Labour. Our next Government.

Goodness Iam64 I thought I was stretching by attending two primaries and changing Secondary school four times (1 term in first sec school then moved so into new sec school til 14, then lived in California attending Palos Verdes High school for 1 year, then back to UK and back into the same school I attended prior to leaving UK!)

Cossy

Iam64

Apologies for posting before RYFT, I’ve had a busy sunny day, catching up and so cross I posted in haste

Never mind, you’re quite right in what you say! I AM a sec modern girl! My peers in my year went on to be teachers, nurses, accountants, banking staff etc etc.

Here’s looking at you kid (Cossy) so am I. I attended 5 primary schools, 3 high schools. A miracle I learned to read and write. Sat the 11plus 2 weeks into a new school. I’d never done a test like it. Evidently, a point off passing but the town had less places for girls.
Went to an excellent sec mod- progressive head teacher. We had houses, (Livingstone red sash), studied music, Shakespeare, endless productions, competed successfully against the grammar in sports but best of all, the A stream did O levels. Sadly I moved two months before my exams.
I;ll stop there, save to say i did A levels in my early 20’s and went on to University. Complicated route but I’ll never forget being told as part of the A stream year 1 class, by a student teacher, that we were all failures. Never make anything of ourselves, we should have been across the road at the grammar school

Poppyred

Whitewavemark2

Poppyred

There’s a 2 year wait here in Wales for a knee replacement….how long is in England/Scotland?

I thought that you had the choice of hospital including Welsh/English hospitals - so the wait is as long as the shortest time isn’t it? That is if you are willing to travel - which I would be.

We are not offered a choice of hospitals here in Wales!

Seems to be a matter of priorities in a starved system. the starved bit lies firmly in years of austerity - the priorities bit includes free prescriptions for all. Whether thats good choice I don't know.

----

Politicians come in all shapes and sizes, and my MP is very good - overall I think the disillusionment is partly down to the media which doesn't notice the many hard working everyday MP's as opposed to those we know all too well about.

Iam64

Apologies for posting before RYFT, I’ve had a busy sunny day, catching up and so cross I posted in haste

Never mind, you’re quite right in what you say! I AM a sec modern girl! My peers in my year went on to be teachers, nurses, accountants, banking staff etc etc.

Apologies for posting before RYFT, I’ve had a busy sunny day, catching up and so cross I posted in haste

Primrose53

MayBee70

There shouldn’t be a need for private education if the country gave every child the best education possible.

The best time in education was before Labour got rid of most of the grammar schools!

If you were quite bright and passed the 11+ you could go to grammar school. If not you went to Secondary Modern. Both tailored their curriculum to suit their pupils. Most people who went to grammar schools will say they had the best education and the best teachers bearing in mind some of the very brightest kids came from quite poor families, often lived in council housing with parents on low wages. Grammar school changed their lives for the better and offered them a great education.

Secondary Moderns offered less academic kids more practical lessons and many of today’s businesses are run by ex Sec Mod pupils. plumbers, electricians, mechanics, chefs, nurses, secretaries etc. At the Sec Mod up the road from my grammar school the girls planned and prepared fantastic meals and cold buffets for local bigwigs and parents events and for 15 year old girls the standard was as high or even higher than 2nd or third year college students now. The boys did fabulous metalwork, woodwork and technical drawing.

Labour didn’t like this idea so lumped everybody into comprehensive schools including kids with what we now call Special Needs. This was never going to work and most kids who needed extra help much preferred going to schools with kids like themselves as in mainstream they were left colouring in worksheets or bullied by other kids.

The way the majority of children were sent into largely dreadful sec mods, already labelled failures at 11 was disgraceful.
Many 11 plus failures were equally as bright as those at the grammar schools. A lot depended on how many places were available.
This snobbery dismissing if sec mod girls as only capable of making meals for ‘local bug wigs and parents’ is simply appalling.
Many ‘failures’ were perfectly capable of academic work, they didn’t need to be treated as though a bit of cooking for their betters was as high as they could go
Good comprehensives are good.
‘Lumping everyone together, including Special Needs - is this really the best analysis you can find- it’s light years away from the truth. Critical thinking?/

Whitewavemark2

Poppyred

There’s a 2 year wait here in Wales for a knee replacement….how long is in England/Scotland?

I thought that you had the choice of hospital including Welsh/English hospitals - so the wait is as long as the shortest time isn’t it? That is if you are willing to travel - which I would be.

We are not offered a choice of hospitals here in Wales!

VioletSky

I don't know how this is an argument instead of us all agreeing that politicians are all a pile of poo and we just have to pick the one that smells the least

The thing is we will all do that, but we all have differing senses of how strong the 💩💩💩 smells! That’s because we are all different and how lucky we are to be able freely express our views and debate almost any subject.

Long may that last.

‘A feeling’ isn’t good enough. You need to have evidence for what you said.

I don't know how this is an argument instead of us all agreeing that politicians are all a pile of poo and we just have to pick the one that smells the least

Its a feeling, I don't have data to hand.

Who is ‘out for themselves’, and in what way? Please provide some facts.

Cossy
It time someone else, with different priorities and values, was given a chance.
Exactly! That’s what voters decided last time we had a change.

I can't get worked up about politics. The trust, integrity and any shred of decency has left the building.

Every body is out for themselves. Thatcher did a grand job in that respect.

Pantglas2

Let’s hope they note how selective your facts are Casdon, “the mess that Wales is in”. As if Labour weren’t responsible for the decline over the past 25 years.

You cant blame the Tories for Englands NHS failures and then turn a blind eye because it’s your team as one poster has it!

You haven’t provided any facts to support your position Pantglas, and as I said people should make their own minds up based on what each of us has put forward. I’m sure everybody knows that the whole of the NHS is in a much worse state than it was 14 years ago, and knows where the money comes from to devolved governments, but Hey Ho.

No one, however staunchly they might have supported Labour now, or in the past, has ever ever said life was “perfect” “excellent” or “amazing” under Blair or any other Labour govt. not one person!

Labour as a party are not perfect, neither is Keir Starmer, no one is suggesting they are.

However, the likelyhood is Labour will get into some sort of power in our next GE. Either with a majority or power sharing.

There’s the rub with our ridiculous two party, first past the post politics. We simply sway between Labour and Conservatives every 10 years or so one or other gets in and then changes everything.

However, please, those of who are going to vote Conservative next time around, please explain why? What is it about their last 14 years of power that you feel is so good it needs to continue??

I think Furlough and the way the vaccine was rolled out were excellent pluses for this govt., but I’ll never forget the reluctance to lockdown and the number of elderly patients sent back to care homes to infect their peers and die alongside them, nor the way Johnson acted with gay abandon about Covid, until he himself contracted the virus. I’ll never forget or forgive the Partygate fiasco or the Cummings debacle, whilst I and thousands of others couldn’t see their loved ones or even have proper funerals. I won’t forgive Truss for screwing our interest rates making it so hard for many young people to get that so important footing on the property ladder, or Cameron for calling the ridiculous referendum and then when getting a result he didn’t expect (or want) simply disappearing in the blue yonder leaving us with May who squandered millions on “bribing” the DUPS.

It time someone else, with different priorities and values, was given a chance.

Can it really be worse than the last 14 years?

Let’s hope they note how selective your facts are Casdon, “the mess that Wales is in”. As if Labour weren’t responsible for the decline over the past 25 years.

You cant blame the Tories for Englands NHS failures and then turn a blind eye because it’s your team as one poster has it!

I mean surely if wait times are longer in Wales for whatever the reason, something ought to be done about that?

Poppyred

There’s a 2 year wait here in Wales for a knee replacement….how long is in England/Scotland?

I thought that you had the choice of hospital including Welsh/English hospitals - so the wait is as long as the shortest time isn’t it? That is if you are willing to travel - which I would be.

But doesn't Wales receive a grant from the government which funds the NHS and other services?

Is that a fair amount?

There’s a 2 year wait here in Wales for a knee replacement….how long is in England/Scotland?

I have relatives in Wales who tell me exactly the story Pantglas tells here. They are Welsh born and bred and were once staunch Labour supporters - but no longer.

I’m just reporting facts Pantglas. Shall we let others read our respective posts and decide for themselves who has accurately represented the Welsh NHS?

Misrepresentation and Exaggeration of Wales NHS problems?

Nope and I get that you concentrate solely on the financial aspect (totally ignoring quality and performance) because it suits your unswerving support of Labour, Casdon, to drag Manchester and indeed all of England in under that umbrella.

If the Tories had over 50% of their English boards under delivering on quality and performance we’d be marching in the street!

The fact remains that Labour won’t be the saviour of the NHS if our experiences in Wales are anything to go by.

No, I’m not happy with it Pantglas. However I don’t like exaggeration or misrepresentation either, which is what you were doing. If you read the attachments I posted you will see that Manchester is in the same position, as is the rest of England. That doesn’t mitigate the mess that Wales is in, it puts it into context, which is important.