howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
all a bit of a maze tom, 4 sky sports channels plus espn, the deals vary from each provider. i used to have sky sports 1 and 2 with top up tv and then find what i wanted to watch was on another channel.
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Abolish private schools, Alan Bennett argues
Alan Bennett, the award-winning playwright, has called for the abolition of the private school system, as he argues he would never have been able to attend university nowadays due to the high tuition fees.
Bennett suggested his whole future could have been changed by university fees of the modern day if they were in place in his day Photo:
Bennett, author of play The History Boys, said the end of private education would alter the "whole atmosphere of this country", with class divisions closer to becoming obsolete.
In a pointed indictment of the current system, he added that the presence of an elite group of "old Etonians in the cabinet" would disappear, enabling the country to become "more of a nation".
The playwright, who attended Leeds Modern School before going on to Oxford University, said the distinction between children based on their parents' income is "just wrong".
He also criticised university fees of the modern day, suggesting his whole future could have been changed by them if they were in place in his day.
"I would never have been able to go to university with the conditions that pertain today," he told the Radio Times.
"My parents wouldn't have been able to afford it and wouldn't have felt able to borrow money to that extent."
Bennett, whose new play People is playing at the National Theatre until May, added he was "really passionate" about state and private education being amalgamated, particularly at sixth form level.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
interesting read reg i have a feeling that barry will have a lot to say on this, then it will become a levelling up/down debate.
always liked bennett's plays on the box but quality dramas are no longer part of the remit of the bbc.'
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
This debate on grammar/private schools has always gone on/will go on
sadly Labour were strange on this one both nationally and locally
Leading lights in the national labour party and local labour party all sending there children to grammar schools whilst calling for them to be abolished.
Boy did i have fall outs with the local party over this.
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
All-women shortlists save Labour from near-total male domination
Party will use female-only lists in choosing 52 parliamentary candidates - after men win 17 out of 18 open contests
Seema Malhotra MP, with Labour leader Ed Miliband, is one of few Labour women who have beaten men to win party
nominations for parliamentary elections. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Men dominate the list of newly selected Labour parliamentary candidates in the party's target winnable seats for the 2015
election, wherever the selection has been kept open to men and women.
Since the last election, an astonishing 17 of the 18 nominations in open contests for target seats have been won by men,
figures given to the party's national executive show.
Overall, this trend has been countered by Labour's continued use of all-women shortlists in many constituencies. Since the
election, all-women shortlists have been drawn up in 22 target seats. So, of the total of 40 target seats where candidates have
been chosen so far, 23 have gone to women - but only thanks to the use of positive discrimination
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
why stop at women on a short list.how involving black,coulerd, asian,gay,lesbian and crossdressers as well.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
"positive discrimination" must be the finest oxymoron, just designed to patronise and insult the supposed beneficiary.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
as allways.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,894
howard mcsweeney1 wrote:"positive discrimination" must be the finest oxymoron, just designed to patronise and insult the supposed beneficiary.
Very true and means a possibly inferior candidate can get elected as an MP which must be bad news for constituents regardless of party loyalties.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
jan
we agree
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Mockney credentials: a primer in financial rhyming slang for George Osborne
Chancellor George Osborne's accent in Tuesday's speech about welfare was
roundly derided for its mockney burr.
As much as we'd like to paint this as the action's of an elite politician trying to
identify with the common man by makin' iz voice sarnd a bit normel, London's
financial scene has long been a bustling hub of cockney (or mockney) language
formulation, he's just fitting in.
Traders have been known to argue over a Lady Godiva (a fiver) or an Aryton
(Senna, tenner). Barrow boys who made it to the stock exchange managed to
make terms like a "yard" (a billion, rhymed with the French milliard) part of the
lingua franca of the stock exchange floor. If George wants to really prove his mockney
credentials he ought to start littering his speeches with some rhyming slang of his own.
We've created a brief starter guide:
"Rowdy manc" - World Bank
"Panty hose" - CDOs
"Fruity blonde" - junk bond
"Dodgy peach" - Budget speech
"Sinking ship" - double dip
"Broken plate" - welfare state
"Tuna sarnie" - Mark Carney
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
blimey reg you have done some homework
that comes from your london background?
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
he will enter the vernacular eventually reg, probably along the lines of "oh dear i have just trod on a george, clogged up my trainers".
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Portillo challenges Flashman`s absurd claim of nuclear threat.
Cameron has been challenged by a former Tory Defence Secretary over an ``Obscured``claim
that threat from North Korea have made it essential for Britain to renew it`s Trident
nuclear weapons programme.
Michael Portillo who was once supported by `Flashman``for the Tory leadership said that
the only nation that could / would actually deploy nuclear weapons against Pyongyang is
the United States.
When will our Plonker of a PM stop to think things through ?
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
George Osborne may be a true blue but he does not have a `Blue Badge`Ossie always under fire
for his mis-management of the UK economy was yet again under fire after his official car parked
in a `Disabled Bay`to buy a McDonalds.
He cuts the disabled benefits and uses one of the few benefits the disabled still have..............
He must really believe we are all in this `parlous` state together............Bullingdon rules !!!!!
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
Who does this guy think he is
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
He is Reg, Keith.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
osbourne
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Sometimes I think Shepherdswell has been invaded by aliens and Reg's identity has been taken over by the Mekon.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
So looks like apart from 2 of us everyone else feels its fin for osbourne to abuse his own system by parking in a disabled bay
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS