GOGSoc goes forth

Original post by Adorno

Hiya butt. Ow be?

Terrorism in Sweden? Strange, most strange.

Alright thanks, a 2nd year now so I actually have to do some work rather than think which ridiculous post-structuralist theorist I can cruelly abuse the theories of.
How's Swansea?

Reply 582

Craghyrax

17

Original post by ChemistBoy

In short, having started university in 1998 and been part of HE until late 2008 (i.e. for most of the New Labour reign I can't agree that they've made fairly positive changes to HE - their ideas on measuring research were ridiculous, their changes to funding of research were a direct attack on young researchers, their lack of focus on how to expand HE were also a failure (and precisely why HE is so vulnerable to cuts now) and their imposition of fees was unforgivable.

Yeh but those are precisely the features I was alluding to when I likened New Labour to the conservatives. I said that they were positive in raising the aspirations of working class students and improving social mobility. I did not deny that they continued in Thatcher's footsteps as far as league tables and marketisation of key sectors was concerned. That was something that I allowed.

Fair enough you went to University at that time. I did a final year paper on 'the sociology of education' last year, and spent several hours immersed in texts on New Labour and Conservative education policies in order to write an essay on the extent to which New Labour was different to the Conservatives :p:

I know its just an opinion but I have looked into it :smile:

Reply 583

Scrambled Egg.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 584

Piggsil

Playing Trivial Pursuit in another language is hard :sad:

Reply 585

arkbar

Original post by Adorno

Yeah that happened to me too :biggrin:

Uni is getting to the stage of itchy feet now, I really want to move on and try my hand at something new. I've not been in for nearly 3 months and am now regularly avoiding uni "events" as I much prefer to be in Cardiff. I'm sure it's not supposed to be this way though.

Haha, Cardiff is much nicer. Well, apart from Cathays, which is terrible.

Original post by Becca

Playing Trivial Pursuit in another language is hard :sad:

Nothing will disguise your idiocy.

Reply 586

Scrambled Egg.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 587

Piggsil

Original post by Adorno

Ahh genius:

A classic! Always had that read at Christmas by my mum and it always makes me smile.

Reply 588

Scrambled Egg.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 589

ChemistBoy

Original post by evantej

Commissioning the Browne report and acting upon its advice are two separate things; the coalition government prove that. Nevertheless, I would not have been able to move into further education (and then into higher education) without EMA so there is a sharp contrast between Conservative and Labour policy with regards to educational access, and in this respect I am in complete agreement with Craghyrax. No matter how the cuts would have come under Labour they would have ensued that access was still possible; the Conservatives seem happy enough to abandon an entire generation on Jobseekers.

I don't understand where this selective amnesia is coming from? Why would we have any reason at all to assume that Nu-Lab wouldn't have followed the Browne report almost in its entirety? They seem to use every other opportunity to implement increases in fees possible.

EMA isn't decided yet, so we'll wait and see. A phased withdrawal to match the Education Act 2008 compulsory age increases seems perfectly sensible to me.

Reply 590

ChemistBoy

Original post by Craghyrax

Yeh but those are precisely the features I was alluding to when I likened New Labour to the conservatives. I said that they were positive in raising the aspirations of working class students and improving social mobility. I did not deny that they continued in Thatcher's footsteps as far as league tables and marketisation of key sectors was concerned. That was something that I allowed.

Fair enough you went to University at that time. I did a final year paper on 'the sociology of education' last year, and spent several hours immersed in texts on New Labour and Conservative education policies in order to write an essay on the extent to which New Labour was different to the Conservatives :p:

I know its just an opinion but I have looked into it :smile:

eh? That might have been the plan but it didn't really happen.

Reading and commenting on policy is fine, but it's different to what actually happened at the time. Let's not forget that it was the Labour government that introduced upfront tuition fees when I was about to being my undergraduate studies - that was a major blow for social mobility.

The difference between Nu-lab and Lib-Con is where you start hurting the middle class, i.e. how much do they have to earn before it stops being a problem.

Reply 591

Little Jules

Original post by ChemistBoy

I don't understand where this selective amnesia is coming from? Why would we have any reason at all to assume that Nu-Lab wouldn't have followed the Browne report almost in its entirety? They seem to use every other opportunity to implement increases in fees possible.

EMA isn't decided yet, so we'll wait and see. A phased withdrawal to match the Education Act 2008 compulsory age increases seems perfectly sensible to me.

I believe that Labour were quoted as saying that they would implement the Browne report.

A few of the things that I've seen imply that they would, and suggest that Labour were aware of what it would suggest. See here and here for example.

Ah... and Mandleson appeared to support its conclusions here.

Reply 592

evantej

18

Original post by ChemistBoy

I don't understand where this selective amnesia is coming from? Why would we have any reason at all to assume that Nu-Lab wouldn't have followed the Browne report almost in its entirety? They seem to use every other opportunity to implement increases in fees possible.

EMA isn't decided yet, so we'll wait and see. A phased withdrawal to match the Education Act 2008 compulsory age increases seems perfectly sensible to me.

I do not really care about party allegiance to be honest. But it seems wrong to criticise Labour on both accounts; that is, for commissioning the report in the first place, and then on the belief that they would have implemented its suggestions. Since they were not re-elected we cannot know what they would have done; the Liberal Democrat example (i.e. their u-turn) far outweighs Little Jules's link to Peter Mandelson 'hint' in my opinion. In addition, your 'perfectly sensible' suggestion to compensate the EMA cuts is to highlight a piece of legislation that was passed by Labour. You cannot have it both ways...

This issue is not just about the increase in tuition fees, and in this sense the Conservatives are doing more damage in the space of a few months than Labour managed in their entire reign (i.e. the Dearing Report and Education Act of 2004) so it seems negligible to mention that at the moment, but about the manner in which the cuts to education and increase in tuition fees are being justified and implemented.

Reply 593

Drogue

19

Original post by ChemistBoy

I don't understand where this selective amnesia is coming from? Why would we have any reason at all to assume that Nu-Lab wouldn't have followed the Browne report almost in its entirety? They seem to use every other opportunity to implement increases in fees possible.

New Labour probably would, but I doubt Miliband would. In case you hadn't noticed, pretty much everyone involved in New Labour stepped down from politics now.

Not that I agree with current Labour policy, I don't. I agree with Lib Dem policy, and am amazed at how few Lib Dems are actually following their party policy.

Reply 594

*walks in*

:eek:

*walks back out again*

Reply 595

Scrambled Egg.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 596

Drogue

19

I have to say I agree with Adorno - I view GOGsoc like a pub for graduates, so have no issue with people discussing whatever they would in a social setting, be it ranting about work/students/academics, discussing politics or chatting about football. While I appreciate many people here don't have an interest in politics, many also don't have an interest in literature, history or science. I just take the view that I'll reply to topics I'm interested, leave others to discuss things I'm not and start a new topic if I have something to talk about, which people can choose to reply to or not.

There's the same issue with the shoutbox, when people rant about it turning into football box (Saturday afternoon), x factor box (Saturday/Sunday night) or a host of other things. None of these preclude discussing anything else as well.

Original post by Adorno

Getting too close to the higher band tax rate are ye :p:

Well yes

but by Lib Dem party policy I mean scrapping all tuition fees and paying it out of general taxation. It's still official Lib Dem policy, just the party leaders seem to have forgotten this. It's something I don't mind paying tax for.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 597

Original post by Adorno

I'm confused. What exactly do you want GOGsoc to be? These kinds of posts are funny once, might raise a smirk a second time, but every single time anyone dares to post something that might come under the broad bracket of "politics" you pop in and make this kind of post ... I do wonder what it is you're after.

If you don't like, change the topic of the thread.

:confused:

I post whatever comes into my head at the time which was " :eek:

" at the time.

Reply 598

Original post by Drogue

I have to say I agree with Adorno - I view GOGsoc like a pub for graduates, so have no issue with people discussing whatever they would in a social setting, be it ranting about work/students/academics, discussing politics or chatting about football.

Last night we revealed our personal favourites to win X-Factor and tonight another group of us were trying to work out which Friends character we were most like. So sorry if I lower the tone of your convos but I usually talk {insert swear word here} :biggrin:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 599