That white boy who was kidnapped by those black teenagers was autistic and he thought one of them were his friends. People are sick. I give up on people.
It's a hideous story. And the policeman tried to dismiss it as "just kids doing stupid things"
Would he say that if it had been an autistic black lad tortured by white thugs? Disgraceful.
Forgetting the racial element, there was an horrific murder/torture of an mentally disabled Englishman by feral teenagers about a decade ago. It brought me to tears. How do people like that exist?
When I was in prison, most of the cons I encountered had some terrible backstory - a violent father, abusive mother, orphaned at 6, a justified hatred of whoever - so you could kind of explain their crimes.
But I met a handful who were simply evil, as far I could see. Not insane, not even stupid, they simply took a nihilistic pleasure in the suffering or killing of others and the negation of society. And as SeanF says, they come from all backgrounds, and come in all colours.
On topic, you could argue the greatest Prime Minister we never had went to Cambridge.
Ken Clarke.
A table of some general election losers makes bad reading for Oxford.
Oxford: Miliband, Hague, Callaghan (applied) Wilson (twice) Heath (three times)
Cambridge: Howard
Others: Brown, Kinnock,
NG: Major
So Oxford leads the losers table.
As a Cambridge man I'd love to agree but how do you square this with the all political careers [ especially those of PMs end in failure?
I think power becomes an addiction, you could argue in the last hundred years no Prime Minister left office at a time of their own choosing, Wilson maybe, but I think he knew he was developing Alzheimer's.
Had Dave won the referendum, he would have been a rarity, a PM choosing to stand down at the time of his choosing.
In the last 100 years, Baldwin probably counts as an unforced retirement in 1937.
That was a major policy failure of his, when politicians did resign for things like that.
The German press is more exercised than I've seen it in a long tine, however. Die Welt - a pretty serious paper - is full of fairly hard hitting new stories linking crime, terror with refugees and asylum seekers.
Where they fall down is the think pieces and op eds - and this counts for all the German press (I've been reading it a lot the last two weeks). The opinions are anodyne and glib: we must all remain calm, what a shame, let's not get carried away, hope for the best, it is a shame though, blah blah
There is no attempt at critique in any way, no trenchant analysis (from left or right), no searing polemic, no edgy humour, nothing. Appallingly dull and pointless.
It's odd as their fact-based print news (see the Spiegel English edition) is sharp. It's just opinions and ideas that seem to give Germans the willies, so they shy away. And the writers are rubbish.
TV is apparently much much worse (as I've mentioned here before, relying on my friend who is quite high up in Berlin media)
Die Welt has always been the most tabloid in content of the generally serious German press (Bild-Zeitung is their only significant tabloid), while not remotely like the Sun in style - it's like The Times would be if run by the Daily Mail editor. But as you say, comments are generally very cautious.
Not sure I agree about the TV - they have very neutral stories but they also have sharp comments with "OPINION" in large letters on the screen. To my mind that works better than our approach, in which commentators often have an agenda, or at least a theme they've decided to put across, but pretend to be neutral (when did you last see a current affairs programme that didn't have a clear conclusion, rather than a balanced picture?). British journalists and especially TV pundits are too keen on the story being all about them - how clever, biting, sarcastic etc. they are. It makes for lighter reading but poorer balance.
That white boy who was kidnapped by those black teenagers was autistic and he thought one of them were his friends. People are sick. I give up on people.
It's a hideous story. And the policeman tried to dismiss it as "just kids doing stupid things"
Would he say that if it had been an autistic black lad tortured by white thugs? Disgraceful.
Forgetting the racial element, there was an horrific murder/torture of an mentally disabled Englishman by feral teenagers about a decade ago. It brought me to tears. How do people like that exist?
When I was in prison, most of the cons I encountered had some terrible backstory - a violent father, abusive mother, orphaned at 6, a justified hatred of whoever - so you could kind of explain their crimes.
But I met a handful who were simply evil, as far I could see. Not insane, not even stupid, they simply took a nihilistic pleasure in the suffering or killing of others and the negation of society. And as SeanF says, they come from all backgrounds, and come in all colours.
On topic, you could argue the greatest Prime Minister we never had went to Cambridge.
Ken Clarke.
A table of some general election losers makes bad reading for Oxford.
Oxford: Miliband, Hague, Callaghan (applied) Wilson (twice) Heath (three times)
Cambridge: Howard
Others: Brown, Kinnock,
NG: Major
So Oxford leads the losers table.
As a Cambridge man I'd love to agree but how do you square this with the all political careers [ especially those of PMs end in failure?
I think power becomes an addiction, you could argue in the last hundred years no Prime Minister left office at a time of their own choosing, Wilson maybe, but I think he knew he was developing Alzheimer's.
Had Dave won the referendum, he would have been a rarity, a PM choosing to stand down at the time of his choosing.
In the last 100 years, Baldwin probably counts as an unforced retirement in 1937.
That was a major policy failure of his, when politicians did resign for things like that.
Are you sure? My impression was that he felt that he was getting tired and decided to step down once the new reign was bedded in, much as Lord Salisbury did in 1902 (which was probably the prior unforced departure).
That white boy who was kidnapped by those black teenagers was autistic and he thought one of them were his friends. People are sick. I give up on people.
It's a hideous story. And the policeman tried to dismiss it as "just kids doing stupid things"
Would he say that if it had been an autistic black lad tortured by white thugs? Disgraceful.
Forgetting the racial element, there was an horrific murder/torture of an mentally disabled Englishman by feral teenagers about a decade ago. It brought me to tears. How do people like that exist?
When I was in prison, most of the cons I encountered had some terrible backstory - a violent father, abusive mother, orphaned at 6, a justified hatred of whoever - so you could kind of explain their crimes.
But I met a handful who were simply evil, as far I could see. Not insane, not even stupid, they simply took a nihilistic pleasure in the suffering or killing of others and the negation of society. And as SeanF says, they come from all backgrounds, and come in all colours.
The sort of people who would work as torturers, concentration camp guards, experiment on human beings, operate gas chambers.
That white boy who was kidnapped by those black teenagers was autistic and he thought one of them were his friends. People are sick. I give up on people.
It's a hideous story. And the policeman tried to dismiss it as "just kids doing stupid things"
Would he say that if it had been an autistic black lad tortured by white thugs? Disgraceful.
Forgetting the racial element, there was an horrific murder/torture of an mentally disabled Englishman by feral teenagers about a decade ago. It brought me to tears. How do people like that exist?
When I was in prison, most of the cons I encountered had some terrible backstory - a violent father, abusive mother, orphaned at 6, a justified hatred of whoever - so you could kind of explain their crimes.
But I met a handful who were simply evil, as far I could see. Not insane, not even stupid, they simply took a nihilistic pleasure in the suffering or killing of others and the negation of society. And as SeanF says, they come from all backgrounds, and come in all colours.
Thinking of University Challenge, Oxford and Cambridge ought to have primaries, to pick which team they want to send through to the competition. Or else rebrand the programme "Oxbridge College Challenge".
We do. All thirty colleges at Oxford apply for a handful of places - the exact amount determined by scores and, frankly, telegenics.
John Harris hits the nail on the head again you can disagree with his economical politics but he has a point about how communities have been ripped apart in the last few decades. Traditional communities.....
That white boy who was kidnapped by those black teenagers was autistic and he thought one of them were his friends. People are sick. I give up on people.
It's a hideous story. And the policeman tried to dismiss it as "just kids doing stupid things"
Would he say that if it had been an autistic black lad tortured by white thugs? Disgraceful.
Forgetting the racial element, there was an horrific murder/torture of an mentally disabled Englishman by feral teenagers about a decade ago. It brought me to tears. How do people like that exist?
When I was in prison, most of the cons I encountered had some terrible backstory - a violent father, abusive mother, orphaned at 6, a justified hatred of whoever - so you could kind of explain their crimes.
But I met a handful who were simply evil, as far I could see. Not insane, not even stupid, they simply took a nihilistic pleasure in the suffering or killing of others and the negation of society. And as SeanF says, they come from all backgrounds, and come in all colours.
Are such cases becoming more common, or are they being detected (and tried) more frequently?
Suppose it is hard to say but you do seem to see a lot more evil stories about , more likely it is a bit of both and more publication as we see a broader range of news now with online media.
On topic, you could argue the greatest Prime Minister we never had went to Cambridge.
Ken Clarke.
A table of some general election losers makes bad reading for Oxford.
Oxford: Miliband, Hague, Callaghan (applied) Wilson (twice) Heath (three times)
Cambridge: Howard
Others: Brown, Kinnock,
NG: Major
So Oxford leads the losers table.
As a Cambridge man I'd love to agree but how do you square this with the all political careers [ especially those of PMs end in failure?
I think power becomes an addiction, you could argue in the last hundred years no Prime Minister left office at a time of their own choosing, Wilson maybe, but I think he knew he was developing Alzheimer's.
Had Dave won the referendum, he would have been a rarity, a PM choosing to stand down at the time of his choosing.
In the last 100 years, Baldwin probably counts as an unforced retirement in 1937.
That was a major policy failure of his, when politicians did resign for things like that.
Are you sure? My impression was that he felt that he was getting tired and decided to step down once the new reign was bedded in, much as Lord Salisbury did in 1902 (which was probably the prior unforced departure).
I did read somewhere that when he formally tendered his resignation to King George VI that's what he implied, he has misread Herr Hitler.
That white boy who was kidnapped by those black teenagers was autistic and he thought one of them were his friends. People are sick. I give up on people.
It's a hideous story. And the policeman tried to dismiss it as "just kids doing stupid things"
Would he say that if it had been an autistic black lad tortured by white thugs? Disgraceful.
Forgetting the racial element, there was an horrific murder/torture of an mentally disabled Englishman by feral teenagers about a decade ago. It brought me to tears. How do people like that exist?
When I was in prison, most of the cons I encountered had some terrible backstory - a violent father, abusive mother, orphaned at 6, a justified hatred of whoever - so you could kind of explain their crimes.
But I met a handful who were simply evil, as far I could see. Not insane, not even stupid, they simply took a nihilistic pleasure in the suffering or killing of others and the negation of society. And as SeanF says, they come from all backgrounds, and come in all colours.
Are such cases becoming more common, or are they being detected (and tried) more frequently?
Suppose it is hard to say but you do seem to see a lot more evil stories about , more likely it is a bit of both and more publication as we see a broader range of news now with online media.
I read a lot of old newspapers and websites containing historic information (*). I'd argue that, if anything, such abuse was far more common in the past. It's just that life at the lower end was so much harder and such abuse was either ignored or dealt with locally.
(*) A great one is the Old Bailey website. My favourite quote is from a woman: "I walk the streets at night to maintain myself."
As far as I am aware, she has never said that she supports Frexit, English-language articles in the Daily Express and Russia Today notwithstanding. She has promised a Frexit referendum. "Change it or leave it" is also the policy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
I would be unable to support any basic income that didn't demand a minimum level of educational achievement to access. Nothing hideously high; 5 GCSEs A-C with English and Maths feels like a reasonable threshold.
Sounds like Germany has lost the plot Sean. This sort of shit will generate a backlash. Just ask Hillary how the same shit from the American MSM worked out for her. Everything is awesome and a left liberal consensus right up until the moment when it isn't.
As far as I am aware, she has never said that she supports Frexit, English-language articles in the Daily Express and Russia Today notwithstanding. She has promised a Frexit referendum. "Change it or leave it" is also the policy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
I don't recall her actually calling for a Frexit referendum, only a Fr-euro-xit referendum. Happy to be correct though.
A future of leisure was predicted 40-50 years ago; I was looking forward to it. But after some enthusiasm for early retirement and shorter working weeks, it's gone into reverse.
Let's hope it's genuine this time although it really has to be paid for by higher taxes on company profits; it's companies which benefit from robots. So turning the UK into a tax haven to emulate Ireland and Luxembourg with 15% corporation tax is a rather dim idea.
On topic, you could argue the greatest Prime Minister we never had went to Cambridge.
Ken Clarke.
A table of some general election losers makes bad reading for Oxford.
Oxford: Miliband, Hague, Callaghan (applied) Wilson (twice) Heath (three times)
Cambridge: Howard
Others: Brown, Kinnock,
NG: Major
So Oxford leads the losers table.
As a Cambridge man I'd love to agree but how do you square this with the all political careers [ especially those of PMs end in failure?
I think power becomes an addiction, you could argue in the last hundred years no Prime Minister left office at a time of their own choosing, Wilson maybe, but I think he knew he was developing Alzheimer's.
Had Dave won the referendum, he would have been a rarity, a PM choosing to stand down at the time of his choosing.
In the last 100 years, Baldwin probably counts as an unforced retirement in 1937.
That was a major policy failure of his, when politicians did resign for things like that.
Are you sure? My impression was that he felt that he was getting tired and decided to step down once the new reign was bedded in, much as Lord Salisbury did in 1902 (which was probably the prior unforced departure).
I did read somewhere that when he formally tendered his resignation to King George VI that's what he implied, he has misread Herr Hitler.
Although he may have come to that conclusion, the government was already set on rearmament so was doing something (if not enough) about it. I'm not sure why Baldwin would have resigned when he did, were that his reasoning. I'm pretty sure that there wasn't any great clamour for his departure. In any case, to the extent that he did misread Hitler (and was aware of it in 1937), his misread was shared by most of the cabinet, who carried on more-or-less the same policy under Chamberlain. You'd think that if he felt responsible enough for the error that he believed himself bound to resign, he'd have felt compelled to say something about that failure to change policy too.
That white boy who was kidnapped by those black teenagers was autistic and he thought one of them were his friends. People are sick. I give up on people.
It's a hideous story. And the policeman tried to dismiss it as "just kids doing stupid things"
Would he say that if it had been an autistic black lad tortured by white thugs? Disgraceful.
Forgetting the racial element, there was an horrific murder/torture of an mentally disabled Englishman by feral teenagers about a decade ago. It brought me to tears. How do people like that exist?
When I was in prison, most of the cons I encountered had some terrible backstory - a violent father, abusive mother, orphaned at 6, a justified hatred of whoever - so you could kind of explain their crimes.
But I met a handful who were simply evil, as far I could see. Not insane, not even stupid, they simply took a nihilistic pleasure in the suffering or killing of others and the negation of society. And as SeanF says, they come from all backgrounds, and come in all colours.
Are such cases becoming more common, or are they being detected (and tried) more frequently?
Suppose it is hard to say but you do seem to see a lot more evil stories about , more likely it is a bit of both and more publication as we see a broader range of news now with online media.
I read a lot of old newspapers and websites containing historic information (*). I'd argue that, if anything, such abuse was far more common in the past. It's just that life at the lower end was so much harder and such abuse was either ignored or dealt with locally.
(*) A great one is the Old Bailey website. My favourite quote is from a woman: "I walk the streets at night to maintain myself."
Hugh Gaitskell might have won in 1964 another Oxford man.However John Smith might also have won in 1997 from Glasgow . It would be good for the Labour legacy and for meritocracy if an Open University graduate made it to PM.
Someone who graduated in PPE from the OU perhaps?
I am willing to serve my party and my country! :-)
Hugh Gaitskell might have won in 1964 another Oxford man.However John Smith might also have won in 1997 from Glasgow . It would be good for the Labour legacy and for meritocracy if an Open University graduate made it to PM.
Someone who graduated in PPE from the OU perhaps?
I am willing to serve my party and my country! :-)
Do you have a degree from OU? What are the materials like can you really learn from long distance? What if you have a complicated question/s?
Having had a look, it seems that the only PM to both have had a degree from a non-Oxbridge institution and to have won a general election was Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Glasgow), though Palmerston (Edinburgh) did a BA-equivalent when Edinburgh only granted MAs. He then did a Cambridge MA (back when they were seven-year undergraduate qualifications, but entered into the fourth year on the basis of his Edinburgh studies).
The rest: Russell, Brown, Bonar Law and Bute all had degrees from non-Oxbridge but won no general elections between them.
Neville Chamberlain studied at a non-Oxbridge degree-granting institution but dropped out, and also never won an election.
Baldwin, though a graduate of Cambridge, did also study at a non-Oxbridge degree-granting institution but dropped out. He did win at least two general elections.
Oh, and the Earl of Bute is the only graduate of any university other than Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow or Edinburgh to ever become PM. A very good quiz question is what is the fifth university with a PM?
Hard Brexit depends on whether May will compromise at all on free movement or EU budget contributions, the best negotiators in the world would make no difference if there is no compromise on those issues
The Oxford (With very occasional Cambridge and a couple of Edinburgh/Glasgow or none) sequence continues right back to Sir Robert Walpole.
Previous to that it seems the most important non royal position was the Lord High Treasurer, which seems to have been related to the church in the early days - (Various Bishops seemed to get the position, the first of which was Nigel of Ely...).
Before that position was created the key figure I suppose was the Archbishop of Canterbury, and that gets you back to St Augustine in ~ 600.
Given Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrew's, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow were the only universities in the UK until Durham was founded in 1832 that is not surprising
You're incorrect. I'd check again if I were you.
Edit: someone's noted TCD but you might also look at London.
UCL was also early nineteenth century
You're moving towards accuracy.
UCL is my university: the Godless College of Gower Street. A whirl of metropolitan sexiness and very hard drugs. We look down on the country bumpkins of Oxbridge.
Plus we have the corpse of our founder, philosopher Jeremy Bentham, embalmed and kept in a box in the University cloisters, and sometimes he is wheeled into meetings of the College Council. Beat that.
Comments
The following story hit home for me, and not only because I know Derby well:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3108987/Suicide-teenager-urged-to-jump-by-baying-crowd.html
Not sure I agree about the TV - they have very neutral stories but they also have sharp comments with "OPINION" in large letters on the screen. To my mind that works better than our approach, in which commentators often have an agenda, or at least a theme they've decided to put across, but pretend to be neutral (when did you last see a current affairs programme that didn't have a clear conclusion, rather than a balanced picture?). British journalists and especially TV pundits are too keen on the story being all about them - how clever, biting, sarcastic etc. they are. It makes for lighter reading but poorer balance.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/first-picture-tragic-woman-driven-9564635
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2017/jan/05/the-uks-left-liberal-fightback-must-start-with-communities
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/05/japanese-company-replaces-office-workers-artificial-intelligence-ai-fukoku-mutual-life-insurance
(*) A great one is the Old Bailey website. My favourite quote is from a woman: "I walk the streets at night to maintain myself."
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21713837-after-six-months-what-new-prime-minister-stands-still-unclearperhaps-even
As far as I am aware, she has never said that she supports Frexit, English-language articles in the Daily Express and Russia Today notwithstanding. She has promised a Frexit referendum. "Change it or leave it" is also the policy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Let's hope it's genuine this time although it really has to be paid for by higher taxes on company profits; it's companies which benefit from robots. So turning the UK into a tax haven to emulate Ireland and Luxembourg with 15% corporation tax is a rather dim idea.
NEW THREAD
I am willing to serve my party and my country! :-)
The rest: Russell, Brown, Bonar Law and Bute all had degrees from non-Oxbridge but won no general elections between them.
Neville Chamberlain studied at a non-Oxbridge degree-granting institution but dropped out, and also never won an election.
Baldwin, though a graduate of Cambridge, did also study at a non-Oxbridge degree-granting institution but dropped out. He did win at least two general elections.
Jim Hacker, of course, was a graduate of the LSE.