Left school at 15, did not take any exams. Served a 6-year apprenticeship, then spent the rest of my life in well paid interesting jobs, and have now retired, not rich by any means, but do not need to worry about bills etc, paid my mortgage up in my 50s, I have had regular overseas holidays for the few years, and a decent car. Isn't this what most people want? If you want to go to Uni, fine, but not necessary to have a good life.
Very different now though mate, you grew up in more sensible times - a small percentage of school leavers went to university (5-10%?), their degrees were worthwhile and helped them get a decent job and they didn't start adult life with a crippling debt. The fact that there weren't huge numbers of graduates floating around meant that those without degrees weren't prevented from getting good careers - get your foot in the door, prove you can do a good job and the rest will look after itself.
Thanks to the wonderful theory that everyone should be allowed to go to university, we now have thousands of graduates every year, many obtaining degrees in ridiculously futile subjects, and (apart from the ones who's parents can pay them through) they start their adult life with a huge debt (£20k to £30k?!) when they should be trying to start saving the astronomical amount they need to buy a house. University has become an extension of sixth form college, but youngsters feel they need to go to just to give themselves a chance of getting a decent job. For those that haven't got degrees, there are lots of doors that are completely closed to you, especially when you're starting out.
I'm 36 now, and it becomes less and less relevant as you get older but I still see jobs advertised, that I really fancy and know I could do well, where the job description states that "you should have a degree at 2.2 or higher".
That's not to say that if you're bright enough and determined enough you can't still have a great career without a degree, but it's a lot more difficult now than it used to be.
I would have to disagree with the debt issue, in that although fees for university are much higher than they should be the money owed is not taken into account when applying for things like mortgages etc. You have to earn above a certain amount to start paying it off and even then it is effectively the same as paying for something like Sky once a month. It is an inconvenience yes, but I wouldn't say that it's crippling, and shouldn't put people off of going to university if they wish to.
Sorry mate have to disagree with you about the debt thing. The new system js better in some ways but is terrible for anyone with ambition but from a family without money.
Let's use a hypothetical student Charlton fan let's call him Hantersaddick he's from an average family not a huge amount of money but own their home and live comfortably. No way could they pay his uni fees upfront so he's gone for the loan option. Now Hantersaddick is ambitious and works hard and wants to do well. He has completed a years work before returning to finish uni and will be going into a good job after graduation (assuming he doesn't cock it up by spending too much time on some football website called Parlton life).
Now the 'you don't have to pay it off until you earn above a certain point' argument let's look at that. The point is 21000 (fixed, not rising with inflation so basically a real terms fall every year). Show me a graduate job that doesn't pay more than 21000. Any student with ambition should be expecting to earn that fairly quickly and with reasonable progression will earn and fair chuck more. And that's where they kill you. Because it suddenly stops becoming and loan and starts becoming a tax. So if you have a reasonable job with good career progression but can't pay it off early you can easily pay back 10 times what you borrowed. Read money saving expert Martin Lewis on this.
Let's talk about the interest rate, 3% above RPI (notice how they use RPI when you have to pay it and CPI when they have to pay it). That's a big chunk of money. And interest is charged from the second you take the loan out, the old system it was from graduation. So when you finally enter the job market with 35grand debt (if you're lucky) you have to earn 42grand a year just to pay the interest. If you earn less than that your total debt rises every year.
So you are in the terrible situation of, do I pay it off early and delay getting a deposit for a house for 10 years. Do I murder my parents so I can get a house and pay it off. Or do I accept that I am paying an ever increasing chunk of my pay cheque every month as an extra tax.
Our friend Hantersaddick is favouring the murder your family option.
The thing is canters if they don't borrow the money they won't be going to uni. I have a mate though his daughter is 14 his been saving for ages though for when she goes to uni He is telling me that although the money will be there he will still get her to get what money she can
Of course. No way could I have gone room uni (and still be studying now) without the loan system. But that's why I think it's so criminal. For the majority of people it's the only way they can afford to go. Only the 'born rich' can afford not to and they are the ones who arguably should be paying the most 'grad tax'. Yet the rich effectively pay far less for their education because their parents can pay it up front. Those of us who are not born to stupidly rich families have no option to take the loan and are lumbered with 30 years of 9% grad tax.
Me too, piss poor mum trying to make do as a single mother.. without the loans I'd have never left my shit hole of an estate... got a degree and now live as a Artist that gets to travel the world and pay back said 30grand debt.
Funny enough a art degree is one of those that's considered pointless, without it though I'd probably be in a box or prison cell like a lot of my mates
Do you live in Brighton, Shino?
Nah I've just moved from totnes Devon to near Hitchin where the GF lives
There's a good steam railway in Totnes isn't there?!
Drivers who use the right hand lane to go straight over at roundabouts. Specifically at the fish roundabout in Erith, causing people turning right to get stuck on the roundabout.
Any detective programme that ends in the perpetrator calmly confessing when confronted with a few simple facts. Agatha Christie, Scooby Doo and worst of all Murder She Wrote. They are all shit. Yesterday my mother-in-law was around and I had the misfortune of seeing Murder She Wrote. A bloke who had embezzled money, burned his own business down and hit somebody (I think a friend, but I was trying not to pay attention) full in the face with a 2.5 litre paint tin, just stood there and took the rap with hardly a murmur. I want to see some reality. I want to see someone screaming, 'You'll never take me alive Jessica Fletcher" swing a chair at her and then dive through the window swearing curses of revenge. That would be better. Better still would have been if in the very first episode the cornered crim pulled a gun shot the simpering sleuth in the face and put and end to the whole shitty series.
Drivers who use the right hand lane to go straight over at roundabouts. Specifically at the fish roundabout in Erith, causing people turning right to get stuck on the roundabout.
Occasionally there are roundabouts which ask you to go into the Right-Hand Lane to go straight on (there is a Roundabout outside Strood just before you go on to the A2 at the Medway Bridge like this); but on those occasions its clearly signed on the tarmac!!
Drivers who use the right hand lane to go straight over at roundabouts. Specifically at the fish roundabout in Erith, causing people turning right to get stuck on the roundabout.
Occasionally there are roundabouts which ask you to go into the Right-Hand Lane to go straight on (there is a Roundabout outside Strood just before you go on to the A2 at the Medway Bridge like this); but on those occasions its clearly signed on the tarmac!!
Sentences like this usually go down really well with the ladies.
Not a single thing, but more of an umbrella that encompasses the requirements that ensure I'm constantly a grumpy bastard between the hours of 0830 and 1800; the general ineptitude of people I work with.
Non disabled people using disabled bays at retail parks. You all know the ones who look well shifty when getting out and diving into PC world or pets at home. I can guarantee they are the same people who leave their shit on a table in McDonalds as well when they leave
Non disabled people using disabled bays at retail parks. You all know the ones who look well shifty when getting out and diving into PC world or pets at home. I can guarantee they are the same people who leave their shit on a table in McDonalds as well when they leave
Come on.
A bit harsh to compare someone who parks in a disabled bays to someone who shits on tables.
Non disabled people using disabled bays at retail parks. You all know the ones who look well shifty when getting out and diving into PC world or pets at home. I can guarantee they are the same people who leave their shit on a table in McDonalds as well when they leave
Come on.
A bit harsh to compare someone who parks in a disabled bays to someone who shits on tables.
Drivers who use the right hand lane to go straight over at roundabouts. Specifically at the fish roundabout in Erith, causing people turning right to get stuck on the roundabout.
Or worse still, those that use the left hand lane to go right, effectively blocking off the drivers doing the correct thing.
Any detective programme that ends in the perpetrator calmly confessing when confronted with a few simple facts. Agatha Christie, Scooby Doo and worst of all Murder She Wrote. They are all shit. Yesterday my mother-in-law was around and I had the misfortune of seeing Murder She Wrote. A bloke who had embezzled money, burned his own business down and hit somebody (I think a friend, but I was trying not to pay attention) full in the face with a 2.5 litre paint tin, just stood there and took the rap with hardly a murmur. I want to see some reality. I want to see someone screaming, 'You'll never take me alive Jessica Fletcher" swing a chair at her and then dive through the window swearing curses of revenge. That would be better. Better still would have been if in the very first episode the cornered crim pulled a gun shot the simpering sleuth in the face and put and end to the whole shitty series.
Sorry if I misunderstood, are you saying you do not like Murder She Wrote, or you watch it all the time?
Any detective programme that ends in the perpetrator calmly confessing when confronted with a few simple facts. Agatha Christie, Scooby Doo and worst of all Murder She Wrote. They are all shit. Yesterday my mother-in-law was around and I had the misfortune of seeing Murder She Wrote. A bloke who had embezzled money, burned his own business down and hit somebody (I think a friend, but I was trying not to pay attention) full in the face with a 2.5 litre paint tin, just stood there and took the rap with hardly a murmur. I want to see some reality. I want to see someone screaming, 'You'll never take me alive Jessica Fletcher" swing a chair at her and then dive through the window swearing curses of revenge. That would be better. Better still would have been if in the very first episode the cornered crim pulled a gun shot the simpering sleuth in the face and put and end to the whole shitty series.
Sorry if I misunderstood, are you saying you do not like Murder She Wrote, or you watch it all the time?
I absolutely loathe it, but I couple of elderly relatives love it. As a consequence, I have been trapped in the house with it playing on several occasions. Still, when I finally crack under the strain and murder one of them, at least I'll be nice and polite and own up to it.
When you say to your boss that you need to go to the doctors and they then ask what it's for or why you're going. Fuck off, it's private. I really think people's filters of what they can and cannot ask about people's lives have changed massively
the drama of the trump being sworn in "the world holds its breath", lily allen another person that's had there time in the limelight and needs no more.
Comments
A bit harsh to compare someone who parks in a disabled bays to someone who shits on tables.
Fucking aggravates me when people say that
No I want to be a grumpy bastard and complain about it for hours...