Hard News: Tidbits ahoy
148 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 Newer→ Last
-
it's dog-whistling alright. i should know, it hurts my ears.
I'll see your 'dog whistle' and raise you a 'failed policies of the past'!
When Mr. Slack is finished building his Quackspeak Detector-cum-Rhetorical-Inflation Engine, we could collaborate on a domestic political/blog version of Bullshit Bingo. Endure election season and win fabulous prizes!
-
But its the vouchers things that gets up my nose:
“I’m only on this course because I want to get the money…..” Lets fill HE and FE with more people who are only there for the money. Local Polytechs will end up running mickey mouse/dump courses that can’t be failed and don’t really do much educating either. Oh wait a minute whats this at AUT….
Quite. I'm sure there's more detail but flicking kids of to any old course is a complete waste of time. Some research I was involved in in Australia estimated that the cost of appropriate training for early school leavers was around three times that of other training and that it required specialised delivery etc. I'm not averse to entitlements, but simply allowing them to be cashed in for low-quality courses will not improve workforce participation. In case what I'm saying seems unfairly critical, I actually do support policies that improve senior secondary retention rates, or the equivalent, so long as they also improve qualifications completions too!
-
How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wingwang Pulled and Not Spill Your Drink
I really like early PJ O'Rourke. I still follow his wise, sage advice and never put my genitals into anything I'm not absolutely sure they'll come back out of.
-
Incidentally, Annette King has just put out a statement saying itsLabour's policy anyway, and that the teenage problems we have are all because of Ruth Richardson's 'mother of all budgets'.
Bullshit Bingo! What did you do during the Fourth Labour Government, 'Nettie? Because before then, all was lollipops and fairy-dust... except when it wasn't.
-
I thought O'Rourke's best moment was to describe E as a 'Lapdog drug'.
-
I really like early PJ O'Rourke. I still follow his wise, sage advice and never put my genitals into anything I'm not absolutely sure they'll come back out of.
Am I the only person who once had a nightmare about being on a long road trip with P.J. O'Rourke and Jeremy Clarkson? Spooky.
-
My own favourite P J O'rouke thing....and those of delicate sensiblities should move onto the next post, where someone is sure to be arguing Key's speech today was somehow both dog whistling for right wing neanderthals and a copy of Labour's policies ...O'Rourke was describing a dope fest he and a mate had back in his hippy days.
His mate got the munchies and proceeded to devour a huge pot of extremely hot chilli.
O'Rourke woke next morning to the sight of his mate trying to run his arse under a cold tap....
-
voucher entitling 16- and 17-year-old school-leavers to a limited period of free educational training at polytechs and other tertiary providers.
No collusion with Tim Shadbolt then?
-
__Either Key doesn’t know what he is talking about or he is deliberately playing to the crowd.__
Since he is a politician and all, my money would be on (b).
Or possibly both?
-
No collusion with Tim Shadbolt then?
I wouldn't be surprised -- ditto for the Maori Party with the wananga. We'll know when SIT sets up an Otara branch I guess.
-
Actually, I can't believe this age old canard (yoof off the streets) is *still* being trotted out as though it is some sort of new revelation. This is so...Norman Tebbitt. Hardly the bright fresh ideas man we are being led to believe in.
I am also surprised that there was not a promise to bring back National Service to go along with all this.
-
I wouldn't be surprised -- ditto for the Maori Party with the wananga. We'll know when SIT sets up an Otara branch I guess.
But what about all that gnashing of teeth and wailing about low quality courses? They've simply gone from one rhetorical theme to another and hoped no one would notice. We already commit millions to poorly designed courses that churn learners around with very limited labour market outcomes, do we really need more?
-
I wouldn't be surprised -- ditto for the Maori Party with the wananga.
Just as I wouldn't be surprised if the PPTA, NZEI and AUS 'collude' with Labour on a regular basis -- though I think education sector unions would strongly object to the choice of words, and note they expend quite a bit of effort lobbying all parties. As unions do.
We already commit millions to poorly designed courses that churn learners around with very limited labour market outcomes, do we really need more?
My psychic abilities are rather crap, but I think John Key's answer would be 'no'. But if the policy is so badly designed that there would be no proper auditing or oversight, then we do have a problem.
-
My psychic abilities are rather crap, but I think John Key's answer would be 'no'. But if the policy is so badly designed that there would be no proper auditing or oversight, then we do have a problem.
That's the inherent risk with vouchers, they tend to be gobbled up by trendy courses cleverly marketed by polytechnics to obscure the fact that there are few jobs out the other end. However the alternative is damn tricky and involves government being more active than simply making funding available - given that Key and co have so severely slagged off the current approach to steering the system towards delivering training aligned to labour market demand, he's got a problem!
Incidentally, my experience is that outside of the compulsory sector, unions exert very limited undue influence in the tertiary sector.
-
My psychic abilities are rather crap, but I think John Key's answer would be 'no'. But if the policy is so badly designed that there would be no proper auditing or oversight, then we do have a problem.
Which I suspect is what it will come down to. The 2002 Labour youth crime strategy covered in the story I linked to earlier looked great on paper, but it's been really hard to make work, in part because the people in the relevant agencies are already running at capacity. And it's one thing for Key to say there will be no twilight golf on his vouchers, but ...
-
Which I suspect is what it will come down to. The 2002 Labour strategy covered in the story I linked to earlier looked great on paper, but it's been really hard to make work, in part because the people in the relevant agencies are already running at capacity.
That's generous! If you mean the Tertiary Education Strategy, then I'd say agencies simply didn't do a good job. In their defence, it was a significant change and not all the necessary tools were available. I don't think there was a policy failure however, which is why I think Key's got a problem.
-
At least none of you had to put up with listening to Ian Wishart blather on on Jim Mora's terrible panel today. Apparently young men are going to positively embrace these boot camps, as the feminazi's have stripped them of an outlet for their nascent manhood. Or something.
Anyway, Graheme Dingle style outdoor "training"? I can just see Garth McVicar firing up his word processor now - "Violent youth criminals are being sent on outdoor holiday camps that decent hard working kiwi's can't afford for their own teens..."
-
But if the policy is so badly designed that there would be no proper auditing or oversight, then we do have a problem
No we have a bigger problem. Educational auditing is poor at the 'mo the strengthening of TEC has yet to precipitate much of positive benefit in the wrong hands we will have the same standards and tables mockery a la schools and the UK.
In defence of Graheme and others - these schemes only cater for a modest proportion of those at risk.
-
I must say, I'm greatly enjoying reading the usual suspects at Kiwiblog hailing an expensive social policy they'd have been screaming blue murder about if it came from the Evil Liabour Dykeocracy.
-
I must say, I'm greatly enjoying reading the usual suspects at Kiwiblog hailing an expensive social policy they'd have been screaming blue murder about if it came from the Evil Liabour Dykeocracy.
There's more dignified ways to indulge your masochistic urges - like asking Fiona to strap on a pair of stilettos and walk up and down your spine. Anyway, are you going to break it to 'em that according to Annette King it's all being done by the Evil Liarbore Dykeocracy already?
I would, but my life insurance isn't up to date. -
Ack, I'm weak. Did pop by Kiwiblog and came across this gem from a Roger Nome:
No it’s a poverty issue, one which National is set to deepen. It will then punish the victims of its policies with boot camp, and have a chuckle about it over a pinot gris at the local country club. Don’t you just love National?
Gee, I'd love to live on Mr. Nome's planet full stop. A Thursday night cheap and cheerful at the Westfield Albany foodhall (with an impertinent but zesty styrofoam cup of miso soup to wash it down), and a bit of window shopping to follow, is about as high life as I get nowadays.
-
Did Dr Wayne Mapp have anything to do with this new National Policy? It does seem a bit silly.
With the Army already short on numbers to run a programme like this (market forces at work).
Do we want the worst of our community to be fitter & stronger when they're turned out onto the streets?
The Limited Service Volunteers LSVs was set up for life skills for long term unemployed. It's about building people up. I'm not sure troubled youth will find it rewarding.
That said I saw a few young lives turned around in the Army but they were motivated to change.
-
Do we want the worst of our community to be fitter & stronger when they're turned out onto the streets?
Oy... Do you want me to give you an answer that assumes you're being half-way serious, or the Social Darwinian/Eugenic snark that the best thing to do with the scum of the earth is to castrate 'em (so they can't breed) then isolate 'em from decent folks until their stave in their own filth?
-
Re: Yoof crime policy.
Pay young folk full benefits if they're out of work and out of school, and minimum wage if they're in work. 14+ will do just fine, it's a huge waste of everyone's time and effort to keep kids in school that aren't interested in the learning, and poverty along with social rejection is a huge stimulus for crime.
Give the kids that stay in school a partial benefit, in place of all the tax breaks their parents currently get. Obviously, make sure every 13 year old has the full range of life skills needed to make a good decision there, budgeting, diet and basic health, sex ed, drug ed, and so on.Invest strongly in free adult education for those who realise their mistake and want to do more later on. Free university too, for everyone with a UE equivalent, and free polytech for those with a School C. Full benefits for everyone who's still passing most of their courses.
Bring back local licensing trust monopolies, as the booze on every corner for private profit is a curse that hurts youth more than anyone, especially the children of our plague of social alcoholics. See also rules around the spread of addictive gambling machines.
Mostly though, catch the small time crooks before they get the idea they'll get away with everything they do; putting whatever money it takes in to track down near every burglary, robbery, theft, and assault. Don't sweat the punishment, it's mostly irrelevant anyway, getting caught early and often is what works. Restorative justice FTW, taggers repainting walls and such.
Gentle tax increases on the rich folk may be required, but they'll live.
There'll still be youth crime, just like there'll still be adult crime, and vanishingly rare horrors will still make for great press. Such is life.
...
Or, you know, ignore it all and hope for the best, promise to get tough on those you've failed, and shut all the youth away wherever they'll make the least noise lest anyone notice them. Letting the wee buggers vote's not a bad idea either.
-
I note that Manukau District Council has a very strong view about getting yoof off the streets, what with all those teens running amok, baby prostitutes, despicable young Graffiti vandals and other 'unexploded human time bombs' (ref Key speech) .
kinda old-news but possibly relevant in the current conversation: I disliked the linking of two stories by National Radio, the stabbing of 15 year old fence tagger (by 50 year old businessman) and Manukau Councils campaign for their "Control of Graffiti Bill" because "graffiti leads to violent crime". yes. well. when they said Graffiti leads to violent crime I assumed they meant something else.
The link was made mainly by juxtaposition, segueing the stories back to back, but can hardly have been accidental. http://www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/checkpoint/20080128/
[NB:National Radio also linked the recent reporting about arrests of underage prostitutes to Manukau City Councils "Control of Street Prostitution Bill" also pending. other publications did not make that link, Herald for example focussed on the police spokesperson, with a vague gang angle thrown in for spice]
in the context of MDC's proposed multi pronged approach to controlling Graffiti that includes a strategy for deterrence by harsher punishment:
ensuring that penalties make it clear that tagging will not be tolerated by the community
I particularly dislike an inference that in the case of the stabbed tagger the cause and effect was reasonable, or at least in some way justifiable. the boy has lost his 'innocent victim' status, and the other (murderous) party is representative of a community refusing to tolerate.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.