Rant of the day

Oh well Ken, come the revolution you and me are getting shot for the educational choices and sacrifices our parents made......

Pete, I would agree about some MPs of all parties but to blame public schools for who gets elected is a bit desperate. Have you checked the qualifications of the Shadow Edukashun Secretary? The university of life has its limits too.

 

Agreed, there are good and bad in all walks of life. Unfortunately without folk prepared to serve in both local and central government we would live in a very different society than we do today. Just my humble opinion...
Wessa

 

Yeah, back off. I'm not a politician, never wanted to be a politician, but I have made a very positive contribution to society. The cap doesn't always fit!

 

Just recovering from a touch of the old norovirus or I would have pushed back more strongly myself.
Education is the difference between ignorance and stupidity. It can only fix the former.
All those empty £1 houses in Liverpool? Prescott planning ........
Most of our politicians are well intentioned. Some are pocket lining crooks and charlatans. The public school educated ones seem to find Labour more fertile ground for their ambitions; funny that. Some MPs are stupid, some are malign. I too rage about how NO political party really reflects its core support.
I often think the dividing line between left and right (terms that are themselves increasingly meaningless) is like the rational ‘does it work’ and the emotional ‘how do I feel about it?’ Mrs T, a grammar school girl, was known to say ‘you can care too much, it prevents you doing what is necessary.’

Fundamentally it is a bit silly to suggest you can be too well educated or that 4-5 years in a particular school defines your life. I can assure you it doesn’t. Although my parents didn’t buy new cars or take expensive holidays. Ambition, ability and choices count far more......and some luck. We could have been born in sub Saharan Africa.

 

Yo Call,
It was meant to be an overall statement i.e. you can't tar them all with the same brush. I went to a grammar school (never sure how to spell that) only because I passed the 11 plus, I still ended up as an apprentice Carpenter and do not regret any of it. My old man was a cabinet maker a skilled man who by working very long hours to put my sister and I through good schools unfortunately this took its toll and he passed away aged 59. Don't take the education bit to heart I kind of enjoyed it but in hindsight I would have preferred to go to the comp with all my schoolmates.
Lets be honest this lot in power at the moment have no backbone and appear to be getting walked all over by the EU top dogs who possibly have realised just how much they need the UK as a member of the EU. Never mind if and when Turkey become members of the EU they'll make up the shortfall of the UK leaving.
What was it Ricki Tomlinson said? "MY arse"
Rant over soapbox away time to think about the pub later.
Cheers, Pete.

 

I know this country of ours has debts, but the EU needs our trade, investments etc in order for the existing model to survive. Inviting Turkey ( another country that is debt ridden, with a broken economy ) will be suicide, placing even more pressure on the more wealthy ( but still in debt) member states. I personally can see other member states following in years to come. The impact of the UK leaving the EU will be felt by all concerned by all for many years to come. My son in law is a ' Remoaner' he is so distraught by the outcome of the vote, he refuses to enter into any kind of debate. Hey Ho

 

That's hilarious! Sad and funny at the same time.

 

I guess this is as good a place as any, so here goes. Don't we all appreciate the hamfisted mechanics who last worked on our rides? geez, I was taking advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday to do a little maint., just a quick oil change, along with a new K & N air filter. Wouldn't you know that I now have brand new bolts on my sump guard. Is this what I have to look forward to every time I put a wrench to my baby? Reminds me of the 70's, when all my Japanese bikes used plastic fixings, painted to look like metal. I think that the problem lies with the previous wrench. Some people go through life stripping everything they touch! Now I feel better, Thanks for listening bros. never forget to ride safe!

 

I am SO pi**ed there isn’t a pub where I can poke you in the chest!

I have mates from all walks of life and have learnt something from every one of them - quite often what NOT to do! I learnt in the Army talent is where you find it. The trick is to capture it and nourish it. Tim ‘nice but dim’ was usually to be found in units associated with horses (not winged horses!). ‘Major’ James Hewitt never actually passed the promotion exam to Major - that takes some doing ponced around as an acting major briefly but a gazzetted Captain!

I share your dismal view of the chicken hearts at Westminster. Seize and hold the initiative. A little light diplomacy then speed, momentum, aggression etc! Especially the aggression!

Still you have to be punished so I will do a wee rant on public shools as I see it!

 

You can’t beat quality tools: human and steel!

 

I think this might be too political for safe debate but I am almost gleeful about how badly the EU is playing its hand. I have limited faith in the PM but even she can see kowtowing to this lot would be political suicide.
We just have to recognise we are old enough to KNOW how limited EEC accession was and how marginal EU departure will be. There will undoubtedly be wrinkles but largely self cancelling. The bigger prize is escaping a self interested protectionist bureaucracy that would progressively enslave and impoverish. And as for cherry picking.....

 

Public Schools - a counter rant perspective


Public schools have emerged over hundreds of years from charity schools established to educate poor pupils. They largely pre-date state schooling and ‘Public’ indicated that access to them was not restricted on the basis of religion, occupation or home location and that they were subject to public management or control through boards of governors in contrast to private schools which were run for the personal profit of the owner. Private schools are for all practical purposes extinct.

Education has long been recognised in UK law as a ‘charitable purpose’ along with relief of poverty, advancement of health, religion etc. Consequently all schools enjoy the same charitable tax relief advantages, less proposed modifications in Scotland. Their charitable element also extends to offering free and supported places to pupils from a variety of backgrounds and with particular talents. Many of them also extend their facilities to outside users in varying ways.

Public schools are not run for profit. The only ‘profit’ is the education they provide. If they were, they would cease to qualify as charitable and lose all tax relief. Tax relief is not a gift but a recognition of the broad national benefit and, in the case of a school, the cost of providing places that would otherwise fall to the State. The fees charged aim to cover the costs of operating the premises and paying staff wages. Any small surplus is absorbed to fund facilities improvements and offset future fee rises due to inflation.

Most public schools have been operating for long enough to have benefitted from gifts from former pupils. They have grown through voluntary donation. The major explosion occurred in Victorian times which explains the often grand appearance because the cost and availability of land and skilled labour was very different then. School associations maintain links and a sense of providing expanding opportunity to future generations. As institutions they have a head start on a modern secondary school. However, the biggest advantage they enjoy is the commitment of all parents and staff to achieving the best educational experience. Parental expectation is universally high.

Those parents come from all walks of life. For every Bentley there will be a dozen battered Fords. They are driven by people who make different choices about their personal expenditure and who do not expect thanks for doing so. They do not criticise their neighbours expensive holidays or large monthly PCP payments. Their taxes fund the local State schools which lack the capacity and money to accept an influx of privately educated pupils; so in effect they are paying twice. In some places like Edinburgh the public school day population is very much greater than the 5% average figure and a major relief to the local authority.

There are plenty of criticisms aimed at public schools from being exam factories to bastions of privilege. However, they indisputably provide a first class education and there is no suggestion the State sector provides anything comparable apart from the odd preserve of the politburo like the Brompton Oratory where some of the young Blairs went. The manners and style of the stereotypical public schoolboy (aped so successfully by grammar school boy Hugh Grant) is a social skill worth having. It undeniably opens doors in a way no amount of ‘street’ could. Equally it closes many and incites a form of prejudice based on, well, prejudice. It owes nothing to an evaluation of individual merit; just unvalidated assumptions.

In the final analysis, attitudes to public schools have remarkably little to do with their excellence as schools. It owes far more to a limited appreciation of parental choice and whether this should be denied in pursuit of a kind of enforced uniformity and social engineering. Being ‘chippy’ in plain speak! Inevitably it throws the baby out with the bathwater because it dumbs down, denies opportunity and punishes aspiration. Giving your kid a leg up is natural to caring parents. It is illogical to think it can only be achieved by stepping on someone else. Life is not a zero sum game.

My grandfather was a tenant hill farmer, his son was a vet thanks to a scholarship. My other grandfather was a Lance Bombardier on the Somme and worked in a furniture shop with his nerves shot and his ears ringing. His daughter became a headmistress in a state school. The vet and headmistress afforded my fees but lived modestly. Bruce Foxton the bassist in The Jam sent his kids to Eton. If that makes us all toffs and snobs I have to wonder whose cornflakes have been pi**ed in! Not mine. Bruce might have an estate. I haven’t even got a Mondeo.

 

Just paid an on line penalty charge notice fine of £35 to Leicester city council for stopping in a bus lane / clearway outside the city railway station for all of 90 seconds whilst dropping off 2 ladies to catch a train.
Cameras are the way forward, this one must be a real earner for the bean counters, pouncing on the ignorant out of towners

 

That really grips my **** too. Patently this sort of measure has NOTHING to do with obstruction and free flowing traffic and EVERYTHING to do with raising revenue.
We are beset by politicians of all parties in all levels of government who think they have a license to pick our pockets. We need to be a bit smarter when we cast our votes.....as much in local government as nationally.

 

& they want more people to use public transport

 

Inexscusable not to have a free 5 minute drop off area for passengers, particularly the elderly/infirm/ disabled. If they have the tech to issue penalties, they have the tech to Police this. Unfortunately, abuse of the original free drop off area if it ever existed as well as financial incentives will no doubt have led to your penalty charge. The few spoil it for the many

 

Yo Call,
Your 1pm rant "pub point in chest" would you be kind enough to tell me if that comment was directed to me personally?

 

‘Personally’? Only in the sense I think we would get on like a house on fire, enjoy the craic and violently agree about many of the ills of the world. I suspect you would out drink me. Serious lack of recent practice on my part.

 

Yo Cal,
Thanks for the reply hopefully some time we will meet up with some of my ex services mates, pull up a sandbag each talk about how we would have solved all the military conflicts. Naah! Let's just have a few beers and talk about how fast we used to be in our bikes.
Cheers,Pete

 

We’d better get a move on before it’s wheelchairs at Santa Pod! (And a burn out is antacids after a curry)

 

No way for the air to escape and the angle of the wedges is to steep.