UK General Discussion

[politicus]

In case of UK, competition is competition between schools.
More or less, private schools, which is bad.
Private schools shouldn't be funded by the government.

Why not? Ours are 80% government funded which works well. It gives the parents a real choice, even if they are not wealthy.

(sorry, for going off topic... Wont give reply back if he answers - just curious)

[politicus]

The idea of publically funding a private school is horrendous. Why setup a private school and expect the tax-payer to pick up the pieces?

People who put their children in a private school are taxpayers too, why should they have to pay everything?
If you only have public schools its "one size fits all". No Rudolf Steiner schools, no Jewish schools etc. Only 100 % privately funded schools for the elite and uniform public schools for everybody else regardsless of their values and wishes.

[politicus]

The blunt reality wrt Wales is that 'competition' (however defined) in education is not exactly practical. There's a reason why Wales was one of the most important strongholds of the movement to end selective education.

Low population density in rural Wales? Or something else?

[politicus]

Why not just get rid of the Lords and be done with it? The current legislative system doesn't seem to be crying out for an effective second house.

Your right, but Britain is way to conservative a country for that to happen. They rarely scrap institutions, just transform them.

[politicus]

Rotherham council's taken away three children from their foster parents because they were members of UKIP and that signals "racism".

hmm....

Sad. Seems the UK is getting more and more intolerant all the time.

[politicus]

Only in Britain!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20573227

Complete overreaction by the Tories.

[politicus]

So long as his internal position is strong he can survive being less popular than cancer, if need be.

At some point being an electoral liability will influence his internal position.

[politicus]

Churchill to be put on the fiver in 2016.

Not sure I'm happy with the precedent that'll start...

Thatcher on the fifty?

[politicus]

Well, at least the basic facts according to The Mirror:

"The 55-year-old politician - who came out as gay in 2010 - is accused of raping a man and sexually assaulting a second man between July 2009 and March this year.

Detectives from Lancashire Police swooped on Mr Evans’ cottage in the Lancashire village of Pendleton this morning. Police forensic teams also searched the property.

Officers specialising in sex offence crimes quizzed Mr Evans - a former Tory Party vice-chairman at Preston police station today".

[politicus]

“What added to all the confusion was that he was actually attractive and not geeky at all. Even the way he appeared was suave. He was dressed casually but he had style.”

LOL

[politicus]

The YouGov polls carried out since the local election results:

Yesterday's: Lab 39 Con 29 UKIP 16 LD 9
Today's: Lab 38 Con 27 UKIP 17 LD 11

These are the highest UKIP scores in YouGov polls.  I suspect we may see a 20% for them in Opinium or Survation's next effort.

Is YouGov biased against them?

[politicus]

The YouGov polls carried out since the local election results:

Yesterday's: Lab 39 Con 29 UKIP 16 LD 9
Today's: Lab 38 Con 27 UKIP 17 LD 11

These are the highest UKIP scores in YouGov polls.  I suspect we may see a 20% for them in Opinium or Survation's next effort.

Is YouGov biased against them?

Different methodologies.

Yeah I know, we got YouGov as well. But which one is likely to reflect UKIP voting most accurately?

[politicus]

David Cameron's voting against the Queen's speech. This is madness. "He's in office, but he's not in power" indeed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/05/10/david-cameron-european-union-referendum_n_3250666.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Ludicrous.

[politicus]

"UKIP candidate Otto Inglis".

So their candidate is called English and has a German first name...

Apart from having a silly name he sounds like a complete idiot:

"There is a cultural struggle between on the one hand libertarians & conservatives and on the other the Frankfurt school Marxist left, which in the name of equality is intent on erasing everything that went before".

LOL

[politicus]

Sunday Times poll suggesting close to 50/50 split for independence if there's an early vote on leaving the EU

More like 55/45, and that's one of the better figures for EU (although a lot could change within a referendum debate: see AV ).

I think he was talking about Scottish independence.

[politicus]

Recent polling shows men are now twice as likely to support Scottish independence.

Professor John Curtice from Strathclyde University:

“Women are less likely to say they feel confident about independence. Saying I want to stand on my own two feet, why do we need the English has potentially something of a macho tone to it.

Testosterone makes a difference here. Men are more willing to be a little gung ho. In so far as independence is a bit of a leap in the dark, they are more willing to take it.”

Sounds like an overly simplistic explanation to me. Is it really that simple?

[politicus]

Winning women is the key to winning the independence argument. It's the Yes campaigns 'final push' next year but I'll not talk much more about that.

It was just an observaton of an interesting development, not a question directed to you in particular.

[politicus]

Is the Tory party in its present incarnation fundamentally impossible to lead?

[politicus]

Downing Street sex scandal!

Ever since the Profumo-affair British sex scandals have generally been boring stuff blown out of proportion by a sensationalist press. This seems to be some middle aged rumpy-pumpy among greyfaced bureaucrats. You guys are way behind the Americans in this area.

[politicus]

British government tells Scotland that if it votes to walk away from the UK, it loses the pound

Despite the current problems, I think they would be better of with the Euro. But I realize its a hard sell right now.

Anyway, arrogant, posh Tories lecturing Scots should be good for the yes-vote.

[politicus]

28% of people say they they want Ed for PM according to YouGov, it's the highest rating he's ever had. He's still 9 behind Cam who's at 37%. Clegg's at 6%

Undecideds on this question are at their lowest since just after Ed became leader in 2010. People starting to firm up on their voting intentions as the election gets closer?

So 6% of the British voters are insane?

[politicus]

Stephen Kinnock has been selected as the Labour candidate in Aberavon.

Is that a solid Labour seat? It would be great if we could export HTS to Wales (not that I have anything against the Welsh in particular, but still: Better them than us.)

[politicus]

Also, Norman Tebbit calls for Martin McGuinness to be assassinated.

One is allowed to day dream, even of the death of your enemies.

Not the Christian thing to do, but I cant really blame him. If he was an active politician it would be another matter, but this is only human.

[politicus]

So he is married to "a woman of Jewish extraction" and makes anti-semitic comments. Lovely.

[politicus]

Scottish Tories set out their stall on devolution. They have finally settled on something close to Devo Max promising greater powers than Labour. It only took them forty years...

"Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving."
 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton