Phillip Hammond - Bigger pr*ck than Liam Fox

[Crazy Diamond]

Yes but is he a bigger pr*ck than Michael Gove? That should be the benchmark for all aspiring pr*cks.

 

Agree grove is just a relic living in the victorian times .

 

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk 2

 

May I interject on the whole educating debate?

 

I have just spent a year looking for work. On Tuesday I went for probably getting on for my 20th job interview and finally secured a three month contract with an organisation, for which I will earn next to nothing and spend three hours each day commuting to with a further three hours back.

 

I've got a good degree from a top university for my subject, and I even took a year out of my life to do my exams again to get the grades to go to that university. Due to woefully bad teaching, and I have an acknowledgement from my college that they failed in their duty to teach, I didn't get the three B's I needed.

 

Now. If the amount of people going to university is to be reduced, it can only be a good thing. When Tony Blair's Labour government took charge, they watered down the requirements needed to say you had achieved something after years in the education system. You could get a GCSE or an A level by doing very, very little. Then there was the promise that anyone could go to university, which was a big, big mistake.

 

We have a limited number of universities in this country, and a limited number of places on courses. So when suddenly several thousand more students are provided the chance to go to university, and with them all promised higher education, panic. Very quickly new courses are set up. Football Studies, Surf Studies, you name it, it became a course. My father was the first of my family to attend university, he worked to put himself through it. It was a privilege for him, the result of years of hard work. Now it's an expectation and very little hard work is involved.

 

Doss courses are established and students do nothing but drink for three years and still walk away with a 2:1 in most cases. Having graduated there are suddenly far too many graduates looking for works and not enough jobs, so mass unemployment for young people and graduates comes as a result. In my own case, with a degree from the best course for my profession, I was left to wait for a year for work.

 

You tell me if promising people degrees but no job is fair. You tell me if GCSE and A levels are fair. I will tell you otherwise - from personal experience and two years of my life essentially wasted.

 

If Michael Gove prevents the system from going bad to catastrophic, as would have happened under a Labour government then it's only a good thing.

[alpine_saint]

May I interject on the whole educating debate?

 

I have just spent a year looking for work. On Tuesday I went for probably getting on for my 20th job interview and finally secured a three month contract with an organisation, for which I will earn next to nothing and spend three hours each day commuting to with a further three hours back.

 

I've got a good degree from a top university for my subject, and I even took a year out of my life to do my exams again to get the grades to go to that university. Due to woefully bad teaching, and I have an acknowledgement from my college that they failed in their duty to teach, I didn't get the three B's I needed.

 

Now. If the amount of people going to university is to be reduced, it can only be a good thing. When Tony Blair's Labour government took charge, they watered down the requirements needed to say you had achieved something after years in the education system. You could get a GCSE or an A level by doing very, very little. Then there was the promise that anyone could go to university, which was a big, big mistake.

 

We have a limited number of universities in this country, and a limited number of places on courses. So when suddenly several thousand more students are provided the chance to go to university, and with them all promised higher education, panic. Very quickly new courses are set up. Football Studies, Surf Studies, you name it, it became a course. My father was the first of my family to attend university, he worked to put himself through it. It was a privilege for him, the result of years of hard work. Now it's an expectation and very little hard work is involved.

 

Doss courses are established and students do nothing but drink for three years and still walk away with a 2:1 in most cases. Having graduated there are suddenly far too many graduates looking for works and not enough jobs, so mass unemployment for young people and graduates comes as a result. In my own case, with a degree from the best course for my profession, I was left to wait for a year for work.

 

You tell me if promising people degrees but no job is fair. You tell me if GCSE and A levels are fair. I will tell you otherwise - from personal experience and two years of my life essentially wasted.

 

If Michael Gove prevents the system from going bad to catastrophic, as would have happened under a Labour government then it's only a good thing.

 

Excellent post. Hope the career prospects improve with the bit of experience you are about to get under your belt.

[Crazy Diamond]

Excellent post. Hope the career prospects improve with the bit of experience you are about to get under your belt.

 

Thank you. I thoroughly hope so too!

[Viking Warrior]

At least they have not not touched the already bareboned medical services

 

The Army is to be reduced by 23 Regular units since the Strategic Defence and Security Review as part of Army 2020. The changes are due to be implemented by 2015, with the overall mandate to reach the capacity of 82,000 for the Regular Army and 30,000 for the Reserves by 2018.

 

The announcement came today in the House of Commons by Secretary of State for Defence the Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP after months of work by the Army to create a modern force for the challenges of 2020 and beyond.

 

The changes to the Order of Battle (ORBAT) will include:

 

Household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps

• The Queens Royal Lancers will amalgamate with 9th/12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's) upon completion of scheduled operational commitments and not before October 2014.

• The 1st Royal Tank Regiment and the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment will merge upon completion of scheduled operational commitments and not before April 2014.

 

Royal Regiment of Artillery

• 39 Regiment Royal Artillery and 40 Regiment Royal Artillery will both be removed from the ORBAT by October 2015.

 

Corps of Royal Engineers

• 24 Commando Engineer Regiment will be removed from the ORBAT not before April 2013.

• 25 Engineer Regiment and 28 Engineer Regiment will be removed from the ORBAT not before October 2015.

• 38 Engineer Regiment will be removed from the ORBAT.

• 67 Works Group will also be removed from the ORBAT not before April 2015.

 

Royal Corps of Signals

• 7th Signal Regiment (Allied Rapid Reaction Corps) is to be removed from the ORBAT.

 

Infantry

• 5th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders,) will be reduced to form a Public Duties Incremental Company on completion of current task and not before August 2013.

• 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers will be removed from the ORBAT and absorbed into the rest of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers upon completion of scheduled operational commitments in the autumn of 2014.

• The 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howard's) will be removed from the ORBAT and absorbed into the rest of The Yorkshire Regiment on completion of their Cyprus tour and not before the autumn of 2013.

• The 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment (Staffordshire) will be removed from the ORBAT and absorbed into the rest of The Mercian Regiment on completion of Op HERRICK 19 and not before October 2014.

• 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh (The Royal Regiment of Wales) will be removed from the ORBAT and absorbed into the rest of The Royal Welsh Regiment not before autumn 2013.

• 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment will join the Prince of Wales’ Division.

 

Army Air Corps

• 1 Regiment Army Air Corps will merge with 9 Regiment Army Air Corps, bringing the Wildcat force under a single HQ based at Yeovilton not before October 2015.

 

Royal Logistic Corps (RLC)

• 1 Logistic Support Regiment will be removed from the ORBAT not before April 2015.

• 2 Logistic Support Regiment will be removed from the ORBAT not before October 2014.

• 23 Pioneer Regiment will be removed from the ORBAT not before October 2015.

• 8 Regiment, 19 Combat Service Support Battalion and 24 Regiment RLC will be removed from the ORBAT.

 

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer

• 101 Force Support Battalion will be removed from the Regular Army ORBAT not before autumn 2015, and will transfer to the Reserve.

 

Royal Military Police unit

• 5 Regiment Royal Military Police is to be removed from the ORBAT as part of the drawdown from Germany. The three remaining Regiments will be re-organised.

• All SIB capabilities will be reorganised under one headquarters, while the Military Provost Service will be increased, and a specialist Support Operations group will be created.

 

The Royal Gurkha Rifles are to remain with two Battalions to sustain their capability and meet their unique operational requirement in Brunei.

 

The current Regular and Reserve structure for the Army Medical Services will remain largely unchanged with three Regular and ten Reserve field hospitals.

 

The Intelligence Corps will retain three Regular military intelligence battalions.

 

Sustaining cap badges

 

Addressing questions about specific unit reductions, Chief of the General Staff (CGS) General Sir Peter Wall KCB CBE ADC Gen, said the units to be lost from the Royal Armoured Corps were selected on the basis of armoured corps principles and to sustain as many cap badges as possible.

 

"We will still have three heavy armoured regiments equipped with an upgrade of Challenger 2, which will satisfy our requirements for the future. This is based on analysis that sees tanks being used less in a mass armoured role but still playing a very important role in terms of supporting the infantry."

 

The five Infantry Battalions were selected based on a number of factors including their ability to recruit over the last ten years, and the demographic projections about the population in their recruitment areas over the next ten years.

 

The six RLC units to be disbanded were selected based on future projections for logistic requirements, and were also those that provided a role that could be fulfilled by the Army Reserves and contractors.

 

"The RLC will still remain a critical part of the Army and one of considerable size. But we needed to find places where we can employ Reserves and contractors to alleviate some of the high costs of military manpower, and the RLC is an area where that works well," he said.

 

Fair distribution of resources

 

On the subject of the Reserves, CGS confirmed there were very few adjustments being made but until the laydown of the Regular Army is confirmed there would be no further announcements on how the Reserves would be recast to partner and complement Regular units in their areas.

 

"I appreciate that it is a difficult day for those people who have heard that the Regiments they have fought in are going to be amalgamated or disbanded, but in the round it is a good day for the Army as it gives us the clarity and springboard to shape the Army to confront the challenges of the future.

 

"This is fair to the country as it delivers the very best capabilities that we can with the resources that we have been given. It rebalances the Army to the demands of the future with a fair distribution of resources and manpower across all of the cap badges. And it is fair at the soldier level where we shall be doing our utmost to make sure that everybody gets the best chance of being re-employed in the Army.

 

Re-employment possibilities

 

CGS was keen to stress to soldiers serving with the units to be disbanded or merged that they were no more or less likely to be selected for redundancy that others with similar skills and service record.

[Viking Warrior]

it should be pointed ouyt that the 3 regular field hospitals are not full time hospitals but augmented by both TA and reguar medics from a range of units, they do have a core cadre of staff though.

[alpine_saint]

Surprised about the 7th Signal Regiment, no losses to the Ghurkas, and such deep cuts to the Engineers.

[LGTL]

May I interject on the whole educating debate?

 

I have just spent a year looking for work. On Tuesday I went for probably getting on for my 20th job interview and finally secured a three month contract with an organisation, for which I will earn next to nothing and spend three hours each day commuting to with a further three hours back.

 

I've got a good degree from a top university for my subject, and I even took a year out of my life to do my exams again to get the grades to go to that university. Due to woefully bad teaching, and I have an acknowledgement from my college that they failed in their duty to teach, I didn't get the three B's I needed.

 

Now. If the amount of people going to university is to be reduced, it can only be a good thing. When Tony Blair's Labour government took charge, they watered down the requirements needed to say you had achieved something after years in the education system. You could get a GCSE or an A level by doing very, very little. Then there was the promise that anyone could go to university, which was a big, big mistake.

 

We have a limited number of universities in this country, and a limited number of places on courses. So when suddenly several thousand more students are provided the chance to go to university, and with them all promised higher education, panic. Very quickly new courses are set up. Football Studies, Surf Studies, you name it, it became a course. My father was the first of my family to attend university, he worked to put himself through it. It was a privilege for him, the result of years of hard work. Now it's an expectation and very little hard work is involved.

 

Doss courses are established and students do nothing but drink for three years and still walk away with a 2:1 in most cases. Having graduated there are suddenly far too many graduates looking for works and not enough jobs, so mass unemployment for young people and graduates comes as a result. In my own case, with a degree from the best course for my profession, I was left to wait for a year for work.

 

You tell me if promising people degrees but no job is fair. You tell me if GCSE and A levels are fair. I will tell you otherwise - from personal experience and two years of my life essentially wasted.

 

If Michael Gove prevents the system from going bad to catastrophic, as would have happened under a Labour government then it's only a good thing.

 

I totally agree with you about post 16 education. There are far too many people going to university in my experience. But Gove is hell bent on destroying state education up to age 16, all for a political ideology.

[View From The Top]

I don't think anyone working in education thinks sending everyone off to uni is a good idea. Far from it as it dilutes the sector.

 

However, more & more young people EXPECT to go to uni and will find a course, somewhere.

 

I've a meeting with ministers scheduled for next week ( I think it's still on) and from previous meetings, including with Gove, there is clearly no joined up thinking & a large degree of making things up on the hoof, especially post 16.

 

I'll be encouraging my kids to go to uni at a Russell Group uni or in Holland!

[Crazy Diamond]

I totally agree with you about post 16 education. There are far too many people going to university in my experience. But Gove is hell bent on destroying state education up to age 16, all for a political ideology.

 

I don't know an awful lot about it, but from what I gather, they want to return to O level style, is that correct?

 

I don't know what that would be like, but from personal experience I can say that GCSEs are not the way forward.

 

My mathematics skills are absolutely awful, even the very basic stuff goes straight over my head. This was recognised, and rather than receive extra tuition I was put with the thick all boys set, which was home to the most disruptive little ****s in my year group. My failings in mathematics you could say were in the eyes of others, a sign that I was a troublemaker. Far from it.

 

I then got assigned to the 'lower' mathematics papers for my GCSE exams and I came away thinking I had failed. I hadn't, I had passed with a C. To this day I don't think I'm worthy of that C, or any qualification involving mathematics. I think that goes for a lot of students at that age across all exams.

 

GCSE exams are too easy, as has been said for a very long time now, they reward failure and are not fit for purpose. On that basis I believe change has to be made. To what system, I've no idea. I can only go on experience which for me is the best indicator.

[alpine_saint]

Source?

 

Just one, of many :

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2169519/Bright-maths-pupils-failed-state-schools-global-league-tables-place-Britain-26th.html

[Thedelldays]