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General Great British Politics Thread!

andyandy

anthropomorphic ape
andyandy
Joined
Apr 30, 2006
Messages
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Well, if Israel can have their own thread, and the USA their own subsection, why can't us Brits have something....we did used to rule the world after all..... ;)

As the name suggests, a general thread for general political discussion on anything to do with the UK, Great Britain, England, Norn Ireland, Wales, Scotland or any other various combinations.....

so,

what do people think about:

1) Dawkins and his celeb academics teaching at a private uni charging £18,000 p/a?

2) The likelihood that student numbers are going to have to be capped 'cos Willets buggered up his sums....?

3) When we are going to find an exit strategy for Libya?

Just for starters :)
 
andyandy said:
1) Dawkins and his celeb academics teaching at a private uni charging £18,000 p/a?
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On the one hand, it costs the taxpayers nothing, so I don't see why I should care.

On the other hand, it is a big, exclusive circle jerk for his brand of smug liberals.
 
andyandy said:
what do people think about:

1) Dawkins and his celeb academics teaching at a private uni charging £18,000 p/a?
Click to expand...

I feel betrayed. It was always going to be the case that the tories would do their best to split society further into haves and have nots, and implement better standards for the rich while blocking out the poor and middle classes, but for some reason despite never having heard him speak on politics, I expected Dawkins to be better than this. I mean, it's not like he needs the money, so why does he think that the people benefitting from his wisdom should be the people whose parents have the biggest wallets?
 
stokes234 said:
I feel betrayed. It was always going to be the case that the tories would do their best to split society further into haves and have nots, and implement better standards for the rich while blocking out the poor and middle classes, but for some reason despite never having heard him speak on politics, I expected Dawkins to be better than this. I mean, it's not like he needs the money, so why does he think that the people benefitting from his wisdom should be the people whose parents have the biggest wallets?
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I'm a bit more ambivalent about their involvement itself - if someone wants to pay them to teach, well that's up to them...but i find the general trend that this represents as pretty disturbing. The market is saying that it can support students paying astronomical sums per annum - if anything that says to me that £9,000 is only the beginning of fees we'll start to see. Given the complete balls up over costing for the loans (now predicted to leave a massive funding black hole because it was expected that the average would be £7,500 rather than £8,750...), it would hardly be surprising to see this figure as merely a starting point.

I suppose it depends how much credence businesses afford to degrees from the uni - if they do afford them good credence, well i guess that is even more stratification in an already deeply stratified society....
 
stokes234 said:
So basically if you're poor, you'll need to be a genius. If you're rich, you'll need to have money-transferring skills.
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not sure that this development represents much of a paradigm shift from the status quo - which already reflects this principle.....
 
New Private Uni.

I don't see it happening. The setting up costs will be very high, who is behind it? The institution has no track record. Would gifted students apply there when there are long established courses at institutions with a history of providing quality education and research in those subjects.

The most published academics are often those who spend the least amount of time teaching. There is no guarantee that they would make the best tutors.

I suspect the reality will be that the 'names 'will be guest lecturers. There will be no new research at the uni (they will get no central funding, the subjects don't lend themselves to private funding) and the degree results will not be particularly spectacular.

What I have read is that they will be sitting University of London exams. Call me old fashioned but I would rather attend the institution and be taught by the lecturers setting the exams.

I think this is a publicity stunt to raise the profile of these particular subjects. Perhaps some of the participants have contract negociations coming up.......
 
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Looking at what they are offering, I'm not sure what exactly could be worth £18,000. You may as well enrol in Grayling's philosophy course at Birkbeck.
 
They mentioned in passing in the graniad that there may be some disagreement in whether or not students would still qualify for a £6000 loan from the government....the institution is saying they would, the government seemingly saying they won't....
 
andyandy said:
They mentioned in passing in the graniad that there may be some disagreement in whether or not students would still qualify for a £6000 loan from the government....the institution is saying they would, the government seemingly saying they won't....
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If the university is instituted by the appropraite charter I see no reason why it's students do not have the same status as students at the private University of Buckingham. That is they can get a loan for the fees, however this would be capped at £9000 or less depending on the rules brought in.

If it is not incorporated it can't call itself a university, it will not get the tax breaks and other beniffits universities get and students will not get any state loans.
 
Lothian said:
If the university is instituted by the appropraite charter I see no reason why it's students do not have the same status as students at the private University of Buckingham. That is they can get a loan for the fees, however this would be capped at £9000 or less depending on the rules brought in.

If it is not incorporated it can't call itself a university, it will not get the tax breaks and other beniffits universities get and students will not get any state loans.
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Maybe something to do with the fact they've realised they can't afford all the up-front loans without massively over-spending (great cost cutting there well done....) and are desperately trying to row back from previous commitments....?
 
CNR are pulling out of a North Sea project blaming the Tory tax.

Osborne you twit.
 
andyandy said:
1) Dawkins and his celeb academics teaching at a private uni charging £18,000 p/a?
Click to expand...

Won't work. If you can afford that kind of money you can afford to go to public school which will see that you get into a good uni anyway.

2) The likelihood that student numbers are going to have to be capped 'cos Willets buggered up his sums....?
Click to expand...

Numbers have been capped for years.

3) When we are going to find an exit strategy for Libya?
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Rebels are within 100 miles of tripoli.

There are also reports of europeans on the ground. From the descriptions I'd guess Aegis Defence Services.
 
andyandy said:
1) Dawkins and his celeb academics teaching at a private uni charging £18,000 p/a?

2) The likelihood that student numbers are going to have to be capped 'cos Willets buggered up his sums....?

3) When we are going to find an exit strategy for Libya?

Just for starters :)
Click to expand...

1) I don't care in the slightest and don't have a clue why anybody else would. Private schools are nothing new, and what they charge their students or pay their teachers is entirely their business. If anything I daresay Dawkins could probably get a better rate of pay doing other things.

2) Haven't a clue what you're talking about.

3) Most likely they will escalate things until the regime falls. Getting Ghadaffi would be a big step, though that's far from easy. Otherwise this will end up as one of those missions that will just drag on, along the lines of the no fly zones that used to be over Iraq.
 
Re student numbers being capped, it's looking like there will need to be a reduction of students in order for the government to balance their books over this policy. Most likely outcome is a number of unis being allowed to go to the wall.....
 
andyandy said:
Re student numbers being capped, it's looking like there will need to be a reduction of students in order for the government to balance their books over this policy. Most likely outcome is a number of unis being allowed to go to the wall.....
Click to expand...

So whats the downside? There have been a considerable bloating in the university sector in recent years. A concentration of resources on fewer universities is something that really should have been done some time ago.
 
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