@ gregotch - having seen the standard of English and maths of those coming out of schools these days I fail to see how anyone can defend education standards in the UK. No-one is interested in spelling or grammar; the "it doesn't matter as long as you can understand what they mean" attitude has been around so long that it is now destroying any semblance of ability to use the English language. Bright, clever children are being failed, badly, by an education system that refuses to address its own failings and by those who continue to defend it. Get into the real world. No-one has the "right" to be employed. It's something you earn by being the best qualified for the job. Until the British education system recognises that fact and starts to educate children properly again the jobs will continue to go to other people.
I think that's a generalisation and horseshit. Both my children and all of their friends write perfectly good English. Sure, that may be true of some school kids in some areas - but that was always the case. I went to a grammar school 45 years ago and everyone there was good at English. But down the road at the secondary modern they were functionally illiterate. It's better now overall.
It's complicated John, and so I will break it down into simple steps. EU referendum, England votes to leave Scotland votes to stay. England doesn't leave that day, it will be a year or two in the future, otherwise market chaos. Before that date, Scotland votes for independence and could then be recognised as successor state. England says we won't let you use the £, Scotland says, don't care we have our own £, enjoy the debt.
Government GERS figures say you are wrong. Have done for the past 34 years. Worlds biggest gas field is untapped and west of Shetland. BP just opening up the Clair Field -also massive. There is another 100 years of oil. Firth of Clyde oil reserves will become available once trident has gone. Oil is less important to our economy than tourism and food/drink EU is committed to reducing CO2 emissions and is planning EU wide energy market. Scotland has obscene proportion of EU renewable potential Other industries such as pharma, games industry ( grand theft auto!) Don't know why I am surprised people still believe the usual GUFF.
Speed Triple - I have pointed this out before : The Royal Navy used to have an entrance exam called NAMET (NAval Maths and English Test). It was exactly the same test for decades. And yet potential joiners, with what were supposed to be the same O-level / GCSE results, were getting lower and lower NAMET scores. It got to the point where it was so obvious and embarrassing that the MoD scrapped it and brought in a new test called LANTERN. Look anywhere in the UK and you will see examples of bad grammar; the use of "your" instead of "you're"; people who don't know the difference between "there", "their" and "they're"; people who have no idea what an apostrophe is, let alone how to use one. The top three grades used to be A, B and C. Now they are A+, A* and A. Why? Because they don't want to upset poor little Jonhny by telling him he hasn't got a top grade. Overall it's not better. It is more uniformly poor.
And as long as there are people who refuse to accept the facts and who carry on making excuses for the poor standard of education in the UK it will never improve. Which is why big companies will continue to employ better educated people from outside the UK...
It's not easy to follow what point you are making here, though you obviously disapprove. What is obscene about it? Why do you say this renewable potential is obscene?
Tbh,covering an ever widening area of discussion always leads to ever increasing speculations and generalisations. I have no control over the state of of our teaching system and also have a very dim veiw of teachers in general. however this isnt my point,which is that the "Children" arent all a bunch of morons,uneducated fools or indeed stupid and unable to read and write,they can be trained and shown how to do any job on the planet and they should be. All the youngsters i meet are very bright,constantly looking to improve their lifes,have endless ambitions. They also know what they want to do in life and that it doesnt involve being a low paid slave for some labour factory with zero future prospects. And why should they. There are of course the daily mail hoodies etc,gasp,but does anyone seriously think any sort of education will invoke in them a sense of responsibility without the use of a big stick or gun. no,these are the result of the parents,not the schooling,even if they actually went. the only use for these,and indeed their parents if i had my way,is to send them to the front line,theres always one somewhere, and save using our highly trained personel as cannon fodder as we do now. (we could also do this with our caught scamming,politicians :nod: ) However in my opinion British youngsters ARE fully entitled to be able to gain work in this country,before outsiders , before those that would have it otherwise for financial or political means. And im afraid i deem those who say otherwise as traitors to britain,the british and all i hold dear. Dont want to fit in,dont want to support our fellow countrymen,employers dont want to employ british people,dont want to get off arse and actually do something to help fix it all,then its time to fuck off out of my country is my slogan now. Saying its all down to fick kids is rubbish,its down to greed,laziness and nimby culture of the adult population. A blind one armed monkey could operate any of the machines in todays industry,just takes training. in fact a blind one armed monky could easily be a Banker,Politician or Copper,only needs training and perhaps a braincell or two removed. But then a monkey will work for a pittance,will have no rights to a decent life to speak of and can be thrown away once the employer has padded out their pension enough to retire,british youngsters wont put up with that and arent,hence the need for cheap import labour apparently(or is it i need more profit for my greed/shareholders etc). Whatever the state of the education system is now its not down to the children,thats down to us,or indeed you,as im a fick dyslexic bastard who cant get a job for livable wages,despite being able to read and write and going to boarding zoo as a child... :doffs cap: oh hang on thats because im 60yrs old..tsk,was close...hehheh. It will change,the young of today are the builders of tommorow and if our age group doesnt wipe out the world with our imbecilic ideals and "generalisations",a lot of our ills and willingness to just sit and debate without actually doing anything system ,will be irradicated. The "well educated" of this country are in fact the real examples of Morons to the point that criminality is apparently a standard feature of the current top end private education system,ie boris johnson and every other supposedly buffoonish(read criminal) politician out there,every banker,policeman,judge,doctors..... Ah more generalisations.. cough sorry,turned into a book.trouble with age is the tendency to ranble is strong,,sorry all..tsk.
