Mandelson: all shall have prizes

CF has been reading the Sunday Times online this morning, prior to Lord Rupert of Sky hiding it away in the pay-per-view section of the intenet, alongside all the p0rn and get-rich-quick schemes.

And what he saw made him, inevitably, furious.

Apparently, My Lord High Mandelson, the King Over The Water, is up to his mischief again..

"..drawing up plans to overhaul university entry that could see applicants from poor families awarded a two-grade “head start” over better-off candidates."

"One of the effects would be to “bump out” many middle-class candidates at high-performing independent and grammar schools from popular courses at leading universities."

Why the fuck would he want that? According to the ST,

"He sees such changes not as positive discrimination but as a policy at the heart of Labour’s drive to improve social mobility in Britain."

"Mandelson is acting on the recent report by Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, to weaken the middle-class grip on professional jobs."

What? What? The fucking Secretary of Sate for Business is acting on a report by the former Secretary of State for Health to make changes to Education? Talk about a government of all the talents. Perhaps Blinky Balls, who's supposed to have something to do with education, will have something to say about, perhaps, the economy. Oh, that's right, he did. It was all lies, but he did.

Some of this arrant nonsense has begun already:

"A scheme at King’s College London adds a catch-up year to its medicine programme for 50 low-income comprehensive pupils admitted annually from London and Kent on reduced A-level offers."

Oh, so they don't do 'just as well' then? The poor lambs need a whole extra fucking year - an extra 33% of cost - just to catch up with those with whom they are supposedly 'equal in every way'? Fucking brilliant.

And, of course, let's not forget, those 50 places were filled at the expense of 50 other students, who didn't get offered a place, purely because they were unfortunate enough to have been educated at better schools.

But no matter, the ideology steamroller trundles on. In a speech two weeks ago, Mandelson warned that he was going to “turn up the spotlight” on university admissions, "particularly at Cambridge, Oxford and other highly ranked institutions".

The views of those institutions are not included in the article, but the ST does quote one Kenton Lewis, Head of Widening Participation at St George’s medical school, London..

Hang on, wait a second .. Head of what? Widening Participation? For fuck's sake. So, as well as a Head of Admissions, whose role it is to select the right students each year, we must now also pay (and pay we undoubtably will) for a 'Head of Widening Participation', whose role it is to override the admissions process and get some different students in. Dear God.

Sorry, where were we? Oh yes, Kenton Lewis. Naturally, he's in favour of this fuckwittery (after all, it keeps him in a non-job) justifying it in what must be the Left's quote of the decade:

“Treating everyone the same way is not appropriate and not equitable”


And there you have it. In a nutshell. Exactly what's wrong with the left, with NuLabour, and exactly what's wrong with their fuckwitted supporters currently infesting academia.

Student intake of 2009-10? Don't fucking bother .. get a job instead .. oh, no, wait ...


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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mandelson... off to a flying start this week. Literally, when he flys back in on Easyjet.

Harriet's petty revenge by pissing off to Italy to make him look bad. The mentality of our leadership, oh dear dear dear. General election please!

Anonymous said...

What an absolutely sure-fire way to make sure that 'Great' Britain does NOT have the best professionals. That way, with, for instance, second-rate doctors, perhaps more people will be 'accidently' killed off, thereby saving on pensions!! Sorted!!

Dippyness. said...

Time was, you had to have the ability to construct a sentence to gain a place at university. Under this Government, in order to get as many students as possible into University, this is now unnecessary.
6 years ago, my step daughter, gained to firsts at Southampton in some irrelevant subjects. Yet her ability to construct a sentence is appalling.
If that was the case then, I shudder to think what it's like now.
I've several friends who gave up lecturing as they'd become so disillusioned by having to correct simple grammar & spelling errors on students educated in the Country. The foreign students were far better educated. @sonofmuff

Dippyness. said...

Yep, did meself :-(
Should have read; in this Country, not in the Country.
Sowreee... ;-)

manwiddicombe said...

“Treating everyone the same way is not appropriate and not equitable,”



WTF? I'm sure that Harriet is trying to pass an Equality Bill at the moment? How are these two things compatible? (obviously they aren't, but WTF?)

Unless .. .. .. ..

After the monumental (emphasis on mental) attempt at the party leadership by Harriet last week this is Mandleson's way of explaining exactly who is in control?

Can we have an election yet?

Paul said...

Hipponess - 'gained to firsts' doesn't look right either. :)

subrosa said...

Come on now, we all know education standards are being lowered to the lowest common denominator in schools. It's the turn of the universities now. Let's be fair, we can't have anyone well educated can we.

Dippyness. said...

Ah ha! You spotted my deliberate mistake Paul. ;-)

StaceyUK said...

*head/desk*

Our education system is screwed up as it is.

There is too much focus on encouraging people on getting degrees as it is.

I enjoyed doing mine but it's done little for my job prospects. It was a BA Humanities (Hons).

When I can find work I'm a tutor in the FE sector.

Oblong² said...

I remember meeting tons of retards at university ten years ago. Bet it's much worse now.

Grammer schools used to help poorer students without dumbing down universities.

Anonymous said...

Mandelson and Brown - can they not both get cacner and die very quickly - the most useless pieces of shit that ever walked this earth.

Squeeze Labour until their blood vessels pop.

Nasty bunch of thugs.

kensington and chelsea said...

Did he say that?

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Next time you find yourself admitted into hospital, ask the Doctor “Were you trained at King’s College, London?” If he or she replies “yes” then get the fuck out of there!!

For fuck’s sake, who wants to be treated by some fucking dimwit cunt of a doctor who was only admitted to Uni because of Lord Ponsoby Arse-Cake’s half baked socio-ideological bullshit, rather than on grounds of ability?

patently said...

Quote of the Day, found by Constantly Furious...

As CF points out, St Georges presumably has a Head of Admissions - whose job it is to get the best and the brightest into the School in order to study there and provide the UK with the excellent doctors that it needs. Meanwhile, we also pay for a "Head of Widening Participation", whose job is (a) to keep out those who have shown themselves to be the best and the brightest and get some others in to replace them and (b) to come up with utter rubbish such as the above.

Anonymous said...

What do you expect from this fuckwitted administration, its all part of their quest to make Great Britian a "Land fit for Halfwits " !