This is not strictly about biodiversity, but most certainly it shows how other voices are now being heard in our world. Thank goodness! In Britain university tuition used to be free, and a few decades ago students could even get living allowances while studying too. As the greedier governments came into power, so they forced university students to pay fees: thereby once again segregating the ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots’; regardless of academic ability. In 2010 the Liberal Democrats went into coalition with the Conservatives at Westminster: they reneged on their manifesto pledge not to support tuition fee increases. The Tory-LibDem coalition increased fees up to ?9000 per annum. LibDem support nationally is now less than 5% of the voters. In other words they sold their soul for a taste of power!
As the article points out: Britain could easily afford fee-free university education for all those interested. The cost? Scrapping nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction. So what is the issue with this? The Westminster government believes having Trident makes it important, and crucially gives it a permanent seat on the UN Security Council … a throwback to the end of WW2. But do we need WMD? Simple answer is NO. More to the point is that London dumps these things near to Glasgow ~ Scotland’s largest city. Scotland & Wales don’t want them at all; probably the majority of people in England don’t want them either. Personally I’d rather have free education for all: a well-educated population is exactly what our Planet Earth needs right now. 🙂
In another remarkable article I cannot find anything I disagree with. Just shows there are good people out there 🙂
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/if-i-were-prime-minister-i-would-order-the-arrest-of-tony-blair-for-war-crimes-10020759.html
Janos ~ just for info. I cut & pasted the links in exactly the same way. The post didn’t hyper-link, the comment did. Thanks Mike 🙂
I wrote something on his one yesterday, but for some reason it did want to “get posted.” So I will start again.
I was born at the right time, so when education in the UK was delivering as it should be, I was there as a student and did not have to go through the trauma that present day University students have to go through.
I think it all started when our beloved Maggie came to 10 Downing Street with a sharp knife, which was probably donated to her by an ayatollah in exile. That was the time when Universities were hit hard, relegating University studies to the very rich. Also the time when fees for foreign students hit the ceiling, and the Universities were gradually filled up by rich arabs. I remember at one time there were more Iranians at Oxford than any other nationals. And funnily enough, entrance requirements were dropped because of the money they would bring.
The situation did not change much in later years. No grants, no research money with all Universities having gone commercial to survive. Now the Chinese and Japanese are filling up the Universities.
On the other hand, France has still maintained its free education policy, and the Germans joined in recently.
And another thing that is also interesting Mike, is that in France and Germany pensioners live comfortably on their pensions, even affording foreign holidays when they wish, whereas in Britain pensioners live in poverty, except for those who still have investments.
All thanks to Maggie.
Right on the mark Ven. And you are correct with the culprit too. They were our darkest times in recent decades, and the clones (Blair, Cameron, Hague etc.) would like such terrors to continue: Greed & Lust for Power 🙁