Opportunity for hiding the bad news

Whitewavemark2

Richard Murphy
@RichardJMurphy
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2m
It seems right now that the government has the political will to continue with legislation to remove our right to protest - putting us in the same position as the people of Russia - but won’t be able to find time to pass laws to rid our country of corrupt companies. Why is that?

Do you think it might be anything to do with donations to the Conservative Party?

Cp43

The protests in Russia are illegal, they might also be illegal hear the difference is that in Russia they get bashed across the head or hauled into some horrible jail and tortured whereas that does not happen in the UK.

What does that have to do with student loans?

Doodledog

All PhDs are in niche subject areas, as they are supposed to add to the sum of existing knowledge. People can't get funding for topics that have been studied before unless they have a different slant, or are expecting to make a discovery of some kind.

I find it worrying that (some) people seem to see the Arts as inferior in some way, and don't value their contribution to society - without them we are far poorer as a society. I also think it is worrying that this government want to cut funding to the Arts, which will result in only those from wealthy backgrounds being the storytellers and culture makers of the future. It is, I think, vital that the stories of 'ordinary' people are told, too, and that they have input into the ways in which they are portrayed on the media.

I don't think a PhD is necessary to become a storyteller or culture maker. I doubt very much that many writers have PhDs.

Love2Retire How did he manage that when fees for most courses are £9250 a year, unless some of the fee was paid upfront?

grandtanteJE65

Whatever you do, as a government, repaying student loans will always be hard for those who are not able to get a job after University, and for those who only manage to get fairly poorly paid jobs.

Extending the lenght of time they have to repay the loan is surely only a good thing for those who find it hard to make the repayments. Any who are earning well can chose to repay their loans faster, and I am sure many do.

No, it's not a good thing! What it means is that the outstanding balance won't be written off and the graduate will end up paying more.

FannyCornforth

growstuff you were very fortunate to be ‘allowed’ to do four foreign languages
When I was at school you could only do one - either French or German
And you had to chose between History and Geography too

I guess I was lucky, but my point was that it's possible.

Doodlebug Yes of course, I’d hate us to become a nation of utter philistines

Whitewavemark2

Watching the brave souls in Russia protesting about the invasion by Putin
These anti-war demonstrations in Russia would be illegal in the UK under the proposed new Police and Crime Bill.

Never forget that our democracy and freedom to criticise is also threat.

Come off it, Whitewavemark2. The new Police and Crime Bill will not make anti-war demonstrations (or any other demonstrations) illegal in the UK per se. I've told you a million times not to exaggerate!

Cossy

Doodlebug Yes of course, I’d hate us to become a nation of utter philistines

Me too, Cossy. The obsession with 'the point' of degrees, and whether they are 'necessary' to do things suggests that others take a different view, however, which I see as a shame.

I know it's unlikely to happen, but I would love to see a system that encouraged everyone who was able to benefit from a degree be able to study for one, regardless of whether they 'need it' for the job they end up doing. Why is it seen as wrong for a shop assistant or contact centre worker to have an education? It might not be necessary to train for three years to do some jobs, but there is more to life than that, surely? If someone wants to learn about a topic that interests them, and also work in a low-stress or low-skilled job, why is that seen as somehow unacceptable?

IMO there is no reason to divide people into those 'needing' education and those who don't. There is no reason why having a degree should give automatic access to a managerial role, but also there is no reason why someone with no interest in such roles shouldn't have one, too. Not all jobs need holders to be able to read, but no-one would suggest that anyone shouldn't learn how to do so, would they?

In a rich country like ours, the cost could be 'paid back' out of general taxation, in the same way as education in schools, rather than from a separate and profit-making scheme like the Student Loans Company. If that meant putting up taxes, I think it would be a price worth paying, but I doubt that tax rises would be necessary.

Of course. Our generation were lucky to grow up in a country with free education, up to and including university We had an NHS free at the point of use, a social security safety net, an unarmed police force, a good system of public transport, the widely respected BBC and a general feeling that to be born British was to have won the lottery of life.

Of course there was a dark side. Were we living under some national illusion of well being or were we really far better off than we realised at the time?

I agree with Jennifereccles!!

Varian education after 18 was free because such a small proportion of the population who went to university.

The NHS was free because the range of treatments and medication was much less than now and people, just learned to live (and die) with many illnesses. The NHS now costs proportionately so much more becuase we are able to treat and return to good health so many people who would have died or been ill for a very longtime. More drugs etc, more expensive equipment. it adds up.

An unarmed policeforce and, gnerally, a criminal class that did not use guns and while drugs were available, few had access so no huge addict population and no huge network of criminals who supplied them. As the population became more cosmopolitan, many came from countries where the police were armed, and were accustomed to owning and using them, more international contacts between criminals in many countries also meant more arms, with Irish terrorism guns became more accepted.

Fewer people meant less demand for public transport. People travelled less (they could not afford it. When they had money, they bought cars, so even fewer people used public transport.

If we thought we had won the lottery because we were Britih, well, there was some reason, we had won the war, we were one of the economically most advanced countries in the world. We were respected and esteemed internationally and we were one of the international power brokers with the US.

Since then much has changed and I think we were far better off than we realised.

If you had average lives, then yes I think we were very fortunate but ... homosexuality was illegal between consenting adults, people with learning difficulties were likely to spend their entire adult lives institutionalised, unmarried mothers were pressured into giving up their babies and those babies were deprived of their birth families and their roots. Miscarriage of justice was more common - Derek Bentley, Birmingham 6 etc - as DNA CCTV and all the other forensics exonerate the innocent as well as convicting the guilty. Things have got better in some ways & worse in others, but we certainly live in a confusing, noisy, competitive world these days.

Today the government will pass a law that puts you in prison for 10 years if you cause a nuisance.

Tories cheering protestors in Russia, while banging you up for daring to do the same.

I think you’ve ever so slightly simplified the new law wwm.

Missed that - unbelievable!

Sweetsnbooksnradio4

Missed that - unbelievable!

Unbelievable because it is not strictly true!!

We will still be far more lenient with protestors than most other countries.

Don't believe everything you read on GN, Sweetsnbooksnradio4, a large tub of Maldon's is always handy to keep by you

valdali Miscarriage of justice was more common

They are as common now as they always were, possibly more common. Look at the scandal over Post Masters convicted and sent to prison for supposedly fiddling the books, when it was the computer at fault. Nearly 1,000 of them I think.

Germanshepherdsmum

I think you’ve ever so slightly simplified the new law wwm.

Would you be so kind then to outline the new law?

The Russian money going to individual members sent being talked enough about imo

A Very British Coup ??@VBritishCoup·9hConservative MP Brandon Lewis received £25,000 from Lubov Chernukhin, a banker and wife of Putin’s former deputy finance minister, and £23,000 from Alexander Temerko, a former chief of a Russian arms company.
What they expected or received in return has never been made clear.

As midnight approached, Tory MPs are about to vote to take away the right & freedom of British citizens to protest loudly.
When people across the world are making noisy protests against Putin’s war in Ukraine, it simply beggars belief that this is happening in our democracy.

Hate to say this wwm but it doesn’t interest me. I would have been very grateful for it when I was unable to work in London because of horrendously noisy and disruptive protests.

Dominic Raabsky. Accepted £25,000 from a Russian banker previously jailed for money laundering.

Germanshepherdsmum

Hate to say this wwm but it doesn’t interest me. I would have been very grateful for it when I was unable to work in London because of horrendously noisy and disruptive protests.

So if it doesn’t interest you, why did you comment saying that I was incorrect?