Drives of 2010/11

Political

Student Fees has been a much talked about political aspect that many feel strongly about involving an increase of University Fees. Nick Clegg and David Cameron had debates about this topic since 2010 and at this present time we are seeing student fees increase to £9,000. This has caused a lot of controversial issues and on the 30th December London had individuals protesting on the streets of London. It has been revealed today in the Guardian (2011) that only the wealthiest families will be able to allow their children to apply for the most competitive Universities. I personally feel this is highly unfair as this has made degrees solely based on materialism and not giving individuals who have intelligence, drive and motivation a chance to pursue their intellect.

Moving away from increased tuition fees and onto employees who work within the public sector will be seeing an increase in wage states Tim Ross (2011). There is already a considerable amount of difference between the public sector and than in private firm where employees are doing the exact same thing. If we refer to the report it states that 'primary school teachers in state education typically earned £33,140 after banking a pay rise of 2.1 per cent, compared with a 12 per cent pay cut for the same job in a private school, where the average salary was £21,159 in 2010'. This is a huge difference and should be addressed to.

Economy

From coming across different types of media on a regular basis we are familiar with how the economy is at an all time low affecting every one of us and why? Davies (2010) states Interest rates are the lowest they have been in 315 years at 1.5%, which means a number of things. For instance people that are investing money with their building society are worse off, whereas customers who have mortgages this is a positive aspect as they are paying less. Interest rates has effected peoples jobs and has made 1.3 million people struggling during this recession period states Telegraph(2010) there were a staggering amount of people that were made redundant too. This not only makes individuals struggling financially but puts strain on all aspects of life.

The graph below shows the decrease of interest rates since 1951:

Socio Cultural

To tie in both aspects I have spoken about previously I thought social class would be an ideal socio cultural topic. Social class within the UK is split up into 3 different categories: Upper, Middle and Lower working class but this not really refereed to. As I mentioned earlier in regards to the public and private sector, it seems that Britain is being divided. Additionally it seems that the UK is inequality from birth, education and work place. Anushka Asthana(2010) states 'theirs deep divisions in Britain's classrooms, different experiences of the criminal justice system and a stubbornly large pay gap between men and women. In full-time work, women are still paid 16.4% less than men, a figure that rises to 55% in the finance sector. '

References

Anushka Asthana (2010) Equality report slams Britain, 2010 00.10 BST
Charlotte Davies (2010) Interest rates hit all time low, 8th January 2010[online] Available from: ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7817453.stm(Accessed 9th May 2011)

Telegraph(2010)1.3m people have lost theirs jobs in recession finds report, 24th Jan 2010, [online] Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/7066404/1.3m-people-have-lost-their-jobs-in-the-recession-finds-report.html(Accessed 9th May 2011)

Tim |Ross(2011)Workers within the public sector are more than 40% better off, Telegraph, 8th May[online] Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8501369/Workers-in-the-public-sector-are-more-than-40pc-better-off.html (Accessed 9th May 2011)