Not everyone is in prison for biffing old ladies over the head.
Not everyone is in prison for biffing old ladies over the head.
As soon as i come along everyone disappears, perhaps they're frantically licking their wounds and preparing their lawsuits in readyness for the next installment after Question Time. Wonder if anyone's hired the legal team off The Simpsons?
Hey Al i'm off to the White Rose Centre in Leeds this weekend to drink some coffee and look at some clobber and rejoice in my Yorkshireness![]()
Hopefully it won't all kick off again after Question Time, it's dead sad when people resent eachothers opinions so much that they'll carry it on so far, especially when it's like minded people who should be mates.
F**k the BNP, they're entitle to their opinions but they'll never make it to government.
I thought I would go back to this thread as these issues are linked to it.
I found this first one very disappointing in the LET ysterday. It's the 2nd paragraph that does it for me really.
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk...ashire_pupils/
"the Government’s 30 per cent target for five A*-C GCSEs including English and maths by 2011"
Can you really get much lower aspirations than this? Only 30% as a target!
then I read this today
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...lass-male.html
I can't argue with it very much.
The 2 articles are intrinsically linked. They demonstrate how current & previous Govts have devalued and destroyed our education to such an extent that it is now a Govt target for 70% of kids to be underperforming at the age of 16.
Also how much effort, mainly cosmetic, has been put in to helping the ethnic "communities" (I hate that term) whilst the white minimum wage/benefits class families are largely left to sink or swim.
Our Country is still a great country. Wherever I have been in the World, I am still glad to come back to the UK as I think we have the best deal.
But we are slipping slowly but surely and something has to be done before we slip too far.
My worry is, that I do not see anyone that is going to turn this slide in to a dip. The young need to aspire to something other than unemployment and an appearance on Jeremy Kyle.
Some of us do but others (more spoilt ones) expect it to be handed to them on a plate. For me the difference between working class british white males of the younger generation is that their parents have pushed to give them everything therefore the expect to be well kept thus they dont work hard and start to blame it on others...namely the government and then manage to scapegoat the ethnic minorities. The ethnic minorities have it hard but they appreciate the hard work and effort required to succeed, a lesson that could be taught to lots of these white working class males (only the young ones i hesistate to add). They are being made a scapegoat for the spoon feeding of the younger generation and thus the sample of ethnic minorities portrayed in the media is a select few who may be lazyor recieve incredible benefits that are stupidly high. But the fact remains that overall young people from ethnic minorities achieve higher (they are probably well within that 30%) than white working class children because they have a strong work ethic instilled from a young age.
I don't actually think it is a race issue - and never was - it's more of a class issue.
Take the Indian sub-continent. Amongst the lowest achievers are the Pakistani and Bangladeshi youth. But the Indian are amongst the highest achievers.
They are the same race.
The Indians are differing religions - so it's not linked to religion.
But the Indians are generally middle class business people. The Pakistani / Bangladeshi are working class. They came to work in the factories and those jobs are no longer there.
That's the same issue for the white working class.
The middle class in this country (generally) have a built in level of aspiration that is driven by parents, grandparents and taken up by the kids.
The working class - well there isn't really one anymore. It's really a benefits / low income / tax credits class.
What have they to aim for?
If they work and they try to earn more, they lose tax credits.
If they don't work, and take a job, they often lose out financially.
If they try hard to achieve at school, they often have no option other than a failing school.
The online LET article doesn't have the Stats but they are in the paper. They show that in 2009 Burnley and Padiham's best School achieved only 43% 5 A-C at GCSE with an average of 35%.
Blackburn had one school at 11% - that school doesn't even turn up for the Town Athletics or XC Champs - so not only are they failing at Academic subjects, they are failing in all areas.
If you end up at that 11% school, what are your chances?