Endemic in British society not just racism or sexism.... So who is most fitted to a job as chancellor running the UK economy: Candidate A Studied at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, - Natural Sciences and later switched to Economics.[5] President of the Cambridge Union in 1965. After graduating in 1973 with a PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow on economic integration and industrialisation,[7] Studied further at the University of Cambridge, where he was appointed an Overseas Development Institute Fellow (ODI Nuffield Fellow) Economics career Lectured for a time at the University of Glasgow and was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics, for a 3-year period until 2004.[9] From 1966 to 1968, Treasury Finance Officer to the Kenyan Government.[10] In the 1970s, special advisor to John Smith when the latter was Industry Secretary. Adviser to the British government and then to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s. Chief Economist for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell from 1995 to 1997. Candidate B Father Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet, co-founded the firm of fabric and wallpapers designers Osborne & Little.[2] His mother is Felicity Alexandra Loxton-Peacock, the daughter of artist Clarisse Loxton-Peacock.[3][4] Educated at independent schools: Norland Place School, Colet Court and St Paul's School.[7] In 1990 awarded a demyship at Magdalen College, Oxford,[3] 1993 received a 2:1 bachelor's degree in Modern History.[2][8] Member of the Bullingdon Club.[9] Attended Davidson College in North Carolina for a semester as a Dean Rusk Scholar.[10] In 1993, intended to pursue a career in journalism. Shortlisted for but failed to gain a place on The Times trainee scheme, and instead did freelance work on the Peterborough diary column of The Daily Telegraph.[11] An Oxford friend of his, journalist George Bridges, him to a research vacancy at Conservative Central Office Joined the Conservative Research Department in 1994 and became head of its Political Section. One of his first roles was to go to Blackpool and observe the October 1994 Labour Conference.[12] Between 1995 and 1997 worked as special adviser to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Hogg (during the BSE crisis) and worked in the Political Office at 10 Downing Street. In 1997, worked on Prime Minister John Major's campaign team in the run-up to the Tories' heavy election defeat. After the election, he again considered journalism, approaching The Times to be a leader writer, though nothing came of it. 1997 and 2001, he worked for then Conservative Leader William Hague as a speechwriter and Political Secretary. In this role he helped prepare Hague for the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions, often playing the role of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Under the successive leaderships of Michael Howard and David Cameron he remained on the Prime Minister's Questions team. Hmmmmmm!!! Someone with wide range and experience of micro and macro Economics or someone with 'connections' private education (of average intelligence) and former member of the Bullingdon club ?? Answer B Candidate son of a baronet . Class based 'its who you know not what you know' appointments lead to the problems discussed on this thread as many institutions like the BBC make high level appointments on this basis hence the white middle upper class bias in appointments. Until (if ever) Britain is a meritocracy then the problems will always exist. Still not sure positive discrimination is the answer though although I do see both sides of the argument
Re: Endemic in British society not just racism or sexism.... Not really. It was just a general response to your earlier post in the thread as why certain groups were not represented. I generally disagree with positive discrimination (how would you feel if yopu went for an internal promotion in a job where you were by far the best qualified and experienced candidate only to be overlooked because of a quota system and need to appear to be 'diversity' employers, the company appointed someone far less experienced, skilled or qualified, based on their race or skin colour. THAT is what positive discrimination is and if, rather than isolated 'worthy'? cases it takes hold it is detrimental to society as a whole. That said, I can see where the champions of positive discrimination are coming from as elitism, racism and sexism are still rife and it is difficult to find other ways to counter it.
The good old, "I'm making a claim, but I'm not going to substantiate my claim with evidence, why don't you look for the evidence instead"!
you should have had twelve months on strike with us mate,you'd have soon realised that the BBC was about as far from unbiased and trustworthy as it was possible to get..they were nothing more than a mouthpiece for the government.
And yet somehow it's always the Tories that accuse them of being a hotbed of labourites and try to hobble them at every opportunity. Why Thatcher was in league with Maxwell to castrate them. Would you honestly rather have a media that didn't include the BBC? Honestly?????
Regardless of which way your vote in the EU referendum it is clear to anyone that the reporting has become more and more pro-remain and less and less balanced. Brexit reports are focussed on Personalities ...Farage, Johnson etc and less on the arguments. Remain reports seems to use the assumptions from Osborne et al as strident headlines- no longer including words like claim, might etc. It is only when you read on that you discover the headline is only half the story. They also pick up on contradictions etc from people like farage but seem to ignor the fact that, for example, cameron only in November stated (when he was covering his ar*e during his 'negotiations' with the EU) that as the 5th largest economy we would manage very well outside the EU if it came to that. Now we are bombarded with a daily headline barrage of what disasters will befall us if we leave. It appears though that only treasury, Pro_EU Cabinet members, BofE, EU spokespeople ECB pro EU IMF (Lagarde) are given prominence and yet a sizeable number of pro Exit eminent economists are either ignored totally or dismissed. Balanced reporting from the Beeb... My AR*E!!! Don't make me laugh!
As we speak of the five most prominent items on the BBC website four concern the EU vote. Two are non comital about the reliability of polls and analysis and two are highlighting pro exit points of view. The truth, as has often been said, is that both sides can take issue with BBC reporting on any given subject and invariably do. In which case the BBC reckon they've got it just about right. The problem is that those whose minds are already made up or closed will always see any coverage favouring their opponents as evidence of bias.