Recent posts

#41

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by HVC - Today at 03:10:03 AM

Foreigners don't push kids into liberal arts, bad parenting does

#42

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Josquius - Today at 03:07:30 AM

In a sense it doesn't really matter since we are talking about economics rather than education per se. The point is that foreigners are willing to pay large sums for a British education, it is a profitable export industry that provides many good jobs and we can use the foreign exchange to buy the stuff that we are relatively bad at making.

However the point of education isn't meant to be to make money in itself but to create the conditions (educated workforce, innovation, etc...) by which other segments of the economy can enjoy success.

Fair enough that Britain is doing well selling this 'product' to foreigners. But are we sacrificing our broader economic success and the wellbeing of our people as a result?

Is there so much extra value from all those Chinese students paying big money to get a bit of paper from Teeside University (completely random example name, no comment on its actual quality) to make it worth so many local students paying £9k a year for worthless degrees in finger painting  rather than getting polytechnic qualifications that directly set them up for skilled work?

#43

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by HVC - Today at 02:58:03 AM

To the tune of £42 Billion as of 2022

#44

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Josquius - Today at 02:55:46 AM

As said I already agreed that current problems are blah blah you moron.
God it would help so much if you could stick to facts.  Wait till after they've stolen land to accuse them of stealing land.

Randomly throwing insults out of nowhere is pretty lame at the best of times. When its to accuse me of not sticking to the facts when you seem to be unaware of the most basic things about the Israel-Palestine situation...
https://www.vox.com/world/2016/12/30/14088842/israeli-settlements-explained-in-5-charts
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/01/they-took-our-home-our-land-everything-palestinians-displaced-by-settlers-tell-their-stories

"But... It's like the whole thing far right nuts trot out about how we should oppress Muslims because it's not like they let Christians practice freely in Saudi Arabia."

"And this means being honest about history rather than just seeing it as a dick waving points scoring exercise."

Are these meant to rebut anything I've said?  why are you bring them up in a response to what I've posted?

You know, not everything in discussions is meant to be about trying to "rebut" what other people have said.

Its relevant as "decolonisation is just an excuse to hate white people. What about the crimes of others?" is frequently used as a smoke screen by those who don't actually have any interest in the crimes and you often do find foreign nationalists weirdly on the same side as progressives for our historic issues...yet when it comes to their historic issues things are very different.

I withdraw moron.

I'm very confused at what's got you so worked up.
As said throwing insults is pretty pathetic. Though the whole reason for this exchange was you not understanding something that I do....

#45

Off the Record / Re: Vote for your favorite Aus...

Last post by clandestino - Today at 02:52:47 AM

Thought #2 was the right choice 

Your crazies look disturbingly like common people 

#46

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Richard Hakluyt - Today at 02:37:23 AM

In a sense it doesn't really matter since we are talking about economics rather than education per se. The point is that foreigners are willing to pay large sums for a British education, it is a profitable export industry that provides many good jobs and we can use the foreign exchange to buy the stuff that we are relatively bad at making.

#47

Off the Record / Re: 2024 Portuguese snap Legis...

Last post by clandestino - Today at 02:35:10 AM

Where can I apply to change last elections votes by the great wisdom of the Languish forum?

Interesting choice of photos btw 

#48

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by Zanza - Today at 02:18:26 AM

These stickers are used by service in Germany when they are changing to winter tires to indicate that the tires have more limited performance than summer tires. So you should go no faster than 160kph / 100 mph or 240 kph / 150 mph in winter. 

#49

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by HVC - Today at 02:14:45 AM

We've had this discussion before, Josq refuses to believe that England has a good education system because he rejects the metrics by which those stats are calculated.

#50

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Gups - Today at 02:09:42 AM

Britain and things it's good at - I really wouldn't put education in there.
It's a tough one as yes. Some people are getting very rich off the mass imports of Chinese students....
But is that really what education is meant to be for?
What Brits are getting is fucking awful compared to the rest of Northern Europe.


Corbyn being crap - he is that. But still. I'd take a Labour government led by him over Johnsons tories any day.
Though my ideal outcome of the last General election was a Labour minority.

I don't know what you define as Northern Europe but by the only objective measure there is (PISA), the UK is 14th in the world and 5th in Europe - behind Finland, Estonia, Ireland and Switzerland but ahead of everyone else including Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and Norway. And that's despite Scotland dragging the scores down.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/pisa-scores-by-country

Our universities are way behind the States in any rankings but way ahead of any other country in the world. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL are all in the top 25, only one other European University (ETH Zurich) is.

I can't envisage a 2019 Labour minority government lasting more than a year. It would have been pulled apart by internal Brexit tensions and the risk of a Truss like reaction by internal markets. We would have ended up with a massive Tory makority in a 2020 election and the probable split of the Labour party.