Mumsnet Talk

I knew things were bad, but I never realised just how bad.
I knew we had sunk, but didn't realise to what depths.

Why has no one called for a public inquiry - judicial or otherwise?

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9714190/Petronella-Wyatt-I-was-bullied-out-of-Oxford-for-being-a-Tory.html

I doubt it is any worse/different from what it was in my day.

"Conservative members of Corpus Christi College’s junior common room (JCR) claim they are “often actively isolated, personally attacked and made to feel unwelcome” because of their political views."

Corpus is my old college and in those days it was a pretty left wing place. Being outnumbered 4:1 Labour:Tory was pretty much normal in those days. Margaret Thatcher was a lot fresher in people's memory back then so some of the debates were pretty heated.

'Being outnumbered 4:1 Labour:Tory was pretty much normal in those days'

No wonder the country is in such a mess and has declined from its Tory heyday. Shouldn't something, somewhere, somehow be done to set things right. This appears to be bullying of the most vicious sort.

A bit like MN then.

FellatioNelson, you're right. It's the same everywhere. The country is going to the dogs, it's hurtling to hell in a handcart and the Daily Mail appears to be the only brake on the descent.

I read something the other day about the breakdown of democracy.

It happens at the point that the populus realises that it can give itself money by voting in a certain candidate/party. This is the stage we have reached in the Western World where in pretty much every country more than 50% of the population live on state funded benefits/pensions or has a job working for the Govt. This really is what the entire 'Fiscal Cliff' debate is about in the USA at the moment and what Mitt Romney meant by his comment before the election:

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. ... My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

I dont agree with much of Romney's politics but he was right on the issue of the basic maths of this. Of course the liberal press were outraged in the US and UK characterising it as 'an attack on the poor'. It wasn't.

Ffs. You aren't required to make your vote public and most anti-tories are that way because they are worried about others, not just getting themselves a state handout.

If a political party can't tell the majority of the population why life for them will be better, then of course they're going to be unpopular. B.S. aside, DC didn't really sell how the tories would run the country well at all.

I think it is safe to say that one Tory fresher who did not pretend to be Labour was the Right Honourable Michael Gove.

Am watching him answering Education Questions now and it is a masterclass of rigour and vigour. There was chaep jibe that someone had said they were happy to see that Gove agreed that English teaching had to move into a new century, but that unforunately he had chosen the 19th Century.

There was much laughter from the Labour benches. Everyone awaited Gove's response. Would he crumble under that attack? Would he heck!

He straightened his glasses, rose to full stature and gave Labour the full onslaught. He said that authors like Jane Austen, Dickens, Hardy and Eliot were the sort of authors he wanted children to study.

If Gove can't turn things around, then no one can.

MrsHoarder - I agree DC has been useless. I still dont know what he wants to do.

That said, it is clear that all parties are frightened of the 'grey vote' and just about the only pledge I remember DC making was to keep free bus passes. The 'grey vote' is powerful and votes for its 'free bus pass, Winter Fuel Allowance, discounted council tax, free TV licence, free prescriptions and pension increases. Pensioners vote for their benefits and scream outrage if anyone dares to take them off them.

No one dares to say no - not even Tory politicians.

claig - I hugely admire Gove and I do think he really cares about education.

The more claig posts the more I'm convinced it's a parody account.

There was much laughter from the Labour benches. Everyone awaited Gove's response. Would he crumble under that attack? Would he heck!

He straightened his glasses, rose to full stature and gave Labour the full onslaught. He said that authors like Jane Austen, Dickens, Hardy and Eliot were the sort of authors he wanted children to study.

<<snort>>

Did anyone ask Gove about the missing billion he's spunked on his academy project? <hopeful>

It's all right though, we have the money to spare since the Tories fixed the economy with the old Plan A.

Re: the Corpus JCR story; I recall the white heterosexual males in college being pissed off about there being a women's rep, LGB rep etc and often tabling fatuous motions about protecting their own rights. I strongly suspect this is another one of those.

Slug- I think you hit the nail on the head.

Rather than bleating on about bullying (Ha!) maybe the Tories need to think why they are SO unpopular. Um... going back on promises left right an centre (vote on Europe, changes to the NHS, dismantling of the welfare state etc etc)

I have no natural affliation with any party but I can honestly say the Tories make me feel they want to turn back the clock, sadly to a time when the rich were richer and the pooor were well and truly sunk. Gove banging on about this type of education only underlines this... He seems to believe in a "Well it was fine for me" one size fits all policy.

With regard to the reason so many are on benefits of one form or another is because emoplyers (small and large, and Government itself DO NOT PAY a living wage). If work was renumerated at a level able to support a family I.e. companies prioritising workers over shareholders. The country could lose a whole tier of benefits

Most of the Labour freshers are just rebelling against mummy and daddy, they'll come round to voting Tory by the age of 30, if not before.

Cozy9, we can only hope so!

'claig - I hugely admire Gove and I do think he really cares about education.'

MoreBeta, you are not alone!

Cozy9 - that true.

Many of the really hard left wingers had parents living in the nicer bits of London and immediately on leaving college went off to work for investment banks or married someone who worked for an investment bank.

We had all the usual Thatcher Destroyed The Miners type debates when I was at college.

Funny thing was I was born in a mining area and we had a young miner came to work for us on our farm during the strike as he was too frightened to break the strike. DW actually had a miner living next door when she went home to see her parents.

Both Tory voters we were the only people who had actually met a miner in the college.

I just went to google up membership numbers for the two parties' Oxford student branches, for comparison purposes.

Couldn't find it easily, but I think it's indicative that I thought, OK, so I'm looking for OUCA, and, er... (it's OULC by the way)

I also found an explanation of the history of the Corpus thing:

"In 2011 the Oxford Student newspaper was leaked video footage of an OCA member singing the first line of a song glorifying the Nazi Party in the Corpus Christi JCR following an OCA meeting at The Oxford Union.

The alleged incidents occurred in 2010. Current and former members of the association have strongly criticised all racism, with some members resigning, and the university launched an investigation into the society as a result of the reports.

The Dean of Corpus Christi has subsequently banned all OCA events at the college, indefinitely. "

Source = Wikipedia, so you know it's gold

So that's why the Corpus Conservatives feel their rights are being imposed upon.
While I realise there is a Voltairesque debate to be had on the issue, I've got to confess my sympathy for them is limited.

There's generally hostility to the Tory's because the party is mainly composed to mendacious psychopaths.

It's really shouldn't surprise anyone that people feel hostility to a political party which is basically waging war on the poor, killing disabled people, and attempting to dismantle the hard-won rights that people have fought for over decades and centuries.

If there is any stigma of being a Tory, then society is doing something right.

What a load of balls, ttosca.

Obviously, they are not talking about Exeter University. Being a Tory (and preferably a Thatcherite) there is a badge of honour.

Prove it Cozy9. Prove that over 10000 people haven't died just after being cured by Atos 'Healthcare'. While you're at it, prove that lowering housing benefit won't hit thousands of people, including those beloved of ShinyCamoron, 'hard working families'.

There's loads in the mainstream media that proves the opposite of what you're saying.

The Toryscum are hated because they're committing economic terrorism upon anyone who isn't massively rich.

Claig is definitely taking the piss. Very funny too.

You've got to have a bit of a laugh about it all sometimes.
That was the only way that the British public kept its chin up and its spirits high under the dark, stark, barking days of New Labour when we were told that we only had at most "50 days to save the planet".