You're born
You die
Sh*t happens inbetween
Don't spend my time worrying about it and fighting to challenge, fight and alter it

Does that make me naive, insensitive or uncaring? Maybe.....but I'll still end up at the same end point as the rest of you at the end of it all.

Thats not the same as what you said. You said as long as you look after yourself you'll be ok. That's not true. There are myriad ways in which your life can and will be affected by somebody or something else. As mentioned, when/if you fall ill you may wish you'd voted or campaigned for a party that wasn't going to privatise the NHS. When/if you have children, you may wish you'd voted or campaigned for a party that wasn't going to privatise the education system. When/if you reach retirement age, you may wish you'd voted or campaigned for a party that wasn't going to decimate pensions in favour of short term economic gain. When/if you ever get made redundant you may wish you'd voted or campaigned for a party that wasn't going to demonise you as a scrounger and make you work for free. If, god forbid, you suffer some kind of accident or illness that leaves you disabled, you may wish you'd voted or campaigned for a party that wasn't going to target disabled and vulnerable people for funding cuts.

Don't believe the right wing media bull that deliberately furthers the "they're all the same" line. There is a choice at elections. They'll all screw you over because they don't have a choice not to, but your choice is between screwing the poor, vulnerable, sick, unemployed even more than usual, along with furthering the strength of the rich. Or doing those things only a little.
Might not seem like a choice but it makes a big difference to a lot of people's lives. As you'll see in the future when the already privatised hospitals start charging and the soon to be privatised schools first introduce entry requirements to keep the riff-raff out, and then eventually charge too.

Those at the top are generally utter b&stards and so you should take every opportunity possible to even slightly restrict their opportunity to screw over ordinary people.

Thank you HIM for a very good post. I must admit I have continually doubted my political allegiance over the last six months or so, and started edging in a direction I never thought I would. That post has actually just made me rethink, and remind me of my own beliefs previously and why I had them.

I've doubted my political allegiance for years and have voted for 4 different parties for different reasons at different elections, the only main parties I've completely refused to vote for at any level are UKIP and the BNP. My views on issues aren't encapsulated by any one party but when there are such assaults on what I'd describe as the basis of civilisation (free and universal healthcare, free and universal education, treating vulnerable/disabled people with dignity etc) then I think you have to do what you can to keep those things regardless of who's threatening them. And voting is the one thing that everyone can do.

I'd also tie it back in to RL. Back in 1895 when the rich/privileged/establishment tried to hold back the dirty northern oiks who were giving them a much deserved kicking every week, we stood together and told them to get stuffed.

But it was the Labour party of Blair/Brown that introduce some private outsourcing of the NHS. The same party that threw huge money at the NHS which was wasted. There are many countries that have far better and more efficient public health services that are partly run by the private sector.



Again the private sector has shown it can provide the best education in the country.



It was the Labour chancellor Gordon Brown who decimated the pensions and sold off all our gold reserves for a short term economic/political gain.



Or on the other hand you may wish you had voted for a party that wasn't so economically inept with its borrow and spend policies that caused the cuts and which we are all still paying for so many years on. A party that is run by a narrow metropolitan elite who have no idea how to create the wealth needed to pay for our public services. I think many people have finally seen the Labour party for what it really is and will vote them out in large numbers today.

The policies of Blair/Brown were more akin to conservative ideology than anything else. That's why the current government have continued the rollout of academies in schools and continued the laissez faire relationship with the financial sector that was the case under Blair/Brown. It's also the case why none of the privatisations of public sector agencies were ever reversed. I would argue that private schools get better results than many state schools because of a whole host of reasons. The fact that they are privately run is probably less to do with it than other factors such as the affluence of the families that send their kids to those schools and how much those parents value an education. The NHS is amongst the best healthcare services in the world despite flatlining budgets for the past 6 years. It may not be for much longer due to a criminal lack of investment and poor leadership but I know I'd rather have it than not. Lastly IIRC many of the public sector spending cuts were brought about by the deficit caused by the Government having to bail out the banks to the tune of many billions. https://www.nao.org.uk/report/maintaini ... t-schemes/

The policies of Blair/Brown were more akin to conservative ideology than anything else. That's why the current government have continued the rollout of academies in schools and continued the laissez faire relationship with the financial sector that was the case under Blair/Brown. It's also the case why none of the privatisations of public sector agencies were ever reversed. I would argue that private schools get better results than many state schools because of a whole host of reasons. The fact that they are privately run is probably less to do with it than other factors such as the affluence of the families that send their kids to those schools and how much those parents value an education. The NHS is amongst the best healthcare services in the world despite flatlining budgets for the past 6 years. It may not be for much longer due to a criminal lack of investment and poor leadership but I know I'd rather have it than not. Lastly IIRC many of the public sector spending cuts were brought about by the deficit caused by the Government having to bail out the banks to the tune of many billions. https://www.nao.org.uk/report/maintaini ... t-schemes/

Whoa there Neddy.

You're a fan of using empirical evidence and statistics to back up your point. Got one for that? Because every study I've seen recently has shown absolutely no educational benefit to taking schools out of local authority control and putting them in the hands of the private sector. Indeed, one Academy chain has recently had to give back a number of schools because it was failing both educationally and financially.

The stampede to move all schools to Academy status is nothing but a piece of political gesturing. It has absolutely no evidence to support an uplift in educational standards. It's ideology over everything else.

You don't have to look far today to see the private sector being no better than the public, with the massive balls-up on electoral registers in Barnet. The job of compiling them was outsourced by the council, and the private sector company they used missed a load of people's names off meaning they couldn't vote without their polling card.

I have always been a believer in the free market and with the lack of a credible alternative capitalism.

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the lack of spread of wealth - this will lead to anarchy if it allowed to continue. There are only so many pairs of jeans a CEO can buy!!

I disagree that those are the top are s - these people have skills that few us can match - running a company the size of Sainsbury is a huge responsibility and the leaders of these companies in general are doing the best they can for themselves, the company and its employees.

Bastards would be how I describe the likes of IS and other terrorist organisations

Compare the results for Bradford boys and girls grammer schools to any other school in Bradford and then see the power of the private sector.

There's a psychological study out there somewhere - can't remember the name of it now - which asked CEOs of the top companies to complete a profiling questionnaire.

IIRC they scored very similarly to psychopaths, in terms of their inability to consider the impact of their actions on others and their decision making processes.

The conclusion was that in order to be highly successful in a business environment you needed to be wired slightly differently from the "normal" person and be prepared to make decisions that other, rational people probably wouldn't. In short, you had to be a bit of a .

Bradford Grammar is a fee-paying school which selects on the basis of an entrance examination. Comparing it to a state school is comparing Mercedes F1 to one of the back of the grid teams. It's pretty easy to get the best exam results when you're only taking in the brightest kids.

Indeed. Hardly a fair comparison at all.

Bradford Grammar and Leeds Grammar are not in the private sector. They're in the charity sector. Ridiculous though true.

As eluded to above, put the entire intake of Leeds Grammar - either through selected ability or parental resources and support - into Allerton High and they'd probably achieve similar results.

Andy, as you seem to know quite a bit about the whole Academy project, can you answer me a straight question (and this is not leading and not intended to prove a point). The last time I checked, which was some years ago I must admit, out of the entire education budget, only around 40% was actually spent on costs that actually directly related to the children it was spent on. The rest was lost on administration.
The being the case, surely it makes sense to remove a layer of bureaucracy by taking the local authorities out of the equation? That is not to say that Academies are the answer, because I have no idea if they are or not.