Dumbing down? Us?
My cousin achieved ABB in her A Levels, and consequently doesn't need to go into Clearing. Which is a shame, in a way, as there is the most intriguing array of courses available. She could, for example, study Culinary Arts at the University of Central England (i.e. fancy cooking in Birmingham), or "Licensed Retail" at the University of Central Lancashire (selling booze in Preston, where, incidentally, you can also study Tableware Design if you feel so inclined). Or she could study Industrial Packaging in Swansea (for some strange reason this hasn't proved a very popular course, so if anyone is still floundering, there's an idea for you.) I wonder what "Outdoor Studies" entails? You can do "Outdoor Studies" and Manchester Met, and my boss says it could be anything, maybe French or History, or Industrial Packaging, except that the lessons take place in the open air. There are also some wonderful combinations available. It certainly does keep your options open doing English and Cell Biology, or Crime Studies with Drama (Staffordshire), which presumably equips you quite well for a role in "The Bill". There are also some extremely specific courses: at Leeds Metropolitan you can do three years in "Managing Major Events", only to be outdone by Yachting Studies, apparently taught at the Southampton Solent University, which I've never heard of (it turns out it used to be the Southampton Institute.) The UCAS website can be quite fun if you're bored. But then, I'm easily amused.
Norman Tebbit is a git. No, sorry, I've just realised that's offensive to people who are gits. Now it turns out that if only we'd persuaded Muslims in Leeds to support the England Cricket team they wouldn't have bombed those tubes. But of course! And aren't we just kicking ourselves now! Why didn't we think of that? I'd better be careful, since I follow Lancashire where cricket is concerned, which is an obvious sign that in the future I am going to blow the crap out of Halifax on account of its being in the wrong county. I don't know how much you know (or indeed care) about Tebbit, but he's also a bit of a fan of Enoch Powell, and he's obsessed with homosexuality, which is apparently to blame for the increase in obesity (Yes, that confused me, too.)
Tebbit almost got killed in the IRA Brighton Bomb in 1984, but they missed and paralysed his poor wife instead. I can't help wishing they'd tried a bit harder.
Norman Tebbit is a git. No, sorry, I've just realised that's offensive to people who are gits. Now it turns out that if only we'd persuaded Muslims in Leeds to support the England Cricket team they wouldn't have bombed those tubes. But of course! And aren't we just kicking ourselves now! Why didn't we think of that? I'd better be careful, since I follow Lancashire where cricket is concerned, which is an obvious sign that in the future I am going to blow the crap out of Halifax on account of its being in the wrong county. I don't know how much you know (or indeed care) about Tebbit, but he's also a bit of a fan of Enoch Powell, and he's obsessed with homosexuality, which is apparently to blame for the increase in obesity (Yes, that confused me, too.)
Tebbit almost got killed in the IRA Brighton Bomb in 1984, but they missed and paralysed his poor wife instead. I can't help wishing they'd tried a bit harder.
posted by RLS at 9:28 am
3 Comments:
Well, if I may rise (albeit very predictably) to the defence of Lord Tebbo, let me point out a few things:
1. The point I think he was making on the Radio 4 discussion on Child Obesity (why he was invited onto such a discussion I don't know - he's not exactly an expert on that subject, but then neither is Boris Johnson, who was also invited...) is that obesity has to be put into the wider context of cultural and social - for which read, family - breakdown, which has been helped and abetted by governement policies that have discouraged traditional family life and aided 'alternative' lifestyles that lack the stability that would lead to a more decent society.
His example of this governmental anti-family stance was the Civil Partnerships Bill, and he saw it as a case in point of the government encouraging 'buggery' and not heterosexual marriage.
All fair enough, though his use of language was insulting and insensitive if you ask me ('Buggery'? Who even says that any more?).
Where he got stupid was when he said, according to the UKGay.com article you cite:
"We don’t only have an epidemic of obesity, we have a huge problem with AIDS. And the government's attitude is to do everything it can to promote buggery - knowing that those two are intimately connected."
Eh? What exactly is the connection between AIDS Obesity?
Stupid comment, Tebbo.
Despite this, his general argument, which was that many problems (whether physical, mental, emotional, social, etc.) come down to the degraded state of society and family life partially through the 'Permissive Society' legislation of the 60's and subsequent liberal policies that successive Governments have pursued, *pauses for breath*, is a good one.
2. Tebbit's comments regarding multiculturalism, which mirror David Davis' recent statements in many respects, are quite true - I elaborate this myself on third last blog entry I wrote.
Muliculturalism leads to a ghettoised and balkanised society, which is a breeding ground for introverted fundamentalism in communities that are unintegrated. Ergo, its a bad thing if done on the level we have it now in this country - 'all things in moderation' is a good British principle, pity we didn't apply it to culture and immigration...
3. The Cricket test is a good idea! If we allowed into the country only those people who really thought of themselves as British and NOT "foreign but residing in ---", if we made integration of loyalties AT LEAST mandatory, then we might not have had the problems we have now.
4. Enoch Powell wasn't a bad man. Yes, he made a stupidly inflammatory speech, but there is nothing that suggests he was a racist - he merely believed that mass immigration is a bad idea. So do I.
5. Er, why was he on a program about obesity, again?
Pax tecum,
The Cavalier
Hi Peter,
So you're not tempted to switch university and study Outdoor Studies, then? :-) OK, in response to your post:
1. I don't know very much about Lord Tebbit, but it just came across as a bit of a daft thing to say. Not quite as daft, perhaps, as Boris Johnson who tried to clear everything up by saying "er, I don't think he meant gay sex is responsible for obesity", which I think we'd all worked out already.
2. I think he has a good point though about family breakdown, not necessarily in how it contributes to obesity, admittedly, but it would be nice if more families sat down and talked to each other a bit more and, well, spent time together!
In fairness to Lord Tebbit, he is quite old and "buggery" probably was the accepted term years ago, even if it sounds a bit silly now.
3. From what I know baout Enoch Powell I have to say I'm not a huge fan. He may not have meant to come across as racist, but at the time it gave the National Front etc something to seize upon and caused problems. However crap Britain's immigration policy, it isn't the fault of those who take advantage of it, even less those who are already here. Whatever he meant, you couldn't call him tactful.
4. Lots of things breed fundamentalism of all kinds amongst all sorts of people. Hardship, poverty etc seems to cause problems regardless of the race or creed of the people living in poverty. Look at the crime rates in deprived areas, and look at the biggest recruiting grounds for the BNP: Bradford, Oldham etc, areas that are deprived, with high unemployment etc and therefore lots of isolated people. There are a lot of immigrants in other areas such as Hampstead (which has a large Jewish community, for example) which don't have a BNP problem at all.
5. Most people don't care about cricket (as an example) at all and don't feel a "loyalty" to anyone particularly. I have to admit that I do watch cricket, but I'm not particularly bothered as to whether or not Henman wins Wimbledon or not (which is just as well, really, as I can't see it ever happening!) A few years back I was cheering on Goran Ivanisevic, but that doesn't make me Croation. (OK, bad example.) I understand where you're coming from, but when people are blowing themselves up and killing others in the process, to say, "Ah, well, he supported Pakistan, you know" doesn't seem to me to get to the root of the problem. And you can't chuck people out of the country because they don't support the England cricket team can you?
That said, I have a Muslim friend who says she feels that she is being encouraged NOT to be British as every form she fills in asks her to define herself and the choice "British Asian" isn't usually there, and "British" is always "White British". She says there's so much "oh, but you have your own culture don't you?" attitude going around that she is made to feel she shouldn't be part of mainstream British culture (whatever that is). She is second generation born here, and when you put it like that it does seem a bit counter-productive.
Talk soon
Px
Pahahaha!
Obesity is either about lax parents not giving a toss about what their kids eat; crap parents who let their spoilt kids eat whatever they want; or poor parents who can't afford to buy their kids proper meat and vegetables and have to suffice on the processed shit - NOT the family structure. The whole "proper" family structure bugs me anyway - a family is love and support, the gender or sexual orientation is irrelevant.
And making stupid rules regarding the support of a cricket team is the typical namby pamby time-wasting bollocks that leaves this country running round in circles. Who gives a shit! Sure, I agree other cultures should integrate more, but you try and influence all their allegiances they'll hate us even more.
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