Pitch for leader ?

MOnica in theory you are correct. However there are a lot of disgruntled, underpaid and overworked lecturers so any further expansion is unlikely.
Also the obvious problem of how UK students fund university education might impact numbers - apprenticeships with a formal qualification might gain traction.
Also part-time degrees seem to be in decline which is a pity. Basically has the ladder for social mobility gone for those most in need?

there are a lot of disgruntled, underpaid and overworked lecturers so any further expansion is unlikely.

I know DS is one of them, but I am not sure disgruntled lecturers have any say in what decisions are made by the administartion of universities. if they did have some say in thses issues, their pension dispute would have been resolved years ago.

Disgruntled lecturers often turn into highly sought after researchers depending on their knowledge base and industry will value them.
I can’t understand why Vice Chancellors are paid as much as they are….

ronib There is a lack of connectivity in your argument.

growstuff

Germanshepherdsmum

And where you put those numbers matters too. Do we value housing people arriving in dinghies more highly than our beautiful countryside and productive agricultural land?

There are many areas of this country which are not intrinsically beautiful.

Personally, I prefer villages and stunning architecture in cities to endless fields.

endless fields are where food is produced for people living in villages and stunning buildings in cities.

And unfortunately they are not endless.

Brownfield sites are where we should be looking to build new homes and the infrastructure to go with them.

Absolutely. The endless fields in my area are filled with crops.

Article in tomorrows Times saying that she tried to manipulate the Civil Service in some way due to a speeding conviction she had last year. Broke the Ministerial code I believe. But she’ll no doubt get away with it.

Not long been home from a babysitting stint, looked at The Guardian and hey presto, another tale of dishonesty
Honestly, I am so sick of reading about this shizz
Really so sick

Looks like Braverman is in trouble over her speeding penalty.

Yeah, so the Home Secretary has tried to wriggle out of a speeding fine, trying to cajole civil servants to collude
Honestly, words fail

She was Attorney General at the time which makes it even worse!

Let’s hope Braverman doesn’t wriggle out of this breach of the code. Attorney General attempting to get civil servants to keep her speeding offence secret, have her do a speed awareness course away from others. Shameless

Johnson appointed Braverman as Attorney General because she would do so in a less thorough way than any other person would. The moral bar was been set so low during his leadership that they now all think they can get away with anything. She was appointed as Home Secretary by Sunak after she’d had to resign for misconduct. She was too toxic even for Truss!

Well SB is in good company for a speeding fine - wasn’t the Archbishop of Canterbury also speeding at 25 miles per hour rather than 20? Admittedly we don’t know if he asked if he could take the speed awareness course as an individual and not in a public situation. In any event, it still made the headlines.

In the circumstances, SB elected to take three speeding points. There could be quite a lot of poetic interpretation here on the part of the civil servant/s who was asked if it was possible to have any provision made . Spin and more spin.

No problem with anyone getting a speeding fine, it happens. Using one's position to evade the consequences is wrong.
Don't try to make excuses for her, ronib. Even just thinking about how to wriggle out of it is wrong.

Considering how much money she's made on dodgy expenses claims it wouldn't have hurt her to just pay the fine and take the points if she wanted to avoid the embarrassment of attending a public speed awareness course.

I don't think there's much doubt about her burgeoning ambition, but I don't believe that her aspirations are matched by her abilities, and by her growing reputation as a loose cannon. Moreover, if the latest "revelation" proves to be true, she may soon find herself returning to the back benches, not only having broken the Ministerial code, but also having broken the law by attempting to pervert the course of justice. Did she really, when she was Attorney General, attempt to enlist Civil Servants in "wiping the slate" for a speeding fine and points on her driving licence? If proven, that is surely curtains closed on any political ambitions she may have had. Although goodness knows we have had many sad examples of other sloping-shouldered, non load-bearing, teflon coated politicians getting away with similar, or worse misdemeanours.

Am I making excuses for an extremely busy politician? I don’t think we should continue to be sucked in to ‘false narratives’. There’s a lot of poetry in the news these days - we don’t know the precise details but that hasn’t stopped Yvette Cooper from venting.
If I had been acting as a PA, I wouldn’t have minded finding out about the possibility of individual one to one speed awareness courses. I couldn’t have influenced whether they were available but it would not have been an onerous task to find out. IMO

What is fascinating about this non-story, is that it featured as item no 2 in the 9am news on Radio 2; Chris Mason asked Sunak about it at G7 to rightly be asked if he had any summit questions and so on. Although I find the woman despicable , I find it fascinating that the media led by Daily Mail today as desperately keen for this story to run. Not exactly a weak new weekend but look where the media wants us to focus.

Agree CvD66 . Also no one has mentioned the obvious security risk of a very high profile Conservative minister being placed in a public setting presumably without any scrutiny of the other participants?

I think we deserve better comments from the media and opposition parties and isn’t it about time that the really important ‘stuff’ started being aired?

So you think that the person responsible for executing the law of the land should be able to ignore it? What is the really important stuff by the way? The pollution of our seas and waterways? The decimation of our industries? Inflation? Lack of housing? Oh silly me, the important thing is all these people coming here in boats.

ronib

Agree CvD66 . Also no one has mentioned the obvious security risk of a very high profile Conservative minister being placed in a public setting presumably without any scrutiny of the other participants?

I think we deserve better comments from the media and opposition parties and isn’t it about time that the really important ‘stuff’ started being aired?

What security risk?

Speed awareness courses can be done online. Nobody knows where you live. If she'd been honest about being caught speeding, there wouldn't even be a blackmail risk. It might even have earned her some "kudos" for being just like everybody else.

MaizieD

No problem with anyone getting a speeding fine, it happens. Using one's position to evade the consequences is wrong.
Don't try to make excuses for her, ronib. Even just thinking about how to wriggle out of it is wrong.

Considering how much money she's made on dodgy expenses claims it wouldn't have hurt her to just pay the fine and take the points if she wanted to avoid the embarrassment of attending a public speed awareness course.

Taking a speed awareness course costs the same as the fine. The only difference is that you don't get three points on your licence.

Not that I plan to do it again but that's useful info that they are online now GS. Mine was face to face but years ago now.
I imagine Sunak will take his usual approach which seems to be that things happening in government are nothing to do with him, it's quite bizarre to watch.

Growstuff how very little detail we have, wouldn’t you agree?

Galaxy

Not that I plan to do it again but that's useful info that they are online now GS. Mine was face to face but years ago now.
I imagine Sunak will take his usual approach which seems to be that things happening in government are nothing to do with him, it's quite bizarre to watch.

My partner did one a few months ago. From memory, he had the option of going to a centre or doing it online. I don't think it was just a Covid restriction, but I'll double check.