The Conservatives’ Facebook page has posted a boast about an increase in the number of students from a disadvantaged background going to university. They were lying:
As Facebook user Mark Attwood pointed out, the claim was grossly misleading – while numbers have gone up, they’ve gone up substantially less than numbers from a non-disadvantaged background.
So inequality has actually gone up and disadvantaged pupils are more disadvantaged than they were. Yet still the Tories boast.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Attwood’s incisive comment was deleted by the Tory page admin and can no longer be seen showing up the Conservatives’ blatant misdirection. So we need to spread the word for them.
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It’s like their frequent obfuscations that they are “spending more money on education/the NHS than ever before”.
Well yes, if the population is significantly bigger now than ever before, you SHOULD be spending more on public services that you collect our taxes for.
But are you keeping up with increasing costs? With increasing demand from these greater numbers?
They evidently think the public is so gullible that we cannot work out that just a gross spend statistic is being used to hide their decreasing per capita pupil spend on education, or to purposely hide their failure to keep NHS funding up to the level of cost inflation, thereby inflicting cuts on NHS budgets.
Next they’ll be saying working for your dole pays more than it would’ve done working 20-hour shifts in the cotton mills in 1846…
Reblogged this on sdbast.
I’m always suspicious when percentages are bandied about by Govt in order to “prove” something. They can be presented in such a way as to imply whatever they wish them to. An increase of 78% of an already small number is still going to be a small number. If a university had one disadvanted pupil they’d only have to admit one more to have achieved a 100% increase – and wouldn’t that look impressive…..
I think I’ve tracked down the figures used by the Conservatives.
It appears to be from Fig 49 on page 93 of the UCAS report.
The figures refer to entry rates from the most disadvantaged AREAS, not of individuals receiving free school meals.
That’s not to say of course that the people going to university from a disadvantaged area might not be the least disadvantaged individuals in that area.
THEY CAN’T STOP LYING !
THEY JUST CAN’T HELP THEMSELVES!
I FOR ONE HAVE NEVER BELIEVED A WORD THEY SAY!
Reblogged this on elizapdushku's World.