Education, Education, Education!!

[wobbegong]

Bye bye NL

[minestrone]

They should have faked some terrorist attack and got the news out at the same time.

Not seen the news yet but i'm sure the country are going to go fruit loop when they hear that one.

[Sysman]

They should have faked some terrorist attack and got the news out at the same time.

Not seen the news yet but i'm sure the country are going to go fruit loop when they hear that one.

teachers are going to go fruit loop

[dinker]

HARD-UP councils are squandering millions of pounds on payouts to accident-prone teachers and pupils, a Scottish Sun investigation reveals today.
Classroom staff and other school workers have raked in almost £1.5million compensation over the past five years.

Pupils and their families have grabbed over £600,000 from cash-strapped education authorities. Incredibly, the majority of claims by youngsters were to cover loss or damage to their mobile PHONES.

Educational employees were mostly compensated for personal injuries and damage to cars and personal effects.

The biggest single payout was £69,691.60 to an education worker in the Western Isles.

While a pupil at a school in Aberdeenshire received £35,334 after suffering injuries to their mouth and teeth.

[George Parr]

I think this is clever politics by NuLab. They are desperately trying to prove a point - that they can be trusted with the economy for another term. So a lamb or two gets sacrificed. A few token gesture cuts here and there, all for the greater good of the country of course, and wouldn't it be so much worse if the Tories got in yada yada yada.

[OwlHoot]

I think this is clever politics by NuLab. They are desperately trying to prove a point - that they can be trusted with the economy for another term. So a lamb or two gets sacrificed. A few token gesture cuts here and there, all for the greater good of the country of course, and wouldn't it be so much worse if the Tories got in yada yada yada.

But is it so clever to focus on education first, instead of, say, a bunch of fat cat quangos of marginal use?

Mind you, they could be starting with the most contentious first, so that by election time these won't be recent in voters' memories.

[George Parr]

But is it so clever to focus on education first, instead of, say, a bunch of fat cat quangos of marginal use?

Mind you, they could be starting with the most contentious first, so that by election time these won't be recent in voters' memories.

This way it is high visibility. Cameron has sold the idea of cuts quite well so far. Now Brown is effectively saying to the electorate "is this what you really want? - 'cos its what you'll get under the Tories only a lot worse."

[minestrone]

Went to the football with a friend who is a teacher today.

They have been promised a 2.5% increase next year and they are all going on strike if that gets touched. I told him that my rate was down 40% on last year and he might have to take what is coming. He told me I earn too much anyway. I told him I never got a 3rd at uni.

The only way public sector wages are going to come down is for a period of high inflation with no wage increases.

[Menelaus]

There's no nice way of saying this so there'll be no mincing of words from this location.

Public spending has GOT to be reduced. There should be absolutely NO sacred cows and I'm afraid that means that difficult decisions need to be made, including:

- scrapping or severely reducing many benefits including means testing child benefit and disability benefits
- reducing dramatically capital spending on defence projects (and, frankly, **** the job losses at BAe etc and double, treble, quadruple **** the Admirals at MoD who believe that they're still fighting the Cold War - I mean, aircraft carriers? WTF?)
- huge reductions in quangos - any non-self funding quangos (and that doesn't mean a massive increase in levies on businesses or individuals) will have funding removed
- NHS to be insurance supported for anything other than emergency medicine - with the insurance companies being encouraged to provide equal numbers of secondees to run the scheme (quango-free zone)

/rant

[Zippy]

There's no nice way of saying this so there'll be no mincing of words from this location.

Public spending has GOT to be reduced. There should be absolutely NO sacred cows and I'm afraid that means that difficult decisions need to be made, including:

- scrapping or severely reducing many benefits including means testing child benefit and disability benefits
- reducing dramatically capital spending on defence projects (and, frankly, **** the job losses at BAe etc and double, treble, quadruple **** the Admirals at MoD who believe that they're still fighting the Cold War - I mean, aircraft carriers? WTF?)
- huge reductions in quangos - any non-self funding quangos (and that doesn't mean a massive increase in levies on businesses or individuals) will have funding removed
- NHS to be insurance supported for anything other than emergency medicine - with the insurance companies being encouraged to provide equal numbers of secondees to run the scheme (quango-free zone)

/rant

I agree with you on the defence budgets, child benefit and quangos.

You can achieve very large savings in the NHS without affecting patient care, simply by sacking all the assistant apprentice tea-stirrers mates.