How miserable are you that the Tories are in power?

[sundayrose10]

I feel tense and twitchy. I used to enjoy reading the politic section/ other political forums, but I fear if I keep on going there and reading more and more about Tory plans, I will give myself a heart attack.

I loath them but worst I fear them. I am anxious for this country and the ordinary man and woman.

Dave makes me feel insane with hatred.

I have a colleague who is in love with the Tories. I don't share biscuits with him any more.

Dave makes me itch. All over.

I've got to admit claig/LeQueen that the university expansion programme was one of the biggest things I've always disliked about Labour. Incredibly short-sighted of them.

IMO it would have been far better to have slashed the number of places available but to fully fund them, while making entry requirements higher. That would have done far more to address the socio-economic disaparity among students and ensured that the only barrier was lack of brains, not money. The rest of the money should have been spent on increasing apprenticeships/vocational courses at FE colleges.

Absolutely sunshineandbooks - but that's Labour for you - even thickos had to have a degree - just so they didn't feel left out - ( all employers did was take on people with a first class honours )

If I recall correctly, that decision was taken to put our educational results on a level with the USA. I'm not making value judgements here, and I also disagreed with the policies. But I seem to remember the govt of the time was under a lot of pressure to create more graduates.

' and all of them thousands in debt for the privilege'

Maybe that was the real point of it all. Maybe they were sold a pup.

In some ways the US has a much better approach to education than the UK. There is a much, much bigger emphasis on bursaries and scholarships than we have. Also, there is much more potential for retraining in the US, something we are sorely lacking over here. As I have found out myself. If your life circumstances change significantly, or you make the wrong choice at 18 in the UK, you can suffer the consequences for the rest of your life.

sunshine I don't think you and I would put our crosses next to the same name - yet it seems to me we are alike in spirit. You clearly, despite current hurdles, don't believe your opportunities are non-existent, just delayed.

Surely the big problem faced by the UK vis-a-vis its competitiveness on the global stage is that 18 year olds are actively encouraged to squander three years of their life at uni where a sizeable majority of them:

• Spend half the time getting pissed
• Have lecuturer contact time on most courses of 10-15 hours a week
• Are generally indulged

While in other countries - China, India, Tawain (sp?) being obvious ones - kids are working their bollocks off at this age, getting ahead. Degrees in the UK need to change. They could easily be done in 2 years, probably less. It's all a joke.

I am beyond happy. After the hideous mess Labour made of the country's finances and the fact they banned hunting and introduced every stealth tax under the sun, I campaigned for the Tories, now work for them and could not be happier. Next time a majority :)

Yes, chubsasaurus, like the toffee nosed cunts really took notice of the hunting ban...

Wasn't it 100 + stealth taxes?

DH's mum used to be an admissions secretary at Corpus Cristi Cambridge (she retired 5 years ago). She freely admitted that any application where the student had an A level "-ology" (excluding biology obv) was put in the "thanks but no thanks pile".

So many A-level students are pushed towards the soft option courses - DH's young cousin starts her A-levels in September and will be doing Media Studies, Photography and Psychology

I agree, LeQueen, about performance-related funding.

Though perhaps not as heavily dependent on sports prowess and/or cheerleading skills as the US model!

Yes, Berkeley is a top uni. Smart woman :)

The strange thing about US Universities is that they'll have 50 football scholarships but only 4 art scholarships. How many people do you need on a football team?!

labour messed up the country spent too much entered a war that cost too much gave out too many benefits where people had too many children because they could money and a house for free and many people were better off on benefits rather than having a job

the conservatives never were going to have it easy they had to cut billions pounds worth of debt, sort out soilders and wars they did not start, fix the economy and fix all the mistakes labour did in the last year because they knew they would loose all while being in a coalision with very radically different views on everything whilst continuing to deal with world problems like financial unstability in the eu and global terror treats and climate change whilst your the most hated man in england

personally i think they are not doing such a bad job

You also have to remember that subjects like Defence, Policing and Prisons are Tory strongholds. For them to say we must cut spending in these areas (amongst others) should alert people to the fact that we are in some deep do-do.

"the conservatives never were going to have it easy they had to cut billions pounds worth of debt, sort out soilders and wars they did not start"

I can't remember a single Tory who voted against the war, can you? Ian Duncan Smith was, if anything, more hawkish than that scumbag Blair.

Several Labour MP's did vote against the war as did most Lib Dems but sadly they weren't listened to. No one at westminster truly believed that WMD nonsense but it was a convenient excuse for a middle eastern oil / land grab.

As for billions in debt, the Tories were committed to spending as much as NuLabour right up until the credit crunch, so not convinced we would have been in any better shape had they been in power.

Clag, can you let us know which aspects of Thatcherism you endorse? I'm pretty sure she'd be horrified at your far left protectionist ideals, she wasn't a fan of the state propping up industry either.

I support some of Thatcher's policies in limiting the power of the unions.
I support her liberation of the working class and the creation of a meritocratic society, where the working class could make it rich.
I support her emphasis on high standards in education.
I support her ending of the old boys' network in the City and the move to modernise the City.
I support her enterprise policies and low taxation which allowed small business people and entrepreneurs to succeed and grow their businesses.
I support her pro-business policies.
I support her reduction in taxation.
I support her opposition to the CND unilateral disarmers.
I support her general common sense non-progressive policies.
I support her standing up to the EU and winning us rebates and exemptions.
I support her when she told the socialist Delors, "No Mr. Delors, we shall not have socialism by the back door"
I support her can-do spirit, strength and resolve
I support how she stamped her mark on the country and changed its attitude towards a more meritocratic American type model.
I support her policies that supported the aspiration of the working class
I support her attitude of inclusiveness and her demonstration that everybody can make it from whatever background
I support her common sense, vision and understanding
I support how she stood up for the country and took pride in its history
I support how she stood up for the people and offered them hope

She was wrong about a lot of privatisations. She was to some extent a creature of her times. If she were still in charge now, I believe she would agree with me and Sir James Goldsmith, that British industry needs to be protected.

Great post claig

thanks mauricetinkler, tha's because she is a great woman, probably the single most influential woman of the entire 20th century. You can't get more of an accolade than that. That's why even today she is voted as the most influential woman

www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/8102909/Are-these-the-women-we-really-admire.html

YANBU. I feel the same, bar the itching.

But I think you need to brace yourself to read about it - 'know thy enemy' and do something about it - sign petitions etc. Write to your MP.

Avaaz and 38 Degrees do some good campaigns etc.