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.

Well....it was a lucky escape said Francois Hollande......ouf..PHEW.....it could have been the head chef and the train driver....that would HAVE BEEN DISASTROUS.....

please sign the petition to get rid of the lords

After the response after that gymnast 'Lewis' was castigated and ridiculed
by the media for mocking islam by pretending to pray, lets see what the response
is to 'Sir' rod stewart doing a mock execution in a desert somewhere, which was
put up on instagram by his wife penny Lancaster, but has since been removed..


'Sir' Rod Stewart says mock execution was Game of Thrones prank.

The rock star says he was re-enacting TV series after video appears to show him
faking jihadi john style beheading in desert.

Round 11: Haye manages to land a right hand and remind the crowd that he is still dangerous, but a moment later he throws himself through a high left jab, misses, and falls to the floor.

He gets to his feet but finally Bellew hits Haye down to the floor!

He falls out of the ring and through the ropes, and tries to pull himself to his feet as the referee counts, but can barely get there. As he finally stands, his corner throw in the towel!

Tony Bellew beats David Haye!

As expected the 'mock execution' by 'sir' rod stewart has quickly been
forgotten, unlike the Lewis debacle that was carried on by the pc media
for days.....

Ho dear..Has our attention being too focused on Sweden, when France is in
a far worse state...


"In 1984, a movement called SOS Racisme was created by Trotskyist militants,
and began to define any criticism of immigration as "racist". Major leftist parties supported SOS Racism.

They seemed to have thought that by accusing their political opponents of racism, they could attract the votes of "new citizens".

The presence of islamist agitators , alongside agitators in Arab and African
neighborhoods, plus the emergence of anti-western islamic discourse,
alarmed many observers SOS Racisme immediately designated those who
spoke of islamic danger as "Islamophobic racist."

gatestoneinstitute.org/10007/france-death-spiral

Pakistani women in UK paid least compared to men, Irish women the most - study
Mon, 6th Mar 2017 14:47 - By Anna Pujol-Mazzini

LONDON, March 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in Britain are paid the least compared to men while white Irish women have overtaken male peers in terms of salaries, according to a study of the gender pay gap by ethnicity on Monday.

The study released by women's rights group Fawcett Society found women from almost every minority ethnic group experienced a pay gap with white British men.

Research by the University of Manchester found Pakistani and Bangladeshi women hardest hit, earning 26 percent less than white British male peers, while black African women had made little progress since the 1990s and earned 20 percent less.

Figures from the UK's Office of National Statistics show on average women earned about 18 percent less than men in Britain in 2016.

The women who had seen the most progress since the 1990s were white Irish women who are now paid 17.5 percent more than white Irish and British men.

"But this is largely due to generational factors as they are more likely to be older, working full-time or in senior or managerial roles," Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said in a statement.

Chinese women have also have managed to reverse the pay gap in the past 20 years and are now earning 5 percent more than white British men when working full-time. But they still earn less than Chinese men.

Indian women have seen the gender pay gap with white British men narrow to about 6 percent from 26 percent in the 1990s for those working full-time.

Smethers said the charity's breakdown of the gender pay gap by ethnicity - released ahead of International Women's Day on March 8 - tracked progress over a 25 year period with largely negative results but some positive.

Smethers said black African women have been largely left behind in terms of closing the pay gap and Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are today "only where white British women were in the 1990s".

"For these groups this is a story of low labour market participation and low pay when they are in work together with high levels of unpaid caring work," Smethers said.

"But it is important to consider how that gender inequality is experienced by different ethnic groups to ensure that all women in Britain see their gender pay gap closed."

"A Study by womens right group Fawcett Society found women from almost
every minority ethnic group experienced a pay gap with white British men"

Yes another bashing for the white British men, but the system is certainly
working against white British men for future generations which will reverse
that anomaly due to the fact that white boys are now being discriminated against
in further education, and also by the lack of attention in main schools because
the teachers have to give more attention to foreign born children where English
is not their first language.

As to Pakistani and Bangladeshi women being paid the least, is down to those from
them regions are generally muslim, and muslim women stay home to look after their
large families.


And all those studies point to its that time of year when these organisation
put in for grants..

If Theresa May needed confirmation that there has been too much dumbing down in our education system, it is a former (labour) education minister saying that she is 150% wrong to bring back grammar schools.
The wealthy always have choice while grammar schools at least allow some working class youngsters the chance to have a better education. At the same time cut down on the number of universities. We have enough graduates in Art working at Starbucks while Polish fitters are fixing our boilers.

just for info, the country's top public schools are now starting to suffer a severe imbalance as more and more children from wealthy overseas families take up the places on offer

it's an interesting discussion in itself, but i won't bore you all

Yes, it is simple, the working class can afford the coaching to prepare their offspring for the examination to get into the grammar school.

=-==

Simple again, don't make any more boilers.

What you on about now Fred ? I went to a comprehensive but would have needed no coaching whatsoever to have gained a grammar school place and nor would my mates. Those better off who's fathers were doctors , accountants etc wouldn't have needed any either.

Dil.

Are you sure that you wouldn’t have needed coaching could be improved by a little more coercion?

-=-===
The assumptions are that those achieving "grammar" school places is often based on inborn “traits”, “natural abilities” and “genetic propensities” or “predispositions” rather than family “cultural” and “social” factors.
Ie. the “most able intellectually” able float automatically to the “top” by their own “natural” inborn “qualities” rather than the “family “pressures” or “directives”.

As with “athletes” coaching generally if applied appropriately can develop the potentials of an athlete to increase their performances’.

Unfortunately, in present social-cultural structures, many will fail to achieve their potentials.

I thought the introduction of the Comprehensive system under Baroness Shirley Williams while ideologically correct, but was appallingly organised, when put into practice and responsible for the some of the present “school problems”.

Also, I did see the necessity for the demise of the grammar schools, but saw the real problems and the poverty of “teaching” and “training” in the “secondary” schools and some technical colleges.

Also, because the method of re-organising by the amalgamation of schools at a distance to one another and often with different ethoses to one another, made for difficulties.

However, the reintroduction of grammar schools and early zoning of society as 11 or 12 does not seem to be the right way to improve education.

Efforts to improving the “teaching” within the present structures should be the aims.

-=-=-==-=

Ps. I was a lucky grammar school “failure”, but my grand-children are in “top” London comprehensives and I think having a very good education.

Glad to hear it Fred.

Our school was ok at the time but think it may have gone down hill a bit since I attended. Look at that Labour clown Owen Smith who went to the same school , hardly a bright spark is he :-)

I didn't know they had schools in Barry when you were a boy.

Yeah we had some decent teachers too Fred who slapped you around if you didn't behave.

I can now look back fondly at the many times I was slapped with a dap or hit over the knuckles with a ruler ... them was the days.

I once got rapped over the knuckles on 3 separate occasions in one 35 minute French lesson and it was a female teacher.

Dropped French when I was 14 ... think the teacher had an issue with me :-)

And here's another one slipped in from 'Spreadsheet Phil' and which I didn't hear any mention of when I watched his Budget Speech.....

Did I miss it? Did anyone else hear him say anything about it?

Hmmm? Anyway....

Currently, families pay the Government a set £215 fee, or £155 if they apply through a solicitor, to get permission for probate - the legal authority to distribute someone's property, savings and investments after they die.

Fees are set to rocket in May with new levels ranging from £300 to £20,000 depending on the value of the estate - and will be in addition to inheritance tax.

Experts described it as a 'stealth tax' to target the bereaved. It's pretty hefty taxation and it's estimated, that it will rake in around £1.5 Billion.

The "experts" always say that. I guess the only answer is to die before it comes into effect. The increase is to "reduce the cost of running courts and tribunals and, cough, raise 250M for the Exchequer". No doubt it will be spent on worthy causes, such as aid to Kenya and Zimbabwe....