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.

The poor ones turned into the Labour party.

Osborne is heir apparent to the Irish Baronetcy. He is descended from aristocracy.

some of you peasants really should ditch the chips - nay, logs - you carry on your shoulders
you might then find you can look and aspire upwards instead of preaching a mantra of falsely based and unwarranted jealousy and attaching tosh

Doc,

It's not related to means. They're awarded after the first year exams to the best performing students, based on performance in those exams (ie. you need to get a first).

I don't know how much Magdalen demyships are worth, but it's probably only £100 or £200. My son's scholarship paid something like £100, half of which went on the special gown that he was then entitled to wear. The idea is that it's a little extra which is intended to help you do well in your finals, based upon the early promise that you've shown. It's certainly not going to fund your passage through a 3 or 4 year course.

The point is that Osborne would have only been awarded his demyship for academic excellence, and not for anything else.

hilary (aka ermintrude) - see above

Hilary,

Many of my school friends went to Oxford and Cambridge etc..

Looking back and talking to others the intensity of academic teaching at the school I attended was far greater than the majority of other schools.

One of my grandchildren attends one of the better schools in London and again the intensity of teaching, facilities and out of hour "societies", groups are "superior", to what I would think sourceable for the majority of the country. He is very happy with the intensity, but he is advantaged now as probably he will be in future.

It seems to me a hothouse has advantages and disadvantages in that it spurts growth by its advantages and may offer protection against the outside environment, but has disadvantages when planted in the outside environment without necessary preparation and “conditioning”.

=-=-=-=-=

(Although I like Shirley Williams and understand what her “intentions” were when “Comprehensive Education” was pushed through, I think the preparation necessary for an effective system were not in place and cause of much of the failings in “school” education. (Revolution instead of evolution.)

Concentration should have been on raising standards of “Secondary schools” up to those of “Grammar schools”, with the gradual introduction of purposely built and organised comprehensive "buildings" suitable for the intended education.

See what above, Cyners?

Yeah right, course he was awarded it for academic excellence... lol

as for Poor? He’s the millionaire son of Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet, who co-founded the firm of fabric and wallpapers designers Osborne & Little.

Concentration should have been on raising standards of “Secondary schools” up to those of “Grammar schools”

quite right fred, but of course it wasn't by ANY of those in power
instead, we have seen a steady dumbing down in all sorts of ways, accompanied by a widespread parental denial of responsibility - not so much among the asian and some of the other immigrant communities it must be said

=======

54914 hilary :-)

Hmmm? That MeetInvest site above has some pretty good investment tools.

Goldfinger: You might just like to take a look at some of them.

The point the toffs are missing here is that opportunities are opened up for the likes of Osbourne Camoron etc, no matter what exams or colleges they have attended.

Neither of them have ever filled in an application form or had to compose a CV (osbourne admits this) and its just DADDY who gets them a position with a fellow purple nosed boozer from the Bullingdon Club or the like.

Its very much like arranged marriages.

On the other hand the working classes have to go through inferior schools and work harder to get there places at Oxford or Cambridge colleges and then have £50 grand to pay off before even applying for a mortgage and have to tottle off down the Job Centre and all the hardship and stress that involves.

They dont walk into jobs/positions they have to fight against hundreds of others who are queing up for the same job.

Why on earth anybody votes for posh snob boys who have been given all these privileges is beyond me. They certainly have nothing in common with 95% of the population.

You could say that about the labour party gf, full of toffs.

GF,

Once again agreed!

Very Small % of what the Tories have Im afraid Max.

Exec........meetinvest where????????????

I'd say it about all parties! Most politicians aren't cut out for anything more than debating... Osborne should have been a journalist, no doubt he'd have shone far brighter if The Times had of accepted him... Just seams that all these politicians fall into politics once they fail at what they really wanted to do, its as though publicly running the country has become the career safety net of the privileged.

The biggest problem in the UK is that there is too much of a (legalised mafia) of a sort in politics, journalism and with royalty and with a few other privileged sections of the community ; they are all much too content to carry on running the country as it is with nobody stepping out of line and rocking the boat a little : the way we are governed suits everybody within this circle.

Being ageist again..

Perhaps, MPs should be over 30 years old and ministers over 40 and PMs over 50.

Doesn't exclude bright younger researchers, advisers of younger age.

Wouldn't have considered writing the above 5 years ago, but the one thing "age" often seems to provide is a better perspective is of time and consequences.

What has been missing of recent governments is long term planning and acceptance of the need of preparation and time involved the intended goals, also think major policy changes should, when possible, be tested out by "trials" before being implemented across the board.

That Tory Hancock on TV now is a top wanker.

Some posters on here today who seem to have big chips on their shoulders, or is it a case of - "I'm not happy with my lot in life" ?!