Prof Dylan Jones Evans asks:
Could WAG have done more to help young people get to university?
The answer is probably YES.
The question that I would ask is slightly different - Should WAG have done more to help young people get to university?
Isn't the real problem that we send too many young people to university in our days?
When I was of university age only 10% of young people went to University, only 8% of the population would gain a degree. The numbers gaining 1st class degrees and doctorate use to be a minuscule percentage of the general population.
There are jobs that would have been available to a CSE failure 30 years ago that now require a degree and a post graduate qualification!
"A" levels and degrees, even MA's and PhD's seem to be like incapacity benefit now: a way of keeping young people off the unemployment statistics for x number of years. As many of them will be on the dole when they graduate the highly educated workforce argument doesn't ring true!
Instead of pouring more and more money into universities wouldn't it be better if we used that funding to give real on the job training to enable 16 year olds to do proper jobs that are needed in our society rather than wasting millions in keeping them in education for an unneeded 5 to 10 years just in order to massage the unemployment figures or in order to create a fake idea of a nation that is more educated than it really needs to be?
Showing posts with label Dylan Jones-Evans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dylan Jones-Evans. Show all posts
06/05/2008
Election Thoughts
This is a late post on my thoughts about the council elections, but inspired by The Prof's latest post.
Dylan thinks that there will be a Plaid Cymru / Llais Gwynedd coalition in Gwynedd!
I think that it is unlikely that Plaid and Llais will kiss and make up. If Llais was to co-operate with Plaid, having stood an election on a basically anti-Plaid ticket, they would look like real prats!
However, I suspect that the reason he might think that they are close is because they are both nationalist parties. Meaning that nationalists made a net gain of eight seats in Gwynedd last week. A bad night for Plaid, maybe, - but a good night for Welsh nationalism? Having nationalists in both government and opposition in Gwynedd will be interesting - will a nationalist debate enhance the cause or will a nationalist split wound it?
Dylan says that the Tories should exclude Plaid Cymru in Conwy as there is no political benefit whatsoever to the Conservatives to have them sitting in the cabinet.
Plaid and the Conservatives have served together in Conwy over the past four years. The fact that the Tories will want to exclude them this time has got nothing to do with sob stories in Gogarth. With Labour hemorrhaging votes and the most Labour part of Conwy having been swapped for a more Plaidish area in the new seat, the next Westminster election is going to be Tory v Plaid in Aberconwy. So it is probably not in either party's best interest for them to work together. However the Plaid group decided that they would not serve in a Tory led council - they have NOT been excluded by the Conservatives!
Looking at the wider picture Plaid has more county councillors today than it has ever had and gained more seats in Wales than the Lib Dems gained in both England and Wales. Interestingly half of the Lib Dems' total gains came from Wales. A good result for both Welsh parties on the whole.
BUT!
When people protest against Labour in Wales either Plaid and or / the Liberal Democrats should be making hay. Neither party (separately or jointly) made the sorts of gains they should have made in the wake of a Labour meltdown!
Next years Euro-elections might be a better indicator of the way the party winds are blowing, when the independents and the localistics won’t muddy the waters as much. However if the natural benefactors of protest votes don’t up the ante during the next twelve months, then the others the Greens, UKIP, the BNP, The Monster Raving Loonies etc might attract sufficient votes to allow Labour to retain its spare Welsh euro-seat.
Dylan thinks that there will be a Plaid Cymru / Llais Gwynedd coalition in Gwynedd!
I think that it is unlikely that Plaid and Llais will kiss and make up. If Llais was to co-operate with Plaid, having stood an election on a basically anti-Plaid ticket, they would look like real prats!
However, I suspect that the reason he might think that they are close is because they are both nationalist parties. Meaning that nationalists made a net gain of eight seats in Gwynedd last week. A bad night for Plaid, maybe, - but a good night for Welsh nationalism? Having nationalists in both government and opposition in Gwynedd will be interesting - will a nationalist debate enhance the cause or will a nationalist split wound it?
Dylan says that the Tories should exclude Plaid Cymru in Conwy as there is no political benefit whatsoever to the Conservatives to have them sitting in the cabinet.
Plaid and the Conservatives have served together in Conwy over the past four years. The fact that the Tories will want to exclude them this time has got nothing to do with sob stories in Gogarth. With Labour hemorrhaging votes and the most Labour part of Conwy having been swapped for a more Plaidish area in the new seat, the next Westminster election is going to be Tory v Plaid in Aberconwy. So it is probably not in either party's best interest for them to work together. However the Plaid group decided that they would not serve in a Tory led council - they have NOT been excluded by the Conservatives!
Looking at the wider picture Plaid has more county councillors today than it has ever had and gained more seats in Wales than the Lib Dems gained in both England and Wales. Interestingly half of the Lib Dems' total gains came from Wales. A good result for both Welsh parties on the whole.
BUT!
When people protest against Labour in Wales either Plaid and or / the Liberal Democrats should be making hay. Neither party (separately or jointly) made the sorts of gains they should have made in the wake of a Labour meltdown!
Next years Euro-elections might be a better indicator of the way the party winds are blowing, when the independents and the localistics won’t muddy the waters as much. However if the natural benefactors of protest votes don’t up the ante during the next twelve months, then the others the Greens, UKIP, the BNP, The Monster Raving Loonies etc might attract sufficient votes to allow Labour to retain its spare Welsh euro-seat.
19/01/2008
Getting Abreast of Economic Indicators
The Welsh blogosphere's economics guru, Prof DJE, is currently on a research trip to the USA (nice work if you can get it).
On his return I wonder if the Prof will be able to adapt the latest US economic indicator to the Welsh economy. Apparently the state of the American economy may be gauged by the number of boob jobs performed each year, and some plastic surgeons are predicting that 2008 will be ... ym ... er... flat !
I think I should bring this post to a premature close now, before I make any unsavoury comments about the pair of tits that are currently in charge of the Welsh economy or say something sexist about Helen Mary's cleavage. (I don't want to be accused of being vulgar again!!!)
On his return I wonder if the Prof will be able to adapt the latest US economic indicator to the Welsh economy. Apparently the state of the American economy may be gauged by the number of boob jobs performed each year, and some plastic surgeons are predicting that 2008 will be ... ym ... er... flat !
I think I should bring this post to a premature close now, before I make any unsavoury comments about the pair of tits that are currently in charge of the Welsh economy or say something sexist about Helen Mary's cleavage. (I don't want to be accused of being vulgar again!!!)
09/01/2008
Policing & Politics
Professor Dylan Jones Evans makes a point on his blog that many have made before about the controversial subjects on which Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom has commented over the years. The point that whatever the validity of his views the Chief Constable's job is to catch criminals, not to comment on political matters. Or as the Prof puts it legislation is the job of the lawmakers in Parliament and not that of a civil servant such as himself.
I find this attitude difficult to understand, and if it is extended to other publicly funded occupations it starts to sound ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst.
If there are problems in health care provisions I want to hear from doctors and nurses on the matter, so that I can inform my view on the subject. Would the Prof say their job is to administer to the sick, not to comment on health policy; health policy is the job of policy makers in parliament?
Likewise would the Prof say that it is a teacher's job to teach and that teachers are wrong if they raise educational issues of political concern? Would he say that teachers shouldn't inform debate on an area of their expertise because they are not elected to Parliament?
When there are problems facing the Welsh economy do we expect to hear the opinions of leading experts in the field, such as Professor Dylan Jones Evans? Or do we tell him to shut up and go back to the job he's paid to do, lecturing students, and to leave the job of solving Welsh economic problems to the elected members in Cardiff Bay?
If there are serious issues facing policing and the application of law and order I want to hear what the experts in the subject who work in the field on a daily basis have to say about them, because that is the only way that the ordinary members of the public can be informed enough to make a judgment about how good a job the lawmakers in Parliament are doing in drafting the legislation that the police have to implement.
I find this attitude difficult to understand, and if it is extended to other publicly funded occupations it starts to sound ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst.
If there are problems in health care provisions I want to hear from doctors and nurses on the matter, so that I can inform my view on the subject. Would the Prof say their job is to administer to the sick, not to comment on health policy; health policy is the job of policy makers in parliament?
Likewise would the Prof say that it is a teacher's job to teach and that teachers are wrong if they raise educational issues of political concern? Would he say that teachers shouldn't inform debate on an area of their expertise because they are not elected to Parliament?
When there are problems facing the Welsh economy do we expect to hear the opinions of leading experts in the field, such as Professor Dylan Jones Evans? Or do we tell him to shut up and go back to the job he's paid to do, lecturing students, and to leave the job of solving Welsh economic problems to the elected members in Cardiff Bay?
If there are serious issues facing policing and the application of law and order I want to hear what the experts in the subject who work in the field on a daily basis have to say about them, because that is the only way that the ordinary members of the public can be informed enough to make a judgment about how good a job the lawmakers in Parliament are doing in drafting the legislation that the police have to implement.
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