An article that I couldn't help smiling at...
 

It wasn’t like this in my day . . . - Times Online

An article written by a mature student, that made me a smile a bit, as the older generation are always saying 'it wasn't like that in my day.' Well now I see why.

Do we have any people around this gents age who did a degree when they were younger who can relate to what he's saying? I'm going to ask on the uni's intranet forum and see if any of the mature students can add to his story :)

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I've only done one degree, but can relate to the article a little when it comes to the study of mathematics.

At school, in 1981, one failed maths O-level, grade D.

At Brixton College, in 1990, one passed maths GCSE, grade A*.

Reason being GCSE's are easier than O-levels were.:)

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Yeh I read an article quite a while back that said O levels where upto 5 times harder than GCSE. I dont think the article is anything to do with the ease of a degree though, I think its to do with the changing attitudes of degree students, and in particular he's pointing out that the culture is much more focused and dedicated than when he was a student in the past. However, he clearly wasn't living with people like my housemates, because they do nothing but eat pizza, watch telly and go out drinking. I'm yet to see one do any reading and we've been here over a month.

I guess some things never change :rolleyes:

Though those after class meetings to have a drink then go home and work til 3am sound so familiar lol. The other night my group of friends drank J2O or whatever its called then went home :p University makes me feel old before my time!

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Yes, it's a shame that the ideologies of student politics, that was so prevalant in the sixties and seventies, is no more.

No mass protests against war.

No marches, protesting at underfunding of education.

No campus sit-ins, in support of those living under a regime of terror.

Just blind acceptance.

Shame.

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Excuse me? while he was full time at Uni' I was full time at college and others where full time in apprenticeships. We all, say It's not like when I was younger, that's what us grumpy old middle age so and so's do, we don't need a degree in it, we learnt it from our parents.
:rolleyes:

I have worked in many places where people with a useless degree, perhaps in for example, The ancient art of hod carrying through the ages, enjoyed the three or four year break from earning a living only to find they aren't even considered useful enough to carry a hod!
:D

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The article is about University attitudes, and therefore I asked about those who had experienced uni in the past and the present to see if it was the way this man is presenting it.

Also Garinda, your wrong about the lack of protests and I attended a talk on terrorists on friday that was about how some 'terrorists' should be freed. Back to the protests, I joined a group for gay rights which challenges the laws on gay adoption, marriage and blood donation and all sorts of other issues. Not all student 'just accept it'.

The BBC did a series about protesting and the law not so long back as well, and if you had watched it you would have seen that the terrorist laws have cut down the number of protesters as the law is quite ambiguous in some areas and you may end up being imprisoned as a terrorist.

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Student protest in the 60's wasn't tea and biscuits in room 101.

Troops took to the streets to quell the students.

The streets of Paris and London were more akin to war zones. Students were fired on by troops in the States, and many sadly died.

Hardly in the same league.

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A group of us from college used to go to Manchester every now and again, but no, none of us got shot I'm afraid, so yeh, I guess its not in the same league.

I would've thought its a good thing that students didnt cause terror in the streets. I would imagine that if a group of students started protesting outside accy town hall to the extent of the armed forces being called out then Accy web would be complaining for weeks about the waste of tax payers money.

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Hey up smarty thinks to herself, I'm going to get a degree so yah boo sucks to you, your opinion aint worth dog doodies 'cos you ain't got one, Friday is always, spelt with a Capital,

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Indeed it is a shame. Innovation becomes reiteration. Marshall McLuhan was right ... the medium is not more important than the message; it is the message.:(

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In the past, students had idealism, which saw them take to the streets to protest against things like unjust wars, racism, and broader social inequalities.

All things we still have, but today's students are more concerned with their own futures, especially finacial. Not commenting as to why this is so, it's just a fact.

Your extreme naivety is rapidly losing it's charm.

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You'll soon learn.;)

I tend never to post, if at all unsure about something.

It's a simple, yet effective trick.:D

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You do not need to go to a Universityto attain degrees, these pieces of paper are meaningles. The best teacher is experience, the University of life, everyone has something to offer if you are prepared to listen. Regardless of age accademic ability, they will have knowledge and personal expriences to pass on to you. Entrepeneurs and empire builders are seldom accademically minded, as this can be a stumbling block to err on the side of caution.
The world is full of 'if only, and I was going to do that people' fortune favours the bold and the brave, a quality seldom found in accademics.

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One of the Lads from long ago, I knew him from primary school always being kept back, disruptive, didn't seem to have a sensible sentence inside him, (no, not me another one), left school couldn't read or write, useless at maths, (Unless it was to do with betting slips, no bookie pulled a fast one with him).

He bought himself a clapped out van as soon as he could drive built up from there to a multi-million haulage firm, It didn't alter him at all he would always stop and take the time to spit on me. He paid people to write for him.
:eek:

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Although I was only a child at the time, I remember seeing the student protests against the war in Vietnam, and in support of civil liberties, on television. Just because you didn't experience something yourself doesn't make it less valid, and like it never happened in the first place.

It made me smile when I read this today in the Sunday Times.

Barclays bankrolls Mugabe’s brutal regime - Times Online

In the eighties no student worth their politcal salt would bank at Barclays, because of their business links to South Africa, and their direct support of the apartheid system. There was not one student account held at a Barclays bank in Liverpool in 1983. Not bad when there were only four main banks to chose from then, and there was a student population of over 50,000 students.

Skip forward twenty odd years. Barclays are still supporting an African regime that has a terrible record on human rights.

Are students boycotting the bank?

Are they protesting outside branches of Barclays, like students did outside South Africa House in London for over twenty years, night and day, year in, year out?

If Barclays gives students a twenty quid voucher to spend a W H Smiths, when they become a student, probably not.

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Remindes me of what uncle Sol said about education "accademics in time will sweep the streets, ther's going to be to many of them". Best advice given to me Less, was get an old pram and a bugle and take it from there ,"so I did,";)

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I banked at Barclays all through my student days in the seventies because the bank was right next to the pub I was going to spend my latest overdraft in, (let's face it, the manager was very close to retiring, so getting the money back wasn't going to be his problem). :D

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From my experience of college in the late 60s/early 70s, I'd say most student protest was facile, shallow and hypocritical - most participated in it because it was the fashionable thing to do at the time. It always made me laugh (in a cynical sort of way) to see students protesting against the South African apartheid regime, whilst carrying their "Thoughts of Chairman Mao" book - a man who instigated a regime just as brutal and repressive as the South African one.

OK, there were a few genuine idealists but most just paraded their political views in the same way as their clothing styles and musical tastes - and discarded them just as quickly when they got out into the big wide world!

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The only protest I went on was through Manchester, the Student Union supplied a coach, to the 'rally', explaining what was being protested about, (Manchester being a City the pub's opened at 10.30 so my friends and I missed that).
At midday all where gathered together to walk through the centre mainly doing nothing but disrupting traffic and stopping taxpayers from being able to pay for our grants. after about five minutes of sullen and quiet walking I decided to chant the good old protest chant of, "Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher".
This with some relief was taken up by rest in the column for the sake of something to do, despite the fact that a Labour government had been in control for almost six months! Protest? My ar*e!
:D

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Nice grammar that you have there aswell, but again I will say that I am not writing a novel, but merely commenting on a forum.

What difference does it make whether I spell something with a capital letter or not?

The problem with this forum is that only Wynonie Harris seemed to be able to say anything useful about her past experiences of students, which answered my question, and the rest of you made direct comments about me simply because I asked a question based on a newspaper article.

And as you pointed out Less, someone you knew yourself left school not writing perfectly and did perfectly well for himself. In the world of word processing and spell check, its hardly going to be the end of my career if I forget to put a capital 'F' at the beginning of the word friday on a forum :rolleyes:

Do you get up everyday, log on to Accyweb and sit with your dictionary looking for everybodies spelling errors?

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Maybe a few were along for the ride, but student protests and actions did help change lots of things. The public perception about the war in Vietnam for one.

And let's not forget, without the added weight of student support on the campuses in the States, the struggle for civil liberties would probably still be going on, and those uppity niggers would still not be able to sit where they wanted on the bus.

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No I don't I get up hoping that accyweb will for once not be abused by blonde haired blue eyed superior beings that prove with every word they produce their lack of understanding of what they have written.

What you made was not a spelling error, Friday was spelt correctly, just not presented correctly, which for someone that only want's the opinions of graduates to me is a shocking mistake!

P.S. I bet Wynonie is glad that you have saved him and the NHS the cost of a sex change!:D

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Student protests change a lot today as well, just as much as any other protesters.

As I said already, I joined the LGBT at Lancaster Uni, which protests, petitions and helps spread awareness of homophobic bullying and discrimination and try to make really valuable changes.
Currently their main focus is about gay blood donation and to give equal opportunities to all blood donors regardless of their sexuality. Lancaster Uni also has a huge campaign called 'Bullying Sucks' which aims to stop bullying, particularly against homosexuals.

Theres also alot of talks and petitions for arming soldiers in various places and terrorism and lots of anti-war things, and also the innocence project and amnesty international. Its unfair to say students dont care as much as in the 60's and 70's.

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...and let's not forget that thirty to forty years ago in this country, college campuses were the place were the women's liberation movement, the anti-apartheid movement, the gay right's movement, the anti-Nazi League, amongst others, were all founded and nurtured.

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I was only after graduate opinion as the article was about university students. Did you actually read the article?

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I'm nor arguing with you Blazey. I think it's great you are getting involved, but trust me, compared with years gone by, students on the whole aren't as politicised. I know. I was there.

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I would have liked to go to Uni, but alas I failed my 11 plus, was consigned to a secondary education that turned out factory fodder.
I did avail myself of further education...which was at that time, not beyond my means.
I did have a successful professional career, and had I been a bit younger would have been seconded to do a degree...but alas too old for that.
I could do a degree now.....if I could afford to pay for it.

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As for gay rights.

Been there, done that, designed the t-shirt.;)

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But then perhaps looking back at the original question, you can answer that perhaps attitudes to education at university has changed now because students are paying £3000 a year to be there, so they dont want to throw their money away, whereas when you were a student there was no such thing as £3000 a year fee's to be paid?

The article isnt on about political activity, its on about the attitudes of students towards their actual degree, not the other activities you can participate in. So has the attitude towards the actual studying changed or not?

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Yes I did but I shouldn't have bothered after all what is my opinion worth if I do or don't read it, I'm not a graduate!

So I'm outclassed by the very standards students used to protest about!

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I was thinking about this just before.

The main difference now at universities today, is the accessiblity.

In 1955, less than 10% of undergraduates came from state schools, and that includes the Grammar schools!

Happily that has changed, though not so much at the Oxbridge colleges.

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[quote=Less;492306]

What you made was not a spelling error, Friday was spelt correctly, just not presented correctly, which for someone that only want's the opinions of graduates to me is a shocking mistake!/quote]

I've said before that bad spelling and grammar are things that annoy me so I do know where you're coming from but I don't think we should be picking people up about these things on Accyweb. If we keep doing that then threads would be full of people correcting other people and it would spoil the continuity of the topics.

You are not infallible yourself. Who is? There's no apostrophe in 'wants'. :p:D

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I hinted earlier in the thread, that one of the reasons students are less concerned with the greater world, and more with their own future, is down to finance.

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Ahhhh so Wynonie was right, it is all about what was fashionable at the time. If you were truly ever committed to any kind of protest, like gay rights as you've just said, then you would still be campaigning about it if it meant that much to you, as the problem is still there to be dealt with.

If campaigning is so important, why dont you rally your troops and do it, then you can fill the gap :D

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[quote=Lilly;492320]Quite correct I am not infallible but I'm also not a graduate wanna be, if I was going to come on here asking only for the opinions of one part of the community I would try to live up to that communities standards, as it is that young lady fails miserably to get Secondary Modern standards of anything, never mind English!
:rolleyes:

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[quote=Lilly;492320]Sorry Lilly got to disagree when it is constant or does spelling and grammar not matter any more? Once we get into the habit of not caring standards slip so the more thought that goes into our posts the higher the standards IMO. It is not hard to check through and correct any errors. we all make mistakes but do our best to keep them to a minimum.

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You're talking about the USA, I'm talking about over here. Going down to Alabama with the freedom riders or getting shot at by the National Guard at Kent State University demands a lot more commitment than wandering through Trafalgar Square chanting slogans. Student protests in the UK were regarded as no more than an irritant by ordinary citizens and affected their attitudes not one jot. And with very good reason as most of the participants were there because it was the trendy thing for students to do.

And, Blazey, I'm not a "her"! ;)

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What about the rights of grumpy old women and men, anyhow 'Gay' meant happy and dashing as in the 'Gay Cavalier', why not call a spade a spade, Homosexual rights, sounds better, why adulterate the word gay?. Life is about choices Blazey if you set your self up on a pedistal, be prepared to become an 'Aunt Sally'.

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I've said in other threads that I think gay equality has been achieved in the UK thanks to this government, and see no need for target groups to protest now, especially over such trivial matters. The main reason blood from high risk groups isn't accepted, even though it could be screened, comes down to money. Money which could be spent on much more worthwhile things in the health service. Most gay men have no problem with this issue. If you were a bit more worldly, you'd know that.

There was a need, when I was involved politically, when people, including friends of mine were dieing of AIDS, and couldn't get a dentist, or when nurses refused to treat patients, and orderlies left food outside of wards and cleaners refused to enter bedrooms of patients with HIV. A time when Plus-2 hairdressers in Accrington, made the national press because they wouldn't cut the hair of gay men for fear of catching AIDS. A time when the promotion of homosexuality in schools, which could be as innocent as saying that Leonard da Vinci was gay, was a sackable offence for teachers. A time when twenty one year old men were sent to prison for having a consensual relationship with a nineteen year old men. A time when a partner could be denied access to the death bed of his or her life partner, because the family had more rights than their other half.

Come back and try and debate, when you know what the hell you are talking about.

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I forget you're so parochial.

I'm Garinda International.:D

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Here is the rest of that post that I commented on the F'in'Friday, the only reason I picked her up on this was because her English was the minor mistake of all of this post and I didn't want to do a page worth!
:D

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The women's, as well as the gay liberation movements, both started in the UK on college campuses.

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Have I missed something somewhere? What's all this about gay rights? Don;t gay people have the same rights as everyone else nowadays? What is there to campaign about?

Gay adoption? Wasn't that what the RC church kicked up all the hoohah about because they were being asked to place children with gay couples and felt that it was against their religious convictions?

Marriage? Well it's not called marriage it's called a civil ceremony but it is as valid for a gay couple as a marriage is for a heterosexual couple.

Blood donation? Are gay people turned away from blood donation centres? Why would that be? Surely 'gay blood' is identical to 'straight blood'.

I really would appreciate some clarification on those points.

Unless of course your group is protesting against gay adoption and against civil ceremonies between gay couples and have some idea that the blood that courses through the veins of a homosexual is probably riddled with STDs and AIDs :confused:

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Sorry Willow, I'd answer all of your questions but by the time I have answered the first one you will have done another twelve posts and have forgotten your original question!
:D

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[quote=BERNADETTE;492326]Spelling and grammar certainly do matter. They matter a hell of a lot. It's my pet subject and I could go on about it forever, in fact I can get quite boring on the subject.:D Wherever I go I pick up errors in shops, cafes, etc. and never fail to point them out to the poor soul who has come shopping with me. :rolleyes:

I have been told several times to lighten up about it but I won't and it infuriates me that there is such apathy these days towards spelling and grammar. As you say, once we start to accept these shoddy efforts then standards slip and what hope for the next generation? Soon we'll have nobody left who can write properly in English. :(

My point earlier was that as there are usually some errors in most posts we could be here all day picking them up and then the threads get interrupted. I definitely think that if someone is to be a lawyer then they should have a good command of the English language and hope that the exams they have to take ensure that they are but if we start pulling their Accyweb posts to pieces for spelling/grammatical errors it detracts from the topic in hand.

Where would we stop?:)

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They might well have done but I would say that they were started by a few dedicated individuals and that those individuals had to take their protests out into the wider world to make their presence felt, because they'd get sod all support from the vast majority of students. Most of the student protesters who I knew at college had traditional sexist attitudes towards "chicks". And, as you have said, gay rights have been achieved in the UK thanks to this government.

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Yes I agree to a certain extent Lilly but I feel that if we don't say anything we won't be able to decipher posts before long. I do think that to remark that it doesn't matter because we are only a local forum is out of order. There are and always will be people who find spelling and punctuation difficult and I don't have a problem with that. What does annoy me is when people who quite clearly have a good grasp of language and grammar can't be bothered.

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Very true, Bernadette and Willow. I'm glad to know that I'm in good company. :D

'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' is one of my favourite books and I have considered joining the 'Apostrophe Preservation Society.'

Oh yes. I don't go out much. LOL :D

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Blood from what is deemed higher risk groups, such as gay men, were there is still a relatively higher incidence of HIV compared with the hetrosexual population in the UK, or intravenous drug users, isn't collected by the Blood Transfusion Service.

All donated blood could be screened and then 'washed', but this is a very expensive procedure, of which our nurse Lettie knows more, and is somewhat of an expert on the matter. The majority of gay men have no problem with this issue, and certainly don't feel discriminated against. I cannot speak for smack heads, but they are probably too out of it to care one way or the other.:D

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My friend at work is gay and he wasn't too happy when the Blood Transfusion Service wouldn't accept his blood because of the HIV risk.

He wasn't happy either when the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust wouldn't accept his bone marrow for the same reason.

He hasn't got HIV. As long as someone can produce a negative HIV test why can't they be accepted for these things? :confused:

I thought they were hard up for donors these days.

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Yes but from small acorns....

I remember being at an Oxford college in the late seventies, and being lectured about the evils of Del Monte, and their business dealings, and therefore indirect support, for the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Did the student boycotting of companies like Barclays and Del Monte, as well as the lack of sales for the artists who played in Sun City, make a difference?

I guess we'll never know for sure, though international sanctions did help to hasten the end of an evil time in history.

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It comes down to money. It would be extremely expensive, and time consuming, to make sure all blood was fit to be used by those who need it.

I wasn't too pleased when I had to pay an extra premium on my mortgage, because I once danced with a boy, and was deemed to be in a high risk group, even though I was celibate, and it was even more galling that a married man I used to work with used to have unsafe sex with hookers every lunchtime, yet was considered 'low risk'.

Life's not black and white, and neither is the world of finance.

Perhaps your friend should read some of the stories about haemophiliac children that died because of HIV in the 80's, who became infected after being given contaminated blood transfusions.

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I honestly don't know whether they did or not and, as you say, there's no way of proving it one way or another.

Isn't it strange, though, that there were no student boycotts of companies who dealt with communist China or the various viciously repressive black African regimes like Uganda? In my view the reason for this was that protesting against those regimes didn't carry the required cachet of radical chic. I'm not for one minute saying that the boycotts against the South African regime weren't justified - I am saying that the majority of students did it because it was the trendy thing for students to do. In other words, their commitment to the ideas they were protesting about was skin deep.

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A workmate of mine, who was ex army and high ranking in the territorials, had his blood donation refused simply because he had served some time in Africa

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There's always been idiosyncrasies as to what is deemed worthy, and it's wrong.

It drives me potty nowadays about the lack of protest with countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, as well as Zimbabwe, all with appalling human rights records, but all places we continue to have diplomatic relationships with, because of money.

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People that have spent a considerable amount of time in sub-Saharan Africa are deemed at being in a high risk group too.

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Well, I'm not perfect, but this is how I was taught .. LOL

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Its hardly worth a rant that a didnt use a capital F for friday, and its hardly difficult to decipher what I'm saying either for these reasons. Integrate a spell check feature on the forum if you dont like it, other forums do, though I hardly think my spelling is hard to read, and for all you know I could be dyslexic so you have no right to be so rude about it.

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You could always get the Tesbian Bay Li Gransexual Dyslexia Group to organise a protest ouside Less's house.

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And Bernadette, if you want to start criticizing peoples lazy spelling and grammar, you might want to start typing out the full words 'in my opinion' instead of IMO. It's a bit lazy and not everyone knows what it means off the top of their head, and it certainly isn't in the english dictionary.

You know, just in case you want to start being really petty about it as usual. :rolleyes:

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I dont know where Less lives unfortunatly. It's not common knowledge to students my age.

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No need to get personal!!

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My my and here am I thinking you were dyslectic, and making allowances for the fact.:D

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There's another difference.

Students in ages past enjoyed a challenge, and didn't give in at the first hurdle.

No staying power.

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Is beind dyslexic something to be mocked about? You can still be brilliant and dyslexic :)

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Today's degrees equates to passing the eleven plus...

and that's if people manage to eventually scrape a pass.;)

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Its only a worthwhile challenge if its advantageous. Some challenges would have been better left unattempted. Creating a blonde haired, blue eyed race for example when you yourself are dark haired and dark eyed. Pretty stupid challenge to attempt, as would be hunting out Less and his humble abode.

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Another difference.

Lack of vision and foresight, and being able to see the long term advantages of present actions.

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To compare a degree to the 11 plus is ridiculous, seen as some schools still take the 11 plus just to get into school. That is the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard, and I have a friend that once swore that Hitler was welsh.

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And whats the advantage of hunting down Less' house? Because I dont think there would be any advantage unless I planned on getting him a xmas/birthday card, and I dont. So what other use would finding his house be to me?

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Areas of the country that still have direct grant Grammar schools, do have an examination, but the standard no way equates to the old 11-Plus, which was abolished in 1974.

Just as GCSEs are much easier than their supposed predecessor, the O-level.

Fact.

As is also fact that spelling and grammar used to be a prerequisite for university entrance.

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This is why I'm debating going to Uni.
Everyone I've known who's gone over the past 2-3 years haven't given me any reason to be envious. The only challenges seem to be how to live on little cash and how rat arsed you can get every night of the week. Well... I've been there and done that. The actual studying doesn't seem to live up to the romantic, inspiring view I once held.

Still, I'll probably go if I get in.
Better to give it a go and end up punching every typical Hollyoaks-esque student I meet than never to have punched anyone at all.

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You silly girl, you just don't understand do you? It wasn't a rant it was the only mistake you made in that post that was worth correcting!

No matter what is said to you, your opinion will always remain the same. Also because you are young you now know everything, you have been put on this earth to correct us poor old sad beggers, I know this, because when I was 18 I also knew more than everyone else, it was only with the mistakes made over the following years that caused me to stop and consider that perhaps, maybe, just sometimes, I just might be wrong.

Dyslexic, no I don't think you are, dyslexia is usually a sign of some intelligence.


:)

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Blazey I have been dyslectic all my life, even before someone found a 'fancy name' for it, so preach not to me, it can be overcome like all other 'trials and tribulations in life, I was also partialy deaf and short sighted, because I was a 'slow' learner, the teachers in their infinite wisdom put all us duffers to the rear of the class. Before the age of 45 I had made and spent more than a million pounds, so education is not the universal panacea to success you seem to think it is.:not_ripe:

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The 11 plus was proven to be discriminatory against the working class, hence why it was changed.

I doubt I would fail a spelling and grammar test either, I just dont see the need to be tight arsed about it when people use slang and abbreviations like IMO instead of typing out the full phrases and dont get mocked.

Also Shakermaker, you shouldn't let the idea of people getting drunk and eating crap put you off uni, as it isn't at all true of a lot of people.

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Wrong.

Care to produce any documented evidence to back up that claim?

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I think its better than working in McDonalds though?

You forget that most jobs these days require qualifications, so I would rather do that and earn a decent pension than work in dead end jobs. There is much less chance of getting a decent job without qualifications, and there is much more competition than ever before.

You also must acknowledge that students have to gain work experience as well as study, so theres more to being a student than just reading books.

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Not the most ideal source but I have no scanner, so it will have to do.

Eleven plus exam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

scroll down to controversy.

We studied the system of 11 plus in sociology A level, so although I dont know much on it personally, I know the reasons why very little educational institutions use it anymore, and that is because of how biased it is.

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Another difference between students of today compared with yesterday, is they at least had the strength of their convictions, and would not be ashamed to sign their name to something they believed in.

Something you didn't feel brave enough to do in your karma deduction...but your atrocious spelling so easily gave away.;)

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You are absolutely right a student needs to gain work experience.


A Part time student doing an apprenticeship after gaining qualifications says, "What would you like me to make for you?"

A full-time college Student that goes into Engineering says, "I've designed this I want you to build It."

A University student that comes out with some obscure and useless degree turns to the other two and says, "Do you want fries with that order!".
:D

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Mention of gender and location there, but not of class, and that's taking into consideration that most of Wikipedia is flawed because it can be freely edited by any nutter.

Anymore more reliable evidence?

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Blazey, thereis no such thing as a good job, they are all bad jobs, unless you work for yourself, instead of a parasitic employer.:not_ripe:

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It's 1am and I am in bed, and no scanner even if I did have a book to show you. I don't need to prove myself to you anyway, your just a red faced alcoholic with no life.

And I cant give you more reputation, ive given u enough already tonight, so it wasnt me.

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I don't drink because I have Parkinson's.

Blimey, you're wrong so many times, about so many things, it's quite charming.

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Well I could recognise you from quite a distance, and seen i've stood behind you in the queue I'm pretty sure it was you :p

Obviously you just look very drunk in all of your pictures and the red wine wasn't for you :D

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Where do I find all these pictures? LOL, is there a place where pics of accyweb members are posted or what?

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Err... I don't drink red wine, and don't go in off-licences, and if I did I'd send the maid.

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Jae the pictures are in the gallery. Just click on the link but don't be to shocked when you see women dancing in their bras:p

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And you won't see it there just that Blazey says thats what the women do at Accyweb meets:p

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They are good, it is nice to meet the people you are talking to:)

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Codswallop, it was done to sort the wheat from the chaffe, he people that implemented the change still sent their offsprings to private grammar schools. It was to gain votes and was the worst thing to happen to the education system, it has gone downhill since. I did not go to one, but I employed plenty that did. The system still exists in the guise of streaming.

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The double standards displayed towards those regimes is practiced by governments and big business for economic reasons. The double standards over various repressive regimes displayed by students in the 60's/70's were down to which ones it was fashionable to protest against. A telling indicator of just how deeply those convictions were held. I don't know what present-day students get up to, but if they get on with their studies instead of shambling through the streets mouthing cliched slogans, they're doing themselves and us a favour.

And another thing about students in my day - despite professing to be revolutionary individualists, they were the most stultifyingly conformist set of sods I've ever come across - far more so than the "straight" society in the big world outside whom they looked down upon. If you didn't fit into the long-haired, rock-loving, Marxist mould, you were nowhere...and just try telling them that Mao Tse Tung was a murderous dictator! As I say, I don't know what students are like these days, but I would hope that they think for themselves, rather than just blindly following the fashions of the day, both sartorial and political, unlike the bunch of sheep that I went to college with.

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If you'll notice, nowhere in this long and rambling thread have I said that the students in the 60/70's were right. I merely pointed out their attitudes towards political causes, compared to the students of today.:)