tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374775769962909889.post7643375854607899065..comments2012-07-07T12:47:39.504-07:00Comments on The Giraffe-Friendly Dialectic: Students Protest: Bourgeoisie Of The World Unite!The Giraffe Dialectichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17242499197956969654noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374775769962909889.post-54271750277769905532011-11-27T13:29:15.324-08:002011-11-27T13:29:15.324-08:00Briefly;
1) You and I were both there for the ...Briefly;<br /><br />1) You and I were both there for the 'you have no right to speak' moment. That along with their many other aggressive efforts at getting their voice heard (rather than saying something worth hearing) counts as 'flouting' democracy.<br /><br />2) Just because (some) academics are against it does not mean its wrong. Many for for it (especially economists who's business it is to know these things) and many professors are clearly suffering from a conflict of interests: their performance is going to be far more closely monitored in the name of informing prospective students' decisions. <br />3) The argument is about the principle not the governments specific policy, which wasn't mentioned once.The Giraffe Dialectichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17242499197956969654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374775769962909889.post-609273806977358262011-11-27T13:01:09.525-08:002011-11-27T13:01:09.525-08:00I certainly cannot disagree with everything you ha...I certainly cannot disagree with everything you have written here as you make some interesting points, especially in regards to the parallel you draw with food. <br /><br />However, I must pull you up on a few points which boarder on Daily Mail style hyperbole. <br /><br />1. Saying that UKUncut 'flout democracy' is ridiculous. Democracy is far more than simply putting an X in a box every five years and leaving it at that. Democracy is an organic, living, breathing system that has numerous aspects, one of which is the right to protest. Secondly, you seem to have totally missed the point of the whole organisation. Many see the current governments mandate as totally insufficient to warrant such a dramatic reforming administration. The radical, ideological move away from a mixed economy which was started by Mrs T and admittedly carried on by Labour, has been put into overdrive. The Education White Paper is just one example. We are witnessing the wholesale retreat from the post war concusses model without it having been in any manifesto for which we could have voted. Hence, people sympathise with UKUncut and the whole anti-cuts movement because they feel there has been a failure of democracy. The way in which our children will be educated has been dramatically altered without a legitimate public mandate to do so. UKUncut (which, by the way I am not the biggest fan of) are not 'flouting' democracy as you so incorrectly state but are actually actively involved in its defence. <br /><br />2. You wrongly focus solely on the issue of fees when the march was called against the Education White Paper. The 'alternative White Paper' put forward by hundreds of leading academics puts forward the case far more convincing than I will be able to here. However, in addition; Only this morning we have seen Professors resigning from Royal Holloway in protest against the major cuts planned for the Classics department. The new model of education proposed negates the centuries old tradition of valuing the pursuit of knowledge itself and attempts to value a courses use by measuring its direct empirical value for the economy. Education will rapidly shift from an exercise that understands the value of knowledge for the sake of knowledge into little more than a factory line for the economy. <br /><br />3. Finally and most unacceptable for a supposed economist is the way in which you have completely ignored the opposing economic argument. The alternative white paper argues convincingly that new tuition fee system will in reality cost more for the tax payer as people will be unable to pay back the loan, leaving the government to pick up the deficit. <br /><br />If this proves true then this government has introduced a radical yet un-thought-out policy without a sufficient mandate. Even worse they will be replacing a system which is currently valued among the top 2 University systems in the world (based on number of unis in top 200) with little more than a production line for industry and a society that no longer values the pursuit of knowledge unless it can be quantified in pounds.Joe Mulhallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17779715037470563366noreply@blogger.com