-
NEXT GAME: Sheffield Wednesday FC
Sunday April 21st 2024
Kick off 12.30 pm
Ewood Park
Championship
Comment & snippets
- Thread starter The Mask
- Start date
yoda
Senior Member
That was before the billionaire elites got the bug for space travel/exploitation
The Mask
Senior Member
Only in Yokshur 1
THIS tea-loving factory worker is so smitten with his cuppas that he has changed his name by deed poll to honour his favourite brew.
Nathan Derek Garner is now called Nathan "Yorkshire Tea" Garner after workmates poked fun at his consumption of the Harrogate brand. The 31-year-old from Sheffield, who drinks 20 cups a day, said: “My friends think it’s a bit of a silly thing to do but my mum thinks it’s great. She laughed out loud when I told her.”
Daily Express
Only in Yokshur 2.
God’s own country, which may soon get sweeping new powers. The Yorkshire Devolution plan, written by senior civil servants, proposes that the northern county should have its own mayor and cabinet. Yorkshire has a slightly larger population than Scotland, and a bigger economy than 11 EU nations.
Press Reader
Must say if the latter happens I'd certainly consider moving to somewhere along the A59!
THIS tea-loving factory worker is so smitten with his cuppas that he has changed his name by deed poll to honour his favourite brew.
Nathan Derek Garner is now called Nathan "Yorkshire Tea" Garner after workmates poked fun at his consumption of the Harrogate brand. The 31-year-old from Sheffield, who drinks 20 cups a day, said: “My friends think it’s a bit of a silly thing to do but my mum thinks it’s great. She laughed out loud when I told her.”
Daily Express
Only in Yokshur 2.
God’s own country, which may soon get sweeping new powers. The Yorkshire Devolution plan, written by senior civil servants, proposes that the northern county should have its own mayor and cabinet. Yorkshire has a slightly larger population than Scotland, and a bigger economy than 11 EU nations.
Press Reader
Must say if the latter happens I'd certainly consider moving to somewhere along the A59!
Last edited:
The Mask
Senior Member
Bad week for fans of Dennis the Menace. PC gone mad again.
Dennis the Menace, who has had a makeover. In a new CBBC series – designed to appeal to the international market – the Beano’s most famous miscreant has swapped his catapult for an ipad. His dog Gnasher now has neat white teeth in place of his trademark fangs; and his nemesis Walter is no longer dubbed a “softie”, to avoid accusations of homophobia.
Press Reader
Dennis the Menace, who has had a makeover. In a new CBBC series – designed to appeal to the international market – the Beano’s most famous miscreant has swapped his catapult for an ipad. His dog Gnasher now has neat white teeth in place of his trademark fangs; and his nemesis Walter is no longer dubbed a “softie”, to avoid accusations of homophobia.
Press Reader
blueandwhitehalves
Senior Member
Exactly. Global population growth has been the elephant in the room for a while now and ever since it started rocketing about 100 years ago, its been obvious this can't continue. Just a little example of its unfeasibility, if the current growth rate of population continued for the next 8,500 years, every atom in the observable universe (1x10^80) would be needed to make humans.
Well exploitation to an extent but you get people like Hawking recommending it as the way forward. Generally though space is one of the few things that the human race hasn't fought wars over. Yet.
Wilpshire Blue
Senior Member
Dead right Amo. Why bother changing him?
Just invent a new character named “Dennis the mostly OK but sometimes a bit naughty”
Because in the real world there are no kids like Dennis the Menace are there? They are all perfectly PC little angels.
No amount of dumbing down will change the fact that even all these years later, Dennis is still a type of character found in many a schoolyard.
The Mask
Senior Member
“Is American conservatism inherently bigoted?” Many liberals believe so, says Peter Beinart – and it’s easy to understand why, given the tone of the Trump presidency. But this sort of thinking doesn’t help anyone. While Republicans should shoulder responsibility for renouncing egregious racists in their midst, it’s a mistake to assume that all of their less-than-progressive views are driven by prejudice, rather than simply resistance to change. Liberals should be “less promiscuous in crying bigot”, as shaming people for their views only engenders resentment and a counterproductive siege mentality. They must remember that values evolve over time, and that even Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama publicly opposed gay marriage until five years ago. This summer, Canada began including on its passports an option for people who identify as neither male nor female. Few American liberals currently see the lack of such an option on US passports as discriminatory, but in the future many likely will. When they do, and meet opposition from conservatives, “they should consider how they would have felt had someone called them a bigot in 2017”. “Hatred and scorn” are easy. Empathy and persuasion are hard – but without them, our divisions will only deepen."
Peter Beinhart (The Atlantic)
Much the same here I'd have to say.
Peter Beinhart (The Atlantic)
Much the same here I'd have to say.
The Mask
Senior Member
Britain in the slow lane
“The 1956 Suez crisis was the moment Britain had to wake up to the fact it was no longer the force it once was,” said Larry Elliot in The Guardian. “The 2017 Budget was its economic equivalent.” Forget the extra money thrown at the NHS and housing ( see page 27). The real story was the “calamitous” news delivered by the Government’s official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). It estimates that the UK economy will grow by less than 2% in each of the next five years – the worst forecast since 1983. Underlying this is an even more worrying appraisal. For the past century, the UK’S productivity – the measure of each worker’s economic output – has grown at an average of 2% a year. Since the 2008 crisis, this trend has been broken. The OBR used to predict that we would bounce back. Now it thinks we won’t: it predicts productivity will grow to just 1.2% by 2022. In short, “Britain is substantially and permanently poorer”.
It’s hard to overstate how much productivity matters, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. Getting more from each hour worked, by improving technology and working practices, “allows wages to rise, lifts living standards and boosts the tax take to finance additional government spending”. It guarantees that, through the ups and downs, things generally get better. “Absent improvements in productivity, everything else goes to pieces. Including politics. Especially politics.” If Britain is stuck in its low-growth rut for the foreseeable future, it will very likely “blast apart the existing parties”. “We still don’t quite know why productivity growth has been so bad,” said Juliet Samuel in The Daily Telegraph. It has been low across the developed world, but particularly so in Britain. A lack of investment in training and technology is often blamed – perhaps not surprising, when cheap workers are readily available on Britain’s buoyant labour market. “On the bright side, whatever official forecasters tell us about the future, one thing is almost certain: they will be wrong.”
Indeed they will, said Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times. There is a rich absurdity in offering detailed projections, six years ahead. Forecasts “typically assume things will continue as they are, and thus miss what we most want to know”: when they will change. Besides, it’s not even clear that Britain’s low productivity is such a dismal predicament. France, for instance, has much better figures. But it also has much higher unemployment levels; the unemployed are, by definition, not part of the productivity statistics. Which problem would you rather have? A job where pay doesn’t increase or no job? Yes, forecasters get things wrong, said Janan Ganesh in the FT. But they often “err through optimism” too. The OBR has not, for instance, predicted a recession during Brexit. At present, there is no end in sight to this protracted period of low growth; and Britain is about to seriously disrupt relations with its main trading partners. “We will see how exhilarating voters find that ride.”
"The Week" 2/12/17
“The 1956 Suez crisis was the moment Britain had to wake up to the fact it was no longer the force it once was,” said Larry Elliot in The Guardian. “The 2017 Budget was its economic equivalent.” Forget the extra money thrown at the NHS and housing ( see page 27). The real story was the “calamitous” news delivered by the Government’s official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). It estimates that the UK economy will grow by less than 2% in each of the next five years – the worst forecast since 1983. Underlying this is an even more worrying appraisal. For the past century, the UK’S productivity – the measure of each worker’s economic output – has grown at an average of 2% a year. Since the 2008 crisis, this trend has been broken. The OBR used to predict that we would bounce back. Now it thinks we won’t: it predicts productivity will grow to just 1.2% by 2022. In short, “Britain is substantially and permanently poorer”.
It’s hard to overstate how much productivity matters, said Andrew Rawnsley in The Observer. Getting more from each hour worked, by improving technology and working practices, “allows wages to rise, lifts living standards and boosts the tax take to finance additional government spending”. It guarantees that, through the ups and downs, things generally get better. “Absent improvements in productivity, everything else goes to pieces. Including politics. Especially politics.” If Britain is stuck in its low-growth rut for the foreseeable future, it will very likely “blast apart the existing parties”. “We still don’t quite know why productivity growth has been so bad,” said Juliet Samuel in The Daily Telegraph. It has been low across the developed world, but particularly so in Britain. A lack of investment in training and technology is often blamed – perhaps not surprising, when cheap workers are readily available on Britain’s buoyant labour market. “On the bright side, whatever official forecasters tell us about the future, one thing is almost certain: they will be wrong.”
Indeed they will, said Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times. There is a rich absurdity in offering detailed projections, six years ahead. Forecasts “typically assume things will continue as they are, and thus miss what we most want to know”: when they will change. Besides, it’s not even clear that Britain’s low productivity is such a dismal predicament. France, for instance, has much better figures. But it also has much higher unemployment levels; the unemployed are, by definition, not part of the productivity statistics. Which problem would you rather have? A job where pay doesn’t increase or no job? Yes, forecasters get things wrong, said Janan Ganesh in the FT. But they often “err through optimism” too. The OBR has not, for instance, predicted a recession during Brexit. At present, there is no end in sight to this protracted period of low growth; and Britain is about to seriously disrupt relations with its main trading partners. “We will see how exhilarating voters find that ride.”
"The Week" 2/12/17
The Mask
Senior Member
I believe that this is something which most already knew.
Poll Watch
"67% of millennials who went to university think they didn’t benefit from their studies. 35% wish they hadn’t gone to university while 48% believe they would now be earning more had they not done so. "
Able Skills/forbes
Poll Watch
"67% of millennials who went to university think they didn’t benefit from their studies. 35% wish they hadn’t gone to university while 48% believe they would now be earning more had they not done so. "
Able Skills/forbes
The Mask
Senior Member
Not sure if the following is frightening or awe inspiring. You decide.
In a recent interview, the Head of Daimler Benz (Mercedes Benz) said
their competitors are no longer other car companies, but Tesla
(obviously), and now, Google, Apple, Amazon 'et al' are……
Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.
Uber is just a software tool, they don't own any cars, and are now the
biggest taxi company in the world.
Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they
don't own any properties.
Artificial Intelligence: Computers become exponentially better in
understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go
player in the world, 10 years earlier than expected.
In the U.S., young lawyers already can't get jobs. Because of IBM
Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff)
within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done
by humans.
So, if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% less
lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain.
Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate
than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software
that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will
become more intelligent than humans.
Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for
the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be
disrupted. You don't want to own a car anymore. You will call a car
with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to
your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the
driven distance and you can be productive while driving. Our kids
will never get a driver's license and will never own a car.
It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% less cars for
that. We can transform former parking spaces into parks.
1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. We now
have one accident every 60,000 miles (100,000 km), with autonomous
driving that will drop to one accident in 6 million miles (10 million
km). That will save a million lives each year.
Most car companies will probably go bankrupt. Traditional car
companies will try the traditional approach and try to build a better
car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will take the
revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels.
Many engineers from Volkswagen and Audi are completely terrified of Tesla.
Auto Insurance companies will have massive trouble because without
accidents, car insurance will become much cheaper. Their car
insurance business model will slowly disappear.
Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute,
people will move further away to live in a more beautiful
neighborhood.
Electric cars will become mainstream about 2020. Cities will be less
noisy because all new cars will run on electricity. Electricity will
become incredibly cheap and clean: Solar production has been on an
exponential curve for 30 years, and now you can now see the burgeoning
impact.
Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil.
Energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to the grid to
prevent competition from home solar installations, but that can't
last. Technology will take care of that strategy.
With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water. Desalination
of salt water now only needs 2kwh per cubic meter (@ 0.25 cents). We
don't have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking
water Imagine what will be possible if anyone can have as much clean
water as he wants, for nearly no cost.
Health innovations: The Tricorder X price will be announced this
year. There are companies who will build a medical device (called the
"Tricorder" from Star Trek) that works with your phone, which takes
your retina scan, your blood sample, and you can breath into it.
It then analyses 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease.
It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have
access to world class medical analysis, nearly for free. Goodbye,
medical establishment.
3D printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from
$18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100
times faster. All major shoe companies have already started 3D
printing shoes.
Some common spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote
airports. The space station now has a printer that eliminates the
need for the large amount of spare parts they used to keep in the
past.
At the end of this year, new smart phones will have 3D scanning
possibilities. You can then 3D scan your feet and print your perfect
shoes at home.
In China, they already 3D printed and built a complete 6-storey office
building. By 2027, 10% of everything that's being produced will be 3D
printed.
Business opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask
yourself: "In the future, do you think we will have that?", and if
the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner?
If it doesn't work with your phone, forget the idea. And any idea
designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the
21st century.
Work: 70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years. There will
be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new
jobs in such a small time.
Agriculture: There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future.
Farmers in 3rd world countries can then become managers of their field
instead of working all day on their fields.
Aeroponics will need much less water. The first Petri dish that
produced veal is now available and will be cheaper than cow produced
veal in 2018. Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces is used for
cows. Imagine if we don't need that space anymore.
There are several startups who will bring insect protein to the market
shortly. It contains more protein than meat. It will be labeled as
"alternative protein source" (because most people still reject the
idea of eating insects).
There is an app called "moodies" which can already tell in which mood
you're in. By 2020 there will be apps that can tell by your facial
expressions, if you are lying. Imagine a political debate where it's
being displayed when they're telling the truth and when they're not.
Bitcoin may even become the default reserve currency ... Of the world!
Longevity: Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per
year. Four years ago, the life span used to be 79 years, now it's 80
years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be
more than one year increase per year. So, we all might live for a
long time, probably way more than 100.
Education: The cheapest smart phones are already at $10 in Africa and
Asia. By 2020, 70% of all humans will own a smart phone. That means,
everyone has the same access to world class education.
Every child can use Khan academy for everything a child needs to learn
at school in First World countries. There have already been releases
of software in Indonesia and soon there will be releases in Arabic,
Swahili, and Chinese this summer. I can see enormous potential if we
give the English app for free, so that children in Africa and
everywhere else can become fluent in English. And that could happen
within half a year.
In a recent interview, the Head of Daimler Benz (Mercedes Benz) said
their competitors are no longer other car companies, but Tesla
(obviously), and now, Google, Apple, Amazon 'et al' are……
Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.
Uber is just a software tool, they don't own any cars, and are now the
biggest taxi company in the world.
Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they
don't own any properties.
Artificial Intelligence: Computers become exponentially better in
understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go
player in the world, 10 years earlier than expected.
In the U.S., young lawyers already can't get jobs. Because of IBM
Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff)
within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done
by humans.
So, if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% less
lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain.
Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 times more accurate
than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software
that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will
become more intelligent than humans.
Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for
the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be
disrupted. You don't want to own a car anymore. You will call a car
with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to
your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the
driven distance and you can be productive while driving. Our kids
will never get a driver's license and will never own a car.
It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% less cars for
that. We can transform former parking spaces into parks.
1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. We now
have one accident every 60,000 miles (100,000 km), with autonomous
driving that will drop to one accident in 6 million miles (10 million
km). That will save a million lives each year.
Most car companies will probably go bankrupt. Traditional car
companies will try the traditional approach and try to build a better
car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will take the
revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels.
Many engineers from Volkswagen and Audi are completely terrified of Tesla.
Auto Insurance companies will have massive trouble because without
accidents, car insurance will become much cheaper. Their car
insurance business model will slowly disappear.
Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute,
people will move further away to live in a more beautiful
neighborhood.
Electric cars will become mainstream about 2020. Cities will be less
noisy because all new cars will run on electricity. Electricity will
become incredibly cheap and clean: Solar production has been on an
exponential curve for 30 years, and now you can now see the burgeoning
impact.
Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil.
Energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to the grid to
prevent competition from home solar installations, but that can't
last. Technology will take care of that strategy.
With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water. Desalination
of salt water now only needs 2kwh per cubic meter (@ 0.25 cents). We
don't have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking
water Imagine what will be possible if anyone can have as much clean
water as he wants, for nearly no cost.
Health innovations: The Tricorder X price will be announced this
year. There are companies who will build a medical device (called the
"Tricorder" from Star Trek) that works with your phone, which takes
your retina scan, your blood sample, and you can breath into it.
It then analyses 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease.
It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have
access to world class medical analysis, nearly for free. Goodbye,
medical establishment.
3D printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from
$18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100
times faster. All major shoe companies have already started 3D
printing shoes.
Some common spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote
airports. The space station now has a printer that eliminates the
need for the large amount of spare parts they used to keep in the
past.
At the end of this year, new smart phones will have 3D scanning
possibilities. You can then 3D scan your feet and print your perfect
shoes at home.
In China, they already 3D printed and built a complete 6-storey office
building. By 2027, 10% of everything that's being produced will be 3D
printed.
Business opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask
yourself: "In the future, do you think we will have that?", and if
the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner?
If it doesn't work with your phone, forget the idea. And any idea
designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the
21st century.
Work: 70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years. There will
be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new
jobs in such a small time.
Agriculture: There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future.
Farmers in 3rd world countries can then become managers of their field
instead of working all day on their fields.
Aeroponics will need much less water. The first Petri dish that
produced veal is now available and will be cheaper than cow produced
veal in 2018. Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces is used for
cows. Imagine if we don't need that space anymore.
There are several startups who will bring insect protein to the market
shortly. It contains more protein than meat. It will be labeled as
"alternative protein source" (because most people still reject the
idea of eating insects).
There is an app called "moodies" which can already tell in which mood
you're in. By 2020 there will be apps that can tell by your facial
expressions, if you are lying. Imagine a political debate where it's
being displayed when they're telling the truth and when they're not.
Bitcoin may even become the default reserve currency ... Of the world!
Longevity: Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per
year. Four years ago, the life span used to be 79 years, now it's 80
years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be
more than one year increase per year. So, we all might live for a
long time, probably way more than 100.
Education: The cheapest smart phones are already at $10 in Africa and
Asia. By 2020, 70% of all humans will own a smart phone. That means,
everyone has the same access to world class education.
Every child can use Khan academy for everything a child needs to learn
at school in First World countries. There have already been releases
of software in Indonesia and soon there will be releases in Arabic,
Swahili, and Chinese this summer. I can see enormous potential if we
give the English app for free, so that children in Africa and
everywhere else can become fluent in English. And that could happen
within half a year.
Wilpshire Blue
Senior Member
What about the software that spots a nutjob and prevents them blowing us up in a crowded place?
Crack that one and I'm a happy bunny
Crack that one and I'm a happy bunny
The Mask
Senior Member
"Berlin
Chancellor Angela Merkel has finally held a face-to-face meeting with the survivors and families of victims of the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin last year. “I know that some would have wanted such a meeting sooner,” she said before the closed-door meeting, referring to a searing letter from some of the relatives that had been published in Der Spiegel. They had slammed the intelligence services for failing to prevent the attack – by a Tunisian asylum seeker who had been identified as a potential threat, and who had been under surveillance – and criticised Merkel for not acknowledging their suffering or even sending them her condolences. This week, at the unveiling of a memorial to the attack’s 12 victims, Merkel admitted to mistakes in the handling of the atrocity and vowed to “make things better that did not work [before]”. She said that survivors and victims’ families would receive more state aid."
Press Reader
Might be more sincere if she had contributed the compensation personally. It wasn't the German people to blame was it?
Chancellor Angela Merkel has finally held a face-to-face meeting with the survivors and families of victims of the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin last year. “I know that some would have wanted such a meeting sooner,” she said before the closed-door meeting, referring to a searing letter from some of the relatives that had been published in Der Spiegel. They had slammed the intelligence services for failing to prevent the attack – by a Tunisian asylum seeker who had been identified as a potential threat, and who had been under surveillance – and criticised Merkel for not acknowledging their suffering or even sending them her condolences. This week, at the unveiling of a memorial to the attack’s 12 victims, Merkel admitted to mistakes in the handling of the atrocity and vowed to “make things better that did not work [before]”. She said that survivors and victims’ families would receive more state aid."
Press Reader
Might be more sincere if she had contributed the compensation personally. It wasn't the German people to blame was it?
The Mask
Senior Member
“Happiness minister on run over Indian politician’s murder.” Lal Singh Arya is the first politician in India – perhaps the world – to hold a portfolio to ensure “happiness and tolerance”.
His role in the state of Madhya Pradesh is to build a society that allows “people to realise their own potential of inner well-being”. Alas, Mr Arya has been implicated in the murder of a rival politician and gone into hiding. The police haven’t a clue where he is.
It seems that if happiness is hard to find; finding the happiness minister may prove even harder."
His role in the state of Madhya Pradesh is to build a society that allows “people to realise their own potential of inner well-being”. Alas, Mr Arya has been implicated in the murder of a rival politician and gone into hiding. The police haven’t a clue where he is.
It seems that if happiness is hard to find; finding the happiness minister may prove even harder."
At last! I've been saying this for 20 years
"Britain needs to ditch its obsession with university education, says Ed Conway in The Times. For years, we’ve been trying to push up graduate numbers in the hope of improving the country’s skill levels, and therefore productivity. But this “quantity over quality” approach has had the opposite effect. We now have a bloated, but not especially well-educated, graduate class that finds it ever harder to secure suitable jobs. According to employers, almost 40% of new workers studied the wrong subject for their eventual job – the “highest such level in the developed world”. A “startling” 15% of workers today are “overqualified” for their job. The Government wants to redress the imbalance by encouraging apprenticeships and technical education. Yet, unlike in Germany, these options are still seen as “a second-class choice”. Even as the worth of degrees has declined, they’ve retained an unwarranted snob value: businesses still pay graduates about 30% more than the average A-level student. Breaking this link is the key to improving Britain’s productivity – and its levels of social mobility."
"Britain needs to ditch its obsession with university education, says Ed Conway in The Times. For years, we’ve been trying to push up graduate numbers in the hope of improving the country’s skill levels, and therefore productivity. But this “quantity over quality” approach has had the opposite effect. We now have a bloated, but not especially well-educated, graduate class that finds it ever harder to secure suitable jobs. According to employers, almost 40% of new workers studied the wrong subject for their eventual job – the “highest such level in the developed world”. A “startling” 15% of workers today are “overqualified” for their job. The Government wants to redress the imbalance by encouraging apprenticeships and technical education. Yet, unlike in Germany, these options are still seen as “a second-class choice”. Even as the worth of degrees has declined, they’ve retained an unwarranted snob value: businesses still pay graduates about 30% more than the average A-level student. Breaking this link is the key to improving Britain’s productivity – and its levels of social mobility."
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