tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post6479509433028084876..comments2024-03-11T19:40:23.089+00:00Comments on Views from the bike shed: The trouble with posh boysThe bike shedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05195882998271591934noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-22190656490985453042013-02-04T00:22:26.594+00:002013-02-04T00:22:26.594+00:00I hate to disagree with you Mark but I do think Ca...I hate to disagree with you Mark but I do think Cameron is an arrogant posh boy. Although I agree with what Nadine D says I think she is a publicity seeking career politician like the majority of them. I also agree with Orwell because let's face it how can anyone understand anything they have not experienced themselves (or at least lived amongst). This government is both ignorant and uncaring precisely because it is run by a bunch of privileged posh boys. What Cameron even considers is a low income when calculating his child benefit cut-off makes us laugh where I live because it would be considered a high income here and very few earn even that much! So I will not shed tears over the middle classes with their school fees and child care costs to agonise over. As for university fees I think those earning enough can pay back their fees in time and that is fair enough. After all the (working) folk who haven't been to university have paid in their taxes for these students to study. I studied partly with the OU and paid for my courses. The working people of this country are really struggling and suffering and I don't mean the middle classes. The NHS is collapsing, education standards are a joke, social care is under threat and those on benefits or onlow income are seen as guilty - the deserving poor of Victorian times once more. In fact this era is so reminiscent of Victorian times, the era I studied with the OU.<br />As for benefits to the low paid to 'top up' their earnings - have you ever thought how we are really subsidising the employers, people like Tesco for one example. They employ people for peanuts and the taxpayer shells out to top up the low paid's income. Who wins? The employer. We are being ripped off. Rant over.Cait O'Connorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04569760764766505179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-83419363944257132912013-02-02T21:19:24.845+00:002013-02-02T21:19:24.845+00:00All of the parties are stuffed full of 'career...All of the parties are stuffed full of 'career politicians'. It's another bug bear of mine Perpetua.<br />The student politicians make their way through the mire of political internships and personal assistant-ships and research posts after a stint of NUS or similar tenure.<br />Grrrrr.<br />I'd enforce the same rule - 'real job' or else!<br />Thing is - politics is become such a 24/7 ugly media-exposed goldfish bowl with impossible standards and restrictions placed upon entrants that I wonder what 'real' person would actually a) want to put themselves through the selection process and b) actually (if they are truly sane) want to become an MP or etc?<br />Maybe we - the electorate - need to look at what we demand from our political representatives?sansserifhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16445280597626572292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-67759539762681134312013-02-02T21:14:41.009+00:002013-02-02T21:14:41.009+00:00Thanks Mark. I'm laughing as I re-read. You mu...Thanks Mark. I'm laughing as I re-read. You must've touched a big nerve with the post as I got onto a bit of a roll there...<br />lol...!<br />sansserifhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16445280597626572292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-3726207407079202802013-02-02T18:55:08.092+00:002013-02-02T18:55:08.092+00:00One of the (many) problems with the current crop o...One of the (many) problems with the current crop of top politicians on both sides is how many of them are career politicians, with little (sometimes no) experience of the ordinary working world outside politics. They exist in a Westminster bubble which skews their perceptions, so of course they don't properly understand the true effect of their policies on those most affected.<br /><br />If I could have my way, no-one would be allowed to stand for Parliament until they'd held down a real job outside politics for at least 10 years. It won't happen, but if it did I think it would help.Perpetuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01214396019726161983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-6437973505705402372013-02-02T15:39:46.570+00:002013-02-02T15:39:46.570+00:00I think that must rate as my longest ever comment ...I think that must rate as my longest ever comment received - and you know, I reckon I agree with virtually of it. Well said. The bike shedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05195882998271591934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-11654432217219602072013-02-02T14:13:58.436+00:002013-02-02T14:13:58.436+00:00I enjoyed your post Mark though I disagreed with s...I enjoyed your post Mark though I disagreed with some of it.<br /><br />I agree that Cameron, Osborne et al understand that some people can be 'poor' - but (and here's a novelty for me) I agree with Dorries that they do not 'care'. In fact, largely they blame the poor. 'The poor are poor and it's all their own fault - and what's more they drag the rest of us down' - that's the refrain behind their attack on benefit claimants and their blatant association of fraudulence with claiming.<br /><br />I'm a product of those 60s- early 80s policies which supported poor working class kids into further and higher education.<br />I come from a poor family blighted by serious parental ill-health and frequent unemployment; benefit dependant; from a Council Housing Estate and a sink Comprehensive School. I got to Uni on a full grant. Then did another couple of degrees.<br /><br />I am now - by anyone's definition - 'middle class'. Though I suspect that many of the middle class don't really want some ex-schemie like me in their midst - reminding them that they're at risk of losing what makes them feel 'superior' if 'social mobility' is successful...<br /><br />I lost my child benefit and would have done even if I'd been a widow or hubby had been pennyless.<br /><br />Thing is, I believe that universal benefits are 'a good thing'. Reminding us of our social bond - the fact that we are 'all in it together'. So, of course I was not happy to see it go - people earning the cash I earn have no reason at all to link themselves to the welfare state now and in the selfish world we live in no reason to care about it either. But I'd have been less angry to lose it if I thought for a minute that any of it was going to actually help lift a burden from those more vulnerable. It isn't. It's helping the current Government give more to its 'ain kind' (tax breaks and etc).<br /><br />Of course, I know of middle class peers who are struggling to pay the mortgage (they borrowed when times were good and prices very high). They dread the weekly food bill at Waitrose/Sainsburys and are thinking about getting rid of a car. They say they can't buy from Boden any more. They are trying to keep up appearances and are still intent on paying the school fees. One acquaintance was furious with me when I suggested that repossession of her house might be less likely if she simply switched the (4) kids to her local comprehensive and used the money saved to pay debts...<br /><br />Do I feel sorry for them?<br /><br />Fraid not. I feel deeply frustrated that they are so bound up in the trappings of middle-class-ness - they define themselves by their consumption - by where they shop; what they own; where their kids go to school; where they holiday. <br /><br />Why would I feel sorry for them? Some of my friends and my family exist on minimum wage and cannot make it from one end of the week to the other. They are felled by a car repair bill or a shoe size rise in their youngest kid. Or a hike in rent. Or a central heating system that has packed in. But in order for the middle class to exist my family and friends are essential. They make the middle class feel ok. Comforted. 'I'm not as bad as them...'<br /><br />I'm convinced that social mobility is a myth. It's dog eat dog. The rich parent is hardly going to be happy that their progeny lost out to the wee ned from Possilpark who got in on a university initiative to 'widen access and social mix'. For every poor kid who makes it to uni there'll be a rich kid who has to make do with their second choice.<br /> <br />Re VP - I visited a prestigious private school on Thursday - and was saddened by the pupil arrogance/ignorance which could ask 'but are there really poor people? couldn't they all just go to Uni?' and 'My Dad says he'll save money when I go to Uni'. A little reminder for me of the chasm between expectations of the poor v rich.sansserifhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16445280597626572292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-25371394490604752032013-02-02T11:27:55.936+00:002013-02-02T11:27:55.936+00:00Thanks for commenting on my book blog Mark, nice t...Thanks for commenting on my book blog Mark, nice to see you again. I really have no intelligent comment to make on this post, and as my new year intentions include - if I can't say anything nice, say nothing at all, and ditto if I can't add anything meaningful to a conversation I keep quiet....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-30700061390357769182013-02-01T10:55:18.815+00:002013-02-01T10:55:18.815+00:00What a coincidence - we both are featuring politic...What a coincidence - we both are featuring politics today.<br /><br />I was in a well-known supermarket yesterday, where a young mother was checking through the 'knock down price shelf' looking for something good, yet cheap for her very young daughter's lunch box. After she'd carefully explained what she was doing, her daughter started to help her and eventually held up two boxes. 'Look, sushi mummy' :o<br /><br />VPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02732971362066784175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-30111278428038635812013-02-01T08:10:53.636+00:002013-02-01T08:10:53.636+00:00Knowledge or ignorance of the subtleties that affe...Knowledge or ignorance of the subtleties that affect the common man is what makes a good politician or a bad one. The ignorance can usually be cured by talking to people rather than spieling ivory tower manifestos at them... That is also where Cameron and Clegg fail.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02133900289384226725noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-4004144067545366272013-02-01T07:34:59.555+00:002013-02-01T07:34:59.555+00:00"Of course, we need to encourage social mobil..."Of course, we need to encourage social mobility, that's obvious" Although increased social mobility (or perhaps in other words, a meritocracy) is good overall for the nation, for "posh boys", the new doors opened by increased social mobility lead mostly downwards. This does not encourage such people in charge of education to maximise its efficacy.<br /><br />I got the best education available anywhere, largely paid for by the state, and I'm grateful. I could weep for what has been done to education in Britain.Mark In Mayennehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14987723233401368368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-84981486401458230692013-02-01T00:40:08.340+00:002013-02-01T00:40:08.340+00:00hear, hear!!
I used to be part of the team runnin...hear, hear!!<br /><br />I used to be part of the team running the gallery and bookshop in Oriel Theatr Clwyd in 1977. We used to get parties of girls from the local private school, located in an old castle. Their visits were dreaded- they had no idea what "change" was, only paper money! Also their attitude to us "minions" was despicable.gzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08034777779347889773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-876862148358784705.post-16712030161921118552013-01-31T23:40:23.675+00:002013-01-31T23:40:23.675+00:00Cannot imagine that Orwell had much clue either......Cannot imagine that Orwell had much clue either...no idea of the graduations in working class as seen by working class people.<br />Which bears out your point that the posh boys can't see the graduations in middle class as seen by middle class people.<br /><br />So our problem is how to get a balance of working, middle and posh into power.Helen Devrieshttp://asurfeitofpalfreys.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com