clairethinker

clairethinker

35p

32 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

7 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Abbott's Arithmetic 1)... · 2 replies · +1 points

If we are talking about tax "avoidance" that is legal and therefore cannot be stopped unless you change specific laws in specific ways which Labour has not made clear.
If you are talking about tax evasion, which is illegal, you have no idea how much is going on as obviously people don't do illegal transactions in visible ways.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 0 replies · +1 points

Good question, they must be spies and quislings planted inside UKIP. We know they exist, and they have caused a lot of trouble.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 0 replies · +1 points

Britain's economy has NOT just crashed, It has been crushed during the last thirty years or more, while we were inside the EU. A lot of our jobs have been exported. Light and heavy industry closed down,. Fishing decimated. Services sold off to foreign ownership.
What we have now is a chance to make a fresh start, Stop spreading doom and gloom, because that in itself has a negative impact on the markets.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 0 replies · +1 points

I'm not sure the 11-plus was invented in 1922, but generally speaking you are right about the downward trend in educational attainment.
Many factors, one being the the exam-board system, made that happen.
A scientist who recently looked at A-level physics papers tells me that they are barely equivalent to O-level in his time. In English, history and modern languages today 's A-level is easier. So 18-year-olds are leaving school with what really amounts to three O-levels. of mediocre grade and expecting to loll around in university for another three years at least before they get a job. The spend a lot of time clubbing, or talking on their mobile phones.
One day they will realise what a blessing it is that their country has been rescued from dictatorship but only when they have been to the University of Life.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 0 replies · +1 points

Reported for abuse again.
I suggest other readers ignore you and don't get dragged down to your level.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 2 replies · +1 points

No one is interested in your prolix ramblings. Remain lost., Get over it!
Only 36% of young people under 25 voted at all. So clearly most don't care about the EU either way,. In the age group 25-35, the percentage who voted LEAVE was 58%.
So stop trying to impress me - you won't.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 4 replies · +1 points

I have of course reported you for being "Personally abusive and using offensive language."
That indicates that you are uneducated yourself.
Yes, I know a lot of young people - an awful lot., A steady stream, and I am in a very good position to judge them on their educational attainments, indeed an exceptionally good one.
I have also worked extensively abroad in Europe,.Your "world citizens" are pathetically ignorant, barely literate even their own language, far too lazy to learn other languages or convinced that superficial smattering means they know it. Yes they have been on foreign holidays but they have NOT worked abroad , and most have hardly worked even here in their own country by the age of 21.
They know nothing about history, never use libraries and are just clueless about what the EU actually does. They think it's something to do with the Eurovision song contest, or being able to travel on a student railcard around Europe.
They have never read any of the great European classics and if you ask them to name the capital of Lithuania you will get a blank stare from your "world citizens". They should go and take a few summer jobs across Europe as I did at their age - they would learn a lot.
Of course I do know a few exceptionally intelligent young people, and they voted to LEAVE
Personally I think the voting age should be 21.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 0 replies · +1 points

Not necessarily,
The EU has got free trade agreements with numerous coutries around the globe that are not remotely interested in joining the EU.
We would probably be better off if we had remained in in EFTA than joining the EU, which is frankly falling apart anyway.
The members of EFTA don't have to surrender any powers of national sovereignty, cannot be coerced into joing the euro and be treated like serfs by Brussels. Norway has preserved its fishing industry. If only we had done the same!
In the long run the answer is for the WTO to abolish all tairiff barriers. That is the way that things are inevitably going.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 6 replies · +1 points

David MacD is correct, Today's young are massively ignorant and hopelessly illiterate, they learn very little at school and are indoctrinated with pro-EU ideas and a lot of other nonsense.
Their so-called GCSEs are achieved by course work that can be done with the help of their teacher, and the standards are abysmal.
Their so-called A-levels are not even the standard of the old O-levels. they can download stuff from the internet and call it an essay. They mostly know nothing nothing about history, literature or philosophy.
A lot of today's so-called degrees are not even up to the old A-level standard.
Most damning of all, very few learn any foreign languages, Their teachers of foreign languages would hardly reach A-level standard themselves by my generations's standards. School-leavers are completely unfit to compete in a pan-European job market place.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Lord Ashcroft: How the... · 2 replies · +1 points

We are still members of the European Economic Area, therefore all the trade deals we are in remain in force for the time being, It does not take a highly specialised diplomat to say "Okay Germany, we've called your bluff, give us a free trade deal without threatening us, fining us and straitjacketing us or we stop buying your cars ".
It caused shock and uncertainty when we ditched the feudal system, but in the long run it was the best decision.