After the Market I came home and after Mrs B had finished watching Corrie, I stayed up late and watched the programme about our heroic soldiers. This was particularly poignant as this week I had been to Catterick Garrison for a meeting and saw first hand how young some of these lads we are sending to the front line really are. Spotty youths some not even legally able to drink.
How humbling was that!
You lot are bloody amazing my hat goes off to you all, your courage and fortitude in those conditions is absolutely outstanding.
I dare anyone to criticise them in my presence!
I salute you!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Christmas markets
Who thought of packing up a German Market and plonking it outside a town hall in the middle of Brum?
Got dragged round it in the bloody freezing cold with all (yes all!) the family last night. Seemed like a good idea for Dad to spend a bloody fortune on overpriced beer,hot wine,sausage, garlic bread (in the words of our generation's equivalent of a poet laureate, Peter Kay, garlic bread it'll never catch on)! We came home with a very expensive candle and a bag of pork scratchings!
Come on Brum let's return the favour and take all that is good about us to Frankfurt.
Come on Professor Chinn I am sure you can think of something!
Got dragged round it in the bloody freezing cold with all (yes all!) the family last night. Seemed like a good idea for Dad to spend a bloody fortune on overpriced beer,hot wine,sausage, garlic bread (in the words of our generation's equivalent of a poet laureate, Peter Kay, garlic bread it'll never catch on)! We came home with a very expensive candle and a bag of pork scratchings!
Come on Brum let's return the favour and take all that is good about us to Frankfurt.
Come on Professor Chinn I am sure you can think of something!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Student fees - hullabaloo!
Having attended a fine dinner party at the Overgraduate's last Saturday where we put the world to rights in many ways and subsequently getting caught up in Birmingham this week with the Student protests (the Police presence did look a bit like man for man marking!), I felt compelled to put in my two penneth.
Why do all the politicians keep banging on about no up front charges - a decoy me thinks to stay away from the real issue.
The real issue - As I understand it the fees are supposed to be paid for out of the vastly increased income stream that will be earned as a result of having a degree!
Firstly - The politicians are obviously wholly unaware of the number of graduates leaving university that not only can't get a job above the repayment threshold (even the current one), but actually can't get a job at all!! That is unless you live in the South or South East.
Secondly - Do they not realise that although you don't have to pay it back until you graduate the psychological deterrent that a debt that size creates in peoples minds is a disincentive itself not to go. It will put off the unsure ones like my eldest son who is only at Uni because there is a barrier to entry into his chosen carrer that is called a degree!
Thirdly - The housing market is as we all know on its knees despite the continued effort of the Estate Agents to talk it up. The market only grows in a noticeable way when the first timers start getting on the ladder and push the market. How on earth does anyone think two graduates setting up home together in say 2016 can contemplate getting a mortgage when they could have between them in excess of £50,000 worth of student debt tied firmly round their necks. It could be far in excess of this if they have had Subsistence loans as well.
How long do you think it will be before some bright spark in a think tank or on a quango decides that school education should be paid for and anyone going on to further education should contribute to their schooling cost by paying for it with the increased salary they will get after they have got their degree which they only got into because of their schooling in the first place!!
Oh what a tangled web we weave!
Don't forget you read it here first.
Why do all the politicians keep banging on about no up front charges - a decoy me thinks to stay away from the real issue.
The real issue - As I understand it the fees are supposed to be paid for out of the vastly increased income stream that will be earned as a result of having a degree!
Firstly - The politicians are obviously wholly unaware of the number of graduates leaving university that not only can't get a job above the repayment threshold (even the current one), but actually can't get a job at all!! That is unless you live in the South or South East.
Secondly - Do they not realise that although you don't have to pay it back until you graduate the psychological deterrent that a debt that size creates in peoples minds is a disincentive itself not to go. It will put off the unsure ones like my eldest son who is only at Uni because there is a barrier to entry into his chosen carrer that is called a degree!
Thirdly - The housing market is as we all know on its knees despite the continued effort of the Estate Agents to talk it up. The market only grows in a noticeable way when the first timers start getting on the ladder and push the market. How on earth does anyone think two graduates setting up home together in say 2016 can contemplate getting a mortgage when they could have between them in excess of £50,000 worth of student debt tied firmly round their necks. It could be far in excess of this if they have had Subsistence loans as well.
How long do you think it will be before some bright spark in a think tank or on a quango decides that school education should be paid for and anyone going on to further education should contribute to their schooling cost by paying for it with the increased salary they will get after they have got their degree which they only got into because of their schooling in the first place!!
Oh what a tangled web we weave!
Don't forget you read it here first.
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