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Cont: General UK politics [2]

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Irony is he finished as a Fleet Chief Petty Officer aboard Vanguard, the last and largest RN Battleship on her last commission.
He was the 'god of gunnery' any officer with less than 4 rings would have quaked in their boots if they upset him for any reason.

Fleet Chief was the highest non-commissioned rank in the RN.
It was replaced in 1985 with Warrant Officer to bring it in line with the Army and RAF. Now it goes Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Warrant Officer. It doesn't sit right.
 
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jimbob said:
You haven't been ruled by the products of Eton.

The whole point of the Bullingdon club was that only those who had been to "leading" public schools could even be considered.

And that they broke the rules because they were sending the message that they were the people who made the rules, not people who had to abide by rules.

And they got away with it.

And kept it into the recent Partygate scandal.

I saw similar attitudes at my university, and it's the reason why I don't support England in Rugby Union, because of the public school contempt for "plebs".

I really don't think it's the start of a Marxist revolution to suggest that Eton, for example, doesn't have a charitable aim anymore and that private education should not get the tax advantages of charitable status.
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I don't have a problem with taking away their tax advantages; I do have a problem with out and out closing them.
And I think there is a difference between Eton and a Catholic Parish school, for instance.
But I agree, the "Old School TIe' rouitne in British politics is way past due. And from what I have read,it's a problem in both political parties.
 
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dudalb said:
I don't have a problem with taking away their tax advantages; I do have a problem with out and out closing them.
And I think there is a difference between Eton and a Catholic Parish school, for instance.
But I agree, the "Old School TIe' rouitne in British politics is way past due. And from what I have read,it's a problem in both political parties.
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In the UK there aren't Catholic parish schools or more accurately the Catholic parish school would be an RC state school.
 
There are a couple of pretty much exclusively RC "public" schools of the expensive variety, like Ampleforth...

That one definitely needs closing, especially as we've learned more about the abuse perpetrated by the lovely religionistas in charge.
 
dudalb said:
I don't have a problem with taking away their tax advantages; I do have a problem with out and out closing them.
And I think there is a difference between Eton and a Catholic Parish school, for instance.
But I agree, the "Old School TIe' rouitne in British politics is way past due. And from what I have read,it's a problem in both political parties.
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Here in Finland whilst public schools in the style of Eton or Winchester are banned, people are allowed to set up a school (say for religious reasons) BUT they are not allowed to charge fees and they must follow the same broad curriculum as the rest of the schools. However, teachers are more like business managers, far better paid than in the UK and are a quite prestigious profession. They are allowed to tailor their lessons to the pupils needs, so if a kid is very able and wants to study dinosaurs, the teacher can arrange it.

The UK is no longer 'old school tie' it is more 'studied informality', with pseudo-egalitarianism.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Irony is he finished as a Fleet Chief Petty Officer aboard Vanguard, the last and largest RN Battleship on her last commission.
He was the 'god of gunnery' any officer with less than 4 rings would have quaked in their boots if they upset him for any reason.

Fleet Chief was the highest non-commissioned rank in the RN.
It was replaced in 1985 with Warrant Officer to bring it in line with the Army and RAF. Now it goes Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Warrant Officer. It doesn't sit right.
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A note used to go round our class every year asking us what our parents did for a living. It was truly pathetic to watch how the teachers sucked up to the kids of the obviously rich and/or famous.


Likewise, pathetic to watch Rishi Sunak pretending to be working class.
 
There are six Academies in the north east run by the Emmanuel Schools Foundation set up by Sir Reg Vardy an ex car salesman.
When the first one opened in 2003 at Coulby Newham in Middlesbrough it caused controversy as it was teaching biblical creationism and students had to carry a bible with them at all times.
They claim not to be religious schools but Vardy thinks he is "putting something back in to religion"
It didn't have a selection test but the compulsory uniform and PE kit only obtainable through the school costs over £200.
 
MPS have given themselves a £2200 pay rise.
Apparently they have to take it as it was recommended by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
 
Captain_Swoop said:
MPS have given themselves a £2200 pay rise.
Apparently they have to take it as it was recommended by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
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I think that is fair, as we know the majority party of MPS, i.e. the government always go by what the independent pay award bodies recommend.

ETA: They are on what around 80,000 so it looks like something between a 2.5 and 3% increase, which to be actually fair (rather than sarcastically fair) seems reasonable to me.
 
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Captain_Swoop said:
Bollocks
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I didn't know you were a sociologist. Maybe you should contact Friedman and Laurison and put them right. What do they know?

Friedman and Laurison’s interviews illustrate the power of “studied informality” – essentially the way in which working class ways of being have been ruthlessly appropriated by the upper middle-class as a way to make money and cachet from authenticity. 6TV’s commissioners pride themselves on programming that connects with “real people”, living “real lives” in ‘real places’. At the company’s gladiatorial commissioning meetings, where programme ideas get thrashed out, the most coveted skill is a kind of highbrow banter. You can proclaim, as one commissioner does, that “We’re talking about TV … it’s not Hegel!”, but you still have to know who Hegel is and to know how to get a laugh out of bringing up his name.

In other words, the authors highlight the multiplying effects of factors that privilege the already privileged. It’s not just that having rich parents makes your upbringing well resourced, which in turn makes you less risk-averse, secure in the knowledge that you have money to fall back on. It means being used to dinner settings with more than one fork. It means going to schools where the stock in trade is the cultivation not of passionate argument but of dispassionate debating skills – because none of it really matters, does it Boris? Wordplay, wit, highbrow references, and above all, the display of lightly worn intelligence deployed to raise a knowing chuckle, are the real currency of the professional elite.
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GUARDIAN

Now think of Rishi Sunak or Matt Hancock in the lockdown wearing jeans, hoodies and loafers, when once they would have worn the old school tie and rubbed it in.
 
Vixen said:
I didn't know you were a sociologist. Maybe you should contact Friedman and Laurison and put them right. What do they know?

GUARDIAN

Now think of Rishi Sunak or Matt Hancock in the lockdown wearing jeans, hoodies and loafers, when once they would have worn the old school tie and rubbed it in.
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What does their clothing have to do with it?

You do know what the phrase 'old school tie' means? It isn't wearing a literal tie
 
Captain_Swoop said:
What does their clothing have to do with it?

You do know what the phrase 'old school tie' means? It isn't wearing a literal tie
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The authors, who are professional sociologists (totally objective), argue that despite all the moves to 'egalitarianism' (for example, comprehensive schools) class privilege is as strong as ever in the UK. No matter how hard a working class person studies and gets the top grades, they soon discover there is a 'class ceiling' to the top jobs, as usual reserved for the 'old boys'. No, they didn't literally wear their old school tie but the term derives from one of the ways they could spot each other. Now there are other ways of conveying social status.

Note Sunak pretending to have an ordinary car. In his hustings last night he again tried to make out he was just an ordinary guy. It is possible he doesn't see his privilege - the above authors discovered this was common - and got where he was by merit and hard work, having got a scholarship to Winchester and then a Fulbright sponsorship to Stanford Uni in California (do you know how much those Ivy League unis cost?). To highlight Sunak's disingenuousness or genu9ine ignorance of what levelling up (or social mobility) entails, he pledged to bring back grammar schools.


At least Truss had a grasp of what social mobility entails when she pointed out how many children are failed, even at her comprehensive school in Roundhay.
 
Vixen said:
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At least Truss had a grasp of what social mobility entails when she pointed out how many children are failed, even at her comprehensive school in Roundhay.
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Apart from she went to a very good school
She's a liar
 
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