Conservative Manifesto Launch

[anastaisia]

read it here

shall we pick this one to pieces too...

OK, I was wrong on the schools proposal - it looks as if they will be allowed to make a profit after all (according to this Times article.

How will this work - children setting their own targets? I'm not entirely against the idea but too much differentiation causes as many problems as it solves. Will it just be a kind of choice within a defined area do you think? Its interesting but do they have to make a profit - couldn't we just adopt the independent sector ideas within the state sector?

right I am downloading the whole thing

I can't make head or tail of any of it so far

can anyone tell me what it says about working tax credit/childcare tax credit? Will it be going? Thanks.

Alicatte Tis the extension of 'pupil centred' learning I think. Ironically 'very progressive'. I can see it working for self motivated children and it produces independent learners - where it works. It's already happening under Labour (a couple are just about to open).

They won't talk about cuts until after the election singlemum

Oh for heavens sake what a load of happy clappy claptrap. When we need strong government we get this!. I really don't have the time, inclination and energy to set up a school and help run it. I also don't think lots of parental involvement in the running of schools is a great thing either as demonstrated by how parental choice has polarised the fortunes of so many schools in the UK. It makes me angry reading this as they obviously don't think we can stomach the reality of the cuts needed to get the economy back on its feet so they give us this soft focus stuff instead, at least labour's manifesto had some substance.

It does seem very wishy washy

Everyone is avoiding the key issues i.e. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO LOSE?

Parents running schools in their spare time... snort... have these people ever tried to coordinate a summer fete?!!?!!

The idea for companies etc to be involved in delivering education is pretty similar to what labour have brought in for the NHS - in terms of alternative providers of medical services (ie boots/virgin etc rather than NHS GPs). The idea being the money follows the pupil/patient if they chose to move from a failing school/gp surgery to somewhere else.

I just see more money being taken from failing schools, leading to them doing an even worse job. Not support to overcome the difficulties and improve standards. Certainly in healthcare, money saved from improving efficiency etc is being pocketed by private companies, rather than invested back into the NHS.

I would run a mile from this. (Not that I have any clue who I would run to - they are all bandying around lovely soundbites but little substance!)

Parents running schools is a Labour policy too and it's happened twice already. The Tories, who believe an increase in good schools is a good thing, want to make it easier for any parents mad keen enough to go ahead. This article about Toby Young's plans to open a school in West London covers it well. here

Agree Greatfires - there's an awful lot of soundbiting going on on both sides. I want to shout at them 'But what are you actually going to do?????' (and I usually do).

not a lot in there for the step families or single parents, a bit about nrp and grandparents but nothing about child support, there are a few thousand families like it.

Nothing on the tax credits cut of point either....just re admistration??

I can answer the schools thing.

If you have made your money in the city/advertising/whatever (or dh/dw is busy making it for you!) you can devote yourself to good works.
What better flavour of the month than to 'start your own school' imagine the dinner party chit chat.

There is one on the boil near here I hesitate to link because I don't want to give them publicity (and I can't do links )

The motivating factor seems to be keeping little Tarquin away from all the kids from the neighbouring LA (it's complicated-not enough schools there either) the admissions criteria seem to be based on attending certain feeder primary schools.

All well and good only thing is you need close to a million pounds to buy a house that will get you into one of these primaries.
Or you can do the renting and moving thing not that I said that.

They are very very quiet about what would happen to those that have moved away.
The site used to go on about the need to keep children from these small schools together and how like a family they were so they shouldn't be split up blah blah.

I think one of them is now one of the biggest schools in the area!

Hmm there seems to be a lot of "BIG SOCIETY" talk which seems to mean "Getting everyone to do stuff for free"

It talks about 5,000 "Community Organisers" being put into place, but says that their TRAINING will be funded - so these will be volunteers I assume, who coordinate local action projects. So the BIG SOCIETY is again about getting people to do work for free.

I'd like to see a successful model for this sort of enterprise that has been rolled out nationwide that has demonstrated ACTUAL OUTCOMES rather than people arguing all the time ...

It's sort of like the New Labour idea of moving everything from the public sector to the third sector, except this time it's moving to the voluntary sector, so we all provide the services for free...

Or am I mis-reading it?!

MP - By successful model do you mean has it worked elsewhere or that if it happens here it should start small- like Surestart did?

Another third way - good spot.

I want to believe them, agree with the headlines, would like to see change but at this point they need to add some substance to the fluff.

I must say they are very good with words and constructing promising, dreamy compositions! At the end of the day you don't get much substance I agree. A lot of family appealing dreamy images that sounds oh ever so perfect but hardly so in these ever so imperfect times. I felt the Tories are playing a very fine tune that does not fit in the reality of what we are going through. I am even more suspiscious of what they stand for now ! I want to hear real life waking up plans and not what i would like to dream about at night.

Exactly Daysoftheweek, and I also wonder what might happen to kids with special needs in these schools. Could the consortium or whoever running them choose not to have kids with particular needs (e.g. behavioural, autism) at their precious school because it might ruin the vibe?

'Couldn't we just pay up front?' - Alicatte I think that's what we already call private education

The fox-hunting thing is such a red herring. Would it really be a deal-breaker on who you vote for?

And what does the image 'Bye bye bureacracy' actually mean? There would be no red tape whatsoever under the Tories .

jackstarbright - I think EVERYONE believes an increase in good schools is a good thing.

I've watched the link on the proposed school in west London, and to be honest I have even less sympathy than I might have had. Toby Young says himself that their local comp is very good with elements of outstanding, but his reason for wanting to set up another is 'because there is no other choice'. You already have an excellent school, why do you need more choice?!

And his emphasis on getting kids from the local estate to come too is a bit cringe-making. 'Oo look, here I am on a really tough council estate but we want these poor children too - I want to get them into a good university'. Personally I find that quite patronising, and presumably those children also have access to the already very good school in the area.

As for his claim that the school will be diverse, well just look at the steering group. One person who isn't white, and this is in an area of west London that has a huge ethnic mix. I just don't buy it.

Well basically I think that this is all about asking people to do stuff for free, because there is no money left.

The problem is that, in volunteering, the vast majority of people are retired (often widowed) women. People of working age are working. Younger people sometimes volunteer as it makes more sense than working in Primark (or a degree in Colouring In) as far as helping their chances of getting a job. But they are rarely - if ever - in it for the long haul.

The few volunteer-led projects that get off the ground are generally led by a very rare group of charismastic self-starters with a thick skin and a lot of skills - but these are very rare individuals and unfortunately the usual army of older women don't inspire this sense of purpose in younger, highly-skilled people.

The fact is that there are already enormous opportunities for communities to come together and get money for projects - but it happens very rarely because of the reasons I've stated above.

Basically it used to be SAHMs with lots of free time and "married women" who weren't allowed to work than did a huge amount of voluntary work - but this group don't exist anymore.

I haven't read through all of it, glanced through, and it seems a bit ... strange.

A lot of the rhetoric, illustrations etc. and the whole them of everyone working together is quit communist - completely bizarre for a conservative party. I think what they're doing is trying to appeal to the old left who've abandoned labour on some level. But, many of the policies are PURE tory/centre left - small government, curbing immigration, bringing back fox hunting (because that is actually what people are concerned about as the economy goes down the crapper ...)

I watched the launch of this on the ten o clock news last night. I baulked at the idea of parents setting up their own school - ladened with problems on so many fronts. Then there was the bit about community groups starting a project, owning it and buying it. Reminded me of Thatcher selling off council houses. Scratch beneath the surface and this whiffs of traditional Toryism, not new Toryism. And as for smug George Osborne, looking lovingly as the Great Leader delivered his rousing speech to save the country, salivating at every word, well that man is just too much!

Oh George Osborne makes me want to vomit. (And it doesn't help that he's a year younger than me either )

The education policies terrify me on so many levels. The new primary curriculum has only just come in to schools. I hadn't realised that the bill didn't have cross party agreement. The tories will therefore scrap the new curriculum should they come in to power. Now, I am no labour supporter - I think most of what they have done to education in the last 13 years is reprehensible - SATs, targets, league tables, literacy strategy (the numeracy strategy is better). But FINALLY, FINALLY we have permission to have a child-centred, skills based curriculum where teachers can use their professional judgement about what their children need.

The tories (as I understand it) want to go back to discrete learning in subjects (children just don't learn best in compartmentalised boxes, none of us do, they need concrete, real experiences to link their learning to). They also want children to learn by rote - now some knowledge can be learnt like this (maths facts for example)but can you imagine the boredom!

As many other posters have said, the idea of parents setting up their own schools is just ridiculous.

Surely if the get in these policies won't actually get past the teaching unions. I, for one, would go on strike if these policies were actualised as none of them are in children's best interests!

OK, rant over!