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Post by Bartonite on May 1, 2015 11:43:52 GMT
Throwing a bone to the Tories here, because this is something they might share an interest in.
Just heard someone on the radio mention, once again, the way prices for holiday resorts and similar 'quadruple' during the summer holidays. People seem to get very shirty about this, but it seems to me that they're looking at it the wrong way.
If the people who are charging these prices were really gouging the public, competition would ensure that the price came down. I think that's inarguable, unless anyone thinks there's a cabal at work, fixing the prices across the country.
Seems to me it's not the summer prices that are excessive, but the off-peak winter prices that are low, because that's when resort and hotel owners are desperate to pull in any trade.
If anyone can prove otherwise, I welcome their input.
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Post by MM on May 1, 2015 13:00:14 GMT
This infuriates me. Anyone with children nowadays has to go on a family holiday during peak season paying the highest price. If you choose to go during a more affordable time your then fined by the council or school for taking your children out of school.
End result not is, either not as many kids go on family holidays because it's to darn expensive. Or say you can afford it', it's to crowded to enjoy it because every family with children has to go same time of the year.
Baa humbug
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Post by MM on May 1, 2015 13:02:56 GMT
Sorry When I'm angry I am prone to mistakes. Good job I'm not Working for the council anymore.
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Post by Tredworthy on May 1, 2015 16:19:35 GMT
I look at it a different way: it's the stupid rules with regard to taking children on holiday during term time that is the real problem here. It should be perfectly lawful for any parent to take the kids out of school for a family holiday for one fortnight in the year. The idea that this would harm their education is nonsense.
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Post by Bartonite on May 5, 2015 13:25:42 GMT
You both seem to have missed the point that it's not more expensive, it's just as expensive as it can be, and retain customers.
Of course, parents hit on the idea of going 'out of season', but if kids could actually take two weeks off school without their education suffering, it would be a pretty poor standard of education.
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Post by Tredworthy on May 5, 2015 16:31:17 GMT
There's rather more to education than school lessons.
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Post by MM on May 5, 2015 22:15:35 GMT
Absolutely Tredworthy.
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Post by Bartonite on May 6, 2015 8:01:10 GMT
That kind of attitude to education could not be more interesting.
Have either of you put it to your childrens' head teacher, assuming you have children?
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Post by Tredworthy on May 7, 2015 17:46:52 GMT
My attitude to education is based heavily on my own experience. I didn't like school, but did well academically. However, I left at the age of 17, with loads of 'qualifications' that didn't really qualify me to do anything of any importance. I had received almost no career guidance, as it was assumed that the purpose of school - for clever pupils at least - was to pass the necessary examinations to go to university. As I chose not to do that, I found myself unemployable. My parents had taught me very little. I can honestly say that I learned at least as much about life from Brownies, Guides and talking to my peers as I did from school lessons or my parents. The rest I learned as time went by. School doesn't (or didn't) teach you how to run a house, how to use the laundrette, how to budget, how to fill in a cheque, how to drive a car, how to choose a car to purchase, how to mend clothes (although luckily I already knew that from mending my own whilst still a child), or many other ordinary skills that most people take for granted. My school, Chosen Hill Comprehensive, didn't even give us sex education till we were 15, which was ridiculously late.
When I was 20, I was lucky enough to be selected to attend Gloucester Skillcentre in Bristol Road, which used to teach employability skills to adults. I tried out a number of jobs and found that I was quite good at electronics. I gained a suitable BTEC qualification and was immediately employable. I went from a drain on public funds to a good employee, able to earn enough to keep myself and save money for a rainy day, not to mention the taxes that I was also paying to the public coffers. Margaret Thatcher hated skillcentres (apparently imagining that they were somehow left wing), and I think that they were finally destroyed by John Major. There's nothing like them now, which is an absolute shame.
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Post by MM on May 9, 2015 20:57:37 GMT
Well well ..well Sophy is on her way back to Warminster. Good! Richard emailed me after his success and told me that he could not relply due to his restrictions on not being MP He was very understanding when I told him invotrd green
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Post by Bartonite on May 9, 2015 22:12:30 GMT
I'm sure he could have replied, but he's a contrary scrote...
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Post by MM on May 10, 2015 11:09:07 GMT
Just who are you? Why do you know him so well. I won't believe his lies I am not stupid. It makes sense what he said thats all.
I wish poor John had got more votes.
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Post by Bartonite on May 10, 2015 20:48:20 GMT
I'm just one of the few people who have tried to obtain his help with local issues, and been give the cold shoulder. Or then again, maybe there are lots of us, and we just don't know each other. That's why speaking out when our MP refuses to help is so important. The public can judge whether our cause/s were deserving of the assistance...
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Post by Bartonite on May 11, 2015 8:46:01 GMT
My attitude to education is based heavily on my own experience. I didn't like school, but did well academically. However, I left at the age of 17, with loads of 'qualifications' that didn't really qualify me to do anything of any importance. I had received almost no career guidance, as it was assumed that the purpose of school - for clever pupils at least - was to pass the necessary examinations to go to university. As I chose not to do that, I found myself unemployable. My parents had taught me very little. I can honestly say that I learned at least as much about life from Brownies, Guides and talking to my peers as I did from school lessons or my parents. The rest I learned as time went by. School doesn't (or didn't) teach you how to run a house, how to use the laundrette, how to budget, how to fill in a cheque, how to drive a car, how to choose a car to purchase, how to mend clothes (although luckily I already knew that from mending my own whilst still a child), or many other ordinary skills that most people take for granted. My school, Chosen Hill Comprehensive, didn't even give us sex education till we were 15, which was ridiculously late. When I was 20, I was lucky enough to be selected to attend Gloucester Skillcentre in Bristol Road, which used to teach employability skills to adults. I tried out a number of jobs and found that I was quite good at electronics. I gained a suitable BTEC qualification and was immediately employable. I went from a drain on public funds to a good employee, able to earn enough to keep myself and save money for a rainy day, not to mention the taxes that I was also paying to the public coffers. Margaret Thatcher hated skillcentres (apparently imagining that they were somehow left wing), and I think that they were finally destroyed by John Major. There's nothing like them now, which is an absolute shame. Sorry I haven't responded to this earlier, it was just one of the ones that got away from me with the limited time I have to attend to the boards. Your story reminds me of my own, though more in a 'road not taken' sense. I went to Gloscat on Brunswick Rd for an open day about thirty years ago, interested in taking a course in electronics. The tutor I spoke to asked me what I did for a living, and I said groundwork (basically a navvie, which is like a council worker, but with a work ethic). He then said that I was better off sticking to that than improving my qualifications. If I'd known that I would now be a carer, I might have agreed with him, but I've kept my interest in electronics, and regret not getting even a basic grounding. It's the difference between knowing a piece of equipment is fixable, and fixing it, and having a vague aspiration to fix something, and leaving it in a corner for years, along with other bits. If more people had that knowledge, there would be fewer TVs, microwaves, lamps, heaters, fans and fan heaters left littering the roadside. All the apprenticeships Richard Graham supposedly encourages don't address that problem. The Restart project seems to be a long way away from Gloucester still, and apathy rules. If any of our authorities really want to change this, they're not shouting about it. |
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Post by MM on May 12, 2015 13:31:34 GMT
I went to an all boys school after my parents initially wanted me to go to a boarding school. I hated my parents at the time, I had such a different childhood. Wish I'd of just gone in a comprehensive type school with both girls and boys. I feel my education over took me made me believe I was better but stopped me learning life skills.
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