Kemi Badenoch knows what a woman is.

[SeaweedPop]

Adult human female.

In the next general election Kemi would get my vote for prime minister. Never before have I voted Tory, but I do believe that I am ready and willing to die on this hill.

@lifeturnsonadime

I understand, but absenteeism is also one of the clearest red flags for a safeguarding concern. This is a complex issue. However, KB has one of the clearest views on safeguarding children from the specific risks of gender ideology and trans activism, and that is important to me and my female children.

My point is the degree isn't important. It's the ingoing study, which everyone, including my friend who managed to rise high in nursing, does.
The degree is not essential. Trainer friend says not as effective. Why do nurses need to get a degree if it's not useful? If you had to have a degree to begin with my friend would not have become a nurse so barring people who can't afford study. She also wouldn't have been able to train countless new nurses.
The degree caused her a lot of stress because she never learned how to write academically. It didn't make her a better nurse. She was still carrying the ward whilst being patronised for not having a degree. A degree doesn't mean you are a better person or better at your job.

@Caringcarer.

We already have nurses ( registered with the NMC) entering the profession via an apprenticeship programme. These are nurse associates ( from my perspective a modern equivalent of an EN).

The BIGGEST barrier to any nursing course at the moment is the availability of placements, the shortage of 40,000 nurses across the UK has an impact on safety and placement availability... we can not send 1st year nurses out without adequate supervision, that supervision takes time away from patients to allow learning to happen - and ensuring quality, therefore placements are limited in the number of students they can support. Universities are trying to support an increase in the number of students with programmes of 3rd years supporting lower years but these also need supervision.

Nursing IS a degree profession, healthcare has changed beyond all recognition since the 1960 and carry on matron, nurses are specialists in their own right and despite a previous poster 's belief that once you have a degree you stop learning...bullshit- I've yet to meet a nurse who isn't constantly updating and increasing her /his knowledge.

First impressions of Kemi are vaguely positive but dig even slightly into her policies and she is scary like the rest of them..... they are all playing to the conservative base of small state when further austerity is what we need least right now.

A degree gives you the ability to critically analyse evidence.

If you can not assess how valid One study is over another you are unable to justify your clinical practice using the best evidence.

A caring nurse is essential but unless they are able to provide effective evidence based care you may not get better as quickly as you would have hoped.

dig even slightly into her policies and she is scary like the rest of them..... they are all playing to the conservative base of small state when further austerity is what we need least right now

I agree with this. I'm not a conservative member, but would not vote for her in a general election on the basis of her views on the economy etc. Austerity has been catastrophic for this country.

Well my friend certainly already had that ability. She wouldn't have risen high to sister and then trainer if she hadn't
So I don't believe a degree is the best route. Sorry.

I understand, but absenteeism is also one of the clearest red flags for a safeguarding concern. This is a complex issue. However, KB has one of the clearest views on safeguarding children from the specific risks of gender ideology and trans activism, and that is important to me and my female children.

I have a female child who is autistic who in the exact demographic that is is really at risk because she is non gender conforming.

Read the report I linked. In 90% of prosecuted absenteeism the child has additional needs.

Criminalising parents who fail to send their children to unsafe schools because the state wants to diminish SEN funding will HARM more children than gender ideology will. Under Kemi world I would have been criminalised for having the temerity of having children who couldn't cope in mainstream. How does that help anyone?

There is a real danger that people are becoming blinkered on this single issue.

@lifeturnsonadime

The fact that they have additional needs is a risk factor at home as well. I don’t say that personally at all, but this isn’t a simple issue and it certainly isn’t sufficient to make me believe KB wouldn’t do what she believes is best for kids. That’s all she can do.

I'm very glad that your vast experience of nursing via your sister friend has allowed you to come to that conclusion,

From the conclusion of my nursing degree program in 1998 ( before it became embedded in the wider nursing programs), and many many subsequent years of nursing supporting students coming through and seeing them flourishing in their careers, I can see the benefit on the ground of the ability to critically asses and analyse to meet differing patients needs.

Just a thought but did your friend of a friend have a bit of a chip on her shoulder about a degree.... I was told (amongst many other things) I was "too posh to wash" when I started my program ( I wasn't and still give direct patient care most shifts now), I am a clinical specialist in my own right having just completed masters level study..... did my training need to be at that level, Yes! Absolutely to be assessing and prescribing safely.

The NHS is in dire straits and we need nurses at all levels to support HCA's, NA's RN's and specialists

The fact that they have additional needs is a risk factor at home as well. I don’t say that personally at all, but this isn’t a simple issue and it certainly isn’t sufficient to make me believe KB wouldn’t do what she believes is best for kids. That’s all she can do.

If you have have children without additional needs then you haven no idea.

KB should have the ability to read reports like the one I've linked and realise that her policies on education will harm children. Many many children.

She'd be a disaster of a PM.

@lifeturnsonadime

I like her. But I don’t think she’ll be PM.

Why is this dreadful woman so popular? She's a shit MP (I live in her constituency) and was one of Boris's true arse-lickers.

She is a known computer hacker (Harriet Harman's website), which is a criminal offence. She wants to roll back the state so far that it does and funds virtually nothing and she will bring back austerity, even if she isn't using those words.

If you thought we had austerity under David Cameron and George Osborne you've seen nothing compared to what you would be likely to get under Kemi Badenoch.

I also have KB as my MP and she made a memorable visit to my daughter's falling down primary where she told them the government couldn't afford to increase school budgets.

She's 100% right about what a woman is and I hope her views are heard in cabinet.

But politically her views are to the right of Iain Duncan Smith Liz Truss. So can she please not get anywhere near the leadership or the treasury?

Just a thought:

Teaching assistants (the life blood of every school, apparently dispensable according to KB) 75%+ female

Nurses (who would be disadvantaged by removing requirement for degree) 89% female

Professions with predominantly female workforces are routinely overlooked and under appreciated. Doesn't look like Kemi would be any different on that front

Our RSE package was less that £500.

Our school had to reduce our budget by £120,000 which was achieved by cutting staff to the minimum and not buying much stuff.

We have no extra funding next year. Our energy supplier has gone up by 200%. All our other contracts by 8-13%, paper supplies by 50% and salaries by 4%

I dont think the less than £500 (which saves time so less TA needed) is going to make enough difference.

Nadine White is a journalist who Kemi Badenoch accused of being "bizarre and creepy" - White had emailed her some questions for comment, which Badenoch then published without responding directly, and instigated a bit of a pile-on.

Surely if a woman can come on here and start a thread about "how I plan to vote, and why" - then others have the right to reply with what they think of it, pro- or anti-.

It's a discussion board. Posts are made to invite discussion. You don't get to confidently and proudly say why you think something's a good idea, while not letting other peope say why they think it's a bad idea.

This is a common trope among those who have never spent a day in an actual school and have no idea what all those "superfluous" staff actually DO or how much difference they make.

Nurses used to be recruited on empathy, not qualifications. We need to deprofessionalise nursing and return it to its roots.

actually don't bother paying them either. Just chain them to the bed.

love to have someone operating say extremely sophisticated paediatric monitoring equipment using "empathy."

There needs to be someone responsible for actual nursing duties, like making sure older people actually eat enough food in hospital not to get malnourished.
I'm not sure trying to turn the clock back works but the current system has left huge dangerous gaps.

I am very sorry to tell you this antifascist but I agree with you on this point. How does it feel to be aligned with someone from the Prosecco Stormfront?

But seriously I do agree with you. When I was 13 and getting my careers information from 'Sue Barton, Student Nurse' the main skills involved seemed to be folding sheets to make impeccable 'hospital corners' and comforting the sick and frail with cups of broth. But that was in the days when, if you had Cancer, they basically sent you home to die. Nursing has changed beyond recognition and I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect a degree, although there's room for argument about the best way to get that qualification.

@Fifteentoes

No issue with people saying what their own priorities are and why they intend to vote a particular way. I do have an issue with the ‘how can you possibly consider voting in your own interest’ crowd.

Unless you're a member of the conservative party, you don't get to vote for the prime minister.

It's single-issue thinking like this that's landed us where we are now - loads of northerners with absolutely no benefit to be had from voting for the conservatives, voted based on their Brexit standpoint. Turkeys voting for Christmas.