This is a catch-up version of James O’Brien’s live, daily show on LBC Radio from the 8th of October 2024.
00:00 – How much damage does private education do to this country?
49:03 – Almost half of recruiters think 57 is too old – Has this happened to you?
1:35:31 – Britain enters first ‘Atheist age’ – how did you stop beleiving?
Listen to the full show on Global Player: https://app.af.globalplayer.com/Br0x/LBCYouTubeListenLive
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40 Comments
Privilege is a luxury and should be taxed
It’s the networking as an advantage that creates the privilege and the confidence of exceptionalism that is wrong
It’s the networking as an advantage that creates the privilege and the confidence of exceptionalism that is wrong . Not all pupils have the opportunity to study in a quiet supportive environment . Regard the child poverty levels in Britain . Loads of very bright children will never have equal opportunities
Atheism? The UK is/was the epicenter of science and technology. Raised in a Canadian Anglican (C of E) hotbed, I value Justin Welby's take on things. But .. given the UK's scientific leadership, along with the religious undertones present in global atrocities, is it any wonder that the recent England – Wales religion survey revealed a sharp decline in faith?
Invest in education, our children and our future . Too many short termist capitalists in charge
O'Brien is a decent man although I don't agree with much of his opinions. Whatever about that, what mystifies me is, as someone who went to a prep school and THEN Ampleforth, he effects a "Mockney" accent. I went to two prep schools in the Cotswolds (where else?) and emerged after the requisite number of years sounding "posh". It can't be helped; it happens by osmosis. Does he feel listeners won't take him seriously if he sounds like what he really is, ie an English public schoolboy? Al Murray does the same thing- it's so transparent and phoney. If you really want to know how O'Brien should sound, YouTube a terrific CH.4 documentary about Ampleforth from 2002 called My Teacher's a Monk. It's all there!
Loving a pet is easy
Name the new section "Trash Bash". Sandy Reid
Zero respect for age, acquired wisdom and experience
"Is Keith is a cult?"
James did you say you and your sister were adopted?, I as well, unfortunately I was born into a family of serfs 🙂
O’Brian decent,no way
I for one am glad we're entering an atheist age. I think religions should be a personal, and crucially adult choice.
Teaching children that something in this text is true and infallible, is dangerous to me.
If it could be enforced in any way, I would say religions shouldn't be allowed to be forced on children.
Im lucky to have gone through an education system that, while not being perfect, has done a lot better on equal education for all while ranking higher internationally. But the effects are too intanglible to explain to someone from Britain, as a place where the rich mark it as a given while the poor have normalised it as a (rather distant) aspiration.
Private education perpetuates the class structure that you seem to rail against on a regular basis on your program.
James, did you know that in terms of academic results the children of identical backgrounds do pretty much the same in private and state schools. The advantage which accrues is all about making contacts with influential parents! What else can it be?
And then there's the other dichotomy. My sister and I went to different schools. I passed the 11 plus exam, and went to a grammar school. I got the kind of education that you have to pay for today. My sister "failed" the exam and went to the local secondary modern. I left school with a fistful of exam qualifications, went to university (twice) and ended up with a senior management job. My sister left school at 16 with no qualifications and became factory fodder. She did okay, but never travelled, never broadened her horizons intellectually, and has a limited life. They abolished the grammar schools in most areas, and instead of bringing comprehensive schools up to the level of grammar schools, just left the secondary schools to sink. All the money went into the public schools.
If you can draw the inventors, scientists, artists and so on from a wider pool of well-educated children (which includes instilling the ability to be curious about stuff) then you get a lot more people who can demonstrate competence and maybe change things for the better.
James does not understand that most people who pay for private education are obsessed with academic achievement and life time wealth and THAT is a large part of why their children do well. If those children with those exact parents went to a state school they would do just as well.
The Private school argument comes from the wrong side of the problem. Private schools and the obvious advantage of them is not the problem. The problem is the lack of advantage given to everyone else in state run schools. if you deny that advantage to everyone then all you will do is secure the advantage to only a certain number of people who are born to the correct family rather than restricting it to everyone.
It would be better to have a root and branch review of education as a whole and provide the same advantages and educational level to all people which would minimise the benefit of private school and allow more people to benefit from that double sized shopping trolley.
It’s appalling to let private schools to cream off the best pupils – that damages the education of state school pupils who need the example of clever pupils at the school
That little clip alone shows why Brexit was a toffs game and we were all treated like a joke. Hate Boris Johnson
❤ Sending love from the state of Illinois in the US ❤
It's morally wrong to treat children unfairly. It's morally wrong to segregate children into classes.
Yep. Every teacher in the country or every 'junior' nurse should get a 'better job'… Then how many teachers and junior nurses will there be? (especially if you have a ban on foreign workers bringing their own children into the country)
I'm fairly sure James answers this question at some point (or maybe he doesn't), but if private schools are as damaging as he says (and as someone who's only ever been educated within the state sector, and who doesn't have the finances to send my own children to fee-paying schools, even if I so wanted to, I don't doubt it), why does he send his own kids to a private school?
Why does he always hide behind the Microphone?
Obrien says about remembering callers from years ago 🤔some stay in my mind too – like the giy in Newcastle who worked till 0300 in factory then walks dogs in the day or the guy of 50 odd who was atuck living in a van 😱🚛"People always Just want you to mové on" Then I tell myself however poor you are in the last week of the month- the poor sods on the other side of the property owning chasm are worse off 🏡🤔
….Cont’d……Oh CANNOT FORGET LEBANON!
There's different between independent schools or Eton. It's freedom choice?. A bright child needs stimulation does state school privide this? Village school gives more like private school.
Why don't rich people like you ease the guilt by paying for a poor person's private education.
I think the atheist rise might have something to do with going to a church of England Jr. school while simultaneously being taught how the CoE came about. That and having access to the worlds knowledge in your pocket. Much harder to sell religion to kids when they can google everything you try to pass onto them.
He missed out the agnostic apathetics – don't know and don't care.
I’m Labour through and through. Working class. The private school system is disgraceful. However we had 11+ and I passed. It was the way out/up for working class families. It wasn’t fee paying. It was a bad thing that the Labour government got rid of grammar schools. It was wrong to take away that life chance for poorer families.
The host attains new depths of infantilism. The superrich won't be affected as they will continue to send their children to the top schools as normal. Those parents who scrimp and save to give their children a private education may be forced to use the state sector, yet not one scintilla of regret by O'Brien how uprooting a child mid-year might damage them.
Religion – I was 7 when I asked my first controversial question "Did Jesus have brothers and sisters?" to which I was told to wait outside until Sunday School was over, I did ask other questions like "Did Jesus ever race goats? or Did Jesus ever have a Girlfriend?" for which resulted in the same punishment so that all the other parents knew who was naughty and should be punished, this was at the time I was marching with the Orange Lodge on Saturdays and repenting in the CoE on Sundays. When I was 11 on return from the dentist, I asked my father what the point of going to church and being part of the lodge, the result was swift as in a smack around the head and the Do as you are told Lecture. Until I was 14, my mother made participate in the choir and follow her to church, even though it was not my choice and I could argue my case not too, it always resulted in a smack and the you'll do as you are told lecture. On attending college, getting my first motorcycle, getting my own income, it finally started to become my choice. At the age of 20, the stark realisation of man's in-humanity to man was in the Gulf War 91, what we were told, preparation and the prayer and the final result in seeing what we could do to each other, at that time I was Agnostic, after, for a long time I had no faith in a lot of things, I was on the front lines, I was out there for nearly 7 months, I saw Basrah Road, buried and marked the temporary graves. For me there was no more starker reality than then, the only solace I have for the my part in that, as my daughter was old enough to understand, she forgave me. Sorry for the ranting.
Mrs Brown’s boys, is one of the worst things I’ve watched.
2:04:50 Hoax-Watch
I think that it's not really attaining a superior level of education, but it's the social connections fostered. It's a sort of members club where they look out for each other at the exclusion of others in the society. That is the real tragedy
JOB who went to Ampleforth, a very prestigious boarding school that taught him the life skills to achieve his current privileged position.
As someone who was born and bred on council estates by a single mother until I was 13, the only people I truly dislike are those who criticise their privileged upbringing as if they are a victims.
Should be discussing Labours first hundred days in power being the worst in living memory