Tories and their 'A' divide

Tories are attacking the disparity between rich and poor areas in the numbers of students who go on to study A Levels today.

 

It's a bit flawed and their response is a bit empty really: "Giving parents more control will help to improve opportunities for children, particularly those from deprived backgrounds" - erm, not really.  The reality is kids in Knowsley and the West Midlands don't do A levels for all number of reasons, but probably not because their parents aren't involved in the running of the local school....

 

I could be really cruel and say that the Tories would never know this because none of them have come from poor areas......

 

BUT - I want to congratulate them on one thing.  Every year we see a repeat of the same old tired formula - record results and the Tories criticise them and complain about falling standards, thus on what should be a day of joy for students and parents they bring clouds of doom - no clear winners with that strategy.

 

Instead Tories are trying this new attack line, which I think touches on a much more pertinent question and avoids running down the thousands of young people who slogged their guts out for months watching Wimbledon, sleeping in and doing six months of revision in the last two days.  well, that's how I did my A levels....

 

SH

unreconstructed Tories

I'm going to join in the clamour of people complaining about Policy Exchange's latest pamphlet which suggests we should give up on towns in the north, build additional housing in London, Oxford and Cambridge and basically manage the decline of towns like Liverpool.

 

For me, it is a real sign of how unreconstructed the Tories are - no sense of what regeneration is for, and an unswerving belief that the market can fix all ills - never mind that throughout the eighties, there was never any private investment in the north and it's only since 1997 that a new public investment paradigm has allowed the creation of markets up north which, "fuck me", nobody knew existed.....

 

SH

HIPs don't lie

news today is that estate agents claim HIPs are a hindrance and causing a delay in sales - poppycock! and other delightful phrases....

 

HIPS aren't causing delays - inability to get a mortgage are delaying sales.  I lose respect for any intellectual argument that chooses to lie like this in order to push their own agenda.

 

SH

the evil banks

Our generation has a new bogeyman (at least for the meantime).  20 brides and grooms (please tell me they were in wedding outfits - what a photo opp...) marched on HSBC yesterday demanding the company help out Wrapit, a wedding list company that has gone into administration.  Granted losing your wedding presents must be a shocking, pain-in-the-ass loss, not to mention an embarrassing situation - "excuse me, I know you bought us that £100 set of Egyptian cotton towels, but could you just give us the cash now" - but why does anyone think the bank should just help them out?

 

Wrapit went bust - end of story.  The job of providing a list, charging the guests, and buying the goods for the happy couple (probably with a pretty box thrown in) and charging a little extra on top to make a profit should be an easy thing to do.  Wrapit must have been badly run to screw that up - and that's not HSBC's fault.

 

Neither is it the happy couple's fault either, but the best lesson from this has to be - pay with a credit card when buying on-line....

 

SH