Front page of the Metro today says it is, so it must be true.

I think it is.

Well it was Bob Crow I think? ’nuff said.

What the wealthiest in the land cocking up, then mounting the poorest and trying to shag a solution out of them? ….don’t know how you could suggest such a thing, shame on you!

Very graphic image, thanks BB.

Not now Dave I have a headache.

No, because the public sector has a good spread of middle and working classes in it, as does the private sector.

400,000 more kids will live in poverty because of the actions of this government – yes, it’s a class war. The very upper class against the rest of us.

Well seeing as RBS and a number of other banks are publicly owned, they are all officially now ‘the Public Sector’

So if the same wage restraint and pension conditions applied to the bankers, management and directors of RBS etc, then it isn’t a problem. I’ll believe the patently fatuous nonsense that “we’re all in this together”

If not, then yes – its Class War

No, because the public sector has a good spread of middle and working classes in it, as does the private sector.

this. also

400,000 more kids will live in poverty because of the actions of this government – yes, it’s a class war. The very upper class against the rest of us.

poverty is a stupid, undefined measurement. World bank defines it as living on less than $5 a day. there are no children in the UK in those circumstances. relative poverty is someone earning under 60% of median income. by that measurement, you can make a bunch of people richer, and no-one poorer, and more people will be in poverty

we’re all in this sh*t together

FTFY

Not strictly a class war because the tories will turn on anyone they can screw a quid out of sooner or later.
Its not even like they need to, they already have more than they need and any more is just an extra zero on the balance. Now the only way they can bolster their ego’s is to make sure others are doing worse.

Sweepy – Are you basically saying that all Tories have small cocks? Well I suppose it makes sense. It explains their general attitudes to everyone else, and their need for big cars

sums it up well….

The very upper class against the rest of us.

A group of people who went to Eton running the country and the capital in a fairly difficult time, who do you think they are going to look after?

The Tory party work for the top 1% of our society and we only have Gordon Brown and the Mail/Express to thank for us not quite voting them in.

Anyone ever ask themselves why there is a problem with the people who have the best education our country can offer running the government?

poverty is a stupid, undefined measurement.

This might help you. Poverty is defined in relation to a measurement of the actual cost of living to a reasonable standard in the UK – so it factors in things like food, clothing, energy costs, transport and so on.

as to “class war” – I don’t know how relevant the term is nowadays, but I have the growing perception that the ‘wealthy and influential” have declared war on the rest of us. In my case ‘us’ is someone who would be traditionally classified as about as middle-class as it gets.

Best != Most Expensive

(that was to titusrider)

No, I think its about multinationals getting in to bed with Government and starting to dictate their own agenda.

Anyone ever ask themselves why there is a problem with the people who have the best education our country can offer running the government?

Yep and it comes back to the same answer everytime, which is because daddy could buy it as opposed to because they are the brightest and best we’ve got and therefore deserve it.

Best != Most Expensive

Brilliant! The Tory philosophy in a nutshell. Everything is monetarised! Know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

If you’re a ****wit and you go to Eton, you’re still a ****wit

Does Eton come top in whatever league tables there are? Or is it a different kind of education we’re talking about here?

Anyone ever ask themselves why there is a problem with the people who have the best education our country can offer running the government?

Because the option of that education is based upon connections and privilege rather than intelligence and academic ability.

Anyone ever ask themselves why there is a problem with the people who have the best education our country can offer running the government?

No problem at all, if that was the reality. Unfortunately it’s not.

Anyone ever ask themselves why there is a problem with the people who have the best education our country can offer running the government?

where to start with that one??

elitist?
The Bullingdon Club?
Out of touch with society?
Really not giving a toss about the middle and certainly not the working classes, particularly Northerners?

More of the Tory front bench are old Etonians that at any time since ~ 1920.

didn’t the tories introduce the 50% tax for top earners? whilst labour did no such thing? doesn’t sound like a policy to protect the rich to me.

The Tory party work for the top 1% of our society

So they’re voted in by that 1%?

Anyone ever ask themselves why there is a problem with the people who have the best education our country can offer running the government?

I’d say the best people tend to go into other areas such as legal and finance – easier/more money there.

Anyway, MPs are selected on a local basis so we can all choose.

Because the option of that education is based upon connections and privilege rather than intelligence and academic ability.

+1

Any notion that we live in a meritocracy is farcical.

More of the Tory front bench are old Etonians that at any time since ~ 1920.

Worse than that, they’re young Etonians. So they won’t even die soon.

I used to have a Taiwanese buddy. Bascially his parents rocked up there as a result of the Chinese Revolution, when Formosa as it was then was basically a desert island. He was identified as a bright kid and was fast tracked through the educational system eventually getting sent to MIT to study business. On his return he was able to borrow to finance his business at what were then ridiculously low rates like about 4% whereas if you wanted to borrow on a personal basis it was more like 20%. The last time I saw him was at the opening of his new factory complex that he’d built in Ningbo (near Shanghai). Where like many Taiwanese he returned with his wealth to his ancestoral home.

Obviously the Taiwanese were horribly deluded and got it all badly wrong.

Any notion that we live in a meritocracy is farcical.

We may not live in a complete meritocracy but it’s not far off so farcical is not the right word.

didn’t the tories introduce the 50% tax for top earners? whilst labour did no such thing?

Nope. That was Gordon. The Tories are regularly testing the water to see if when they can get away with abolishing it

to my mind Eton and PPE at Oxford are designed to take the brightest people in the country and (as good as) educate them to enter government. (people from more diverse backgrounds can and do enter PPE at oxford but it is understanadable that to stand out from those who have a had a privaliged education is very difficult therefore only the brightest get in whatever their background = good thing )

The people ive met from high end public schools are rounded, confident, intelligent and all together a bit embarassed about being at ‘eton’ or where-ever. I have no problem with these people being those who enter government.

(i do have a problem with the ‘doing each other favours’ mentaility and the giving interships to daddies friends son etc. but that is a (current) feature of our political system, not just the tories)

If this represented my youth, I’d be embarrassed too

The thing I despise is the truly monstrous sense of entitlement they ooze from every pore. Utterly obnoxious!

The Tory party work for the top 1% of our society

So they’re voted in by that 1%?

You’ve not really understood my point have you?

The irony is that bigoted little Daily Mail readers and those who think they are posh because they earn 50% more than the bloke down the road, and as a result vote Tory, are actually much worse off under this government.

I’ll say it again, the Tory party work for the top 1% of our society. If you are not in that 1% and vote Tory, I believe you are not supporting the party that best serves your own (and IMHO the nation’s) interests.

2:1 in Modern History (Oxford)

John Anderson CotE 1943-1945.
Maths and Geology (Edinburgh) Chemistry (Leipzig) + another degree in economics.

This is my problem.

I’ll say it again, the Tory party work for the top 1% of our society. If you are not in that 1% and vote Tory, I believe you are not supporting the party that best serves your own (and IMHO the nation’s) interests.

Isn’t it great we live in a democracy? You can say this and I can say it’s rubbish and we are all happy that we’ve had our say.

Why does it have to be a Tory class war? The elite are the elite through centuries of manipulation – they’re not the politicians, they’re the folks that largely remain anonymous and quietly get on with enriching themselves by impoverishing the other 99%.

Politicians are just the sock puppets that the elite sponsor depending on who has the shiniest teeth and the best chance of fooling the rest of us. Do you really think there is any difference between the two main parties? They’re doing what they’re told. Meanwhile the media is used to create tension and hatred amongst us in order to distract us from what’s really happening.

By turning every discussion into a red versus blue (or socialism versus capitalism) bun fight you’re completely missing the point, successive governments of either ilk have brought us to where we are now. Not one of them in the last 40 odd years have had the balls to actually represent the country’s best interests, instead they’ve stripped us of our identity and turned us into a nation of greedy, self serving idiots with a huge sense of entitlement.

Welcome to the matrix.

I’ll + 1 that scuzz, i think it would deffinatly give better credibility and probabally better decisions

I do wonder if chancellor is any more than a figure head these days though? does a chancellor need to have a long term background in economics? surely like every other minister (eg defense, healthcare, environment) they just follow the most convincing advice from civil service and put a face to it?

TonyD – economics day 1, economic growth benefits everyone (see reduction in poverty between china and Africa) Those who risk capital get the greatest return but it trickles down to everyone. anyone who says capitalism is all about the 1% screwing over everone else hasnt understood it.

(sorry feeling like the only person on the ‘right’ side of the argument so that might be a bit forceful :p )

to my mind Eton and PPE at Oxford are designed to take the brightest people in the country

That may well be what they were designed to do, but its clearly not what they actually do. The educational standards required to enter are irrelevant. Entry is gained through being able to afford the fees and having the right connections. Actual ability doesn’t enter into it. It is purely a financial transaction. And their present changes to the education system make it more so!

You honestly believe this delivers the most capable people into government? Sweet Jesus! Do you think we should roll this principle out into the few areas presently exempt? See where that gets us?

Another thing I object to is private schools being given charity staus, and therefore being tax exempt (how VERY tory!). It in effect means we as taxpayers are effectively subsidising the whole grotesque and archaic system

The people ive met from high end public schools are rounded, confident, intelligent and all together a bit embarassed about being at ‘eton’ or where-ever. I have no problem with these people being those who enter government.

I’d agree with this, I don’t know any that have gone into politics but they’re all doing very well for themselves in their chosen careers. I’d attribute a good portion of this to the education they received rather than a higher than average level of intelligence.

From what I can see public schools give you a lot more than education in the traditional sense.

The educational standards required to enter are irrelevant. Entry is gained through being able to afford the fees and having the right connections

They have entry papers, connections is of limited relevance.

Binners i agree changes to the fees make it more likely to be as you describe but my experiane of seeing friends interview and apply for oxbridge is that it is a very rigerous acedemic and interview based process. you dont just waltze up with a cheque and say this is where daddy went. You need to have attained your AAA grades, done your work experiance and be able to think on your feet and interview well.
Where people get the idea that you just turn up with a cheque from i dont know.

(caveat: those from an better off background are statistically more likely to match the above criteria but i feel having ‘socio-economic background quota’s’ or similar is a very dangerous road to go down)