Tuesday 22 August 2023
Choking off dreams
Politics latest: Labour accuses PM of 'choking off dreams of next generation'; education secretary 'stands by' A-level comments
Sir Keir Starmer has said if he wanted to be able to study law today, the current economic climate would have "stopped my dream cold in its tracks".
Maybe "Sir" Keir should think about easing off on the political emetic pedal. He is in some danger of trying to present himself as a weird cross between Confucius and Little Nell.
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7 comments:
Fifty years ago the 'State', taxpayers, could afford for 5% of school leavers to go on to university, paying their tuition fees and helping with maintenance grants.
Asking taxpayers to pay for 50% or 70% of school leavers to do the same (as per Saint Tony Blairs wish) is a much bigger expectation, especially when some of those taxpayers are on minimum wage.
So when Sir IKEA whinges about the Government's response without proposing any alternatives, it's just empty politics. It's also unlikely to boost votes beyond the traditional support for Labour.
"Sir" Kneel still describes his father as a toolmaker. People on line claim that he was indeed a toolmaker, in the sense of owning the factory.
Does anyone here know the truth of the matter? Is he just being prolier than thou?
Sir Keir Starmer has said if he wanted to be able to study law today, the current economic climate would have "stopped my dream cold in its tracks".
So the current climate would have given us a DPP who would have prosecuted Savile and Pakistani rape gangs, and would have released evidence that led to Andrew Malkinson being freed? Sounds like a good deal...
DJ - Sir IKEA is quite good at whinges coupled to empty politics, but not particularly good at disguising it. I think you are right, he is unlikely to boost votes beyond traditional Labour support. He doesn't manage to reach out beyond Labour, he just benefits from Tory incompetence.
dearieme - I don't know the truth of the toolmaker claim. I assume his father didn't own a factory as I've seen nothing but the bare claim - no company details, no examples of tools his father's factory made.
Sam - that's a good point, he wasn't much of a DPP.
I don't think of myself as particularly proficient at googling but I did find this: "Starmer’s father, in reality, operated the Oxted Tool Co, his own independent toolmaking enterprise until the 1990s. By all accounts, he was a proficient self-employed tradesman, devoid of superiors or overseers, operating from a rented workshop on an industrial estate ..."
I have seen somewhere a remark attributed to Starmer's father about his son working in the summer in "my factory" so his 'workshop' may have been a decent-sized affair.
Anyway, insofar I grasp English class distinctions "Sir" Kneel is lower middle class - a petit bourgeois - by origin. How odd to be ashamed of it and try to suppress it. As far as I'm concerned membership of anything other than the criminal classes is perfectly respectable. And even then any child who escaped it and "went straight" would be OK by me.
Well, except Human Rights Lawyers - they seem to be a bunch of crooks.
dearieme - yes, my impression is that he may have been some kind of tradesman, but "Sir" Kneel doesn't wish to clarify it for some reason. Lower middle class is my guess too.
I have had a wonderfully cynical thought as to why "Sir" Kneel wishes to disguise the fact that his father was a businessman as well as a toolmaker. Suppose - pure speculation, this - that he had a handful of employees and that he ran the business as a non-union shop.
No doubt this embarrassment would have to be hidden at all costs.
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