Apparently, according to The Guardian, I should care about something called Prawn Slavery

[Berni]

Which I'm happy to do just so long as my concern doesn't cause my prawns to get any more expensive. And assuming I'm not required to actually do anything about it, of course.

[Curly]

Can't run you a bath or scrape dog ****e off your new Nikes imo

[Classic Jorge]

[Ashberto]

clicks.

They are the Adrian Durham to your inner Nicosia.

[Berni]

Someone's got to pick prawns in the Alabama prawn fields (or whatever), so...y'know. Rather them than me.

[Classic Jorge]

Personally I don't touch the f**kers so I can sleep easily.

[Luis Anaconda]

someone who constantly reads a writer that they hate - can't recall what it is now though

[Berni]

My favourite bits are when they tie themselves in knots trying to reconcile irreconcilable bits of dogma.

The Trojan Horse schools one is particularly good for this. "We don't like religion and religious schools, but we also don't like The Telegraph, Michael Gove, etc and we start getting itchy whenever there's a suggestion of of Islamophobia." Then their heads explode (I imagine).

[Classic Jorge]

This could mostly be done by getting rid of Gove

[Berni]

But then nobody gave a f**k about all the Chinese FoxConn employees who were working in dreadful conditions (and topping themselves so frequently that the company had to put a net on the outside of their building) so hipsters could have iPhones and iPads either, so no-one's hands are clean.

[Berni]

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

decent state education system - despite the best efforts of everyone in the state educational system who have combined to make it so mediocre for so long. More power to his elbone imo.

[Luis Anaconda]

mmmmm shrimps
http://www.sweetsforu.co.uk/images/shrimps.jpg

[Curly]

[Classic Jorge]

And these people also usually can't point to a single scrap of evidence to support their arguments, they generally just like the cut of his fundamentalist neocon jib.

He's a dangerous man with mental ideas, b. He's done nothing to help the school my other half runs but he's done a phenomenal amount of things which have made their job harder and have effected the quality of education they can offer.

[Berni]

[Berni]

above the good education of children is pretty f**king hilarious since that's what they've all been doing for the last half-century.

They have failed children for decades, are entirely without credibility and, as a consequence, it's hardly a surprise that people should feel that anyone opposing them can only be an improvement.

[Classic Jorge]

Teachers may have their faults, god knows I'm aware of that, but they genuinely care about the education they're giving kids. Not about profit margins or shareholder dividends, just about giving the kids the best they can.

Fine, if it's just about smashing the "leftist educational establishment" I can understand that but things aren't getting better, they are getting much, much worse and very, very quickly.

What's he done that's actually improved anything?

[Ashberto]

by constantly changing things around and adding new demands and requirements, according to their particular whims.

[Snin]

[redgunamo]

[Berni]

• He's cut the number of children being taught in failing schools by 250,000

• He's enabled more than half of England's state secondary schools to become academies, freeing them from the dead hand of local authority control

• He's opened 174 free schools (so far), with 75 per cent of the first wave being ranked "good" or "outstanding" by Ofsted

• He's rewritten the national curriculum, with more rigorous, intellectually challenging programmes of study being introduced in English, Maths, Science, Languages, Computing, Geography and History

• He's raised standards in GCSEs and A-levels, stripping out meaningless BTEC "equivalents" in subjects like Travel and Tourism, removing coursework and ensuring all pupils are assessed on their performance in end-of-course exams

• He's made it easier for head teachers to enforce discipline, giving them the power to permanently exclude children without the risk that they'll be reinstated by local authorities

• He's weakened the grip of Left-wing academics on the teacher training process, making it possible for outstanding schools to train teachers themselves

• He's made the league tables more transparent, forcing schools and local authorities to make much more information public so parents can make better informed decisions of where to send their children

• He's introduced new accountability measures that will make it harder for under-performing schools to "game" the league tables

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Curly]

[Ashberto]

And a fantastic bit of business it was/is too for those hired to find headteachers for them :hehe: :kerching:

[devongunner]

that doesn't preserve or better increase their pensions and allow them not to confront failure, theirs or the childrens. Never mind the holidays.

Cue millions of responses about how teachers work throughout their holidays and every night until the wee hours marking books

[Classic Jorge]

The majority of schools are still under local authority control and budgets have been cut and reorganised so severely it's making the job of kids being taught much, much harder as a lot of those cuts are just being passed straight to the schools in the same financial year.

There's also some massively worrying stuff coming out about academies who are revelling in their new deregulated status by hiring unqualified teachers, that's before we get to the various cases of serious fraud.

The free school thing is interesting too. Most of which are being set up on a religious basis, which surely can only lead to extremism becoming a bigger factor in the future.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

the buildings can be heated and maintained for free and examiners don't need to earn a living.

Otherwise it all has to be paid for. imo.

[Curly]

We have an illegal protest camp over here.It cost the peelers 9 million quid to stand and look at it last year.
:-(

[devongunner]

12 hours of contact a week, rest of time researching for a book that no one will read but they will make lots of money from. Another example of subsidised laying about. Change things and we will soon be having two year degrees and less debt for all the kids starting out in life. Speaks as father of three , two currently at Uni and costing a fortune and one to go next year when I shall be poor. Two from uni have been home since mid may and go back end of September. Its utter *******s

[Berni]

The idea is to disrupt the current system because it's rubbish.
Complaining that it's been thrown into disarray is like complaining that building a new, five lane motorway is destroying the rutted cart track that was previously there.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Does any c**t give you a hand out, or do you go to work?

[Curly]

of my first mortgage tied around their necks before the do a day's work is a bit....much :shrug:

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

lined with your money?

How unusual. It's like lefties are all f**king thieves, or something.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

summat. Most of them shouldn't be at university anyway.

It's pure decadence, c.

[Berni]

They cost us a bloody fortune!

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

In fact, the exact reason he's so hated by the education sector (especially the unions) is that he actually is enacting real and substantive reform. They hate that more than anything.

If he was as ineffectual as you like to make out, they wouldn't give a toss and ignore him - same as they have all the other education secretaries.

[devongunner]

good for so long they now feel entitled even if the public purse is struggling. Cant blame them I suppose

[Classic Jorge]

The whole 'deregulate it and let the markets sort it out' thing is not a plan

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[devongunner]

wouldn't you?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Logic and reason must prevail.