Mike4 wrote:Dod101 wrote:Clearly you have a very good crystal ball. How do you know that these were my circumstances? Actually in my day it was very unusual for young people from my background to go to university. I got the school qualifications to attend and was offered a place but felt that it was unfair all round so went off and found myself a job. Was it not your leftie PM, a guy called Tony Blair, that set up this nonsense in the first place? There is no requirement to attend university you know.
Dod
I also remember back in them days before Tony Blair was invented, students holding protest sit-ins at the LSE. Protests that their free grants were not enough to live on comfortably enough to meet their expectations.
But yes you're right, that nice Mr Blair was the one who decided 50% of the proletariat should go to university; at a stroke stoking up the tendency of people to confuse intelligence with edumacation.
Also, he was the one who started off the current obsession with everything in life having to be 'fair'. I've no idea why, as it just isn't and never will be.
Oh dear, what board is this again??
Was it really all down to Tony Blair?
I'm only asking as I had been a student at a "proper university" for a while when a bunch of institutions appeared to rebrand themselves: the inception of Paisley Unversity and Glasgow Caledonian being the two that appeared locally in 1993.
This then lead to "proper universities" having a jolly at the Hotel Russell with the goal of setting themselves apart.
Pretty sure Blair wasn't around (or not in power) until I was living in England a few years later (I think I remember the election night sort of) ..
..but as with most of the 90s I was very very drunk