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A bleak 2012 in prospect – but Labour offers hope

January 2, 2012 9:16 am

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The New Year will see even more cuts and the prospect of the country lurching into another recession looms large.  The callous incompetence of this dreadful Tory-Lib Dem coalition makes a toxic governmental cocktail that is plunging Britain into a modern-day Dickensian era.

The rich kids in charge at the top of our Government have never wanted for anything in their lives. The pandered brats have grown into adult brutes dishing out misery on people less fortunate than themselves.

They lived their childhoods and adolescent years in a cocooned world where their whims were indulged and their privileged adult lives are a million miles from the rest of us.

And yet they continually spout their Orwellian mantra that “we’re all in it together”. What utter tosh!

Even Margaret Thatcher’s reign was not as cold-hearted as these Bullingdon bully boys and their obsequious quisling collaborators in the Lib Dems.

With almost 2,000 people losing their job every day and pitiless benefit cuts coming into effect, 2012 will be a bleak year indeed for the victims of Messrs Cameron, Osborne and Clegg.

That is why we must stand up for the role of “the state” in generating economic growth and regulating capitalism. The ‘state’ AKA ‘big government’ is despised by those advantaged Tory Ministers but it provides a lifeline to millions of ordinary people.

Let’s remember ‘big-government’ is doctors, nurses, teachers, park keepers, police, fire-fighters, tax collectors, social workers, street cleaners and others occupations that make our society adecent place to live.

Let’s remind people that Labour Governments use the state to improve life for most people. From lower crime to reducing NHS waiting lists and better chances for more children to improved security in old age.

Labour must offer hope in 2012 – and with more local authorities likely to go Labour in May’s council elections, Labour in local government can act as a bulwark against Government excesses.

Mr Cameron might well have secured a short term bounce from his EU veto, but as the cuts bite even harder in 2012, the cruel Tory truth will emerge. That is why Labour must remain the standard-bearer for fairness in the New Year showing people there is a better and a fairer way forward.

Chris Williamson is the MP for Derby North.

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  • Anonymous

    Well take Tesco Asda and all the retailers who pay the min wage or just over, these people no longer even pretend to have a wage bargaining  any more they allow the government to set the wage increase by waiting to see how much the min wage goes up. Even the council now waits for government to set the increase in council workers wages, you lot in labour control the wages of the poorest.

    I see no reason to let you back in, your telling us the middle class which is so squeezed are the main target for labour, meaning in fact your now seen as a party of the swing voting Tory, good luck getting them back

  • MTyler

    First rule about beating any opposition in any pursuit – don’t bad mouth them.

    As for the rest of this, it might play well to certain elements of the Labour vote but to the lost voters, it comes across as sheer malice with no substance whatsoever.

    They aren’t so stupid to have known that Labour would have cut spending too.

    Lastly,  people that live in glasshouses  shouldn’t throw stones.    Mr Cameron doesn’t hide his roots, can the same be said for the metropolitan son of a Marxist millionaire?  Mr Milliband was also not elected by a popular vote but a block one; so perhaps the Orwellian comparison might be somewhat misaimed?

  • GuyM

    Shall we list all the public sector non jobs of the last few years?

    Under Labour hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs were created and they weren’t all the “doctors, nurses, teachers..” that the left constantly bleat about.

    For every public sector job you create the taxpayer has to pay to fund it and a lot of us taxpayers are more than fed up with funding yet more inefficient public sector workers with ever fallings standards on better pensions, longer holidays and more sick leave than the private sector.

    The public sector in many respects has become nothing more than a leech on the taxpayer.

    Even those halo’d groups you list are not exactly saints are they?

    The NHS has had a long list of appalling stories highlighting often shocking levels of care from nurses in hospitals.

    The teaching profession still fins itself unable to get around 20% of school leavers to the stage they can read, write and add up properly despite having 11 years to manage the task (maybe a little less PHSE and “finding yourself” lessons and a bit more English and Maths?).

    So really all is not lovely in the public sector rose garden, so how about putting your house in order before whining that you can’t keep so many useless posts and such a drain on the state finances?

    • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

      Think about this daft lad: more tax rises on the way due to the low growth economy, there’s no other way the fund the failure of capitalism.

      Bailouts, don’t you just love ‘em.

      • GuyM

        Capitalism works in cycles with peaks and troughs. It always was the understanding that government was there to try to smooth out the peaks and troughs on a gradually upward path.

        That was of course until Brown decided he’d made that economic cycle obsolete, despite economists telling him he was an arse for thinking that way. So therefore downturns are inevitable and I treat them as such, hence I didn’t get myself into loads of debt in the boom, hence I’m not in trouble now.

        But who would I rather see in office? A party that dislikes high tax but has to use it in a downturn or a party wedded to tax and spend no matter what?

        As for tax… I don’t smoke, drink (varely rarely), use the car much, or buy many consumer goods (so VAT doesn’t bother me much).

        Unemployment at 8%? Well that’s mainly taken up with NEETS and unemployable ex manual labourers… and still leaves 92% in work or 98% in my area.

        16% house price growth in 2011 for London and the SE means my wealth has kept rising (pity about the 15% fall elsewhere?).

        All in all “dave”, 2011 wasn’t that bad down here in the South and I’d imagine we’ll manage with 2012 as well.

        You enjoy where ever you are though.

        • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

          Just keep on funding the capitalist nightmare, daft lad – it’s the beast that just keeps on taking.

          • GuyM

            Not a nightmare for me thanks, if you don’t like it you can always try North Korea or Cuba.

            There used to be more options of course but the failure of all those non capitalist states speaks for itself as to your options.

            So the only “daft” people about is those who like you want to get rid of capitalism for your very own socialist nightmare.

          • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

            Interesting how the capitalist beast has deprived both Greece and Italy of democracy – this of itself, in due course, will be sufficient result in the failure of the Euro Zone.

            Who would of thought that the very people who designed the failed system are now charged with a task that has already been shown to be beyond them.There’s no doubt, 2012 will be jam packed full of entertainment. No longer the EuroZone, it’s now the Austerity Zone and, in this if in nothing else, Cameron is taking the lead.

            And the U.K. will discreetly fund the continuing failure through the I.M.F.

            Keep paying those taxes daft lad.

          • GuyM

            Mmmm Greece, that wonderful country with those mad socialist governments who decreed everyone could retire at about 50 with a massive pension and not worry too much about paying any tax before hand either.

            Throw in a free 13 month of salary every Christmas and bingo we are living the good life, smothered in humus and honey.

            Capitalism didn’t force the Euro on anyone Dave, that was those lovely pro EU unification chaps in Brussels… htat marvellous idea of monetary union with no fiscal or political for a load of diverse countries.

            I had an argument with a pro Euro chap and a friend from the Treasury two years before the Euro came into being. The treasury chap and myself said it wold all end in tears due to economies being out of kilter etc… guess who was right.

            But as I said you could always try the alternative to capitalism….. what was it again?

            and I will keep paying the taxes, keep getting my pay rises and see house values down here rise a bit further in the New Year. Life is good in Surrey, how is it where you are?

          • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

            “Life is good in Surrey” Make the most of it while it lasts daft lad.

            Will a major crisis develop before the French presidential elections – with a Le Pen victory as the outcome? Her big government re-industrialisation plan will appeal to those who are scrabbling for bread crusts amidst the ruins of capitalism.

            Or will democracy be suspended in France also?

            Whatever happens, in the no-growth Britain-led Austerity Zone, your taxes will be funding it. So get with the overtime.

          • GuyM

            I really don’t care too much of what happens in France politically or anywhere else for that matter.

            As to Surrey or to London and the Se as a whole, last year a 16% average house price increase and in my area a 2% rate of unemployment.

            You talk of doom and gloom and an unempployment rate of 9% nationally, but that still means 91% in work and well over 95% plus in the SE.

            So with no boarded up shops, no fall in consumer spending in Central London over Christmas etc. what exactly is the pain you think we are or will be having down here?

            The only “daft” one here is the one who thinks any further problems will be nationwide and not largely located in those areas most reliant on public sector jobs in the past. A little secret for you “dave”… it isn’t down here.

            Hadn’t you noticed there is a skills shortage in executive/management roles in London and the SE according to CBI and IoD? It might well be tough to be an ex 50s something welder in Newcastle or a 19 year old NEET with no qualifications, but London is doing OK thanks very much.

            Now go and carry on with your “daft” analysis :)

          • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

            “You talk of doom and gloom and an unempployment rate of 9% nationally, ”

            There you go with your straw man, daft lad.

            I haven’t mentioned unemployment. You must be getting confused with your multiple blog posts.

            I’m lucky, my guess is I’ve worked a lot less hard than you and earned a lot more (your bitterness betrays your unfortunate circumstances). I’m just glad there’s dupes like you to continue with the drone-work of funding the busted flush you’re daft enough to believe in. Useful idiot, I suppose.

            For myself, if it’s broke, I call it as I see it.

            Taxes lad! Get paying them!

          • GuyM

            You ahve no idea what I ahve or haven’t earned, dear me you are a bit of a troll aren’t you.

            There is no “civil unrest”, just a load of kids nicking trainers and tvs due to the police tactics. The prison sentences will dissuade that happening again.

            I note still no explanation of your marvellous alternative to capitalism? You really are just trolling.

            So with that I’m going to abstain from replying to you anymore, a pity I can’t place you on some sort of ignore really.

            The system isn’t broke, I’m very comfortable with it as it is and I’m happy to keep supporting it as it has given me a good standard of living and financial security.

            Have a nice 2012, now go and troll someone else.

          • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

            ”
            I’m very comfortable with it ”

            But you’re on here day after day whining about your ‘job’ and vomiting your class-war bile.

            Tut, tut, daft lad – the impression is of a very uncomfortable chappy.

          • GuyM

            I don’t whine about my job, I’m very happy with it and last point, I haven’t placed your comments no review, someone else must have.

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            Oh yes, there was no police screwup, and the riots didn’t get started when the police beat a teenage girl.

            Say, how’s your newspeak?

            (And of course London has some VERY poor areas, in reality)

          • GuyM

            You ahve no idea what I ahve or haven’t earned, dear me you are a bit of a troll aren’t you.

            There is no “civil unrest”, just a load of kids nicking trainers and tvs due to the police tactics. The prison sentences will dissuade that happening again.

            I note still no explanation of your marvellous alternative to capitalism? You really are just trolling.

            So with that I’m going to abstain from replying to you anymore, a pity I can’t place you on some sort of ignore really.

            The system isn’t broke, I’m very comfortable with it as it is and I’m happy to keep supporting it as it has given me a good standard of living and financial security.

            Have a nice 2012, now go and troll someone else.

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            *looks up and down the major North London shopping street*

            15% boarded up shops and rising by at least one a week in the last three months.

          • GuyM

            I don’t live in a run down area of north London…. so who cares.

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            Right. As long as YOU’RE not affected, the unsightly poor can just die off.

            ZERO empathy.

            And no, this is a quite rich area.

            (I live above a shop, and my landlord doesn’t realise what he should be charging, shrug)

        • happy.fish

          Capitalism works???

          • Anonymous

            try socialism then, but we will need to get a party to try it….

          • GuyM

            I’ll direct you at the increase in living standards, life expectancy and general health and affluence of populations in capitalist societies over the last 100 years as compared to the alternatives.

            Of course if you’d prefer communism there are few options left for you, but then I’d guess you’re one of those “never properly been tried” sorts of lefties?

          • Happy Fish

            Why is the assumption always that if it is not capitalism it’s communism. Similar arguments no doubt prevailed in the 15th century with regard to feudal monarchy vs republics etc. Or arguments for a slave based economies in ancient times. Perhaps there are as yet unexplored or unrefined alternatives, perhaps communism will become a more real alternative in the future? If you followed marx’s theory of historical materialism it could be argued that none of the states that have become communist were actually at a stage where they were ready for it. We will never really know till an advanced economy overwhelmed by the inequities of unfettered capitalism were to try the experiment. It could be argued that the welfare state and the post war consensus has done more to protect capitalism in a more benign form, and keep communism at bay. The neo liberal desire to dismantle these institutions and structures if successful may ironically lead to the conditions which could usher in the very revolution they most fear.

            Alx w

    • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

      Yes, please do list what you think is a “non-job” so it can be demolished.

      And right, gotta fire those doctors and nurses and teachers. Inefficient evil people. Who you want to pay peanuts, and then wonder why the brightest and the best won’t go into the grossly underpaid, high-stress jobs.

      You’ll keep whining as long as ANY service is provided to the 99%.

      • jaime taurosangastre candelas

        I’m confused.  Last time you were talking about doctors, it was to accuse me of Nazi sympathies.  Am I now rehabilitated in your eyes? Or do I incorrectly infer an element of sarcasm in your response to GuyM, and we really are (along with nurses and teachers) inefficient and evil? Heavens, with 300,000 nurses and nearly 280,000 teachers, I really do have an army of evil-doers at my bidding.

        • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

          Nope, that’s your paranoia playing up, sweetie.

          You wanted to play silly games of accusing me of being a mass murder, so I called you one back, with references. Then you got upset. Entirely typical, what’s sauce for the goose isn’t sauce for the gander as usual.

          Also, really, why did you think that calling a technically anarchist mutualist a mass-murderer on the basis that Stalinist-Leninists, an *entirely* different portion of the left, have a lamentable history in the USSR would bother me again?

          And if you’re not detecting more than a little sarcasm in every single post I make, well… (If you want monkeys, pay peanuts. I’m all for slashing public sector pensions the instant salaries are equalised with those paid to private sector workers with the same qualifications! Free hint: MAJOR pay rises!)

        • happy.fish

          What is your command, glorious leader?

          • jaime taurosangastre candelas

            ;)

            Let’s try to make a better place for all of our society than we found, affordably.  Not very Nazi-like, I’m afraid.  I voted LD last time around, so suitably wishy-washy.

            I can go stronger, like believing in balanced budgets, but that apparently puts me into the swivel-eyed brigade and wanting to invade Poland or something.

          • happy.fish

            The problem with balanced budgets is where virtually every gvt since the war has had to start from!

      • GuyM

        Ok here goes

        Laughter Yoga Teacher
        Seasonal Personal Travel Plan Advisor
        Diversity Officer
        Diversity Talent Executive
        Senior Integrated Communication Officer (sounds ok but role is to investigate “mood, activities and opinions of stakeholders”)
        Smarter Workplaces Programme Manager
        Comunity Space Challenger Co-odinator
        Roller Disco Coach
        Toothbrush Advisor
        Befriending Co-ordinator
        Street Football Co-ordinator
        Beastfeeding Peer Support Co-ordinator
        Composting Supervisor
        Falls Prevention Fitness Advisor
        Cheerleading Development Officer
        Street Mediator
        Assistant Director for Supporting Communities
        Walking Co-ordinator
        Future Shape Programme Manager
        Nuclear Free Local Authorities Policy Officer

        that should start you going….

        and for anyone who doubts the cost, in 2009-2010 there were 543 Diversity Officers employed by English councils (28 n Birmingham alone) at a cost of nearly £20 million to the tax payers.

        I suspect that your average taxpayer would be quite happy to have a bit of cash back in his pocket instead of paying for those idiotic posts.

        • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

          All except the last sound perfectly reasonable. You fail to mention, of course, that most of them are 1 day/week roles and are coordinating projects which otherwise would simply have a full time staff member assigned to them – it’s less disruptive to hire a part-time staff member.

          And I’m sure you’re all for massive legal bills when councils flub legal issues they need to comply with, and hate activities such as football, fitness training and such non-essentials as  improving workspaces to increase productivity and saving cash by avoiding expensive journeys on the public purse.

          You’ve also managed to include “street mediator”, an important role in dealing with street violence, for instance.

          As usual, you know the value of nothing and the cost of everything. You expect staff to work overtime, unpaid, to do these roles. Because, hey, they’re only public service workers after all.

          • GuyM

            I honestly can’t see how a council would get a legal bill if they didn’t have a “Laughter Yoga Teacher”?

            I’m also pretty sure a “Befriending Co-ordinator” isn’t a statutory requirement?

            I tend to think the police are employed to deal with street violence not some council non jobber.

            and so on….

            I don’t expect staff to work overtime to do those roles, I expect those roles to not even exist…. they are non jobs.

            By the way I played football for 25 years (to semi-pro level, university and London borough schools), cricket for 20 years (sussex and surrey country leagues, university and school), still play golf (school, university and UK universities squad) and a number of other sports such as tennis and a bit of surfing. So I regard sport as  very important, i just don’t regard street footie co-odinators as anything other than non-jobs. Jumpers for goalposts etc. we didn’t need someone to co-odinate a kiuck about when I was a kid.

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            Of course you can’t understand that having someone overseeing a program where young people befriend older people and help them out is useful. After all, the older people who MATTER can hire servants.

            And right, you expect people to pay or go die quietly in a corner. I hear you.

            And right, you LEECH off public sports grounds. LEECH, LEECH, LEECH.

        • happy.fish

          Is it the names that you have a problem with? If we changed half of those names to ‘youth worker’ for example would that be better? Surely the real issue is not the name but, how much front line work they do compared to shuffling paper?

          • GuyM

            Nope, the names are idiotic I’d agree, but also the idea that people should be taxed to provide those sorts of jobs is also wrong.

            I’m sure there are also far too many paper sufflers in local councils as well however.

          • happy.fish

            Personally I thing we need more youth workers, and less managers, these  people can make a massive difference in helping young people make the right decisions and providing them with alternatives to what is going on around them. If that means street football, so be it. It is a long term pay off, but is related to some of the issues we are debating elsewhere (school performance).

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            Ah yes, front-end staff need to spend unpaid overtime doing the work of back-end staff as well. The usual.

        • happy.fish

          Presuming this “Beastfeeding Peer Support Co-ordinator” was a typo lol! How about if we retitled that job as auxilary midwife/post natal support worker, would you be happy then?

    • happy.fish

      1) Define read, write and add up ‘properly’.
      2) Apart from the fact that literacy is required for many PHSE lessons, I think you would find that students spend around 9 times as much on English and Maths than PHSE etc, each week. Not to mention science, humanities, languages etc. But of course it is all down to the teachers.
      3) Can you name which year the number of students leaving school could read, write and add up ‘properly’ was vastly higher than 80%.
      I think you may be mistaken in confusing the ability to read and write and add up with passing certain GCSE exams which demand even a grade E level a little more than that. Further more adult literacy for some reason has remained around 99. something% for decades, surely all these illiterate people coming out of school shoudl put a dent in that figure.

      I’m sure in the same statement you’ll be moaning about kids always playing comuter games, on the interent or texting, all of which of course require basic literacy despite what we may feel about ’text speak’. I really think politicians and the press need regular weekly lectures on the normal distribution curve on these and many other issues before they are allowed to comment on national statistics.  Are you the same. You see real evidence requires some kind of relative data, it maybe that our education system or health service is doing a bad job, but in what context compared to what and to what standard? In the same way I’m fed up of people blathering on about ‘risk’ without ever giving me any figures to go with it. If you don;t know the relative figures shut up. That goes for this kind of anecdotal rubbish you are spouting.

      AlxW

      • GuyM

        The real evidence includes the fact I along with most other managers I’ve spoken to, plus business groups like the CBI and IoD are clear that the kids being churned out of schools often lack the basic skills.

        In fact the DoE’s own statistics indicate (if I remember correctly) that around 20% leave at 16 with a reading skill expected of 8/9 year olds.

        In addition research on exam gradings indicates that in Maths over the last 20 to 30 years grade inflation has taken place equivalent to 2 grade levels, so a grade A now is equivalent to a grade C 20 odd years ago.

        For context I’d direct you at the international educational league tables. A decade ago Britain was in the top 10 for reading, maths and science, but by 2010 it had fallen to 25th (of 65) for reading, 28th for maths and 16th for science.

        Last bit of context is the number of universities complaining of the standard of many undergraduates in basic skills and the fact they are having to run remedial courses, even some maths remedial courses for maths and physics undergraduates.

        So the question is what exactly is the teaching profession doing to have so many barely literate kids leaving school after 11 years in their care, even with grade inflation and falling standards on an international scale that both universities and employers are clearly noticing?

        Enough “context” for you now?

        • happy.fish

          Ah so you don’t mean read, write and add up properly, as an 8/9 year old is more than capable of these skills, but something more developed than this fair enough. Just checking. I’d suggest that the level you may have in mind is something that would require average class sizes in single figures in schools, but as long as we have to balance the economic benefits, we will probably have to accept that there will be limitation to the number of people who acquire these higher level academic numeracy and literacy skills. As to the cbi et al, I’d love for some of these people to try a maths GCSE and see how they do.

          What my problem is this misconception that there was some kind of golden age where young people were coming out of education with all these skills, the difference is there were roles in society for many of the people without these skills, or they acquired them through their working roles over time eg leaving ages at 15 etc.

          As to grade inflation this is probably true but then the numbers of people attaining those grades has not changed massively as a percentage of the intake. 30 years ago we had a different exam system so I am not sure whether you are comparing like with like.  

          Just as there is criticism of welfare dependence amongst individuals, there seems to be a similar dependence culture among employers expecting students to come out of education as a finished article.

          I do however agree that many of our young people at all ability levels are short changed by an education system that has become obssessed with narrow exam results, which often measure arcane knowledge, at the expense of a more rounded education and with sufficient flexibility to deal with issues such as literacy. I think we would probably agree or more than you think, but I just think that the current system is not much worse than in previous decades as a whole, but that to make real improvements we need to move in a radically different direction. I think we would probably differ most in what we consider the problem!

          • Bill Lockhart

            ” there will be limitation to the number of people who acquire these higher level academic numeracy and literacy skills.”

            No doubt. But why do so many fewer children acquire them in the UK than in our competitor countries which are spending similar percentages of GDP on education?

          • GuyM

            The expected attainment of an 8/9 year old is not the same as the attainment that a clever 8/9 year might reach.

            It is entirely right to expect a far lower percentage that 20% to leave school barely able to read and write decently. This is 2012 and a far higher percentage of jobs these days reqiure the ability to communicate effectively and thus need reading and writing skill levels beyond that of a manual labourer of the 1940s and 1950s.

            If you decide 20% are fine with skills of 8/9 year olds then wave goodbye to their job propsects in a large number of industries.

            Grade inflation has significantly changed the proportion of people gaining top grades. If I remember correctly there are now over 30% of students attaining As and A*s at GCSE, something unheard of with the old O levels.

            A*s were only introduced in order to try to differentiate between A grade students as there were so many.

            I’ve seen many maths GCSE papers and they are stupidly simple compared to my old maths O level.

            As an employer I don’t expect “finished articles” but i do expect them to be able to read, write, add up, have a few soft skills and be prepared to work for a living. As a large chunk of youth lack these basics I now won’t recriut anyone under 25. I have no need, there are plenty of older workers and EU nationals are better equipped than UK more often than not as well.

            We probably would differ in our view of hte problems, my view is that a mixture of a left wing NUT dominated teaching profession, lack of discipline in schools., poor parenting and a “rights but not responsibilities” teaching has led to a generation that are significanlty worse than those even 10-15 years ago.

            The things you have to grapple with is firstly the rest of the world is doing better and secondly in a global market people like myself have no need to recruit dysfunctional UK youth. so how do you deal with those realities?

          • happy.fish

            But not all youth are dysfunctional, and they exist in other countries, as tecahers from other countries have let me know. It seems to me we often focus on a smallish group of young people rather than recognising the largew proportion of able and clever young people out there. Strangely enough the foreign workers who come over here may represent the best of the workforce from those countries, that and the obvious language issue (english international language) make movement the other way more challenging.

            I can personally recommend many people under 25 who have the skills you seem to be demanding, it feels a bit discriminatory to treat them all in the same way. Perhaps you are just not reaching out to the right ones, or they are (which I suspect) not receiving the most opportune careers advice.

            As to GCSE papers, be careful which ones you are lookig at ad what range of grades they are assessing for. Sadly with the reduction in tiers in maths for example there is no longer a like for like comparison with O levels available. Effectively O level papers were designed to assess only the top 20-30% of the  school population. the GCSEs are trying to assess 100% with two tiers, as a result they have to cover material of a much greater range. With the introduction of the A* we have effectively downgraded all the previous grades, so we are really looking at B-A* as a similar comparison, but even then the difference is far from that different to previous decades.

            I will agree that education needs to be better and the emphasis has moved away from some specific formal aspects, and I do deplore what has happened to the average students’ ability to write well. However I would again point to how education has become focussed on narrow exam results as responsible as much as any lowering of standards.

            My challenge remains that we have not ‘sunk’ to desperately poor standards and feel we spend too much time talking down our young people and teachers in general, which has a detrimental effect on both. I also do not believe that there was some golden age where every young person left school quoting shakespeare and using quadratic equations to solve everyday problems. The ability range of young people, is normally distributed, all that happened in the past that a part of the top third of the distribution was stretched a bit more positively. The problem’s you describe were simply masked by not entering them for academic qualifications.

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            You don’t get it, happy.fish, they’re not rich, he doesn’t allow non-rich people near him. Spitting is far easier than thinking.

        • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

          Yes, it’s called ignoring the statistics and going with the comments of people who trying to force the school system to become private so they can syphon off the profits.

  • M Cannon

    Excellent stuff from Mr Williamson MP, a man who never over-states his case and knows how to appeal to sensible voters!  Surely he deserves a post in Mr Ed Milliband’s Shadow Cabinet.  The more the electorate hear from him the better.

  • Anonymous


    That is why we must stand up for the role of “the state” in generating economic growth and regulating capitalism. 

    Yes.. Vote Labour… a Party which believes that those in London should get more in Housing Benefit than many people earn.. A Party which believes in taxing those in gainful employment to fund a bunch of civil servants who just waste money. A Party which has an economic policy based on borrowing more when it is clear to anyone with half a brain that such a policy will just not work.

    As for cuts.. what cuts? Government is spending more than last year.  Total economic illiteracy..  can’t even subtract numbers. £527.4B in 2012.. £512B in 2011. That is an increase of £15billion.

    see..http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/year_spending_2011UKbn_11bc1n#ukgs302

    • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

      And as usual, the denialists come out to play with themselves.

      Again;

      Simply because the Tories you love so much are throwing cash at corporate welfare and pork-barrel projects dosn’t mean that those NON-ESSENTIALS like…ooh…ensuring that the people of this country can afford food and shelter have not been savagely slashed.

      Moreover, it’s a sign of how badly they’ve tanked the economy and slashed away at posts which delivered savings in the name of “small government”. You’re celebrating the Tory’s gross incompetence and failure.

      And yes, I’m sure that if you do indeed have half a brain you won’t understand that without spending to spark growth the UK is going to plummet into an economic abyss.

      Long term inflation bad, yes.
      Economic collapse? WORSE.

      Hard concept, I know.

      • GuyM

        If you want a lesson in port-barrel projects look no further than the splurge of spending announced in marginal Labour constituencies just before the 2010 election.

        • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

          Funny, you seem to have mistaken me for a labourite. I’m a left winger. I know I don’t exist in your world, but still.

          And right, because doubling the NHS’s costs to allow low-quality care to leech away money for profits is SUCH a good idea! What brilliant perso came up with it. Keep defending it!

          Then there’s HS2, a massive white elephant… (Oh, and the Olympics. Which will cost us billions more. We can’t afford it, scrap it)

          • jaime taurosangastre candelas

            Remind me, what were those “doubled” NHS costs?  That’s “doubled” as in the mathematically accepted convention of being twice the previous value?

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            And you claim to work in the NHS? My my!

          • jaime taurosangastre candelas

            Those “doubled” NHS costs?  Any evidence, or is this more “howling at the moon” type talk?  

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            If you can’t be bothered to keep up with the basics of the government’s own figures, why do you post on this site?

            Oh right, to disrupt the conversation.

            Please keep pretending that there isn’t more than an entire new layer of NHS burocracy, though. Expensive firings and rehirings of managers. Top-down diktats which make a mockery of “GP” management of funds, “or else” warnings…

            No, those things are imaginary in your world. Never mind, carry on and keep the chin up! Those admin costs are a phantom of the statistics!

          • Anonymous

            Doubled health care costs? Risen by c 20% in 3 years.

            I suggest you learn some facts .

          • derek

            I suggest you remain in your bowl, to much oxygen isn’t agreeing with you?

          • Anonymous


            I suggest you remain in your bowl, to much oxygen isn’t agreeing with you?

            You can#t debate so make smart alec comments..

            Just like the original writer who can’t write sense so resorts to puerile name calling..

            It’s typical of losers.

          • Peter Barnard

            On healthcare expenditure : Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2011 (published by HM Treasury) show that at 2010/11 price levels, health expenditure by government went up from £60 billion in 1996/97 to £122 billion in 2009/10, ie Labour doubled health care expenditure during its terms of office.
             
            In the last three years (for the benefit of Mr Fish), and at 2010/11 price levels, government expenditure on health was £110.1 billion in 2007/08 and £121.3 billion in 2010/11 : plus 10.2 per cent, not “c 20 per cent.”

          • Anonymous

            I was comparing absolute numbers. Factual.

            Unlike people quoting absurd “doubling”.. Plus I gave my source.. which others refuse or fail to do..

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            I’m sorry, I don’t consider my backside a source.

          • Anonymous

            No..but youspeak throughitjudging byyour input here.. 

          • jaime taurosangastre candelas

            @ Peter B,

            I suppose there’s some grey area as to what you define as “costs”.  If you take the NHS budget since 1997, and say that’s a “cost”, then there is some rationale for a claim of “doubling”.  However, internally the figures break down into far more detail, and “costs” are defined more precisely as those fees the NHS pays to external service providers.  As Newsbot9 is concerned about private profits, it seems a fitting measure.  Those rise each year, but not yet to the extent of doubling.  

            ”And right, because doubling the NHS’s costs to allow low-quality care to leech away money for profits is SUCH a good idea!”

            I’m not sure of Newsbot9’s timeframe on that, but I can say from the internal figures that PFI costs* and outsourced care to private providers have risen from just over 6% PA to just under 8% PA in the last 5 years.  You’ll forgive me for not quoting an exact breakdown as I am unsure that the figures per Trust are authorised to be made public.  Nevertheless, it does not appear to be double, and anyway, 3.5/5ths of it was not under the current administration.  A quick glance at activity levels – ie procedures performed and referrals – indicate that a commensurate rise of about 25% has also occurred.

            * Less drugs, capital equipment, NHS labour costs and energy, which are charged at rate + depreciation and do not pass through PFI books.

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            Like the FACT that you’re talking about spending, not admin costs.

            Never mind, facts again.

          • GuyM

            No I’d place you well to the left of Labour.

            Which of course makes your vewis even more irrelevant.

            I don’t like HS2 at all, rather keep the countryside green and I suspect it will never happen.

            Olympics, I’ve already said I’d rather it had gone to Paris and we’d got the World Cup.

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            Oh yes, because all those Labour voters who stopped voting vanished into thin air, and wouldn’t come back if Labour remembered their roots.

            Wait, no, that’s Tory gerrymandering.

            Of course you have to call me irrelevant, you’re scared that Labour WILL return to it’s roots and throw the nasty party out on it’s backside where it belongs, of course.

          • GuyM

            I hope Labour does return to the hard left… another few “longest suicide notes in history” manifestos would be excellent.

            Anyway, given the global market now, any worry over a hard left government  in the UK and my wife and I would go and move abroad, two years the youngest is 18 and out of school, so no need to work in the UK anymore.

            As result you have my blessing to push for a hard left government whenever you are ready.

          • Anonymous

            Exactly what savings would be made scrapping the Olympics at this late stage? Probably about 10% of the economic benefits that the uk will gain from staging them. What’s the point of putting in most of the investment and then throwing away the pay off? You really dont have a shred of common sense do you Leon?

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            I have plenty, as opposed to you, who’d rather channel cash to a media spectacle and let poor people die for the sake of that cash.

            Murder, death, kill, the answer of the right.

          • Anonymous

            And back to the question asked? Cancelling the Olympics now would be like buying a new car and then setting fire to it to save on petrol costs and then paying a tube fare to work every day.

          • Anonymous

            Murder, death, kill….

            You know I have just remembered where that Ridiculous quote comes from. Your actually quoting from demolition man! On a political site!

            I always thought you were an out and out lunatic but really your just a wind up merchant aren’t you?

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            I’m using your style of rhetoric, yes.

            (post left for a reason)

          • Anonymous

            .. (Oh, and the Olympics. Which will cost us billions more. We can’t afford it, scrap it)

            Anyone who suggests that scrapping the Olympics NOW will save money is clearly not living in the real world. Anyone with any sense knows 99% of the £10billion is already spent or committed.

            The rest of your comments show the same level of clear thinking :-)

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            1% is savings. 1p would be savings. And it’s not true, billions will be done in damage in disruption to London during the farce.

            You’re quite happy to heap misery on the poor.

          • Anonymous

            You must have forgotten all the lost revenues for hotels etc..

            Plus I suspect various guarantees …

            You really have no idea.. 1p saved?  Yes…right.

          • Anonymous

            But a labour-ite is a lefty, a Blair-ite is to the right, or is it the other way around

          • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

            There’s a small left fringe in the Labour party, the mainstream are NOT left. This is why the core left wing support of Labour dropped away over the last three elections (to “not voting”).

  • Bill Lockhart

    OK, Mr Labour MP- what would Labour be cutting?

  • http://www.figurewizard.com Joe Jonkler

    Character assassination will do nothing to advance your cause.  The squandering of untold billions of tax payers’ money and the need to pay back billions more in debt taken on by a fiscally incompetent Labour government is what looms large in the minds of most people.  If Labour activists want to give their party a chance come the next election they are better off considering what direction the party should be going in, what constructive policies they can offer and then replacing wholesale a leadership and front bench that is so closely associated with past failures with people that can be trusted to make those policies stick.

    Spouting the kind of bilious nonsense expressed in this article is no substitute.

  • Anonymous

    Labour offers hope do they, do they really.

  • GuyM

    Communism, maosim, socialism, marxism…so I have no idea.

    You tell me, what exactly is THE left wing political structure that your movement longs for?

    Because it seems that it is easier to herd cats than to tie a leftwinger down as to what he/she actually proposes.

    It seems all the left does is theorise how “perfection” could be reached, then find reason after another failed attempt screwed somewhere up as to why it was never going to succeed and therefore doesn’t prove the ideology is flawed in any way.

    There is a snowball in hells chance of revolution in the UK.

    • happy.fish

      Broadly speaking I’d suggest a basic belief in the state’s role to promote equality both legal and economic. A belief that WE the actual citizens of a nation should be in control of the direction of our political and econmic activity and not simply go along with the ‘market’ or rather what certain people tell us the ‘market’ wants. To protect the dignity of all. If you read clause 4 it gives you a rough description. How that is achieved may be a little more troublesome. My point was that you seemed to want to polarise the debate as if there were only two options, when in reality the is a spectrum with balance between state, ‘the people’, and private capital. I am happy yo be in favour of a large public sector to alleviate the potential misery that unregulated and unfettered capitalism can lead to. I believe that no one should be left behind in our pursuit of progress, but would balance that by ensuring their remained consequences for individual actions, but that there will always be a hand held out to pull people out of whatever mess they might get themselves into.

  • happy.fish

    I have not had time to fully research and investigatehow this data is colected and what the actual differences are. Often I have heard how our position on a list has dropped, this does not imply that standards have automatically fallen or that we are a long way behind. Perhaps we should get some figures on the table and then we could progress the debate. Comparing ‘standards’ across countries is notoriously difficult and fraught with problems.  But could you give me a rough idea of how far behind we are as you seem to be in possession of more information than myself about other countries.

    • Bill Lockhart

      “The Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa)
      is highly respected across the globe, and enables politicians and
      policy-makers to assess how different country’s education systems
      compare.It shows the UK’s reputation as one of the world’s best for education is at risk, and has tumbled several places since 2006.
      The
      UK is ranked 25th for reading, 28th for maths and 16th for science. In
      2006, when 57 countries were included in the study, it was placed 17th,
      24th and 14th respectively. Poland has stretched ahead of the UK in
      maths, while Norway is now ranked higher in reading and maths.
      Andreas
      Shleicher, head of the Pisa programme, said the picture for the UK was
      “stagnant at best”. “Many other countries have seen quite significant
      improvement,” he added.”

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    Too many exams in schools.

  • Franwhi

    What the Dickens ? Chris credit the readers of this post with some intelligence and stop presenting this stereotyped view of political parties and leaders circa 1880. Labour are not squeaky clean when it comes to self interest and aggrandisement from political careers of power and privilege which have ensured various Labour individuals have made millions, have large property portfolios and can be assured that their offspring face a very much more secure future than the children of the average voter.  For me the personal is political – and from your post it seems to be too. However just remember when you’re castigating all those Bullingdon boys and their political cronies there are many on Labours current and recent front benches who are so well remunerated and possess such levels of personal wealth that their lifestyles are far closer to their Tory and Lib dem colleagues than to any Joe Bloggs “all in it together” living on any average UK street. None of the political elites of all Britain’s UK parties, including Labour, live average lifestyles in any way shape or form – if they did people might have more trust in them -  but when their lives are lived by incongruent values to the political values they espouse then they are fair game – Who wants to be a millionaire ? Join the Milliibands,Caroline Flint, Tessa Jowell, the Blairs and all the sad ones like Jim Devine who tried to cash in but got caught. Are their differences between this lot and the other rich lot ?   plus ca CHANGE  ,,,  

  • happy.fish

    Thanks for info. As I suspected looking at rankings does not tell us much would need to compare with previous ‘scores’. For example while our reading ranking is 20th on the table on your link, the nations are quite tightly packed here. There are 15 points between 1st and 3rd. 15 points is the gap between the UK and 7th position. Looking in the direction 15 points would see us only drop 7 places. Conclusion we are in a pack of relatively successful countries. The picture in maths is less rosy but again there are 12 points between 1st and 3rd. 12 points is the difference between the UK 22nd and 13th.  Also notcieable is that US, France and Germany are pretty similar scoreswise, if a little higher up the table, with France well below us with regard to science and the US behind in Maths and science. Definitely room for improvement but far from the ‘catstrophic’ drop in standards people seem wanting to claim.

  • Hypnogogic

    Didn’t Tony Blair go to Fettes and St John’s College Oxford? What about Harriet Harman, Peter Hain, James Purnell, Geoff Hoon, Alistair Darling, Ed Balls? Didn’t they all go to private schools? What about the other thoroughly middle class Labour front benchers? How many of them went to Oxford or Cambridge? Isn’t it true that Margaret Thatcher, John Major, William Hague, and Michael Howard were all state educated. So the rich kids running the Coalition aren’t really any less rich that the rich kids running the last governments. Tony Blair is just as posh as Cameron. 
    Whatever Blair and Brown’s government might have done for the good, Gordon Brown’s legacy is the massive debt burden The Coalition inherited. You can argue that the cuts the Coalition are making are cruel and harsh, particularly to most vulnerable in society, just to keep the credit rating agencies happy. Remember we have the highest debt of any country with the exception of Japan – debts run up by Brown. But when you shake your fists at the Coalition, perhaps with good reason, spare a thought for Gordon Brown, who has carefully disappeared into the background. Even putting the banks issues aside, if the ‘prudent chancellor’ chancellor had actually been prudent, we would not be here. When you get angry about public sector pensions, spare a thought for us in the private sector, from whom Gordon Brown plundered well over a £100 billion  from our pension plans, leaving a massive black hole in private sector’s pension pot. We aren’t going to have a decent pension. Many of us will have to work well beyond 67. Brown’s insistence on using the Private Finance Initiative to pay for new schools, hospitals, defence projects, hospitals means that staff are being laid off to pay for the usurious repayment schedules. Brown’s own treasury rules favoured the PFI – no matter the cost to the tax payer – because PFI schemes do not appear on the public sector borrowing figures. It is after all, easier, and cheaper for the military, health trusts and schools make even public sector employees redunant find yourself in then in breach of contract with a PFI contractor. There are currently 22 NHS trusts in serious financial trouble because of PFI – and that means doctors, nurses and other front line staff will go to try and balance the books.
    I’m no fan of the Coalition government, but Labour are going to have to go some way to convince me that they are a credible opposition, given what a massive hash of so many things they made when they were in government. 

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