In the News

[Jubal]

I'm also kind of hoping for a fairly measured approach to that side of it too..

[TTG4]

I'm also kind of hoping for a fairly measured approach to that side of it too..

It seems to be the only country that currently isn't split along the sunnah/shia divide. Yet.

[Jubal]

The Sunni-Shia divide isn't an issue in Afghanistan because the split is very much geographic, it's a fault line running through Iraq mainly (in Syria the regime forces are Alawite, which is another thing entirely - but they tend to align with the Shia Iranians or Iraqis versus the Sunnis). Iran is pretty much wholly Shia, Arabia and Afghanistan pretty much wholly Sunni. The Afghan fault lines are if anything ethnic rather than religious, between Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, etc etc.

[comrade_general]

I say let them draw their own lines.

[Jubal]

The trouble is, even the status quo isn't exactly hands off because the US, China, Russia, EU, Saudis, Iranians, etc all pump money in to try and retain or gain influence in the area.

[Othko97]

Large image.

Spoiler

Really?! Does the devil brand his subjects with marks which seem awfully similar to hairdryers?

[Cuddly Khan]

Probably a stunt by the parents.

[Jubal]

FEAR THE SATANIC HAIR DRYERS. FEAR THEM WITH GREAT FEAR.

[Othko97]

Just to clarify I was suggesting that the child has been either accidentally or intentionally branded with the end of a hairdryer. Either way, it's not particularly good parenting to then sell the story to The Sun.

[comrade_general]

Y'all need Jesus!

[TTG4]

I'm sure this kid will be very pleased that his parents did this when someone in secondary school stumbles across this piece on the internet...

[Cuddly Khan]

Someone died today. A tree fell on them. We had 100+km winds plus rain. Australian Winter WTF!!!

[Gen_Glory]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2710377/You-failed-Britain-Pregnant-NHS-boob-job-model-Josie-Cunningham-slammed-Twitter-Q-A-hours-raking-30-000-selling-four-tickets-birth-child.html

on the subject of using children for publicity, the woman who got breast enlargement then reduction on the NHS has sold 4 tickets to her latest childs birth and Leeds city council has cancelled her £6000 taxi allowance (which she had because she refused to take public transport, as the general public did not like her very much)

[TTG4]

So on this weeks broadcast of Any Questions, Osama Saeed of Al Jazeera suggested that the top two people from every school should go to Oxford or Cambridge, in his words to 'really put the cat among the pigeons'.

As far as I see it, this is another cheap attempt to jump on the anti-Oxbridge bandwagon. If we take it seriously I can see two possible results. Either we end up with students at Oxbridge who came from failing schools where their quality of education wasn't up to scratch and so feel out of their depth, depressed and end up failing. From personal experience, those are pretty common feelings among Oxbridge students and to throw someone in who isn't able to cope with the intense program wouldn't be a good idea. Or, we'll have people transferring their children to a failing school and have them tutored in order for them to get an easier place, we already have people transferring to state sixth form colleges from private schools because they mistakenly think that'll help them.

It's also really Oxbridge centered, would it also be fair to say that the top ten from each school should go to a Russel group university? We do have a problem with elitism and inequality in education, but that stems from inequality in schools where the difference is huge and less so at universities where we have many world renowned institutions where your only criteria for entry is showing you have the academic skills necessary.

Does this seem like a fair take on the matter? Or am I just biased being a Cambridge grad from a state school on the verge of being in special measures...

[Glaurung]

Osama Saeed's position seems to me to be inconsistent: he effectively accepts that universities should be selective (hence Oxbridge get the most able students) while implying that schools should not be.

In an ideal world, a selective Oxbridge would get the top two (or pro rata for the size of the school) from each school, because all schools would educate their pupils equally well, and innate ability would be the only factor in selection. Unfortunately the UK education system is far from ideal. It therefore makes sense to me that with a selective university system, Oxbridge (and the other Russell group universities) should select the candidates they think will make best use of the education that those universities provide, and at the moment that is going to favour private schools. In my opinion, the effort should be going into improving the state school system, rather than biasing universities' selection procedures.

[My education history may be pertinent:
age 4-11: private school
age 11-18: state schools (i.e. "public" in the non-British sense)
university: Cambridge]