Teaching staff cost money. Lecture halls cost money. Libraries (virtual & otherwise) require Librarians & subscriptions to journals which, guess what, costs money. And so on...
I guess I'm mostly thinking about people who want to learn more off their own bat (like me). But it does increase the questions around diversity in the options offered to school-leavers about how (and when) they learn and how much they pay for it. Again - the fees charged by the OU look increasingly difficult to justify as time goes on.
There are costs in assessing people and in providing one-to-one or small group tutoring.
Winter fuel allowance scrapped for those not getting credits.
Damn, that’s bad news for Emirates airline, at least as far as my parents are concerned. They’ve used their WFA to fly somewhere warmer for the past few years.
Interesting to check the life-cycle analysis on how many days one has to jet off somewhere warm to reduce carbon emissions compared to staying in a typical UK home in winter.
I suspect it might be a one-way ticket is required! A train or coach to south of France could be interesting though.
ETA: this website quotes 2.2 tonnes/year for a domestic gas boiler, which they quote as 7 flights from London to NY. If we guess half of that is winter heat then a long stay could start to make sense. London to Paris by train is 22kg return accoridng to seat 61 so, if we guess Marseille is about 3-4 times that, you'd only need to stay way for maybe about a week if my sums are right to break even on CO2.
And some PBers wonder WHY yours truly calls him "Musko"?
The Hill - Elon Musk takes fire for posting fake video of Kamala Harris
Elon Musk is being accused of violating the policies on his own social platform, X, after he shared a fake video of Vice President Harris that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) voice mimicking Harris to spew insults about her campaign and President Biden.
The video musk shared Friday mocks a Harris campaign ad and features voiceover calling Biden “senile” and Harris the “ultimate diversity hire.”
he video does not contain any disclaimer that it uses AI to mimic Harris’s voice, though the original post from the account @MrReaganUSA labels it a parody. Musk made no such distinction in his own post, a move that appears to violate X site policy barring “misleading media.” . . .
And some PBers wonder WHY yours truly calls him "Musko"?
The Hill - Elon Musk takes fire for posting fake video of Kamala Harris
Elon Musk is being accused of violating the policies on his own social platform, X, after he shared a fake video of Vice President Harris that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) voice mimicking Harris to spew insults about her campaign and President Biden.
The video musk shared Friday mocks a Harris campaign ad and features voiceover calling Biden “senile” and Harris the “ultimate diversity hire.”
he video does not contain any disclaimer that it uses AI to mimic Harris’s voice, though the original post from the account @MrReaganUSA labels it a parody. Musk made no such distinction in his own post, a move that appears to violate X site policy barring “misleading media.” . . .
If Labour had had this stuff in their manifesto they might still be in government today, but quite probably without a majority.
All those parallels drawn with 1997 look really silly now.
Winter fuel allowance scrapped, social care costs cap scrapped, new roads and rail and new infrastructure scrapped, new hospitals set to be cancelled, the Tories will likely get a poll bounce from this whoever their leader is
I agree with TSE, I think Jenrick and Tugendhat are the likely final 2 Tory MPs will put to members of those nominated.
Jenrick then likely narrowly beats Tugendhat with the membership but it would be close
They'll only do that if they are insane. Obviously the most right-wing choice wins with the membership, so if they've any sense at-all, they'll move heaven and earth to keep that slimeball Jenrick off the ballot.
On the polling TSE showed this morning Jenrick has the second best net approval rating with the public after Tugendhat of the 6 candidates nominated, so Tory MPs would have made the right decision. The rightwing candidate doesn't always win the membership either, after all Davis lost to Cameron in 2005
I feel the membership in 2005 (when I voted for Cameron) is rather different in complexion from 2024.
Not so different, certainly if our Association is anything to go by many of the most rightwing in it left for Reform or lapsed their membership after Boris was removed and Sunak replaced Truss as leader
Do you know why Reform failed to put a candidate up in Epping Forest when you'd have thought it would be a fairly good area for them?
It is not as good as Harlow or Ongar for them so they focused on Harlow and B and O it seems
Off topic because I think we all know what Reeves is going to say today... How's Biden going to get his err "plans" for SCOTUS through before his term is up ?
That's not the point, is it?
It's to force the republicans to defend the current Supreme Court and its blatant crimes against financial integrity, the rule of law and American democracy.
Which he thinks, probably rightly, will not be entirely helpful to them.
Axing road and rail project to plug a black hole seems opposite to be build, build, build to growth.
Indeed. Everyone wants growth but how you achieve it and the choices you make to get it are always the problem...
We'll just have to hope the doctors spend their 20% pay rise in the wider economy
Its not exactly great look on what Bad Al used to call the Media Matrix, to have 20% pay rise vs no money must cut all this spending on infrastructure. Need to space it out to different weeks.
It's the nurses I feel sorry for. They only got 5%.
Only 5%.
I mean 5% pay rise is nice but it's nothing compared to 20% for doctors, and nurses work just as hard if not harder than doctors (it's the nurses who have to do all the shitty jobs like dealing with bedpans etc)
If I was leading the nursing unions I'd be putting in for 20% when their next pay around comes up.
Isn't your bedpan more likely to be dealt with by a healthcare assistant now?
Healthcare assistants are not paid well.
Depends on whether a healthcare assistant is available.
I was in hospital a few months ago and actually had to go on a bed pan (was the most embarrassing moment of my life lol) and it was a nurse who dealt with me as the HCA was dealing with someone else.
However, generally you're correct about HCAs, so why not give them 30% lol?
In elections, as with all things in life, the good-looking have a small but not insignificant advantage. On this basis, I'd say we should probably give Kemi a bit more weight than we otherwise might.
Axing road and rail project to plug a black hole seems opposite to be build, build, build to growth.
Indeed. Everyone wants growth but how you achieve it and the choices you make to get it are always the problem...
We'll just have to hope the doctors spend their 20% pay rise in the wider economy
Its not exactly great look on what Bad Al used to call the Media Matrix, to have 20% pay rise vs no money must cut all this spending on infrastructure. Need to space it out to different weeks.
It's the nurses I feel sorry for. They only got 5%.
Only 5%.
I mean 5% pay rise is nice but it's nothing compared to 20% for doctors, and nurses work just as hard if not harder than doctors (it's the nurses who have to do all the shitty jobs like dealing with bedpans etc)
If I was leading the nursing unions I'd be putting in for 20% when their next pay around comes up.
Isn't your bedpan more likely to be dealt with by a healthcare assistant now?
Healthcare assistants are not paid well.
Depends on whether a healthcare assistant is available.
I was in hospital a few months ago and actually had to go on a bed pan (was the most embarrassing moment of my life lol) and it was a nurse who dealt with me as the HCA was dealing with someone else.
However, generally you're correct about HCAs, so why not give them 30% lol?
It was about time that wealthy pensioners ceased to be in receipt of the winter fuel payment.
it won't surprise you, Andy, to know that I get it every year, and every year I wonder if and when this particular piece of nonsense will be brought to an end.
The way the Tory leadership contest is structured makes it possible that there won't need to be final vote. Unless there's a big difference of opinion between party members and MPs then it will surely be obvious who the consensus choice by then.
The joys of using the exhaustive ballot system which is a form of quasi-AV.
None of this first past the post crap.
Oh God, not this again.
An exhaustive series of ballots is nothing at all like AV.
Isn't it exactly the same as AV except you cast your 2nd, 3rd, 4th.... choice each after a few days rather than a few seconds, which I guess gives you time to mull over the choices, but otherwise the same.
The way the Tory leadership contest is structured makes it possible that there won't need to be final vote. Unless there's a big difference of opinion between party members and MPs then it will surely be obvious who the consensus choice by then.
The joys of using the exhaustive ballot system which is a form of quasi-AV.
None of this first past the post crap.
I'm going to trot out one of my favourite pointless hobbyhorses again: the not-AV system for electing a single candidate shouldn't really be called FPTP, because there is no post - or rather, the location of the post is dependent on the behaviour of the voters, thereby stretching the horseracing analogy to breaking point. Single member plurality vote is more accurate.
Reeves says the Tories didn't tell the OBR the numbers. Like, really?
We should remember she is talking about a government that was quite prepared to lie, including to the Commons, when it suited them. Johnson. Shapps. Dorries. To name only the most egregious.
But that's a big claim. If she can't back it up she will be in trouble.
They've gambled on people not caring all that much. They're probably right - and people won't be paying much attention at the moment - but there will be a few annoyed about the winter fuel allowance when that comes round in the autumn.
They've gambled on people not caring all that much. They're probably right - and people won't be paying much attention at the moment - but there will be a few annoyed about the winter fuel allowance when that comes round in the autumn.
There's no taper into pension credit is there ? - So whilst we all agree wealthy pensioners don't need it doesn't it how about those just above the line for pension credits. What about the poor sods whose income is £218.16/£332.96 (With partner) when state pension is included ?
The way the Tory leadership contest is structured makes it possible that there won't need to be final vote. Unless there's a big difference of opinion between party members and MPs then it will surely be obvious who the consensus choice by then.
The joys of using the exhaustive ballot system which is a form of quasi-AV.
None of this first past the post crap.
I'm going to trot out one of my favourite pointless hobbyhorses again: the not-AV system for electing a single candidate shouldn't really be called FPTP, because there is no post - or rather, the location of the post is dependent on the behaviour of the voters, thereby stretching the horseracing analogy to breaking point. Single member plurality vote is more accurate.
HPBP? (Highest Pile of Bits of Paper)
I support this 100% and commend it to the board for future use.
Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards has been charged with making indecent images of children, the Metropolitan Police has said.
Crickey.
IIRC “making” in UK law basically means “copied a file onto their computer” doesn’t it? Viewing an image in your web browser is sufficient to meet the criteria.
It’s a strict liability offence too.
It’s an oddity of UK law that the law that was (I presume) intended to be used to charge the creators of such images is the now the one used to prosecute the ones viewing the material in the age of the internet, despite the charge of possession of such images being available.
There's no taper into pension credit is there ? - So whilst we all agree wealthy pensioners don't need it doesn't it how about those just above the line for pension credits. What about the poor sods whose income is £218.16/£332.96 (With partner) when state pension is included ?
Indeed.
There are some very wealthy pensioners and some pensioners in poverty. Then there are millions of pensioners somewhere in the middle.
Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards has been charged with making indecent images of children, the Metropolitan Police has said.
Crickey.
IIRC “making” in UK law basically means “copied a file onto their computer” doesn’t it? Viewing an image in your web browser is sufficient to meet the criteria.
It’s a strict liability offence too.
It’s an oddity of UK law that the law that was (I presume) intended to be used to charge the creators of such images is the now the one used to prosecute the ones viewing the material in the age of the internet, despite the charge of possession of such images being available.
Parents are warned to do absolutely nothing (other than report it) if they ever find anything on their kids' phones for this reason.
Paul Johnson has just said scrapping the social care policy is regrettable and means this serious issue remains unresolved
I expect of everything mentioned so far this will be the most unpopular
Would you expect them to take it on just like that?
I expect - I hope - there will be a separate announcement about an updated Dilnot review. Dilnot has been sat on for so long (by SKS and the Labour government of the last 14 years if you believe some on PB) that it might spawn a fiscal Godzilla if it's allowed to hatch. Needs an update.
Reeves says the Tories didn't tell the OBR the numbers. Like, really?
Not sure the "of course Reeves knew how bad a state the Tories left the finances in" line is the slamdunk winner for the Tories they think it is.
Having said that, Labour will own any cuts or tax rises from now on.
They were questioning Reeves’ claim that the Tories fraudulently cooked the books delivered to the OBR. I’d assume that would be a criminal act, so it is quite the claim.
The way the Tory leadership contest is structured makes it possible that there won't need to be final vote. Unless there's a big difference of opinion between party members and MPs then it will surely be obvious who the consensus choice by then.
The joys of using the exhaustive ballot system which is a form of quasi-AV.
None of this first past the post crap.
I'm going to trot out one of my favourite pointless hobbyhorses again: the not-AV system for electing a single candidate shouldn't really be called FPTP, because there is no post - or rather, the location of the post is dependent on the behaviour of the voters, thereby stretching the horseracing analogy to breaking point. Single member plurality vote is more accurate.
HPBP? (Highest Pile of Bits of Paper)
I support this 100% and commend it to the board for future use.
Surely should be tallest pile, or someone might sneak their pile onto a higher tabletop
And some PBers wonder WHY yours truly calls him "Musko"?
The Hill - Elon Musk takes fire for posting fake video of Kamala Harris
Elon Musk is being accused of violating the policies on his own social platform, X, after he shared a fake video of Vice President Harris that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) voice mimicking Harris to spew insults about her campaign and President Biden.
The video musk shared Friday mocks a Harris campaign ad and features voiceover calling Biden “senile” and Harris the “ultimate diversity hire.”
he video does not contain any disclaimer that it uses AI to mimic Harris’s voice, though the original post from the account @MrReaganUSA labels it a parody. Musk made no such distinction in his own post, a move that appears to violate X site policy barring “misleading media.” . . .
And some PBers wonder WHY yours truly calls him "Musko"?
The Hill - Elon Musk takes fire for posting fake video of Kamala Harris
Elon Musk is being accused of violating the policies on his own social platform, X, after he shared a fake video of Vice President Harris that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) voice mimicking Harris to spew insults about her campaign and President Biden.
The video musk shared Friday mocks a Harris campaign ad and features voiceover calling Biden “senile” and Harris the “ultimate diversity hire.”
he video does not contain any disclaimer that it uses AI to mimic Harris’s voice, though the original post from the account @MrReaganUSA labels it a parody. Musk made no such distinction in his own post, a move that appears to violate X site policy barring “misleading media.” . . .
The Tories' reputation for financial prudence is in tatters.
I'm not convinced 'Labour party politician says Tories were imprudent' is going to be the final nail in that coffin. It falls into the category of 'she would say that, wouldn't she'? Trashing the previous government's reputation is what all new governments do.
She may be correct. But I don't think there is much news there.
Comments
Healthcare assistants are not paid well.
2) The Trans Gay Illegal Immigrant Alien AIs
WHAT A SUPRISE
Can a student learn the content of a university degree in a self directed fashion? Absolutely.
The problem is that the proportion of students who are capable of doing this off their own bat is ... small. The rest benefit enormously / actually need the structure that a university provides in order to learn anything at all.
If you want to teach a decent fraction of the population at university level, then you‘re going to need to stand up an institution that looks an awful lot like a university. Teaching staff cost money. Lecture halls cost money. Libraries (virtual & otherwise) require Librarians & subscriptions to journals which, guess what, costs money. And so on...
The Healthcare Assistants are going to get pay rises etc. Which will create an opening for cheap, badly paid, badly treated skivies to be pushed around and given the literally shit jobs.
Then in a few years.....
The beauty of this methodology is that there is no limit to how long this can carry on.
The Hill - Elon Musk takes fire for posting fake video of Kamala Harris
Elon Musk is being accused of violating the policies on his own social platform, X, after he shared a fake video of Vice President Harris that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) voice mimicking Harris to spew insults about her campaign and President Biden.
The video musk shared Friday mocks a Harris campaign ad and features voiceover calling Biden “senile” and Harris the “ultimate diversity hire.”
he video does not contain any disclaimer that it uses AI to mimic Harris’s voice, though the original post from the account @MrReaganUSA labels it a parody. Musk made no such distinction in his own post, a move that appears to violate X site policy barring “misleading media.” . . .
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4797604-elon-musk-fake-ai-video-harris/
SSI - PB Trump-fluffers (and Putin-pimpers) please explain?
*I know, I know.
Edit: you may be thinking of prescription charges? The Scottish Gmt found that the real cost of making them free for all was almost completely covered by the sweeping away of all the admin.
The last Conservative budget required tax rises in this session in order to get the OBR to sign off on it.
Paul Johnson
@PJTheEconomist
Reforms to adult social care charging not happening. I presume this is the end of the "Dilnot" reforms which would have meant a cap on what people have to pay.
A dreadful shame. Another episode in generational failures to fund and reform social care.
pdanderson
@pdanderson
Wes Streeting specifically said it would go ahead when questioned by Laura K on BBC.
The latest comedy is that the parents who are putting their children through state education 6th form (after a lifetime of private education) are realising that they can save money on all the tuition.
By Chloe and her best friend Betsy sharing a tutor - they are doing the same A level. Or even having a class of 3.... or 4....
One parent has converted the garden room office into a learning space. The teacher is mostly remote, the children sit at desks facing the big Zoom screen.
It all reminds me of something. Can't quite put my finger on it.
I told my daughter Duggee would be making a surprise appearance at the nursery this morning to get her in the car.
Bit like politicians and the electorate.
Scrapping fuel allowance is arguably fair, but this solves nothing.
Crickey.
No, I don't think that they will run with it because it's liveless. It's just as liveless as the Hugh Edwards rumor.
That clearly cost him the Gold medal .
I suspect it might be a one-way ticket is required! A train or coach to south of France could be interesting though.
ETA: this website quotes 2.2 tonnes/year for a domestic gas boiler, which they quote as 7 flights from London to NY. If we guess half of that is winter heat then a long stay could start to make sense. London to Paris by train is 22kg return accoridng to seat 61 so, if we guess Marseille is about 3-4 times that, you'd only need to stay way for maybe about a week if my sums are right to break even on CO2.
All those parallels drawn with 1997 look really silly now.
Hunt skewering Reeves
Koretzky HAHAHAHA
It's to force the republicans to defend the current Supreme Court and its blatant crimes against financial integrity, the rule of law and American democracy.
Which he thinks, probably rightly, will not be entirely helpful to them.
I was in hospital a few months ago and actually had to go on a bed pan (was the most embarrassing moment of my life lol) and it was a nurse who dealt with me as the HCA was dealing with someone else.
However, generally you're correct about HCAs, so why not give them 30% lol?
Truly glad to see an end to it.
Does he still have contacts in the DPP?
But that's a big claim. If she can't back it up she will be in trouble.
It was a joke he was getting it.
Here's another one still going after 50 years that's frankly silly now:
https://www.gov.uk/christmas-bonus
It’s a strict liability offence too.
It’s an oddity of UK law that the law that was (I presume) intended to be used to charge the creators of such images is the now the one used to prosecute the ones viewing the material in the age of the internet, despite the charge of possession of such images being available.
I expect of everything mentioned so far this will be the most unpopular
Having said that, Labour will own any cuts or tax rises from now on.
There are some very wealthy pensioners and some pensioners in poverty. Then there are millions of pensioners somewhere in the middle.
https://www.gov.uk/christmas-bonus/eligibility
Although there are several other groups that get it too.
I expect - I hope - there will be a separate announcement about an updated Dilnot review. Dilnot has been sat on for so long (by SKS and the Labour government of the last 14 years if you believe some on PB) that it might spawn a fiscal Godzilla if it's allowed to hatch. Needs an update.
However, on plus side, you have an acute sense of smell!
She may be correct. But I don't think there is much news there.