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A few things....
Jan. 13th, 2010 03:26 pmFirst, I suppose, kudos to Google for their new stance on China. Not certain quite how much difference it will make, given the fact that Baidu is that much bigger in the Chinese market, but well done, nevertheless.
Secondly....A tenth of Secondary Schools failed to meet GCSE targets. Some folk are calling for a three-tiered system similar to the German system.
Until Shirley Williams presided over the disastrous change in our education system in the early '70's we had a three-tiered system of Grammar Schools, Technical Schools, and Secondary Moderns. However, it wasn't until Margaret Thatcher's regime that the majority of Grammar Schools finally bit the dust.
This sort of policy tends to be driven by ideology first, and then budgetary savings as it is realised that giving everyone lowest-common-denominator education for the smallest cost means lower taxes. And everyone wants lower taxes, even at the expense of education, health, defence, roads, or whatever.
I fucking hate all ideological politicians. I hate what Thatcher did to my country quite as much as I hate the left-wing idiots who could not think beyond their stupid idealism. I want to see practical politicians: folk who don't fix what isn't broken because of an insane adherence to some ideology. To give some examples: the Labour Party's hatred of Grammar Schools, or Thatcher's insistence on 'marketplace economics' in the NHS adding layers of bureaucracy to something that had been reasonably efficient, or her privatisation of an integrated transport system, spring to mind. I want politicians who can deal with the problems we face without pandering to lowest-common-denominator prejudices: sensible people who can make the right choices despite the stupidities of voters.
Some fucking hope, I know.
Whither democracy?
Sometimes I wonder if the Chinese option might just be better.
We know what it isn't: it isn't free and it isn't given to human rights. It isn't nice to dissidents, or Tibet.
And we know what it is: It is paternalistic, patronizing, and totalitarian. It menaces Taiwan.
But it also might just be less stupid; and less short-termist; and less in sway to the ill-informed prejudices of the under-educated electorate than we are: and if so....it's liable to leave us choking on its dust.
We really have to get our act together.
Secondly....A tenth of Secondary Schools failed to meet GCSE targets. Some folk are calling for a three-tiered system similar to the German system.
Until Shirley Williams presided over the disastrous change in our education system in the early '70's we had a three-tiered system of Grammar Schools, Technical Schools, and Secondary Moderns. However, it wasn't until Margaret Thatcher's regime that the majority of Grammar Schools finally bit the dust.
This sort of policy tends to be driven by ideology first, and then budgetary savings as it is realised that giving everyone lowest-common-denominator education for the smallest cost means lower taxes. And everyone wants lower taxes, even at the expense of education, health, defence, roads, or whatever.
I fucking hate all ideological politicians. I hate what Thatcher did to my country quite as much as I hate the left-wing idiots who could not think beyond their stupid idealism. I want to see practical politicians: folk who don't fix what isn't broken because of an insane adherence to some ideology. To give some examples: the Labour Party's hatred of Grammar Schools, or Thatcher's insistence on 'marketplace economics' in the NHS adding layers of bureaucracy to something that had been reasonably efficient, or her privatisation of an integrated transport system, spring to mind. I want politicians who can deal with the problems we face without pandering to lowest-common-denominator prejudices: sensible people who can make the right choices despite the stupidities of voters.
Some fucking hope, I know.
Whither democracy?
Sometimes I wonder if the Chinese option might just be better.
We know what it isn't: it isn't free and it isn't given to human rights. It isn't nice to dissidents, or Tibet.
And we know what it is: It is paternalistic, patronizing, and totalitarian. It menaces Taiwan.
But it also might just be less stupid; and less short-termist; and less in sway to the ill-informed prejudices of the under-educated electorate than we are: and if so....it's liable to leave us choking on its dust.
We really have to get our act together.
