Tory by-election candidate on state education....

[seeker]

......sorry it's the Daily Mirror, but so far it's that or the Huffington Post! At least they are showing their true colours......
Here

[Yamyoid]

Bloody stupid woman, seems like she's on a mission to lose the by election. She's also accused of plagiarising Wikipedia on her website.

[FillyPutty]

Sounds like another fine piece of Daily Mirror journalism.

[LilyBolero]

pmsl...

Maria Hutchings' webpage - notes on Eastleigh;

" The modern town of Eastleigh lies on the old Roman road, built in A.D.79 between Winchester (Venta Belgarum) and Bitterne (Clausentum. Roman remains discovered in the Eastleigh area, including a Roman lead coffin excavated in 1908, indicate that a settlement probably existed here in Roman times.

A Saxon village called ?East Leah? has been recorded to have existed since 932 AD. (?Leah? is an ancient Anglo-Saxon word meaning ?a clearing in a forest?). There is additional evidence of this settlement in a survey from the time which details land in North Stoneham being granted by King Æthelstan to his military aid, Alfred in 932 AD. The prefix ?Est? or 'East' is thought to refer to its location relative to the established settlement of Baddesley.

Eastleigh has seen a rapid and controlled expansion in residential, industrial and commercial development over recent years. The borough of Eastleigh was ranked the "9th best place to live in the UK 2006" by a Channel 4 programme."

And Wikipedia entry on Eastleigh;

"The modern town of Eastleigh lies on the old Roman road, built in A.D.79 between Winchester (Venta Belgarum) and Bitterne (Clausentum).[3][4][5] Roman remains discovered in the Eastleigh area, including a Roman lead coffin excavated in 1908,[6] indicate that a settlement probably existed here in Roman times.[3][7][8]

A Saxon village called ?East Leah? has been recorded to have existed since 932 AD.[9] (?Leah? is an ancient Anglo-Saxon word meaning ?a clearing in a forest?).[9] There is additional evidence of this settlement in a survey from the time which details land in North Stoneham being granted by King Æthelstan to his military aid, Alfred in 932 AD.[3][7][10] The prefix 'Est' or 'East' is thought to refer to its location relative to the established settlement of Baddesley.[3] ...... there is another paragraph here that Maria Hutchings did not plagiarise

then

Eastleigh has seen a rapid and controlled expansion in residential, industrial and commercial development over recent years. The borough of Eastleigh was ranked the "9th best place to live in the UK 2006" by a Channel 4 programme.[14]"

[LilyBolero]

Maria Hutchings' webpage

Wikipedia

Blatant plagiarism

[FillyPutty]

Reuse of content from Wikipedia is encouraged, though you should include a source. It doesn't look like she wrote the website herself anyway, looks like an agency.

[prh47bridge]

Actually Wikipedia's current terms of use do not require any acknowledgement of the source. So nothing wrong with quoting that article, although I personally wouldn't have put that page on her website at all. It doesn't serve any useful purpose and there is no indication what the flags on the map represent.

[Tasmania]

That's true... Wikipedia is all about open source, isn't it...

[GrowSomeCress]

Really don't see why this is so horribly shocking... certainly less shocking than Diane Abbott's claim that West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children (implication being that other mums will not remember the interview where she refused to answer about that)

[Farewelltoarms]

Isn't the real lesson that you should never talk about your child being gifted outside your family or their educational setting.
Yes I know gifted children bring their own challenges etc but shorn of nuance or suitable context, you sound like an arse.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Personally I find it more disturbing that Labour have backed a candidate who has openly admitted that he wished the IRA succeeded in killing Margaret Thatcher in the Brighton bombing.

So on the one had we have someone who has chosen private school for one of their children.
And on the other we have an apologist for terrorism.

And MN is concerned with the one who chose private school.

[seeker]

Link please?

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

here

[seeker]

And did you read the rest of the article? Or just the headline?

[seeker]

Oh, and it's not the fact that she sends her child to a private school that's the issue, it's her comments about state education.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Yes I read the whole article.

Seeker I find it really hard to get exercised about someone wanting the best for their children, it is what we all want.

As you yourself have said on here many times, state education isn't up to scratch. It serves some children very well, and others not at all. The inequality in the system is massive, and in many places it is essentially a lottery as to whether your child lands on their feet or not.

I would rather that a politician said 'state education cannot cater for my child', than sent their kids state and had them tutored like mad behind the scenes - all the while proclaiming the fabulousness of the system.

[seeker]

So if you read the whole article, why are you saying he's an apologist for terrorism, when he is obviously not?

And the point is not that she said state education needs to be improved- she said that she that it would be impossible for her child to get an education in the state system. She then said he wanted to be a surgeon, which has been widely interpreted (and no clarification or denial has been issued) as meaning she believes it is not possible to become a surgeon from state school.

[seeker]

Love it when people chuck accusations like "terrorist apologist" out, then disappear when called on it.

[Believeitornot]

This woman has made me with her comments that gifted kids and state education just don't work. Madness.

John o'farrell is my hero. I've read his article before and what he says is true.
If you want a decent education for your child, get off your arses and help improve state education. Get on the board of governors. If not, write to them, and push for things to happen. I'll be applying for governor when my ds goes to school (even thinking of doing it before) - we might send ds to a not very well performing state because we think it will suit him. We also will invest time in his education ourselves - not just pay someone else to do it for us.

As parents we educate our children as well as the school.

[LilyBolero]

The wiki thing is just laziness though. As a prospective MP your notes on your prospective constituency should not be cribbed from Wikipedia!

As far as the schools thing, those of you supporting her, how do you think children in state schools, who are 'very gifted' and aspire to be surgeons etc, are feeling? To be told by someone who may soon be in govt that their ambition is 'not possible' because they are in a state school. Or that state school is not good enough for HER son, but it's good enough for THEM.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Yep, that would be disappearing to feed and dress my children... Not everyone can sit on here all day.

Ok so perhaps I exaggerated, but no more so than anyone extrapolating hatred for the entire state sector from Maria Hutchings comments.

[seeker]

I didn't say she hated state education. I said that she believes that you can't become a surgeon from a state school.which is what she appears to have said, and in the absence of denial or clarification from Central Office I can only assume that's what she meant to say.

You didn't exagerrate, by the way, you misrepresented. Rather shamefully.

[DadOnIce]

FillyPutty - you miss my point when "correcting" me above. People do not go to private school just for being "too bright" or wanting something the state cannot provide. There are thousands of children in this position. There are not thousands of free private school places. The places are not determined by need, they are determined by ability to pay. That's my objection to the system. I would have no problem with a genuinely flexible system which provided schools most suited to particular kinds of pupils, regardless of parental income and background.

It's the sense of entitlement from people like Hutchings and Abbott which voters find so objectionable. The "I need this therefore I get it" attitude.

[GrowSomeCress]

DadOnIce, we live in a capitalist society - of course things aren't determined by need. That's why some people have bigger houses than others, or bigger cars, or more clothes, or more holidays.

[DadOnIce]

I think comparisons between such consumer goods and education are erroneous, for reasons which I have explained at length before and which I'm sure have been done to death on this thread.

[LilyBolero]

I think it's hard when it's people in government, or prospective MPs who make out that they 'have no choice' because of some circumstance or other - their child is very gifted, their ducks are cold etc. Because it's not like a parent of a child who has identical needs, but bank balances mean they have no choice, doesn't worry as much about their child's education. It's not like the child is any more deserving of better education etc.

It always makes me a bit sick that whilst imposing the 'bedroom tax' on the poorest families in society - charging them money for a bedroom they have 'decreed' they don't 'need', even though there may be nowhere for them to go, the MPs are more than happy to claim ££££ for second homes, duck houses etc. The taxpayer provides 14 bedrooms for wealthy David Cameron, his millionaire wife and 3 children, despite them also owning 2 other houses, one of which was hugely subsidised by the taxpayer. But he argues that a family on the breadline should be penalised because the only accommodation available to them is 3 bedrooms, and as they have 2 sons, they are only entitled to 2 bedrooms. Or the family with a disabled son who is not 'entitled' to his own bedroom.

And yet George Osborne was 'entitled' to have the taxpayer enable him to buy a large house with a paddock....which he has since sold at a huge profit, even though we the taxpayer paid the interest on the mortgage he used to buy it. Paddock link Clearly a paddock is ESSENTIAL for sorting out the economy....

That's why it matters if an MP or a prospective MP utters such tosh such as 'my son is too clever for state school, his ambitions cannot be met there'. Because we end up with a society where it's one rule for the rule-makers and their friends, and everyone else can go hang.