So who recognises Britain as it is today?

slowmart

So if you held a mirror to the face of Britain, what would you see?


To me it seems it's an ugly, angry, bigoted and inhumane face staring back.


i look at the press and the polarising nature of their output which feeds the publics fears, sells papers but shapes opinion.

Sound bites it's from politicians which mis direct rather than any substance to digest and challenge.

ugo.santalucia

and that before you even consider the new wave of litigation... people run to the lawyers for all sorts of miserable issues that could be solved by talking and shaking hands... I can't go into the details, but we've just been through hell for something that was completely avoidable if only we were made aware of the fact that there was an issue.

I am lucky because the people I deal with at work are students, not yet corrupted by the gold rush... they are still "human" and that is encouraging... people in my age group are for a large part horrible

Gromson

Slowmart wrote:

So if you held a mirror to the face of Britain, what would you see?
To me it seems it's an ugly, angry, bigoted and inhumane face staring back.

It's a big OBESE ugly SMOKE-DAMAGED angry TOOTHLESS bigoted WEE-SCENTED inhumane SUN-WRINKLED face staring back.

But hey, as long as everyone's got a tattoo, a pug, an iPhone and a pair of Ugg boots, everything's golden.

veronese68

I don't understand how so many people seem to believe an independent judiciary is undemocratic. I really do despair.
But where else to go?

Jez mon

In my day to day life it's full of great people, wonderful countryside and a work life balance that only slightly tips over into too much work stress...

But it's clearly not so great for a lot of people.

priory

'''an independent judiciary is undemocratic.''

of couse this is true .Just look at them. They are, even more than the conservative cabinet, selected from the rich, priviledged public school and oxbridge set.

sorry if you were being ironic, I didn't see it.

andcp

oxoman wrote:

I really beleive charity begins at home and we should look after our own interests first before those in other countries.

Do you not think that by helping countries less 'fortunate' than ourselves (which have probably been exploited by us somewhere in history) and improving their standard of living that may be beneficial to us in the long run?

BelgianBeerGeek

Britain: chippy, ignorant, foolish, shabby, mean-spirited and divided.

Still, you've got to laugh, eh?

Garry H

Gromson wrote:

Slowmart wrote:

So if you held a mirror to the face of Britain, what would you see?
To me it seems it's an ugly, angry, bigoted and inhumane face staring back.

It's a big OBESE ugly SMOKE-DAMAGED angry TOOTHLESS bigoted WEE-SCENTED inhumane SUN-WRINKLED face staring back.

But hey, as long as everyone's got a tattoo, a pug, an iPhone and a pair of Ugg boots, everything's golden.

Well put

Pross

priory wrote:

'''an independent judiciary is undemocratic.''

of couse this is true .Just look at them. They are, even more than the conservative cabinet, selected from the rich, priviledged public school and oxbridge set.

sorry if you were being ironic, I didn't see it.

What a complete load of bull. No matter what the background of judges all they are doing is upholding the laws created by the politicians. One of the biggest problems in the country is people who need to find someone to blame when things don't go how they want.

mrfpb

priory wrote:

'''an independent judiciary is undemocratic.''

of couse this is true .Just look at them. They are, even more than the conservative cabinet, selected from the rich, priviledged public school and oxbridge set.

sorry if you were being ironic, I didn't see it.

Small 'c' conservative, yes, they have to be. The rest is resorting to personal insult because you can't argue with the facts.

Any decision a High Court Judge makes will set a precedent for all similar cases in the future. They have to take a view of the facts in front of them along with a view that takes in the wider implications for, in this case, constitutional law as a whole. This makes them cautious or 'conservative' in their judgements. The EU Referendum Act clearly states that it is not binding on the government or Parliament, no matter what ministers claim. That means the result still has to be enacted by an Act of Parliament.

The High Court giving the government power to act without the will of Parliament in this matter would have set a precedent for future abuse of the Royal Prerogative by any subsequent government.

Jez mon

The highest ranking judges in the UK went to the best universities. Quelle surprise.

priory

''One of the biggest problems in the country is people who need to find someone to blame when things don't go how they want.''
yes.

ugo.santalucia

Jez mon wrote:

The highest ranking judges in the UK went to the best universities. Quelle surprise.

is that supposed to be a bad thing? Would you rather have a high court judge who studied law at Preston?

The real problem is who gets access to Oxbridge, not that the best jobs go to the best educated people

mrfpb

Jez mon wrote:

The highest ranking judges in the UK went to the best universities. Quelle surprise.

I simply can't be bothered to research the educational background of every judge. Are you talking about Oxbridge or Russell group universities or some other category of 'best'. As Ugo says, you would expect the best judges to have the best standard of education, Anyway, no one walks out of University and onto the bench of any court as a judge. It's a very long path to the bench of the High Court. They probably taught at the best universities before reaching their current positions.

ugo.santalucia

I teach in a top ten UK University, used to teach in a top 60 previously. It's night and day and if go to one of the top two the level is even higher. It's no wonder the best jobs end up to people who studied in the best universities.

The real scandal is the correlation between social class and opportunities

meanredspider

The funny thing is that the real people I meet in the UK are generally lovely people. The further I move away from that (call centres, internet, media, politicians etc) the worse it gets. I'm not sure what that tells me.

veronese68

I don't think Jezmon meant that in a bad way, I thought he meant it was obvious the top judges would have been to a good university.

Secteur

I look into the abyss and I all I see is the abyss staring back at me.

Blame the Kardashians. Blame the "I deserve it all" mentality. Blame the rush for easy money and resistance to getting hands dirty and building something. Blame the ultra PC, nanny state where it pays to be an unemployed baby machine. Blame a culture that vilifies education, standing and class but won't do anything to achieve it.

It's a miserable little island full of miserable little people all trying to claw themselves up to the detriment of everyone around them . There is no goodness or humanity. There is nothing but hateful vomitus.

If the Great Britain of 1945 could see us now. I am ashamed.

rick_chasey

My own London bubble is OK.

Everyone looking at each nervously "Christ, we actually share an island with these people? Do they not read history?"

cycleclinic

We are an inequal soceity. Still there are mice people and so long as you stay away from politics people well cyclists can be quite friendly. The britian on the late 40' was no rose garden. Racism was abound, women had no oppertunities once married. The past was not better and britian is still a decent place to live. We have lost the plot a bit of late but once we release our problems are all home grown maybe we can find the beginings of solutuons although we will have to stop talking lazy angry speak like blaming everything on the elites. Politicans still go on about encouraging manufacturing and creating an industrial policy but that wont help. What reamins of manufacturing is increasingly high end requiring highly skilled people. Roll royce for example make 61% of the income from selling services not hard goods. We still have the nicest cheese, ale , cider in the world and if you are feeling a bit down drink some ale, eat cheese and then go ride a bike.

Did you know 74% of chinese children in the u.k getting free school meals get 5 good gcses for white folk it is 33%. Chinese kids are not smarter at birth. Our culture is part of the problem one day we we all see it and stop blaming others.

Our cousins in the u.s are showing us how deep the barrel goes. They have not even scraped the bottom yet. We have barley got started. More cheese eating and ale drinking to come i think.

Some radical thinking is required. Come folk instead of dispairing get your thinking caps on.

chris_bass

Secteur wrote:

If the Great Britain of 1945 could see us now. I am ashamed.

Yep, when life expectancy was under 65, racism was considered to be fine and being gay was illegal

DeVlaeminck

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Jez mon wrote:

The highest ranking judges in the UK went to the best universities. Quelle surprise.

is that supposed to be a bad thing? Would you rather have a high court judge who studied law at Preston?

The real problem is who gets access to Oxbridge, not that the best jobs go to the best educated people

I think the problem is a bit of both.

I've also taught at a Russell Group uni as well as less well regarded institutions and whilst I agree the average student at the "top" institutions is more motivated and probably more academically able my experience was that the top students at the former polys I taught at were on a par with the top students at the Russell group uni.

ugo.santalucia

DeVlaeminck wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Jez mon wrote:

The highest ranking judges in the UK went to the best universities. Quelle surprise.

is that supposed to be a bad thing? Would you rather have a high court judge who studied law at Preston?

The real problem is who gets access to Oxbridge, not that the best jobs go to the best educated people

I think the problem is a bit of both.

I've also taught at a Russell Group uni as well as less well regarded institutions and whilst I agree the average student at the "top" institutions is more motivated and probably more academically able my experience was that the top students at the former polys I taught at were on a par with the top students at the Russell group uni.

I wasn't talking about students, more about what we teach and how we teach... which possibly is a function of the students we have access to, but only to an extent. Not only the curriculum is stronger, but also the number of contact hours is higher... small group tutorial type teaching is not something we did in my previous post. If you go to Oxbridge small group teaching becomes 1:1 which can be even more effective.

Jez mon

Veronese68 wrote:

I don't think Jezmon meant that in a bad way, I thought he meant it was obvious the top judges would have been to a good university.

This.

When I'm watching f1 I don't expect the Adrian Neweys of this world to have got a Desmond from Thames Valley Uni either.

pblakeney

Jez mon wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

I don't think Jezmon meant that in a bad way, I thought he meant it was obvious the top judges would have been to a good university.

This.

When I'm watching f1 I don't expect the Adrian Neweys of this world to have got a Desmond from Thames Valley Uni either.

Would you accept the University of Southampton though?

DeVlaeminck

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I wasn't talking about students, more about what we teach and how we teach... which possibly is a function of the students we have access to, but only to an extent. Not only the curriculum is stronger, but also the number of contact hours is higher... small group tutorial type teaching is not something we did in my previous post. If you go to Oxbridge small group teaching becomes 1:1 which can be even more effective.

Ah yes that is true - though in some institutions give it half a term and the group sizes became more select as more couldn't be bothered to get out of bed - maybe that has changed now they are paying tens of thousands for the privilege ?

ugo.santalucia

DeVlaeminck wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I wasn't talking about students, more about what we teach and how we teach... which possibly is a function of the students we have access to, but only to an extent. Not only the curriculum is stronger, but also the number of contact hours is higher... small group tutorial type teaching is not something we did in my previous post. If you go to Oxbridge small group teaching becomes 1:1 which can be even more effective.

Ah yes that is true - though in some institutions give it half a term and the group sizes became more select as more couldn't be bothered to get out of bed - maybe that has changed now they are paying tens of thousands for the privilege ?

Attendance to lectures is about 80% in year one, when they live in campus and drops to 50-60% in year 2 when they move out of campus. Attendance to small group tutorials is close to 100% and that per se makes the difference.

BelgianBeerGeek

PBlakeney wrote:

Jez mon wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

I don't think Jezmon meant that in a bad way, I thought he meant it was obvious the top judges would have been to a good university.

This.

When I'm watching f1 I don't expect the Adrian Neweys of this world to have got a Desmond from Thames Valley Uni either.

Would you accept the University of Southampton though?

Don't be disgusting. Southampton?
My alma mater

webboo

thecycleclinic wrote:

Our cousins in the u.s are showing us how deep the barrel goes. They have not even scraped the bottom yet. We have barley got started. More cheese eating and ale drinking to come i think.

Some radical thinking is required. Come folk instead of dispairing get your thinking caps on.

I hope the barley was intended. Nice pun.

pblakeney

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

Jez mon wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

I don't think Jezmon meant that in a bad way, I thought he meant it was obvious the top judges would have been to a good university.

This.

When I'm watching f1 I don't expect the Adrian Neweys of this world to have got a Desmond from Thames Valley Uni either.

Would you accept the University of Southampton though?

Don't be disgusting. Southampton?
My alma mater

And Adrian Newey.