Syldon

It should be made a criminal offence to deliberately destroy government records. There needs to be an emphasis that they need to take active steps to protect those records. this lot are taking the piss.

And if we get the Tories out and Starmer doesn't announce it for the next election in 2028, what would be the point of voting Labour then?

Actually, It is the sudden strop that kills you, or at the very least hitting something that slows you on the way down. Having no kids is a symptom not a cause, and education would help alleviate that. Demonising those who are less well is a blight in this country that needs to stop.

You don't have any evidence to support that really though do you? My opinion is that nothing ventured nothing gained.

I keep hearing this argument a lot. A very similar story with reversing Brexit. Educating the public is key to a successful result. Where as I agree with the Brexit case, I disagree with the PR voting. There are polls that show 70% of those asked that they want electoral reform. Adding this as an election is called would stop any organisations forming a campaign against it. Labour have a mission statement released. They do not have a manifesto pledge yet. There is an overwhelming desire from the Labour membership for PR voting. It would not be an unreasonable thing to do.

And more so, I feel this needs to be kept in the limelight to remind Labour that it is an item that is high on the voters want lists.

Mate give it up.

The article is 20 years old. It misses a massive point. Kids are struggling enough today without families. Birth control is better understood now than it ever has been in the past. Do you even read the news out side of the Tory media?

Being poor means less chance at education, being poor means you cannot afford a family, and will actively look to stop having kids. It is a consequence of not having the finances to do other stuff, like pay for an education, that makes the stats skewed. Having an education gives better access to better financial rewards from employment, which enabled you to give a child a better chance at stability. The prevalence of being childless is not a consequence of being under educated; it is purely down to the fact that the Tories have turned the screw to much on the least fortunate in the UK.

Again Ice cream does not give you sunburn. It is just that more people eat it on hot days.

I think, where we both agree is that we need better education across the country to give kids a better chance. The Tories have demolished funding for schools in the north of England. It needs rectifying. This is only one of the many other things the Tories have demolished in the last 14 years.

The study ends in 1969. This is based on people aged 50 and above. This is not relevant to the kids of today. The cost of living crisis is now. Kids are not having kids because they are really struggling to live.

There are some huge caveats missed in that study. It is akin to stating people who eat ice cream are more likely to get sun burned. There is not enough correlation between the stats of education level and child birth. They only suggest that is the case. In this era education was free. If a woman was not rearing kids, then education was at your disposal. Now it is not. Having kids stops education dead in the water for a lot of kids, because now it is a debt trap.

Again critical thinking goes a long way.

Bugger me you must have hunted high and low for that one.

Great except it is Finland and Sweden based. This is a UK forum based on the UK. There are people in Africa that are under educated and breed like rabbits. What has this to do with the UK?

I understand why it’s so controversial to say, but the more educated you are, the less kids you’re likely to have and a declining birth rate is a problem for any economy.

Show me a study to prove this. It is just nonsensical BS, imo. The more educated you, the more likely you are to be above the mean wage. Money is the issue today.

Fifty years ago, only the top ten percent of people went to university and yet we still had teachers, nurses and every other job that for some reason needs a degree now. And a welder could earn a wage decent enough to buy an average house and support an entire family.

We also had free education training and grants for living expenses for students. Today that training means a huge amount of debt. I am a firm believer in that we should be investing a lot more into education. There is a conspiracy theory that the Tories deliberately do not invest in education because the more educated are not voting Tory anymore. This is born from the report created in 2005 " DIRECT DEMOCRACY: An Agenda for a New Model Party". which states:

The decline in Conservative support has been particularly marked among the most educated. This is not always obvious since more education is associated with higher income, and higher income is still (just) associated with stronger Conservative support. However, other factors being held constant, the more educationally qualified someone is, the less likely he or she is to support the Conservatives. This is a problem to the extent that the more educated are likelier to vote, and are often influential in leading the opinion of others. It is also, of course, a problem in a country where nearly half of young people are now going to university.

The list of authors at the end will interest you also.

Michael Gove was elected MP for Surrey Heath in 2005 and is a columnist for The Times.

Danny Kruger is a leader writer for The Daily Telegraph and was formerly a policy adviser to the Conservative Party and Director of Studies at the Centre for Policy Studies

Kwasi Kwarteng is a financier, former Conservative candidate for Brent East and a Harvard Kennedy scholar.

Jeremy Hunt was elected MP for South West Surrey in 2005 and is the founder of a publishing business

As for the wage this purely down to the government's attacks on union organisations and how they are governed. Skilled workers are still highly paid though. Thatcher got rid of the shipyards. Welders are a dime a dozen (speaking as a welder, I know this for fact). Try to get a plumber, electrician or joiner on the cheap. We do not invest in trade skills anymore. We had government funding for companies to take on apprentices. This used to cover all the costs for an apprentice. An apprentice was cheap free labour. Now they are a cost with huge liabilities attached.

Don’t act surprised when an entire generation has been brought up with the mantra “work hard and you can achieve anything you want!”, and then act surprised that they don’t want to have kids after working seven years for a worthless degree, no high skilled job role to move in to and a pile of debt before they’ve even started work.

There are more people going to university now than there was 50 years ago. This is has no credence at all.

I strongly suggest you take the time to do some critical thinking on your beliefs.

As are Labour. The Tories are not the only culprit here. It was listed in the 1997 Labour manifesto pledge.

We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system.

Cheers I don't know how I missed the date.

She sounds like a really nice person to know.

But she has often captured the media's attention with her controversial views around family, claiming the declining birth rate in the UK was partly down to "cultural Marxism" and increased numbers of people going to university.

Just be good little thickos and breed for the we, who deserve to have you serve us.

According to ITV there are 8 under investigation.

A total of eight MPs including Miriam Cates are currently under investigation by the Standards Commissioner, including Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing, veteran conservative Sir Bernard Jenkin and Reclaim MP Andrew Bridgen.

Deleted part. bad link.

Mone replied: “Saying to the press, ‘I’m not involved’, to protect my family, can I just make this clear, it’s not a crime … I was protecting my family.”

If she had done nothing wrong then what was she protecting her family from?

I firmly believe that the only thing Sunak is after is that trade deal with India. If it looks unobtainable, then he will bail. A large rebellion gunning for him will do that.

I would hope there is a GE before this comes into play. Sunak is on the ropes. One nation is showing some nerve and making demands that are contrary to what the ERG are after. I hope he pulls the plug on his problems in the party and calls an election.

Except the Netherlands is a flat country and the UK has a large area of high ground running down the middle of it. There is not a lot of difference when you compare the whole of the UK, but regionally some parts of the UK are very wet. The Netherlands does not get as much rainfall simply because there is not much high ground to force pressure changes with the clouds.

https://www.worlddata.info/climate-comparison.php?r1=netherlands&r2=united-kingdom

It kind of sad, they have to recognise how close to an election we are before they grow a spine.

This seems very much up in arms still. What was said this morning and last night has changed around.