Firstly, I upvoted the post because I’d like to see more discussion in this community rather than mere news.

As for your idea about spoiling your ballot. I’m not sure I understand the point of spoiling if you yourself would admit that you’d happily vote Green. Vote Green (if possible).

A sudden uptick in votes for other parties might do more to get the bigger parties to take notice then drawing a dick on your ballot paper.

I’m a Labour member and I don’t want to see them get this sort of majority. There needs to be some sort of functioning opposition to keep them honest and to serve as a threat that the good times won’t last forever.

I don’t for one second doubt that there’s some serious problems with Ofsted and how they conduct their inspections. I do however wonder if those being inspected are in the best position to decide if we need to blow it up.

Totally with you. I’d do away with the monarchy in a heartbeat if I could…but I’ll never cheer on someone going through a rough time in this way. Hope he makes a full recovery, same with Princess Katherine.

You think it’s perfectly fine behaviour if the standing government goes out of it’s way to call an election at a time that is widely regarded to be a bad time for a large portion of the electorate to get to the polls?

People should absolutely register to vote. However the government should be called out for what is essentially just an attempt to make life difficult for a group of people who pretty significantly don’t tend to vote for them.

One of the reasons BoJo called for an election on the 19th December for sure. Lots of students are at home rather than at university and it can be a real pain in the arse to move that stuff around at short notice.

I wonder if they’d even announced it had it not been for the media frenzy over the last month or so. Can’t imagine trying to shield your children from this.

Why would you post an article you have not read?

Mainly because of a lack of time but a deep interest in drumming up a little activity in the community if I’m honest.

My opinion may well be wrong and Ill thought-out, but I’ll stand by posting articles from the beeb if I think they’ve got some relevance to the overall community, which I think this one does.

Thanks for the cordial conversation friend. I’ll quit my whining now.

38% of Scotland voted to Leave. 44% of Northern Ireland voted to Leave. 52% of Wales voted to Leave.

The idea that this is merely a mess of England’s making is a little unfair, because there’s plenty of blame to go around; Why did 44% of people in Northern Ireland think leaving the EU would be a good idea?

They pushed a question on people that they had no real ability to answer, and then forced us to answer that question with what was essentially a Yes/No answer.

I’m not one of those ‘stop all aid to foreign countries’ people but…why the hedge are we sending aid to China?

Wonder if there’s some third party software that they’re all using that’s having a rough few days, or has been updated and broken something?

Seems enforceable.

Maybe we should spend more time going after the shops that sell the cigarettes to the under age youth?

Maybe they should get out of the way and let the British people declare a motion of no confidence in Rishi Sunak?

Hell, the committee set up to take these guys to task even warned the government that P&O had decided it was worth the legal and financial hit that they’d take because it was still cheaper than going through the union.

They saw what the law said and decided it didn’t scare them. It was at that point that the law became meaningless and was In need of a change .

Partner went into one of the larger stores today (she works there) and it was absolutely pandemonium. Credit to the staff because from what I understand some customers got very, very upset.

But business groups said more needed to be done to get more people into work amid concerns over the UK’s long-term weak economic growth.

Hmmm. Maybe better pay, better conditions and improvements to our work/life balance could do the trick here…nah it’s the workers who are lazy.

Man goes through political parties like I go through cheap pairs of socks.

Ahh yes. That’ll teach him…

Whilst also signalling to anyone who may have thought that they could get into politics to push back against Tory policies and actually try to make the world a better place.

Seriously, why would anyone sign up for that?

You know what? Without wanting to sound like someone that’d vote for the BNP, I think we’ve got a pretty good looking flag tbh.

I’m not actually sure where they plucked the ‘quarter’ figure from because unless it’s hidden somewhere else the article actually says that ‘90% of teachers said they had atleast one student in their class who wasn’t toilet trained’.

That’s a big jump from one in every four kids.

As for the rest of the article, I think it’s incredibly easy to blame parents, and whilst I’m certain lazy parenting is a factor here, I think we also need to step back and look at the world right now.

COVID caused mayhem for many new parents; my child alone basically didn’t socialise between the ages of 18 months and 3 years. And at that age, kids being around other kids is absolutely essential for their development.

Parents are also working longer hours than ever, and money is tighter than it’s ever been. Whilst these don’t get parents off the hook, the idea that the blame lays entirely on parents is a touch shortsighted.

Access to affordable and accessible childcare would go an awful long way to alleviating some of these issues, but again, there’s no silver bullet and no one group is responsible for all of this. Parents need to be better for sure, but society does a terrible job of setting them up for success.