Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

as i guess i lean to the right - certainly dress that way - then that must make me intelligent, which will come as a great surprise to many, including myself :-)

Not intelligent, just not naive.

you're so cruel!

pst, as Ive now got haystack filtered someone remind him to look at the party political broadcast again, and then deny Reeves letter is not in the public interest and the reply recieved not a bolloking for Cameron like he got over telling porkies about real term spending on the NHS.

Its above somewhere.

And whilst I support people's rights to send their children to private schools, (I believe that's their prerogative) the problem is, in this class-ridden society we live in, it will mean rather unexceptional people continuing to have exceptional education - - and by that token, the country will continue to be managed by unexceptional people, with unexceptional ideas, all masked by the name of the school they attended.

There is nothing exceptional about David Cameron

If there's nothing special about DC, does that mean any old Tom, Dick or Harry is capable of getting a PPE 1st at Oxford then?

Ive got a freind with that qualification and he couldnt run a piss up in a brewery, his words not mine. I also have a PHD but I know I couldnt rule the country.

Cameron is nothing special, .....well he is a good liar.

GF - that is a load of total rubbish and you clearly know absolutely zilch about Eton and other top public schools ..... though these schools give many comprehensive scholarships, there's no escaping the fact that the cost is impossible for an ever-growing majority of the population .... nevertheless, it is FACT that Eton offers a very fine and wide-ranging education, and the days of getting in "because daddy went there" are long gone .... entry is competitive and tough, either acadaemically or because you bring some other asset with you, whether it be musical or artistic or just look to have interesting potential ..... the same ethos will be true of most if not all of the top-rated public schools

so try learning FACTS instead of trotting out the usual perceived tripe .... and no, i did not go to Eton

errr cynic........ list the qualifications of William and Harry, both public school boys, and then come back and tell me that Im not using facts.

Im waiting.

The entry to public schools is very competitive. All pupils take common entrance exam. The top public schools also have their own even tougher test. These tests are taken at age 13. The standard in parts of the exam is as high as GCSE. The public schools now, almost without exception, take IGCSE exams which are much harder than GCSE. Most of my son's friends got 11 A* at IGCSE. You definitely get what you pay for.

By the way Ed Balls went to public school and so did many of the Labour Party.

William got 12 GCSEs and 3 A levels. He went to university and got an MA grade 2:1

Harry got 11 GCSEs and 2 A levels and went to Sandhurst

Hilary,

He has been crammed.

He has been taught by rote and shows the rigidity sometimes developed by that system.

He can reproduce what was stuck in front of him and the usual mantras.

Listening to many of the tory party faithful, so have they.


Not against learning by rote.

Memorising and reproducing "fact" can be and is useful and basis for functioning, but you can be a "thick" as two pennies and get a degree and an honours degree.

I would not abolish the "private" school education, but would prefer to lift the standard education in general and the facilities for all, so making the private schools unnecessary, or unwanted, other than by those who wish to leave the "upbringing" of their offspring to others.

One of the main problems with education in this country has been the constant B. about with it, since the 1980s with the constant changes and upheavals.

Evolution is always necessary in an organisation, but in education it seems to have suffered from rampant ideological revolutions, or changes. That applies to both Labour, Tory party and the L.D. through Shirley Williams.

But what is evident about this government is that they are bonded together like members of the Bullingdon Club or Burlington Berties going down together.

At least they are being to do some U-turns on the economy. (Later than they should have done.)

But I bet that they will duck the changes to the Financial Services and Taxation which are needed.




.

Cynic..... William got just 3 A levels a b and c in art geography and I think biology.

Hardly exceptional for a public school boy.

Now thats facts for you and not your usual.........usual perceived tripe

GF - do some research into entry requirements for say Eton, Radley, Westminster and St Paul's just to name a few obvious contenders ..... i can give you others if you like and/or girls' schools which i suspect have similar policies

harry and william cannot be held up as typical examples, for some very good reasons that should be pretty obvious even to someone as partisan as yourself

My son is a second year PPEist at Balliol, and well on track for a double first. He got there totally on merit. He didn't go to public school, but he did go to one of the country's top grammars. Everything he has achieved so far has been through his own efforts and has not been bought.

I can also say with 100% certainty that you can't get a first at Oxford through cramming. The students who find themselves having to work non-stop 24/7 are invariably the ones who are struggling and probably shouldn't be there. Despite the intensity, the high achievers tend to be more balanced and rounded individuals who are naturally more gifted. They are the ones who find the time to play the sports and go out socialising.

If the likes of DC, Osborne and BoJo achieved high grades and found time to prat about in the Bullingdon Club then, to me, it simply demonstrates that they are actually gifted.

Arguing from the particular to the general is an intelligenty bankrupt technique. William is not exactly a normal student at any school.

Incidentally, it's also wrong to assume that Oxford is full of Tory toffs.

Balliol is well known as being a leftie college. Balliol PPE alumni include Stephanie Flanders, Robert Peston and Yvette Cooper (who was also president of the JCR in her time and very popular).

hils - amazed he got through balliol interview nonsense without some good left-wing leanings :-) ..... good for him!

hils - our posts x-ed! ..... exactly so, as my younger son discovered; he went to nottingham instead, which was actually the right choice as the english course there can be tailored to some extent ....he always wanted to go into digital advertising or similar, and was able to tilt his studies accordingly

Actually, cynic, one of the reasons they like him there is because his right-wing views provide a bit of balance. Unfortunately, the only other right-wing PPEist is a German. :)