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John Bird (Big Issue founder) loses the plot

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Hopeless Romantic Donating Member (495 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-21-10 12:15 PM
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John Bird (Big Issue founder) loses the plot
It costs more to keep children in local authority care than to send them to Eton, according to the founder of The Big Issue.

John Bird said the money spent by taxpayers on looking after the poorest in society dwarfs that paid by wealthy parents towards private education.

The outspoken social campaigner, who set up the magazine sold by homeless people in 1991, has written to David Cameron urging him to reform Britain’s benefits system, which he believes traps the worst-off in poverty while fuelling addictions.

Official figures show that the cost of keeping vulnerable children in care homes is £2,428 a week. Fees for boarders at Eton College, meanwhile, are £29,862 a year which averages out at £574 a week.

“To send a boy to Eton will cost around £250,000 in fees and that goes up to maybe £350,000 when you add in skiing holidays and university,” said Mr Bird.

“Around 80 per cent of people selling The Big Issue have been through local authority care at a cost of £2,000 a week. That’s £100,000 a year, £1million if they have spent 10 years in care. And the money that’s spent on them is yours and mine.”

He wrote in his letter to the Prime Minister, who himself was educated at Eton: “All the monies spent by the comfortable on their children pale into insignificance beside what we spend on our poorest child. Existing government structures and policies work to create crime and poverty.”

Mr Bird claimed that the “drug crime industry” would be “lost” without the support of the welfare state, while betting shops, the alcoholic drinks industry and fast-food outlets would all suffer without the business they receive from those on the dole.

He believes new claimants should be forced to work for benefits, possibly by providing care for the elderly or keeping towns clean.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7841457/Care-costs-for-children-are-higher-than-Eton-fees-says-Big-Issue-Founder.html
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non sociopath skin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-21-10 02:56 PM
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1. As far as I am aware, John Bird has always been to the right of the political spectrum ...
Edited on Mon Jun-21-10 03:03 PM by non sociopath skin
... moving from "caring conservative" to Blairite and back again. I am sure that he is delighted with the ConDems.

I tend to bracket him with Branson and other faux-gauche publicity-seeking entrepreneurs.


The Skin

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muriel_volestrangler Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-21-10 03:54 PM
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2. The whole point about private schools is that they screen out the problem children
They have entrance exams to stop those who aren't already doing OK academically getting in; and those who cause too much trouble after that are 'asked to leave'. Which doesn't get recorded as an expulsion, so the record looks better for both the child and the school. There's an occasional bit of helping each other with transfers of problem children, but by and large private schools keep them out of their system (unless they're actually a specialist). Comparing the fees for a public school and the cost of state care is comparing apples and squid.
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miscsoc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-21-10 04:30 PM
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4. it really fucking is
Also if your parents are even trying to send you to fucking Eton you are by definition in a pretty decent situation in the first place - they've spent shitloads on you already, because they are fucking loaded.

Problem children have problems largely because they are from poor families.

Actually fuck it i'm tired and I'm so blinded by indignation that I can't properly spell out this thought.
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non sociopath skin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-21-10 04:51 PM
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5. Not just "private" schools, BTW.
The Vardy "faith-based" (for which read right-wing creationist) Academy in Blyth, Northumberland, systematically rids itself of any kids - or parents - who show any dissent at all. It even threatened to ask offspring of parents who parked outside the school to go forth and multiply.

I guess we can expect a lot more of that sort of thing under the Gove regime.

The Skin
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T_i_B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-22-10 02:32 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. Well by the same token...
The acadamy near me in Sheffield is what used to be a real dive of a comprehensive and still has a heck of a lot of problem pupils just as it did before. Indeed looking at the schools that have become acadamies in Sheffield you could be forgiven for thinking that the whole acadamy policy was a ruse from the last government to get problem schools off the LEA's books.

Dunno how that's going to change now we have the acadamy mad Gove in charge though.
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miscsoc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-21-10 04:24 PM
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3. is this tosser still involved with the big issue?
and is anyone here up for devising some legitimately left wing alternative to the big issue?

no idea how to go about it, but, like, we should try to figure out how.
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