If the EU is neo liberal, they are the most incompetent neo liberals on the face of the Earth. Workers protections, environmental legislation, policies which promote family life, subsidised sectors of the economy are all hardly neo liberal policies. Which is basically what the EU spends half it’s time doing. The fact that there a bunch of hard right/dictatorship governments in the EU are hardly liberal

. Not one EU member has an NHS.

But they basically all have universal healthcare, where the ability to pay is not an impediment to getting whatever care you need. Pretty socialist.

What have the Romans EU ever done for us?

Capping class sizes at 30 pupils.

And still the media welcome that commitment as “unachievable” (including the BBC). The same media that was up in arms about removing charitable status from fee paying schools.

We’re mugs.

Also, when TF is Johnson going to go before Andrew Neil? I mean, it couldn’t be as bad as Corbyn, shirley? So, what’s he got to lose?

He’s running his campaign straight from the Trump playbook. Doesn’t want to be questioned on his personal life (taxes for trump/kids for BJ), doesn’t want to be held to proper scrutiny which will show him up, threaten the press when they do things he doesn’t like. Is this a man you can really vote for?

One slightly amusing thing about my constituency is that the only leaflet I’ve received is one that says “vote for me (Tory) unless you want the SNP to win and that means Indyref2”. Basically the Tory candidate is extoling the virtues of voting tactically which is something I will likely be doing just not in the way he thinks. I voted no in the independence referendum but I think I’ll be voting SNP in an attempt to keep the Tories from getting a majority.

And still the media welcome that commitment as “unachievable”

I heard it and my first thought was it’s unachievable, assuming the plan really is to impose a cap. There’s two ways to do it, move kids around schools or making schools split all classes with (say) 31 into two classes of (say) 15 and 16. Neither seems remotely practical.

My daughter’s class has 2 TAs in addition to a teacher. If they split her class would they hire another teacher and pair of TAs? If they don’t double up on TAs as well as the teacher the staff to child ratio hardly changes. ….*and* they’d need to build another classroom. Alternatively they have to farm out the excess kids to other schools which isn’t good for the kids, the parents or the environment/traffic.

So yeah, unacheivable and counter productive.

A better way to reduce class sizes is to simply fund schools to the point where (in time) class sizes can be under 30. Accpet there will be places where that’s just not practical in some years in some exceptional places.

I voted no in the independence referendum but I think I’ll be voting SNP in an attempt to keep the Tories from getting a majority.

Yep , I’m a no voter who has just posted off my first vote for the SNP in a hope of getting rid of our Tory mp . I just hope there is an acknowledgement after the election that not everyone who voted SNP is in favour of independence .

Crazy idea… more trained teachers. Just an idea.

COMMUNIST!!!! 😉

Its mental that the press are all screaming about the how the labour party are going to be funding all this, and rightfully so, as it all does seem to be a bit ‘moon on a stick’ which is heavily dependent on magic money trees

But apparently Johnson is going to be promising a round of tax cuts today, after all their pledges of increased public spending

Thats an even less credible position, which isn’t being held up to the same scrutiny.

I suppose it all comes down to what you think our national priorities are.

At this election, looking at the present state of the country would you like

A) a party committed to more funding for education and the NHS and who are serious about addressing homelessness

or

B) a couple of quid a week off you tax bill

Given the recent voting record of this country, I’m not optimistic

One year.
Five years.
1 < 5

Unless “by scratch” you mean all their education before their teacher training.

Max class sizes of 30 pupils is a totally achievable and meagre aim in the grand scheme of things. Have our sights been set so low? How? Who by? We’re mugs.

There’s two ways to do it, move kids around schools or making schools split all classes with (say) 31 into two classes of (say) 15 and 16. Neither seems remotely practical.

Back when I was at school we learned maths had 6 classes of ~32 kids in each year. Getting under 30 would have meant 32*6/7 = 7 classes of 27-28 kids, not double the number.

My daughter’s class has 2 TAs in addition to a teacher. If they split her class would they hire another teacher and pair of TAs?

My girlfriend is a TA in a primary school. She’s one of two in her entire school. I don’t know where you’re getting one teacher and two TAs per class from, that seems ludicrous to me. Maybe what they need there is smaller classes…?

Crazy idea… more trained teachers. Just an idea.

They would also need more rooms. Just saying.

Want more routes? There are schools with tiny class sizes (fee paying)… try and poach their staff.

Assuming they are qualified teachers in the first place which won’t necessarily be true. The point I was trying to make is that the length of time such a commitment would take to deliver would in all likelihood mean that it would not be delivered until the next parliament meaning that the government that enacted such a commitment wouldn’t get the benefits and given the relatively short lived focus of our system (see examples wrt social care, pensions etc) it means that good long term policies don’t get enacted.

Back when I was at school we learned maths had 6 classes of ~32 kids in each year.

Yes, in thousands of schools a Class Size Cap will be relatively starighforward to conform to. Just build one more class room for each year groups hire a teacher and TAs, extend the other facilities and away you go. (Six Form entry seems like a staggering number to me, where did you live Shenzeng?)

In thousands of other schools (single and double form entry schools which I suspect are the norm) it will be impossible/a nightmare.

I bet there are *far* more single form entry schools than there are 6 form entry schools.

Max class size of 30 is completely doable, and affordable by the UK.

“Max class size of 30” is not the same as “class size capped at 30 in every school over a single parliament”. One is perfectly reasonable (as long as you allow reasonable exceptions), the other is mental.

Do you people realise how many ex-teachers there are out there who would be more than happy to go back into the profession for reasonable pay and conditions. The world is running with ex-teachers, literally, who’ve found better pay and conditions elsewhere. And there’s not much point training more teachers when after a few years in the profession they’ll be off to greener, tastier grass.

Teachers are undervalued, underpaid, overworked, insulted, derided, threatened… change that and there will be more teachers than teaching jobs.

Looks like the project to replace the Conservative Party with the Conservative Brexit Party is continuing apace. Brexit Party MEPs are leaving their party and backing this new monstrosity. If you were a Conservative voter in the past (the party of business and personal liberty etc) please have a close look at what you will be voting for if you support the party with that name this time.

Looks like the project to replace the Conservative Party with the Conservative Brexit Party is continuing apace.

Summed up perfectly in this Guardian article from a couple of months back

The Tories have lost their ideology. Now they are merely the party of resentment

What does the Conservative party stand for in 2019? If you survey the central tenets of Tory ideology from the past 50 years, it is hard to find a single one that is still intact.

They morphed into the Brexit party months ago and are now carrying on down that ever-further right trajectory of small-minded insular nationalism

The Tory proposition is that they will “undo” some of their own cuts using money they said we didn’t have. They will also reduce some of the damage the fear of Hard Brexit is having by increasing the certainty that a Hard Brexit is coming. And people will vote for that nonsense, which is maddening.

Just to prove the point that the Tory Party is now really the Brexit Party and the two are indivisible…

Three MEPs quit Brexit party to back Conservatives

Nige is going to be most put out that there really is no point to them any more, and even his own MEP’s can see it. I wonder if he’ll abandon this party a la UKIP and go on to set up the Brexity Brexity Brexit McBrexitface party?

Getting rid of corporation stealth tax would encourage companies to setup here and bring money into the country.

10 years of torys, and yet people going to food banks will still vote for them!!?!?!
Who do you vote for if your cupboards are empty?

Like every other tax it’s passed on to the customer

Maybe. Possibly. Often not. Sometimes. Perhaps. It depends.