Education

(Wow, 2 posts in one day... I must be bored!)

So, there's going to be a new qualification thrown into the mix. Click. Because "These are important reforms which are intended to address a major generational problem of non-participation in education and training post-16."

Riiiiiiiiight. And... "With fewer low-skilled jobs, we need more high-skilled young people,"

Now, maybe I've missed something here, but don't we have record numbers of people in FHE? And don't we have the rather severe problem that the degree has become almost meaningless as a qualification, with vast legions of graduates being forced to work in call centres? i.e. low-skilled jobs.

I agree we need more high-skilled people, skilled as in knowing a trade or business and in principle I think vocational qualifications are a good thing... it's just the wording of the article I think and the choice of quotes from people involved with the scheme. Getting more people into vocational education and out of academia is a good idea. It will hopefully return the value a degree once held. But someone has to tell the call centres that graduates are over-qualified for these roles!

It might also help by reducing the number of people who go through university not knowing what they want. I think that's the crux of the problem, so many gradutes are coming out of uni with no idea of what to do, so they go to work in call centres. Maybe universities need to give more attention to career possibilities for their students. Hopefully though, by introducing vocational qualifications lower down it will gradually have a filtering effect.

March of Political Moans!!

The latest from John Reid is to up the marital age for immigrants from 18 to 21. Excuse me, but what on earth makes him think he is authorised to detirmine what age people can marry?! Just because someone is under 21 does not mean that the intended marrige is in any way forced either. What a bizarre thing to do.

The BBC report that this move is thought to reduce the number of immigrants by 3000 a year. That doesn't seem a particularly large number to me. It strikes me as a similar publicity stunt (to make it look like the government are doing something productive) to the ban on replica swords. Both policies will have little actual effect on the perceived problem (immigration vs. violent crime) but get Labour some press coverage that appeals to the mass public who are enthralled by the tabloids.

Mad.

The Budget

Gordon Brown, on behalf of the Labour Party, is sending our country down the drain in splendid fashion. Scrapping the 10% tax bracket in favour of 20% on all earnings above 5k is just about the most ridiculous and vote-losing policy he could have come up with.

So I'm actually happy with it. Maybe now people will see sense and vote Lib Dem, the only party who gives a damn about the public or the environment!

Brown says the average family will be better off... so answer me this, how is it that out of over 22000 votes cast on a BBC poll, over 60% responded that they will be *worse* off under the new budget?!!!!

To see Ming's response to the budget and get an idea of how other people feel about Labour because of it go here:

http://www.mingcampbell.org.uk/2007/03/21/how-gordon-brown-is-taxing-the-lowest-paid-more/#more-138

The NHS "Spine" and our children's fingerprints

This government just keeps pushing the boundaries of our privacy and democracy. As if the whole thing with ID cards wasn't bad enough, I have today learned that kids are being fingerprinted in school without parental consent (link) and our medical records are going to be held on another central database like the one for ID cards, i.e. just as insecure against hacking and abuse (link).

It's not just me is it? This is getting out of control. We are talking about massive abuses of power on the part of the government. Taking intimate physical details and storing them in an insecure way and even selling them to private businesses! Children's damn fingerprints will be held on file when they get a passport.... because...? Ok, it will help identify the odd John/Jane Doe. But the reasons we have been fed for the government wanting this information have nothing to do with identifying dead bodies.

They've tried to tell us it will prevent terrorism, experts from MI5 quickly denied that one; they've tried the ID theft line, but honestly, if all our details are held in one place one quick hack will make it nice and easy for anyone determined to steal IDs. So they go for the "if you've got nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about" line. *Cough splutter* Riiiight. So it's OK for our government to invade our privacy, sell our details and make us present our ID cards at every shop, bank and service we use???!! I don't think so. One small step towards bar codes on our hands that we have to swipe all over the place.

Anyway, my point, what the heck is going to be solved by having children's fingerprints on file? Of course, we all know that most terrorist acts are carried out by under 10s! Seriously, taking the prints without permission from the parents... which they are *already* doing ... is a gross violation of the trust of the public.

Then there's this thing with our medical records. Again, it will be vulnerable to hacks and abuse and information will probably be sold at a later date. What's worse is that after a certain period of time (this year) people will not be able to opt out. This is appalling. It's all very well for people with long-term conditions that may take them to hospital, but medical bracelets are a quick effective means of communicating this. One glance at a patients wrist tells the doctor not to use penicillin or whatever, rather than postponing treatment until looking the patient up on a database, whose information may or may not be correct depending on if their information has been hacked yet!!

We can't keep letting the government get away with this bollocks. They have gone too far and we have to show them that. If you think you live in a Labour "safe seat" area then talk to your neighbours and tell them your concerns, distribute leaflets, tell people what is going on because a lot of people don't realise. And vote for who you want to lead!! For goodness sake, tactical voting screws democracy over like nothing else, it is exactly how we have been stuck with Labour for this long, despite millions of people being deeply troubled by actions taken by them, from the Iraq invasion to ID cards.

Labour make the public think that they have been fairly elected, but this simply isn't true. The first past the post system means that at the last general election Labour only received less than a third of the votes and only a quarter of the possible vote (due to low turn out)! They do not represent the majority, despite what they claim. You can find out about other options for democracy here.

Anyway, please pass on the links above and talk about what is going on, this gradual theft of our democracy and liberty. I don't mean to sound so dramatic, but I do think it's a serious problem that is in danger of happening in our sleep.

Lords Reform

On 7th March there will be another vote on Lords Reform. To urge your MP to vote for a mostly elected second chamber go here.

It's an important step in gaining actual democracy in Britain, something we don't have at the moment!