Valley Pub

Yeah I can see that as a serious possibility in the future, probably not in my lifetime but certainly in yours. I have been on an A380 many times and it is so quiet you would seriously think you are gliding and the engines have stopped, when on a 747 you can't hear yourself think for all the engine noise so no doubt the quieter engine is much more environmentally friendly than 747's. I am not too bothered about the environment if truth be known, would love to see the global warming loony's explain to me how my mum had 15" of snow on her drive late last November. The global warming loony's make me cynical about anything to do with the environment as they have no credibility.

Yes I mean if it was a job for an art gallery for example the history of art student would have the advantage and if it was a job shelf stacking at Tesco's I would think it would be a level playing field but there is no doubt that in business some subjects have much more prestige than others.

The A380 carbon emissions are 17% lower than that of a 747, it is also the only commercial plane in the world capable of running on alternative fuels, there will never be such thing as a totally 'green plane' but the A380 is a significant advance in that direction.

Yeah I can see totally where you are coming from there, reminds me of the auction for internships recently to raise funds for the tory party, internships with 27 firms were auctioned off to well connected party donors with the internships not advertised to outside parties, it was snobbery of the highest order <_<

I don't disagree in principle but with so much competition for jobs these days, probably more so than ever, if 2 CV's land on the desk of an employer one of them is a 2:1 in history of art and the other one is a 2:1 in physics it is a no brainer who is going to get the employer's attention. The chap doing history of art is no doubt very intelligent and good at absorbing information but the degree would not be attractive to an employer when so many cv's are arriving on his desk from graduates with degrees in non 'soft' subjects.

More and more 'green' planes are being developed like the gorgeous AirbusA380 and soon the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner", both planes are very environmentally friendly so while emissions will take time to go down it will happen in the end as A380's are gradually taking over from 747's and 787's will take over from Airbus A320's/340's and Boeing 757/767's, won't happen overnight but the airline industry is making the effort.

I never said it was wonderful I said it was the best anyone could hope for given the economic situation. I am in sunny old England right now, my entire family live here, I was born here. Surely you would not begrudge a man seeing his family :unsure:

With so many applicants going for each vacancy these days there are degrees and there are degrees so those with degrees in the most respected subjects will have the advantage over graduates in other subjects. Simply having a degree does not hold the influence it did in my day

Born in England and England will forever have a special place in my heart ;)

I was exaggerating somewhat to emphasise my point to Suedehead2 that this measure won't be environmentally damaging as it won't lead to an increase in the number of planes in the sky but I do think that holiday companies are in for quite a good year, when people have had a tough year which undoubtedly a lot of people have they like to treat themselves at some point to get away from it all and cheer themselves up, double the number of passengers was somewhat exaggerating matters but it will help the travel industry. I would rather people stayed at home and spent holiday money in England and helped the local economy, there are some gorgeous places to go in Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, Peak District, Lake District, Norfolk for example, quite why anyone would want to go to the Costa Del Sol god only knows.

Not on its own no of course not but combined with the increase in tax allowances which will make many people better off by £300 a year combined with tens of thousands being taken out of income tax altogether at the lower end of the scale I think that more people will take overseas holidays this summer and the freezing of air passenger duty will undoubtedly be helpful in that happening.

Fuel costs have been extremely damaging it was right to cut them, should have been 10p not 1p Increased fuel costs are very damaging for businesses and for consumers with companies having to increase their prices because of the increased fuel costs (distribution/haulage costs of goods, sending sales reps around the country for example), it also leads to increased bus and taxi prices the former affecting particularly those on low incomes. It should have been cut by more. As for air passenger duty all it will do is fill up existing planes more so those planes will have taken off anyway so no overall difference. Instead of a 1/3 full plane to Malaga it might be 2/3 full now because of the freezing of duty but there will be no extra planes in the air.

I was pleasantly surprised at what Gideon was able to do yesterday and as long as the economy grows I think quite significant tax cuts should be in place before the next election. An excellent budget for business, a modest boost to car drivers, the closure of a number of tax avoidance loopholes, modest tinkering of tax allowances, I think all in all while nothing spectacular it was not a damaging budget either.

I have a sort of friend who gained a media studies degree and even for the most junior positions in the media she was being overlooked in favour of family and friends of people already in the industry, she now works as a supervisor for Boots and gains a modest income out of a blog she writes. She is admittedly the only person I based the previous post on but from her experiences I can well believe she is not alone. Whereas another friend of mine is a student nurse and upon graduation she is assured of a job at the hospital she has been training in.

What percentage of media studies graduates are likely to end up in a job in the media be it print or broadcast after graduating ? a very small percentage I would say, it is an industry where contacts and nepotism are the dominant factor, unless you know someone who works for the BBC or a record company or News International for example you are almost wasting your time trying for a career in the industry whereas if you study medicine or aerodynamic engineering you are almost 100% certain of a job in your chosen field. While I am not looking down at anyone who does media studies or sociology a lot of people seem to sign up to those type of courses because they just want to go to uni as opposed to given much thought to their post uni career prospects.

If banks don't lend to new/existing small businesses then they should be made to or given extra taxes, the banks don't deserve a free ride certainly not but they are the key to get Britain doing business and creating jobs again so yes if they don't lend more to businesses there will be no argument from me with regards to extra taxes on the banks.

The 21 enterprise zones set up by the government cover vast sections of the midlands and the north and I am sure as well as tax breaks Osbourne has agreements in place with banks to make loans available to businesses in those enterprise zones.

How are people going to university studying history of art, sociology, media studies to name but a few going to help Britain be internationally competitive ? languages, finance, business, medicine, science, engineering, economics those would make the UK more competitive but how is a history of art degree going to help the UK prosper ? Those that do the softer courses that are of little value to most employers are the ones least likely to end up earning much over £21k so the investment in them has been largely wasted as it is their loans that will never be fully paid back in many cases. I would rather see the academically elite 10% of young people go to university and studying courses that will help the nation prosper than see 50% go to university for the sake of it.

I don't believe that that will happen. It is not a UK war like the Falklands was that gave Margaret Thatcher such a boost it is simply the UK being part of a multi national operation. Attacking Karadzic and Milosevic didn't give John Major a boost nor did Iraq give Blair/Brown a boost. I doubt someone who is being squeezed by the VAT rise, petrol prices, little or no pay rise this year and the local services being cut are going to suddenly turn around and vote for Cameron because of Libya. I think there will be a large increase in support for the UKIP and sadly the BNP too at the expense of the tories.

What I would do if I was in charge of further education. 1) Raise the entry barriers significantly to get into uni, no one would get in to uni unless they have AAA or AAB or in exceptional cases ABB at A level. Uni should be for the most academically gifted only. 2) Axe vast numbers of soft courses 3) Taxpayer funded tuition and accomodation fees for people studying science, medicine, engineering, languages, nursing, business management and other courses that are important to society and business.

Indeed but £20bn paid out in taxes is still potentially £20bn less to lend to businesses over a period of time

The important thing is to get banks lending to businesses again to help the UK economy grow so while Robin Hood taxes make juicy headlines they reduce the amount of money there is to lend to businesses to start up/expand/create jobs. It is time to stop looking at punishing banks for the past and instead working with them to get the economy moving again and creating jobs.

Cameron and Gideon showed yesterday they are committed to getting more people into work when they created 21 enterprise zones, cut corporation tax to the lowest in the G8, created 50000 new apprenticeships and cut business regulation. Of course 500,000 current vacancies will not get 2.5m into work but the government are creating the right environment for job creation so I think Britain is over the worst and it is upwards from now albeit slowly.

Leo Sayer Prolific in the 70's, couple of minor hits in the early 80's #1 in 2006 with 'Thunder In My Heart Again'

There is still 8 or 9 games to go depending on the team and if Chelsea win their game in hand they are only 6 behind Utd with 8 to play, with Lampard back and Luiz looking highly impressive I can see them getting more than 6 points more than Utd in those 8 games so that leaves Arsenal. They are 4 behind Arsenal with the same number of games. With injuries I think getting 4 points more over 8 games is very achieveable. All in all an exciting end to the season with 3 teams stumbling around like drunks and another playing catch up.