Extremism as Weakness

A common thread marks most lone wolf terrorists ; the intellectual weakness that cannot  grasp the complexity of problems, and the moral weakness that cannot accept individual responsibility for their own failings. These individuals have troubled pasts and blame society for it ; had drug problems and are sexually confused?  Blame society!  Unable to hold down a job and are used to mommy bailing you out whenever things get tough?  Blame society!  They find their solution in a simplistic fanaticism that promises to protect individuals from these traps and cleanse them of their sins. As is so often with hate and violence, the real motivation behind hurting another human being is timeless ; self loathing and fear. When these confused young men slaughter civilians in cold blood they are striking out at the weakness they see in themselves.

Balanced budgets and debt

If balancing your budget means cutting back on health and educational spending, is it worth it?  In poor countries, restraining spending is essentially restraining productivity, as lack of Progress in health and education will permanently hamstring economic development.
No doubt, crippling levels of interest on debt must be dealt with, but the priority for economic development must first of all be productivity and capability. Debt will never be paid off if an economy never becomes capable of paying off debt. As has been pointed out in the book Bad Samaritans,  by austerity logic, we should send kids to the coal mines as soon as they can walk, rather than spend 18 years educating them. 

Why businessmen make poor economists

Even if Trump was a successful businessman,  rather than a slick bankruptcy navigator,  his kind represent a common problem in politics ; the belief that a successful business person has any kind of ability to help manage a national economy in a globalised world. Actually their business experience may be a hindrance that blinds themselves to the particular challenge of understanding that what is good for an individual business is often bad for the economy as a whole.

The Myth of private efficiency ; privatization in England and the Academy program in Education

The British government is preceding with plans to privatise British education. Despite evidence that the social background and wealth accounts more for the success of students at schools like Eton, ministers continue to believe that simply giving taxpayers money to untested firms is the best way to fix British education. As conservatives, basing policy on ideology rather than evidence is rather their forte, but this move slightly beggars belief even for them.

In the nineties the devastation to public services wrought by privatisation in the UK became glaringly apparent. Various businessmen were put in control of public services in order to demonstrate their 'efficiency'. A major rail disaster and a prison breakout were just two of many notable incidents involving businessmen who took  taxpayers money without accountability,  and then preceded to completely ballsup whatever they had been put in charge of. Business people may he good at making a profit, but no one in the Conservative party at the time seemed to consider that some (many,  all??? )  public services are invaluable by other metrics, even if in crude financial terms they make a loss. Even on economic grounds there is the phenomenon of an externality whereby positive side effects flow from a public service and can more than pay for something,  just not in easily quantifiable terms. Education, health and infrastructure are three classic pillars of productivity even in economics, a field that tends to be right wing. Yet the neo-liberals of the 80's seemed to overlook even this basic fact. Thatcher and Reagan's voodoo economics saw national debt balloon in order to finance tax cuts for the wealthy, who now tended to hide the money rather than invest it usefully. Our own time saw an infatuation with financial services at the expense of resource and productivity measures that saw the Great Recession of 2008.

Why then do apparently intelligent policymakers fall into such obvious traps?  One reason is simple corruption and the closeness between the business community and conservative politicians ; a lot of people can make a lot of money from taxpayers subsidizing their businesses.  But what about those who genuinely believe privatisation is better?  The fallacy of believing that if A is bad, then B is good is likely to blame. Public bad,  then private good. Of course the reason why a public service is underperforming can be complex, but history shows that people prefer clear cut reasons with a political bent rather than the truth.

The criminal and paedophilic nature of Isis

Iraq's Sinjar Yazidis: Bringing IS slavers to justice - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36960657

Why unfettered free market economics is a long term cost ; Economics and Externalities

Impact of poverty costs the UK £78bn a year, says report http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/01/uk-impact-of-poverty-costs-78bn-a-year-joseph-rowntree-foundation?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Social Mobility and Education in England

Social Mobility is a frequent discussion in England. The Left, particularly, laments that England is still a country riven by class division and tradition. Indeed, as someone who has mingled in officer circles as a child due to a father in the airforce, I have subsequently experienced the flip coin of reverse snobbery ; being told "ere, you sound posh, where are you from then?" Every Brit has experienced discrimination or suspicion in their own country because of their accent, and knows how being from 30 minutes away can lead to problems with locals in the neighbouring city. Accents and social mobility in England have a lot to do with schooling. There is a strange obsession, from Conservatives at least, with the apparent success of schools like Eton over state schools. Why strange? 

If you took all the students from Eton, and replaced them with state school pupils, but kept the facilities and the staff, would those staff be able to get similar results given some time?  The answer is a resounding no, and everybody knows it. The results at Eton are the result of academic selection and coming from a wealthy background. Average state schools cannot by definition emulate this, so why does the Conservative government of England try to?  The short answer of course is, they are idiots. Their policies, like most Conservatives around the world, are based on ideology and prejudice with little real analysis or thought, or recourse to evidence. Actual evidence shows the real reasons behind the success of wealthy private school students, ( it's the wealth and exclusion of undesirable students, not the private 'methods' that makes the difference) but the elites of England, and many of the middle class, remain infatuated with the old trappings of power. Hence this governments attempt to privatise British schools with the academy program. Or the farcical relaunching of academies in the state sector, where new super-heads were allowed to expel a hundred trouble makers, and then people wondered why the relaunched school did better.  It was pitiful to see schools being renamed,  as though rebranding could fix the social,  economic and cultural problems that had caused the issues in the first place. Most people are familiar with the idea of students losing learning over the summer vacation, but do they know this generally happens in poor families but not wealthy families? The reasons appears to be access to resources ( which enable activities that aid learning and development ) and cultural, (e.g wealthy families are more likely to have books around and value learning). Wealthy children generally return to school in September having read a few books and likely having had a few lessons from a private tutor to keep up, whilst students from more average families have a tougher time adjusting for the first couple of months back. What happens in the summer months is a far greater indicator of why private school students tend to do better than state school students. Hard evidence proves it.
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/05/15/15-critical-facts-everyone-should-know-about-summer-learning-loss/
Furthermore, does anyone imagine Eton graduates really are that much better than an average state school student?  The answer is, on average, yes, actually they are,  but the real question is, why, and what does 'better' mean?  Do Eton teachers and facilities really lead to the greater success of these students at university and in their later careers?  Or do students from schools like Eton have a clearer idea of where they are going, and the knowledge and connections that will help them get there? Boris Johnson, case in point. The rise of this buffoon to Mayor of London and Foreign Secretary of the UK is astonishing to foreigners,  and a damning inditement of our country's infatuation with elitism. Does anyone who takes a hard look at Boris Johnson really think Eton and Oxford are superior wonder schools?

This leads to the question;  how much of the initial progress of Eton graduates in postgraduate studies and careers is due to having Eton and Oxford on a resume?  And again the question arises, how much better is a university like Oxford compared to others, and why are we so obsessed with rankings?  At the postgraduate level,  where students  work closely with professors and research matters more, I have no doubt Oxford has an edge, but what real difference does it make to the vast majority of undergraduates? Smaller class sizes and seminars probably make the most difference. Why do the middle and upper classes swoon for Oxbridge still, and why do so many working class families not value education in the same way?  These are the questions that need answering with respect to education and social mobility, not some naive pursuit of 'private is better'.

Instead of focusing on choice and the methods of the private sector, government should focus on the cultural reasons why more average families do not seem to value education as much, and for cost effective methods to enhance access to educational materials. The Internet is already a great leveller in this respect. Let us look to reduce inequality,  both culturally and in resources. A great start would be to simply focus on literacy and elementary schools more. Every state high school teacher knows most behaviour and academic problems have a lot to do with simple literacy issues. Smaller class sizes at the elementary level would be one of the greatest investments the British government could make. In the meantime, I suspect we will continue to see an illogical infatuation  with schools like Eton for no real reason at all.

Further reading here :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10689547/Exaggerated-value-of-private-education.html