Of the three potential chancellors Vince Cable is by far the better

Comment on General Election 2010 Poll Results by David.

Of the three potential chancellors Vince Cable is by far the better qualified.

Doesn’t mean he’ll do a good job, but I have to agree with your point why the heck do we have a politician with a modern history degree as shadow Tory chancellor?

Gideon Osborne (Gideon changed his name to George: my 13 year old son told me this :-)) who we all know he hasn’t a clue about running an economy, as shadow chancellor. At least a law degree is along the lines of economics (Law is a difficult degree, I know it’s pushing a link), not a wishy washy modern history degree!

My youngest son has a section on the site now and he likes to understand people, so when he’s doing research he reads about who the people are (I’m quite the opposite, I rarely research the person).

He’s been working at the side of me on his PC and keeps telling me about the various politicians (like Gideon above).

He researched Ed Balls since we home educate our youngest son and if Labour gain power on May 6th we are looking at some quite draconian measures regarding home education: they plan to budget 40 million to home education, 20 million of which is to get half the LEGALLY home educated children back into school! They also plan to pass controversial legislation to give them a legal right to enter the home of home educators because of the fear of child abuse! There is no evidence to suggest home educated children are at any more risk of child abuse than any other child, (in fact the evidence supports the opposite view) yet they plan to take away our rights to keep the government out of our home without a court order or a very good reason (if a crime is on going the police can enter sort of thing).

Could you imagine the public outcry if this was a general policy for all families with children of school age, the LEA inspectors can without supporting evidence legally insist on entering your home to check it out so the government can check you aren’t abusing your children!

It really worries me that Labour are so willing to throw away our civil liberties because of the fear of something. I’ll reiterate there is no evidence to support the view that home education is used as a cover for child abuse and even if it was current laws are already used to check on children. Think about children from birth to 4 years of age, there is no group of inspectors who have a legal right to enter the home of families which children who are not yet of school age without just cause (some evidence to suggest there’s a problem).

Home education is the slippery slope, first they get the legal right to enter the home of children educated at home, next we have the legal right to enter the home of children aged below school age (look at the news stories of little kids like baby P) and after that all children!

It’s unbelievable draconian!

Ed Balls is the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families so you’d expect he’d have a background in education.

Here’s Ed Balls background from Wikipedia:

His career began as economic leader writer at the Financial Times (1990–94) before his appointment as an economic adviser to the then shadow chancellor Gordon Brown (1994–97).

As Labour swept to power in the General Election of 1997 he continued as an economic adviser to Brown, who was then Chancellor. He then served as chief economic adviser to HM Treasury from 1999 to 2004, in which post he was once named the ‘most powerful unelected person in Britain’.

In July 2004 he was selected to stand as Labour and Co-operative candidate for the parliamentary seat of Normanton in West Yorkshire, a Labour stronghold whose MP, Bill O’Brien, was retiring. He stepped down as chief economic adviser to the Treasury, but was given a position at the Smith Institute, a political think tank . He was reportedly paid £100,000 for less than a year’s work. HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office confirmed that “the normal and proper procedures were followed.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Balls

Why have we got what is basically an economist as the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and as the chancellor (which should be someone who understands economics) Alistair Darling who has a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree?

And we have a Home Secretary, Alan Johnson (who should understand law and legal matters) who left school at 15 and has no background in law! I’m sure he’s a very capable politician, but MPs should at least have some sort of background in the area they run. His background is trade unions, I’m sure we could find him a suitable ministerial position :-)

If the parties don’t have an MP with a suitable background for a ministerial post, fine take the best from what they have, but this reshuffling ministerial posts and putting people with no experience of the post in charge is STUPID.

It’s no wonder government is so inefficient and poorly run, the people at the top don’t have a clue about the sections of the government they control.

David