Has Corbyn dumbed down the Labour Party by purging Oxbridge grads?

considering the Tories are almost exclusively Oxford grads, do we really want another party filled with non-red bricks? also "dumbed down" is pretty harsh dude. so if you don't go to oxford you're automatically unintelligent and therefore worthless? what cave did you crawl out from

As per bold, I have been wondering the same thing about the OP.

But I think it has to be reiterated that it doesn't matter which university someone has been to, they should be judged on their own merit and achievements. We don't need "less Oxbridge", or "more redbrick", we just need more capable and responsible leaders.

exactly. if we were going to judge people based on education and schooling alone why shouldn't we also look at their high school, primary school and even nursery?! Corbyn attended both an independent school as well as a grammar school - does this not affect whether he is or is not a "dumb" member of Labour?

message to the creator of this dumb thread: if you're so anti-left why would you create this thread that would inevitably enrage Corbynites? are you a masochist?

(article by Owen Jones
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/04/redbrick-revolutionaries-best-leaders-terrible-students-tristram-hunt-Oxbridge )

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exactly. if we were going to judge people based on education and schooling alone why shouldn't we also look at their high school, primary school and even nursery?! Corbyn attended both an independent school as well as a grammar school - does this not affect whether he is or is not a "dumb" member of Labour?

message to the creator of this dumb thread: if you're so anti-left why would you create this thread that would inevitably enrage Corbynites? are you a masochist?

(article by Owen Jones
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/04/redbrick-revolutionaries-best-leaders-terrible-students-tristram-hunt-Oxbridge )

By every measure, Mason College was a university, and firmly a redbrick at that.

Do you actually know what sociopathy is? Care to provide examples of this alleged sociopathy?

You do realise that sociopaths are actually often very social and have a wide circle of acquaintances. Since you have made claims that I don't have a life, how do you reconcile this claim that I am not a sociopath?

Your argument (if one can call it that) is anachronistic and facile.

In the nineteenth century Royal Charters were a key factor in de jure recognition of a University, and in the case of Durham and UCL and KCL the key ones. They date their histories, proper, from their granting.

As do all the original redbricks. That is a fact, inconvenient for you I know, but a fact all the same.

But this somewhat primitive system needed to be overhauled. Legislation was also required to make English universities subsequent to Oxbridge, Durham and London. .

And the ironic fact, for you, is that, Mason College (NOT A UNIVERSITY) was the cause of that legislation, it was framed with it in mind. The Universities College Act of 1898 (well AFTER Chamberlain attended btw).

You are wrong (once again), when you say that Mason College (NOT A UNIVERSITY) had degree awarding powers when a University College, and used this as the linchpin of your entire argument.

From the Wikipedia page on the subject:

"In 1898 it became Mason University College, with Joseph Chamberlain becoming the President of Court of Governors of the college. In 1900 it was incorporated into the University of Birmingham.^[6] Students at the College were awarded their degrees by the University of London until the University of Birmingham was established and received degree awarding powers in its own right."

Were you ignorant of this or lying? Clearly you can't have been ignorant because you accessed this very page to raise other matters, so you must have been lying.

Mason College (NOT A UNIVERSITY) had no Royal Charter (required until then for de jure recognition as a university but not in later years) and no degree awarding powers.

That is why you won't find it in this list of UK universities by date of foundation. . (As we know Wiki is the universal arbiter in all internet debates! )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_universities_by_date_of_foundation

I hope that lube worked, but from your whelps of pain as I speared you, I fear not! Next you are are going to turn around, get on your knees and open your mouth.

I am going to be off to Malaysia for twelve days and won't be accessing this website for that period. (I am just about to consider whether or not you are a sociopath but will then sign off).

But I'll be back, so make sure you respond.

A couple of quick points since I am not going to get dragged into a point by point rebuttal yet again.

You statement that a Royal Charter has nothing to do with a institution being a university is yet another of your logical fallacies.

AND you admit that Mason College (NOT A UNIVERSITY) was never a de jure university, so case proven.

Actually it was a technical college offering a very narrow range of vocational not academic courses. The closest comparison is to the post war Polytechnics. (One of which Corbyn himself dropped out from!) These have mostly since become both de facto and de jure "universities" although some might say most are not worthy of the title in its true sense.

Are you going to claim Corbyn went to "University" now?

You claim that Oxbridge is not relevant in the education of our most powerful men and women, and yet nearly 70% of Chancellors and PM's went there in almost the last two hundred years. (More if you go further back).

Of course you are going to "run away" from further debate on this subject.

There are two issues here. The fact that you are a Billy No Mates, and your possible sociopathy.

That you ARE a Billy No Mates is evident from the fact you spend your Saturday evenings on here, responding to my posts at wearying length.

(Talk about a complete waste of time, I don't even read half of the bondollocks you write, life's too short!)

So we don't need to discuss your Billy No Matehood. You know you are, I know you are, and you know I know you are.

But are you a sociopath? That I don't know for absolutely certain, but have my suspicions based on our many interactions on here.

In your statement above you say that sociopaths are "often very social and have a wide circle of acquaintances."

That is true, but they don't have friends. They don't have "mates." Because they are incapable of true friendship, of empathy. They can't relate to people in a "normal" (a value loaded term obviously) way. This wide circle of acquaintances are to be manipulated, used, made victims of.

Hervey Cleckley came up with 16 key traits:

Now we can debate whether they are actually all valid, (why do you need good intelligence to have a psychological condition for example? it seems doubtful) but unless you have a less crude list (and if you have produce it, please) I am going to use it, pro tem.

When I read your posts I see many of these traits. The untruthfulness and insincerity. The egocentricity, lack of remorse or shame.

You call people "trash."

You called me a "creature" (ie not exclusively a person)

, you indulge in sexual sadism.

All indicate a worrying lack of human empathy, and an inability to form close friendships.

A Billy No Mates, yes, and a sociopath.

You aren't going to admit this publicly, obviously, maybe you can't admit it to yourself.

We all know that Jezza scraped two E's in his A Levels and could only get into a Poly, but did you know that his support team is almost exclusively red brick, not Oxbridge?

http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/10/labours-purge-of-oxbridge-intellectuals/

Has Corbyn dumbed down the Labour Party in this (and other) ways?

With all out problems, can Britain really risk electing a leader too stupid to even get into university with a Shadow Cabinet composed of graduates of second tier universities?

Just because an MP has not been to university does not mean that they are dumb, especially since anyone can be self-taught or home-schooled. Much of the left-wing is very well-educated and/or well-read.
Moreover, surely it is better to be more like the people ye represent and empathise and understand what they want and need than it is to be in the Westminster bubble, where politicians, news broadcasters and journalists form a 'political class' which is in a frenzied world of its own, divorced from the people, and which is turning away political participants by the million.

3 He claims that Corbyn's new shadow cabinet is dumbed down because the direction Corbyn is taking it is to reduce Oxbridge graduates. In actual fact the previous Labour shadow cabinet of Ed Miliband had 11 Oxbridge graduates against Corbyn's 10, which all people would accept is equivalent. So he is telling yet another big fat lie.