Conservative Manifesto Launch

" I'd hate a company to be making a profit from my child's schooling"

Alicatte - Sorry to break it to you - but many company's already make a profit from your dc's schooling: Stationary supplier, school lunch providers, builders, IT and computer suppliers....... It's just their actual education where you can't reward results with a profit (even the Tories are balking at that - seemly).

Good on you Laugs....if the 'parent running schools' thing happens we'll be left with underfunded schools full of children whose parents don't care and whose government doesn't care.

However, knowing how hard it is to organise a playgroup, I don't think any parents will get round to running a school.

Schools now are better than they've ever been (and also more similar than they've ever been) but - now we have more choice - we as parents worry about them more than is necessary (IMO!)

I really hate this parents running schools thing.

I've never heard a better argument for mobilising kids whose parents are educated and pushy, while leaving the rest to fester in under-achieving schools.

If they can't commit to even trying to improve schools themselves and giving all children, rich or poor, a decent education, I think they should step aside now.

"We will reduce youth unemployment and reduce the number of
children in workless households as part of our strategy for tackling poverty and inequality." = "we'll force those on benefits into jobs that pay peanuts and leave their kids in the care of someone else also being paid peanuts, ala the u.s welfare to work travesty"

so not only do we have the longest working hours in europe - now we have to find time to run schools and hospitals too - for free!

and where does the money come from? central government? how does this save money? its presuming we know a hell of a lot more about running a multi million pound budget than the professionals currently paid to do so.

what utter horseshit.

they'll be up chimneys

I just saw Mumsnet on the BBC news.

I guess the schools thing is pretty important to me too. I'd hate a company to be making a profit from my child's schooling. I also agree with the guy from Cardiff who said that the most important factor in a child's success is not the school but the parental involvement in their education.

Doh! I meant of course!

Riven for PM on that basis [gtin]

"We will reduce youth unemployment and reduce the number of
children in workless households as part of our strategy for tackling poverty and inequality."

I think I know what they mean and am sure it's NOT removing a proportion of children from non-working households. Have to say it made me grin though.

I'll peruse the text this evening but I think the graphics are brilliant!

Oh no - I really thought he'd said he'd abolish KS2 Sats. That was something that would have really helped everyone.

I'm still trying to work it out. The BBC seems to have a stupid person's digest but it still seems a little bit well - anarchic.

It reminds me of a health and safety briefing I got during a previous incarnation when the personnel lady said that all staff were entirely responsible for themselves and consequently if anything happened to you it was entirely your own fault.

anastaisia kindly put a link to the manifesto in her op - I'm trying to understand it.

Interesting that they're no longer proposing a bonfire of the quangos but will now abolish quangos that ?do not perform a technical function or a function that requires political impartiality, or act independently to establish facts?. What does that mean?

Also they're committing to keeping SATS at KS2 (and making them 'more rigorous' whatever that means), and to keeping league tables. So all those who thought these things would disappear under the Tories and our children would be stress-free have a re-think.

On another note, I'm intrigued by the whole starting your own school thing. Who has the time or energy to do that in addition to their usual line of work? And please explain to me why some group of concerned parents running a school would improve standards.

SweetGrapes why have Labour gone on too long? Are we all so used to changing Governments every two or three parliaments that we feel we have to?

I can't understand what they are saying either. A lot of it doesn't seem to make sense.
I do like labour usually but think they have gone on for too long - but seriously I cannot get to grip with what this lot are proposing...

I just saw a BBC broadcast about the Conservative Manifesto with a poster about David Cameron saying something about us all having to run the schools and hospitals.

So I'm not the only one with these worries about what they are saying am I?

They're lacking a big idea, maybe that's why they're not further ahead in the polls. It always used to be much clearer with the Tories didn't it: cut taxes, minimise expenditure on public services, privatise everything and promote business and entrepreneurship. Now they have to pretend to like the health service and state education and hate banks it's all a bit more woolly. They're still on about cutting taxes though and I just don't know where they're going to get the money from.

Fox hunting thing at least shows their true colours: individuals pursuing their own thing (especially business people and people living in the country) should be allowed to get on with it and damn everyone and everything that gets in the way, down with regulation!

When will they give up on hunting, it took such alot of parlimentary time while they argued and time wasted to stop the original ban going through and now they want to dig the whole thing up again when there are so many more improtant issues, grrrrrrr.

Thanks anastaisia.

I had only heard the launch on T.V. and it was a bit confusing - it seemed to be saying that we would all be voting in referendums and organising petitions.

It gave me images of chaos - although my DS thought the whole Dr Who 'real public vote' implication was hysterically funny.

Horrified at the idea of reviewing Fox-hunting though.