There's also nothing automaticly right about it either. I know several complete fools get through both Cambridge and Oxford, not people capable to run a shop let alone a government.
Labour Candidates
- Thread starter Gaidin109
- Start date
There's also nothing automaticly right about it either. I know several complete fools get through both Cambridge and Oxford, not people capable to run a shop let alone a government.
It doesn't matter, Cambridge is Cambridge - the degree cert. doesn't even state the subject. It's a just says BA irrelevant of whether you did art history or theoretical physics.
Soldato
- Joined
- 20 Feb 2010
- Posts
- 4,503
- Location
- Darkest Worcestershire
Non of these will ever become P.M.
Its a stop gap
Its a stop gap
[TW]Fox;16718519 said:
It is no shock, however with your implication against non elite educated people in power it seemed to imply to me that it only stands along with those two institutions.
Just curious.
[TW]Fox;16718519 said:
Anything like running a company?
Again, something many many 'uneducated' people have achieved quite sucessfully. The length of your vocabulary has little to do with sound descision making.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
No not really.
[TW]Fox;16718643 said:
I disagree. The way government works is very microbusiness like. It is UK Plc with the added irritations of wars and the wider macro-environment.
If America can survive under Bush I am very sure the UK could survive a binman. By the exact same background functions - ministers, civil servants and advisors.
Its a figurehead descision maker, and again education level of the top person is not paramount. Not for sound descisions at least on the face of it, or at worse surviving his term. The latter which to be fair is what we've had for the last twenty years with highly educated people I would argue. Mostly Obridge at that.
Last edited:
Agreed.
I'd rather Oxbridge than some Poly or someone who had a degree in something mickey mouse. Maybe they got to where they are because, shock horror, for the majority the cleverest people attend Oxbridge? I wait to be corrected ( 
) but for the most part it is true.
) but for the most part it is true.I'd rather Oxbridge than some Poly or someone who had a degree in something mickey mouse. Maybe they got to where they are because, shock horror, for the majority the cleverest people attend Oxbridge? I wait to be corrected (
The rich cleverest do.
Doesn't quite make them the cleverest people around however by default.
I wait to see you correct me on that one.
My understanding is that Milliband, Burnham and Balls have all basically been working for ministers since graduation, a kind of fast-track scheme for future party front-benchers. While I agree that it's desirable to have leadership candidates who have been outside this circle, you probably can't accuse the Labour leadership candidates for not knowing how to run a country.
I would and strongly at that, their Labour predecessors showed very little skill at the task so I wouldn't hold my breath for the up and coming lacklustre protégés.
Or if you mean how to run the country by the seat notes left behind and knowing who to talk too, well the only advantage I can think of shadowing a minister before you take over is knowing the names of people and the functions before hand.
Once your in the job, it will make very little difference. You will just 'settle' in quicker.
My opinion of course.
Last edited:
Are you claiming that people from comprehensives don't go to oxbridge?The rich cleverest do.
Doesn't quite make them the cleverest people around however by default.
I wait to see you correct me on that one.
Not at all.
However educational standards vary wildly across the UK, and with the major obstacle of child poverty I would not agree that the majority of cleverest people come through Oxbridge.
It is just the cleverest educated on whole who had the fortunate background and intellect to get to attend. Being close geographically helps, and if not is likely to be a hurdle for many potentials.
I am just stressing that Oxbridge certification is not the be all and end all of being intelligent. Far from it.
Nobody said it was. However it remains quite inevitable that you'll find people from Oxbridge turning up in the higher end of society more often than not.
I didn't intend to claim all the cleverest people attend Oxbridge, I meant (in different wording) that people who go there are pretty much all among the cleverest. And furthermore, of that category notionally called the 'cleverest' the ones that attend Oxbridge are no doubt the best educated. A failing of the system, maybe, but I still wouldn't mind them running the country.
You might get clever people who didn't attend Oxbridge, but are they as likely to have the combination of high self motivation, ambition, intelligence, confidence etc as people of the same potential intelligence who were not fortunate enough to get that chance?
edit: and for record (not that it should matter) I'm a university dropout who now works alongside graduates as colleagues/peers day-in and day-out and have the same responsibilities as them but get paid less for my level of experience because I don't have a degree. By rights I should hate that fact and claim that any level of university education is uneccessary for success, but from experience the graduates that are from Oxbridge that I work with really do have their **** together.
Last edited:
IMO Labour have proved they are incapable of running the country once again, so shadowing that load of morons may not be a good thing. Its a bit like shadowing Fred (the shred) Goodwin doesnt necessarily make you a good candidate to be chief exec of a bank.
[TW]Fox;16719035 said:
Gotta be careful when comparing correlation and causation and especially drawing further conclusions. Sure people from Oxbridge turn up in high society - but is that because the offspring of people in high society tend to go to Oxbridge in the first place? The fact that they end up in high society may have more to do with the fact they went to Oxbridge rather than obtaining high society on some more objective merit.
May be they went to a different university because the univeristy had a better reputation for they subject they chose to take.