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gigilo

gigilo

Senior Jockey
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May 5, 2011
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My daughter went off to telford on Thursday with a couple of friends, went to see Jeremy corbyn and got his signature on her Spanish homework
she's only just 15 was stunned when she told me,great to see the young starting to take an interest looking good for the future!!:cool:
Even if you don't like him personally he is the only person in my lifetime that has attracted the young,incredible his popularity seems to be growing and growing..
 
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I do like him personally. I particularly like he way he had to overcome the adversity of the coups within his own party, not to mention people only giving him a year or two before it would end.

Now we know why Clivex was so gutted when he became leader!

Roll on the next election...when will it be though...2020, or 2022?
 
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I'm still worried about Corbyn [although I, as usual, voted Labour and was elated when they did so well in the election]. But I'm still concerned that MP's like Tom Watson and Ben Bradshaw are in danger of being thrown out. I do want to go to see him speak, to find out what all the fuss is about. He did recite Shelley [one of my favourite poets] at Glastonbury so I can understand how he manages to appeal to people.
 
I have great admiration for the man,the way he's been attacked in the media and still come through it most would've folded and has so much energy and enthusiasm just something I've never seen before in politics and I certainly wasn't his number one 1 fan,although similarly it is worrying that he won't offer an olive branch to the centre of the party people like Dan Jarvis are huge honourable figures and should be in any front bench amongst a few others that have been mentioned.Until something happens along those lines then the labour party will fall short,but the inspiration he's giving to youngsters to say and do the right things is heart warming,would love to see my daughter in politics doing something positive for commnuitys.
As I toldl her don't be lured in by people telling you what to do,i've told her she can do whatever she likes anything is possible don't take that narrow path that most choose in life take some risks especially if you're passionate about something,like I said to her I knew at 15 I was going to be betting on horses for a living at some point it was destiny every sacking brought me a day closer just wish I hadn't waited 10 years arsing around in employment..
 
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He is deceitful and he's offering people a utopian dream that can never be realised. It's an incredibly dangerous prospect him getting into power.

It's a good job that socialism is the future, and always will be.
 
Corbyn, like many a left-wing firebrand before him, revels being out 'on the stump' and is a consummate, skilled and rousing performer on it. I think I'm somewhat older than Gigilo so remember - when in easy-peasy opposition - both Michael Foot and Tony Benn whipping-up transient mass-hysteria when soaking the young with verbose socialist spittle at rallies. JC's beard helps too: had he also donned a beret whilst reciting Shelley at Glasto, he could have passed for a slight-return of Che Guevara

His promise to abolish all tuition fees, on which his new god-like status with the young seems largely predicated, is not only financially unfeasible (assuming the number of students in higher education remains at the level it is) but is, like universal flat-rate benefits, also both unfair and seems at odds with socialist principles: sure, those that can't afford the fees will be helped but also those students from well-off backgrounds who can afford them will be beneficiaries too

Back in the 1970s, those halcyon days when students were free to 'drink tax-payers money': student grants, eligibility for them and tuition fees were subjected to a means-test. Quite right too

Should Labour win the next election, and that's far from certain given they couldn't this time despite a truly awful campaign by May etc, 'free tuition for all' will just become yet another example of manifesto hot air
 
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The best thing i have heard from Corbyn is his plan to bulid a million homes on green belt land, only problem with that is that most of them will go to immigrants that he will let in , embrace multi-culture life you country folk its a wonderful experience hahahaha lock up your daughters .
 
Anyone who has been to university will tell you that it should be a mixture of advancement educationally and socially producing both employable graduates and the social mobility so beloved by some.

A couple of stats for you.
Number of full-time students in the UK:
1967 (when I went to university) - 197000
2016 - 1870000
Percentage of UK school leavers going on to university:
1967 - 5.79%
2013 - 49.3%

It's hardly surprising that it's difficult to fund.
When I went to university I benefited from free tuition and a means tested maintenance grant. It seems logical to me that, if you have a central budget for subsidising university education you have a straight choice between the current system where everyone benefits (and pays/takes on a loan) equally or you decide that you can provide free tuition and subsidised maintenance to a certain number of school leavers (20%? 25%?) each year. That's not to say that you limit university places, just that the rest have to pay for themselves. While there has to be something in the system to help the poorest students, the fairest way to distribute most of the budget has to be merit which might also have the desirable side-effect of toughening up GCSEs and, in particular, A Levels.
 
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My two juniors did their uni in the UK, one in Belfast and the other in London. Had they chosen to go anywhere else in say France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands or even Ireland they would have had only either zero or minor fees to pay. This is not a complaint, merely to point out that other countries find it normal to help families put their kids through college.

Young people are faced with a difficult route into stable/meaningful/quality employment. My generation has been guilty of accepting a downgrading of terms of employment for new recruits in return for protection of our own conditions. They are also faced with very high rents and property prices. I would say that in these circumstances third level tuition fees are justifiably a big deal for plenty of young people.
 
AliGupter said:
There is something there to help the poorest students. The cost of university is a barrier to no one.
Click to expand...

100pc correct. You can borrow money interest free and only start paying it back when you earn a meaningful wage. Why that should put people off I have no idea.
 
Flagship uberalles said:
It isn't interest free at all. Why people would think that, I have no idea.
Click to expand...

Correct, but rates are still very low at present. From finishing your course until you start earning £21k the rate is RPI, so a real interest rate of zero - in other words the debt won't increase in real terms until you start paying it back.

The main point is that you only start paying it back when you start earning - so it doesn't really constitute any kind of barrier to going to university.

With half of school leavers going to uni nowadays it's unrealistic for the state to pick up the tab. If you want to go, great, but it's fair enough to expect people to pay out of future earnings.

I do think there should be additional state support for the poorest students, and also I wouldn't object to funding degrees in proper subjects where we have a skills shortage. I don't mind my taxes paying for someone to do an engineering degree, but if someone wants to do Media and Film Studies, or Golf Management, or Fashion Design, they can pay for it themselves.
 
While it's true that the 'education, education, education' speech did include the aspirational date of 2010 for 50% of school leavers going on to higher education, the other aspiration was for secondary school standards to improve to provide young people who would naturally benefit from further education. As we now know, this could only be achieved by dumbing down the exams.
It should also be noted that student numbers doubled both in the Thatcher years and in the Blair/Brown years but Labour were the ones to recognise that this was not sustainable under the old system of funding and introduced both tuition fees and student loans in 1998.
 
My daughter went into teaching during the Blair years and class sizes were much smaller so it wasn't just 'dumbing down' of exams that helped pupils to achieve more. The interest rate on student loans was very small when my two went to uni; then, all of a sudden it was all sold off and the rate of interest shot up [isn't it even higher now?]. Class sizes are shooting up now; classroom assistants are few and far between and schools can't even afford text books. Something needs to be done about education in this country [for those that can't afford private schools, that is].
 
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