davywavy | Oh, a meme. The indignity.

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Busier than expected this morning, so I thought I'd hand you all an opportunity on a plate*: I would like anyone and everyone who reads this to post in here something they would like to do with me someday.

Then post this in your journal to find out what people want to do with you.

^{* I swear, I couldn't make it any worse for myself if I painted a target on my back, could I?

[EDIT: I have turned off IP logging.]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

davywavy.livejournal.com

I'e done 3 and 4 before, I'm actually anti- the death penalty for alomst everything, I've been toying with an argument for the devolution of national insurance and the welfare state (like the bank of england, removing it from central government control cvan only improve the job it does), and should students pay top up fees? Well, I didn't have to, so saying they should would be hypocritical of me. I do think there are a lot of muppets on a lot of worthless degrees, though, who would be better served by vocational training. Does that count?

From:

vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com

I approve of the death penalty in the most extreme cases; say the Green River killer or Dahmer. There really is no chance of rehabilitating those people and I would really rather not pay for an extra 20 years of their life. In Oregon at least, the death penalty is fairly rare and only used for the utter horrible, icky folks that just can not be integrated into mainstream society. They also get a shitload of appeals. Remember children, do not kill someone in Texas.... Not sure about it for treason though, a good thing that nice young translator wasn't prosecuted under the Official Secrets act.

National Insurance, is that like your social security or are those NHS payments? I agree completely with the destruction of the UK's 'benefits' system (How rhetorically stimulating is that word? How about government handouts?) ideally in the form of welfare to work programs. A very half and half solution but it's had a decent amount of success in the US.

My reasons for a gross dislike of the 'benefits' *cringe* system or a welfare system in general are the models it creates in small, isolated communities. You develop a generation of people who believe that the populace as a whole will bail them out, a feeling of entitlement which discourages the rewards and self esteem inherent in having an education and working. I'm not farmilliar enough with UK economics to actually bind that opinion to pounds and pennies though.

I actually really like the Tories plan for education, they want to offer scholarships based on industry need for profession. Say, aromatherapists have to pay for their own damn degrees but nurses would be given assistance. I like that idea. If public money is going to be spent on students, the degree should give something back to the mainstream public based on the demand. How many fucking people outside of Camden go to an aromatherapist, really? Could you imagine the citizens of Barnsley making an appointment to go sniff lavender?

From:

davywavy.livejournal.com

Death penalty-wise, I tend to feel that it is a mark of civilisation that you don't kill people unless you really, really have to; it actually demonstrates moral superiority and confidence in our society that we don't. there is now no death penalty at all in this country - Blunkett quietly repealed it (the last three crimes you could be killed for were high treason, Sabotage in Her majesty's Dockyards, and Piracy on the High Seas), but at the same time he has massively raised the number of crimes you can be imprised for and criminalised a lot of formerly law abiding citizens without then changing their way of life - I find this form of expansionist government abhorrent.

There's a lot to be said for a benefits system, although I'd prefer a Workfare system (one which actually did away with the poverty trap at about £10 as well, which nobody seems to really care about). However, there has to be something catastrophically wrong with a system that costs £100,000 a year to keep kids in care when the very best schools in the country can do the same job for £40k and give them a better education at the same time. Not that I'm suggesting private enterprise can do better, oh no, there's no examples of that are there?

And no, having grown up just outside Barnsley I cannot imagine an aromatherapist thriving there.

From:

vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com

Death Penalty: David Blunkett and our nice Congressmen/wo have done a lovely job of imprisoning people for minor, petty offences that aren't antisocial, which I find completely abhorrent. As far as I can tell, the social theory behind imprisonment, from its base seems to be founded on serious antisocial behavior that has serious consequences. Violence, invasion of house, murder are all things that have a quantifiable emotional or financial cost. The use of P2P programs, spitting on the streets or littering don't necessarily have a quantifiable objective social or financial cost.

It is a superiority issue for killing the evil fuckers but how much of our social worth are we to exchange for keeping the violent criminals in a state if limbo? There are no options for rehabilitation for a small percentage of the severely emotionally disturbed. Instead, society has to support abberant behavior for decades in the form of a prison? Morally superior or not, I say cut the fat!

I think this is going into social contract territory... ;)

I agree completely, public education seems to be thwarted with comfortable red tape. 100,000 a year for public education? I suspect much of that has to do with the creation of certain 'necessary' positions over the years that have now grown obsolete or inconsequential. Education systems don't seem to respond very quickly to changing social need.

From:

davywavy.livejournal.com

By 'in care' I mean kids taken away from their parents (or orphans) and kept at state expense - fed, housed, clothed, educated etc. Eton does the same job, just £60k cheaper...