Wow...WTH, Britain!?!?

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Originally Posted by Egan

Nope. It's a proud tradition of the British Government to provide the best service they can to the very rich and powerful as was recently proved by stupid former cabinet members whoring themselves for hard cash and getting caught by an investigative journalist. Of course, it's as old as parliament is - and the reasons for it are legion.

But, hey, if you really want a giggle you should read up on our defamation laws. Great Britain - trampling on dissent and freedom of speech the world over! Our law courts are a bigger tourist draw than Buck house, Loch Ness and Tower bridge put together.

Well, I remember reading up on the admissions process to Oxford/Cambridge. Apparently the taxpayer heavily subsidizes tuition to those universities so that the price is far below, say, going somewhere like Harvard or Yale, here, and yet...the ruling class is amazingly overrepresented, far more than their grades and standardized testing would indicate. The dons have a strict cap on admitting the "wrong kind of people." OK, I remember where I read this, before: it was about a girl from a working class background who academically KILLED in what we in the States would call high school, and she still couldn't get into Oxford/Cambridge, so she had to go to Harvard, instead. Which is much more expensive. Also, she's far likely to meet someone from somewhere other than Britain at Harvard, marry that person, and never return to Britain. Or just get recruited to an American or other foreign company, or whatever. Britain would therefore lose talent because of a classist admissions process.

Of course, we also have bias in our admissions processes. I sincerely doubt Obama would have gotten a scholarship to that swanky prep school in Hawaii if he weren't black, and George W. Bush wouldn't have got into Yale if he weren't a legacy. Supposedly, if places like Berkeley and Stanford admitted people purely on the basis of academic numbers, I understand virtually everybody at both places would be Asian. It goes on and on..

[Egan]

There is a recent myth that the British class system is less strong than it used to be. It's interesting to note that, quite often, the main people propagating it are those who have benefited the most from the system. Banking; government; the media;the arts; industry; higher education and, of course, the higher echelons of the armed forces - not to mention the civil service (as distinct from government,) are all over represented by a small and rather disproportionate number from the higher classes but I doubt that it will ever seriously change so entwined is it in British civic life.

Higher education in Britain is screwed. By pretty much lowering admission standards to accommodate as many people as possible while - and this is the genius of it - massively increasing the costs of actually going to university Labour have now created a system where mediocrity can flourish as long as the student has the necessary funding. Within both government and the media unpaid internships have become the norm, once again making sure that the brightest people are only assured the opportunity if they have the background to support them.

But the real problem in this country comes from the growing political class who are utterly divorced from the voters. we have a growing number of politicians, (local and national,) who have gone straight from school to university, joined a party, studied political theory or variant of , graduated, worked for the party in some capacity before being parachuted in to a vacant constituency where the party machinery kicks into action and gets them elected. Not once have they had any experience of the real world (well, perhaps a summers internship in the City offices of some vast Zaibatsu where they managed to develop numerous 'contacts' (we have a generation of politician who have contacts rather than friends,) ) and know nothing of what normal people want or need.

Right...I'm going to stop now...it's a lovely sunny day and the Spurs v Portsmouth game is coming on...Sod the politicians, I'll vote for 'Arry Rednap in the general election instead.....

@Steed. I'm not a massive fan of an unelected second chamber filled with people whose only qualifcation is that they were born into it either, but given the behavior of the Commons over the last couple of years I'm loathe to remove anything that checks their actions even if it's only a tiny amount. I'm with you on Mandelson, though. I'd have him walk from Land End to John O Groats wearing a sandwich board which says 'I am a corrupt, lying bastard' while neds throw stones at him.

[Jimbuna]

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Egan

@Steed. I'm not a massive fan of an unelected second chamber filled with people whose only qualifcation is that they were born into it either, but given the behavior of the Commons over the last couple of years I'm loathe to remove anything that checks their actions even if it's only a tiny amount. I'm with you on Mandelson, though. I'd have him walk from Land End to John O Groats wearing a sandwich board which says 'I am a corrupt, lying bastard' while neds throw stones at him.

Problem is the House of Lords has no real power, yes it can reject the Green paper and send it back to the Commons and delay it and so on but the government can in the end say up yours its going to be a White paper by bulldozing it though.

[Jimbuna]

Anyone remember this woman?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Anyone remember this woman?

Bump!!

[Egan]

Originally Posted by STEED

Problem is the House of Lords has no real power, yes it can reject the Green paper and send it back to the Commons and delay it and so on but the government can in the end say up yours its going to be a White paper by bulldozing it though.

True enough but any check, even a time limited one, is better than nothing. what it's supposed to do, of course, is to provide a legislative counter to elected politicians that is supposed to be unhampered by the consideration of winning, a vote allowing them to help legislation by providing more objective eye....You can almost see to aristocracy laughing into their silk handkerchiefs when they thought that little beauty up...

[TarJak]

And I thought our web filtering legislation was bad.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Egan

True enough but any check, even a time limited one, is better than nothing. what it's supposed to do, of course, is to provide a legislative counter to elected politicians that is supposed to be unhampered by the consideration of winning, a vote allowing them to help legislation by providing more objective eye....You can almost see to aristocracy laughing into their silk handkerchiefs when they thought that little beauty up...

I say get rid of the fossils that sit there and get in people who are experts in there fields to monitor and check the government of the day.