Comments by "80s Music" (@eightiesmusic1984) on "Economist explains why Britain sucks (and how to fix it)" video.

  1. Just one problem- the majority of people in the UK don't care about inequality. They used to but that time has long since gone. It will not change and there is not much point in trying to help the victims of it because mostly they simply do not care. That is why the Tories have been in power for all but 30 of the last 123 years and the Labour Party has surrendered to neoliberalism and speaks with forked tongue. It's over.
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  2. Rawls' ideas have been advocated before. Nothing new and will be forgotten in a year or two as the drum beat of neoliberalism continues to destroy the economy and lives as it sweeps everything before it.
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  3. @Ed Swann in theory yes but the situation is so bad in secondary schools now that making everyone go to state funded schools would not be a panacea. Poor behaviour is adversely affecting the life chances of many alongside myriad other problems in schools that are not tackled properly, such as bullying.
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  4. They are- for the rich. Class is the defining characteristic of life in Britain. The rich know it and use it to their advantage. Now, more than ever they are exploiting all the levers at their disposal to secure their position, safe in the knowledge that Britons are too weak and apathetic to oppose them. The Labour Party pretends to be the party of the workers yet has no class based analysis.
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  5. Starmer is the establishment pick to maintain neoliberalism and endless austerity. It is a dystopian nightmare like something out of 1984. Unless the left ever takes over the leadership of the Labour Party there is no hope for Britain but even if it does the majority of the people do not even want even the mildest form of democratic socialism as long as the Tories shout 'communist' or 'radical left' at the top of their voices. Meanwhile in the rest of the world right wing parties are to the left of Labour and the Tories in the UK.
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  6. Some of the ethos of private schools should be adopted in the state sector, true. Private schools are wrong in principle but the parental dilemma is understandable when the alternatives are often so poor. There are plenty of mediocre private schools so it is not always a wise alternative or prudent use of money but there is so much wrong with the state sector. Naturally, the educational establishment does not want to talk about it and is denial about the dreadful behaviour in many secondary schools.
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  7. Don't mention poor behaviour in schools- like Brexit it must not be spoken of. It does not exist even though an OFSTED report in 2014 found that up to a day per week of learning is lost in some schools due to poor behaviour. Obviously nearly a decade later it will be much better even though attitudes of many in school towards the mildest expression of authority are appalling. It cannot be blamed on Covid because the long term trend was there for at least a decade before 2020. The NEU said recently that its members do not regard poor behaviour as near the top of their concerns ( paraphrased). Tell that to all those whose life chances are ruined by spending five years in schools where most teachers cannot control their classes and receive little support from management.
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  8. Which will make precisely no difference to anything.
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  9.  @DayneD89  A reasoned argument that highlights the dilemma. I don't believe in private schools but the state sector is in disarray and it is entirely understandable why parents would send their children to private school when they consider the often unpalatable alternative.
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  10. Makes no difference while Labour remains the prisoner of the neoliberal right. They have no intention of changing society .
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