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Showing posts with label Students. Show all posts

Lunacy In The Sky With Diamonds

As a former musician, this story really got to me. We whinge on about degrees not being worth the paper they are written on these days, but a Masters Degree in the Beatles!

The lady in question is Canadian, Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy - which is a lyric in itself and incidentally scans with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Freaky or what! She has just graduated with an MA, the first of twelve students to take the course.

What can I say -

"There's A Place" called Liverpool Hope University where "Rock And Roll Music" is regarded as "The Long And Winding Road" to future prosperity. "Lovely Rita" has "A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues" in her "Young Blood"!

"Oh! Darlin'," life's "Magical Mystery Tour" down "Penny Lane" has "Sexy Sadie" above looking "Across The Universe" for "Money". After all, it's "Every Little Thing" that "The Fool On The Hill" could wish for.

"I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" but it's "Only a Northern Song", so "Tell Me Why" "There's A Place" that "What Goes On" is so "Nowhere --,Man".

"I'm Looking Through You" and "It's All Too Much". "I've Got A Feeling" "It Won't Be Long" before "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry" "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" "For No One" "Because" "I Should Have Known Better".

"Help!", "I'm A Loser" and "I Want To Tell You" that "I'm Down"

You can read this ridiculous story - together with it's pompous soundbites - by clicking here.

"From Me to You", "I am the Walrus"...

"I'll be back." "It Won't be Long."

(That's enough Beatles' songs - Ed.)

Student protests - Democracy in action?

I think not...

Yesterday, thousands of 'students' descended on London to protest against the coalition Government's decision to allow universities to increase tuition fees. At least ten people have been arrested - including two arrests for assault on police, one on drunk and disorderly charges and six for violent disorder.

Twenty-two 'protesters' and nine officers are believed to have been injured. Six of the injured police required hospital treatment. In addition the Price of Wales' car was attacked, windows were smashed in Oxford Street and the Supreme Court building was vandalised.

And just to put the icing on the cake, in the true spirit of Christmas 'protestors' set fire to the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square.

Note that I say 'students' and 'protestors' in inverted commas. They are not necessarily the same thing. I don't dispute that there is genuine bad feeling in the student community about the increase in fees, but at the end of the day these events have been largely orchestrated by left wing activists and anarchists. Anyone who doubts this, frankly, has rocks in their heads. Students exercising their right to lawful protest do not need to wear balaclavas...

Like the strikes of the Thatcher years, this is the first in the long line of 'events' orchestrated by the left to bring down a legally elected government. It's the way the left has always worked. It's the way it's working now. It's the start of another winter of discontent as this blog predicted some time ago.

I might perhaps have been less inclined to this view if the 'protestors' had been chanting "No to fees!" rather then "Tory scum!"

I support the right to peaceful protest and to freedom of speech. These are the cornerstones of democracy. I salute the members of the LibDem and Conservative parties who voted against these changes. They have followed their consciences and the wishes of their electorate. Some have resigned - quite rightly - from ministerial posts because of their beliefs. This is how democracy works and should continue to work.

What is not democratic is the rule of the mob. It should not be tolerated - now or ever.

Solving the University crisis

If you have been unsucessful in getting a place at University this year, then here's an idea for the coalition government which could solve the problem for future generations at a stroke...

A friend of mine has a Bsc(Hons) in Therapeutic Radiography. To get that, her acadamic year was 48 weeks - not 30 like you lot!

Here's the bright idea. We should increase the academic year from 30 weeks to 45. This still leaves students and tutors with 7 weeks off every year - which is a damn site more than the working population gets.

By doing this we could reduce the length of a degree course from three years to two, hence at a stroke increasing the number of places available at univerity by a third. It would also make students more aware of the conditions they will be working to when they get out into the big, bad job world. It would also save money through economies of scale.

And thinking about it, teachers are underworked anyway. I'd kill for their holidays...

The boomerang generation

Won't it be just great to have the kids back home again?

OK. You don't really need to answer that. After all, one of them might be listening in! And you wouldn't want them to feel unwanted now, would you? Never mind how you feel...

Pretty soon, lots of unemployed graduates will be leaving university and moving back into their old rooms. Back to the bosom of the family where they are loved and wanted. Well, loved anyway because what they have forgotten is that while they were away bettering themselves with higher education, Mum and Dad were enjoying some much earned freedom for the first time in years.

And now that's all gone. The parents can no longer run around the house in their underwear in case someone appears from their offsprings bedroom and demands breakfast...

But what really pisses me off is the attitudes of this boomerang generation. Attitudes like 'I don't need to clean my room because Mum will do it.' Like 'Mum will do my washing and ironing, Dad will pay the phone bill, my parents will put food on my plate' Attitudes like 'This is my home and I have a god given right to live here.'

Lots of the younger generation that I know seem to think that it is an unalienable human right that they can afford a house in their home town. We never had that expectation. We saved for years with our prospective spouses to scrimp together a deposit so we could get a mortgage on a crummy little one bed flat and even then we had to move further from town to be able to afford it. I was raised in south London, but I moved out to afford my first home. My wife was raised in Surrey, but her first home was in Reading.

A reality check is needed. You need to stand on your own two feet and assert your independence. You need a job you can do - you can get the one you want later, if ever. You can't afford a house on one income. It's not fair to live off your parents and contribute little or nothing.

Our generation lived with these realities. You selfish little buggers need to do the same...

The scandal of University places

Remember the mantra? "Education. education, education"

I recently exposed the scandal of the Labour's cynical exploitation of graduates in order to keep the unemployment figures looking good. Well here's an even bigger scandal - and the reason that all you poor sods out there can't get a University place.

Guess who is to blame? Yep - good old Gordon Brown again.

In 2009, the Labour Government placed a cap on additional numbers of students for the next academic year to avoid hiking up the costs to the Treasury of paying upfront fees, grants and loans.

If Universities exceed the numbers laid down by the previous administration, then they face fines of £3,700 per head.

The simple answer to this (if you are listening Mr. Cameron) is to immediately rescind this cap. If you are serious about local people deciding local issues, then you should allow the Universities to decide how many places they have and to act accordingly. This really does put your claim of devolving government decisions to the front line firmly under test.

But please remember, all you frustrated University hopefuls out there, that when you listen to the Miliband clones banging on about how this coalition government has let you down that it was LABOUR who put this cap in place.

I notice Ed Balls is keeping a low profile...

Students today don't know they are born

I have just spent four nights in the halls of residence at Bangor University.

"Oh no!" I hear you cry. "Four nights of squalor and depravity! Rat infested rooms! Beds filled with toast crumbs! Marmite in the butter dish! Butter in the Marmite! Pubic hairs in the shower!"

Well, no actually. Anyone who wants to know which wall Gordon has been pissing our money up for the last 13 years need only visit Bangor University.

The halls of residence here are about 12 months old. They are clean, modern and very comfortable. I have stayed at 4 star hotels that were not as good. Honestly!...

But what about the food? Well, the bar and restaurant are also new and the food is very good. The bar is well stocked and very pleasant. There is a pool table and two plasma tellies. It's a far cry from the smoke stained spit and sawdust of my days.

It was difficult to find anything to moan about - although, of course, some people will always moan about something.

In my case, it was the modular shower room. It had been lifted straight out of a French motorway motel.

I knew it was foreign because the shaver socket wouldn't accept a UK plug....