#23 - I Can't Make My Mind Up - Winners Announced!
21 February 2020
Thank you to everyone who took part during half-term!
Our Primary winner is succinct_leaves of Braiswick Primary School. They gave an in-depth and open-minded answer to whether MPs should be seen as part of the public. They brought in a range of thoughtful points which closely analysed the rights and wrongs of seeing them in different lights. Well done!
Our Secondary winner is funny_power of Weston Favell Academy. They gave an answer full of scepticism about politicians intentions and motives, especially in the run up to the general election. Well done!
Look out for our brand new competition on our new topic - the NHS!
You will know by now that the Burnet News Club involves lots of questions where there is no "obvious" right answer. These questions will have two or more possible answers, and each can be backed up by reasons. You have to give your opinion.
In this Issue, what has been the hardest thing to make your mind up on? Why?
It might have been...
-when you had to decide whether you agreed / disagreed with someone, but found yourself in the middle
-when you had to judge how bad a particular example of behaviour was, but found it hard
-when you had to choose between different options but were being pulled either way
Remember, this isn't about what factual question was hardest. We're asking about the questions and activities that ask for your opinion!
Example:
In this Issue, the hardest thing to make my mind up on was.. because...
Stars will be awarded when the competition closes on Friday 21st February at 10:30am.
Good luck!
Comments (54)
In this issue, the hardest thing to make my mind up on was who was the better politician when comparing Jeremy Corbyn of Labour to Boris Johnson of the Conservatives. This is because both of these representatives have their terrible ideas for the country and their great ideas. Another reason for this is that before BNC I did not involve myself with politics and did not know much about it. Although, since I joined BNC, I have learnt a lot more about politics and when I was faced with the question about who was a better politician, I did not really have the knowledge to answer it as well as others.
In this issue, the hardest thing to make my mind up on was whether or not to leave the EU, this is because if we stay in the EU, they would keep the UK more more safer than it is now. Another reason why I was debating whether we should stay or leave is because if we leave the EU, prices will go up higher than they ever had, causing citizens to lose possessions or even homes, just for buying simple items! I was mainly debating that we should leave because our food population has gone down hill by quite a lot, what i mean by this is that when fishermen go fishing for local shops, you don't see a lot of fish, this is because other counties in the EU come to our place of fishing and fish where we should be. I believed that we should leave the EU because their food, and population is going up, while ours isn't.
To this day i still think about if we should have stayed in the EU...
-Involved_Grapefruit
In the issue (politicians and power) , it was really hard to make up my mind about was if children should have the right to vote because some children are really bright and really do want to have a say about what happens in our country. Now Brexit has happened, loads of things have changed. Children can't just be sitting and just watching the commotion on what's happening around our atmosphere. It's not just the adults future , it's also ours. But I'm still stuck because some children mess around and don't take politics seriously. If they were voting, things could turn .. well, crazy? I think the reasonable age to vote is a bout 16 and over. Under 10s is a bit too much because it's hard for children to take all the information in and it's mostly for older people. So I'll never know if children should vote. What do you think ?
The hardest thing to make my mind up on was if i had to had to choose between one choice or another in a post on burnet news club because I thought both was interesting and important for our lives, the animals lives and our earth.
The hardest thing I had to make up my mind this Issue is the growing darkside of the Government because I had to decide whether or not to decide if this was for a good reason like to keep us safe or a very bad reason to watch us suffer under these...these monsters(the Government) and to see us slowly wither away with loss of money and growing loss of food in the fight of hunger and homelessness due to loss of money.
i can not make my mind up if brexit shoud of happened
last year we had to think what to agree with and disagree.
and we couldnt think.
The hardest thing was the BNC live because that involved a lot of debates and questions that were really confusing and hard.It was also hard because it had some stuff that we didn’t know because we weren’t that for into the topic so I thought that it was really hard.It was also hard, because you had to think of lots of points and answers that the teacher would give you. Also, we would take turns of writing questions.
My hardest thing this year , was when we were having class debates . This is because I have all my friends in the class and it feels like you are arguing about something and they don't like you anymore. I always have been very negative towards things I find tricky and losing my best friends would not really help. Luckily it was only a debate because we don't always have to agree with our friends . we always have our own opinions. This is what I found the hardest this past year .
In this issue, the hardest decision for me to make was if politicians should be a better role model.I thought it was difficult because if you were a politician people would look up to you and people think that you should be a good role model. I also thought it was hard because people might want to follow you paths so they would hope that you would be a good role model. I also think it was hard because politicians are just normal people even though they may have a more important job that others.This also made me think that all people make mistakes and know one is perfect. I think that was a hard decision because being a politician is an important job and people would think you are responsible. But then people all make mistakes and know one is perfect.
The hardest thing to think about was naming my post ( what would you do as prime minister)
In this issue the hardest thing to make my mind up on was whether Boris Johnson is a good or bad Prime Minister because he has made some mistakes and also has done some really good things. Some people dislike him some like him. Half of media says he is bad some of the media say he is good. That makes it hard to chose whether Boris Johnson is a good or bad Prime Minister.
In the issue the hardest thing to make my mind about is climate change and why are people doing anything about it ,if people have power to save hundreds of lives why are they not helping, if they can help why not
In this Issue, the hardest thing to make my mind up on was if politicians who have done a mistake should be fired/sacked or not because usually, at least once, they have either made a silly mistake or a serious error. For example: a politician (a politician used not to mention) punched a protestant in the face. Another example: a politician used lots of the government's money on food, clothes and shoes. It makes me always in the middle because I find it hard to be on one side, so I have to stay in the middle.
In this issue the hardest thing to make my mind up on is whether we should have voted for Boris Johnson or not and why should we have chose him because some people believe that Boris Johnson was the most best prime minister in this country.On the day we left the EU Boris Johnson was so relieved that britain was now Great Britain.
When deciding whether politicians had made a silly mistake or a serious error I struggled with John Prescott. It was difficult because it was silly to react in such a way to an egg but it was serious as he might have been demoted and you should never, ever punch anyone (ever).
When deciding if prime ministers (and politicians) had made a silly mistake or a serious error I found it difficult to understand if Saad Harriri had made a mistake or error. Saad had sent £16 million to a woman who said they had supposedly had a romantic relationship. Although, he was not a politician at that time it came upon him when others discovered the incident.
-mindblowing_meerkat
I found it quite hard to decide whether these were silly mistakes or serious errors. This is because some of them wouldn't be that bad if they were normal people , but the fact that these people are important make it different. This is because these people are role models so some people might think that it is okay to do these things because important people have done them. Also , some of them wouldn't hurt anyone but again , it's the type of people they are.
When deciding if politicians had made a silly mistake or a serious error, I found some relatively straight-forward and others quite challenging to answer. For an example, we looked at a woman called Hazel Blears. She decided to spend more than £7,000 of the government's money on furniture, which I said, straight away, that it was a serious error. Another easy choice was Saad Hariri, who sent many American dollars to a model who claimed to have a romantic relationship with him. We kept in mind that is was his own money that he had sent so I classed it as a silly mistake.
There were some hard decisions to make as well - a man named John Prescott punched a protester in the face because they threw an egg at him. This could have been a silly mistake OR a serious error. I think this because I thought "I guess it's just an egg, it isn't a big deal" but the way he reacted was quite ridiculous because he was a role model at the time and he could have gotten himself demoted.
Overall, the hardest decision I made in the lesson was if it was bad when Boris Johnson shut parliament for 5 weeks to get his deal across. I came to the conclusion that it was a silly mistake, because his idea was not that bad and Boris has led us through exiting the EU very responsibly and nothing bad has happened as of now - I had mixed feelings about this particular person.
during the activity we were given this task it was hard to pick if the politician had made a serious error or a silly mistake because it depends on the situation the person is in
In this Issue, in my school we received the politician cards and we all had to decide if what the person did was a serious error or a silly mistake. Each card had one person on them and all together, there were ten people. This was our main task. In my opinion, the most disgraceful behaviour I saw was Justin Trudeau's, I have chosen this because he put brown makeup on himself to go an Arabian Party. This means that he wanted to be another race, which was a very bad idea. One of the hardest decisions to make were probably in my opinion Donald Trump's and Andrew Mitchell's. I have chosen these decisions because Donald Trump is a prime minister, but he didn't do anything that can harm anyone. Andrew Mitchell didn't do anything wrong, either. I hope my decisions did not offend anyone. What are your thoughts about this? Is this an important task or is it a useless task? Another was Hazel Blears because she used the GOVERMENT'S money, any she spent it all on her. None of it was hers.
That was my opinion.
As I was doing the activity i found it easy to answer the questions because for me the answers stood out. But i did find the one about John Prescott hard to answer because the person did do something very rude but he still shouldn't of hit them because he was a very important person and he put his career at risk.
This is for if I was a politician myself: The hardest thing to make my mind up is that what could be right and wrong for our country and what rules should be against the law. Say if one of the other politicians asked me “which one should be illegal? Food that contain too much sugar, or food that contains too much fat?” I personally think that it would be a hard decision because they are both bad as themselves and both contain fat and sugar.
~caring_tiger 🐯
when deciding either politicians have made a serious error or silly mistake i found it hard because some are wrong some are ok and some are 50/50. The politicians who have made serious errors have to remeber that they an important role in Parliment but the people who have made a silly mistake will have to be careful and think about there role.
The task I did today was , to decide whether the thing politicians did were a silly mistake or a serious error. I found this hard because I was sometimes fifty-fifty. However sometimes I was certain but when I had a group discussion my mind would change.
In this issue , I will be talking about how hard it is decide what are silly mistakes and serious errors from famous people like Borris Jonhson.
I thought it was very hard to decide because politicians like Hazal Blears stole thousands of pounds from the government but I can not decide if it was a silly mistake or not
I thought politicians and prime ministers (Borris Jonhson and Donald Trump) were nice and kind and respectful not punching people in the face and putting brown makeup in a Arabic night theme.
When deciding whether politicians had made a silly mistake or a serious error, I found that Andrew Mitchell was quite hard because calling the police 'plebs' is offensive but because he was a member of parliament, people think that he has the right to do that, but i decided it was a silly mistake because he wasn't breaking any laws.
When exploring, the second session was a discussion about who we thought made a 'silly mistake' and who made a 'serious error' it was hard to make decisions. I think it was hard to make these decisions because my classmates had different point of views. These different views made me think differently because I got to hear from different sides of the stories.
You can make your own points but it doesn't matter if someone disagrees with that because that is their opinions.
On the news, there were different influences about this issue in the news but it was my choice because anyone can have a point of view. This issue was very argumentative as well because some people do not want to hear other people's point of an argument - just like Boris Johnson wanted to do to parliament in 2019.
We have been deciding if what politicians have done whether it is a silly mistake or a serious error.
I found most of them easy but some hard because like Saad Hariri he doesnt even know who the person he gave 16 million dollars is.Trumps though was really easy because he wasnt helping people who need it but then he can go and spend 3 billion dollars on world war things but not 1 dollar on people who need help.
During the activity we were given, I found it difficult to decide on a few of the mistakes or errors that the politicians made. The main person I struggled with was Boris Johnson because many people called his deciscion illegal but he did say that there would be an agreement after Brexit. The other side was that if parliament did close, the politicians who wanted their say never would meaning they (Conservatives) would lose faith in their leader. For being selfish.
When deciding if politicians did the right thing or not ,I found it hard to decide on if John Prescott did the right thing because someone though an egg at him , but he's supposed to be a role model so it wasn't a very good decision to punch him in the face. People are supposed to set a good example if they are a role model but obviously, some people do not like the idea of keeping their hands to themselves.
I thought the task was easy but I got confused when it came to Trudeau because he faked his skin colour for a Arabian night party to fit in. This could offend people that are that skin colour because it was only a party and he didn't have to do it.
The hardest thing for me to make my mind up was about space. Sending robots into space or astronauts. When deciding things like this you have to sensibly think of the worst event.
Why humans should:
Giving a new experience to astronauts life
Creating a better impact on NASA and our space experience and knowledge
Could find hidden fossils and valuable items
Less space junk and safer for the planet
Why robots should go:
Less chance of somebody’s life being at risk
Photographic evidence
Safer for humans but not planet
I feel humans should go to space as after a lot of thinking and I have viewed both sides of the debate I definitely think it’s safer for the planet and the event of an injury it highly unlikely even though robots would be great in space I fell humans should just be have the experience
Effervescent otter
The hardest thing has been to decide which MP's have been the worst and which ones to write about as there is so many who have done bad things e.g Boris Johnson shut Parliament down for weeks even though Brexit was due 31st October.
You're right. There are many politicians who display questionable behaviour and appear to get away with it.
In this issue, the hardest thing for me to make my mind up on is if politics are honest enough. What I mean by this is if they could be too honest or not enough. After thinking about it I think if they were too honest they could make there country sad and they wouldn't like that politic.Adding on for a example, if I were a politic I wouldn't keep a secret the public want to know.
The thing that I had to make my mind up, was about the competition two weeks ago, on whether politicians deserve respect. I couldn't make my mind up on whether I thought politicians were good and deserve respect because, like I said we never really know what is going on in The House of Parliament but we get our ideas and opinions based on what/how the news or media presents it to us.
The hardest thing I had to make up mind was when a protester threw an egg at a politican and the politician punched the protester so I looked at both sides of the story the protester intentionally threw the egg and knew it wasa possibly could have done some damage and knew the protester would reat in a angry way but mabye he didn't expect how hard it would have been.The politician I think just lashed out and you shouldn't blame him its not every day you get hit with a egg though he should have acted in a more professional way I think they should both go to jail as they both committed assault but they suould have different release dates.
I hope I have changed your mind on this dilemma
Yours truly methodical_ocean:)
In this issue of the Burnet News Club (Politics), we have discussed a lot in the Hub but something that is always bugging me is why does Donald Trump have to have a row with Boris Johnson because Boris Johnson gave Huawei access to Britain's 5G network. Donald Trump does not trust Huawei because it is a Chinese company and there are rumours that China's government has access to viewing personal details of anyone who uses Huawei's technology. The British prime minister spoke to the US president last week soon after he announced his decision to allow the Chinese manufacturer to participate in the UK’s next-generation cellular network. This is the United Kingdom’s network, not America’s so why does he need to be angry with Boris Johnson over this decision. If anything happens, then the blame will be on Boris Johnson not on Donald Trump. The only thing I am worried about over this is that Donald Trump may contract the trade deal between the United Kingdom and the United States. This will be disastrous as resources in the United Kingdom will become scarce and restrictions may have to be put in place. After leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom needs to find another trading partner because a lot of shipping will be stopped over Brexit. This is what I can’t make my mind over in the Politics issue. Thanking for taking your time to read this Burnet News and I cannot wait for the next topic about the Future of the National Health Service (NHS).
In this issue, the hardest thing to make up my mind on was whether childeren should have the right to vote because some childeren know alot about politics like us yet we cant vote. I thought this because some things have changed like Brexit and we reason really well here at the BNC so I thought we should get a say in the world and have the chance to speak up. Not only on this website, but in the actual world becuase we could make so much of an impact to us and the country just by doing little things like when Greta Thunberg sat outside the Scottish parliament for days, hoping to change something and now she is helping to inspire childeren all over the world to help with Climate Emergency like you talked about in a previous issue. Even though we are young, I thought and still think that we should all get to have a say because after all, we live in a democracy, meaning that we all have the power to have freedom of speech and to use it for good.
To conclude, this is what I could not make my mind on in the Politicians and Power issue.
The hardest thing to get my head around is why there are different political parties and why we even need them also why the queen doesn't make decisions but the prime minister does.
Mine was deciding if politicians are part of the general public, and eventually I came to the conclusion that they are not part of it for the following reasons. But I will also include reasons stating they are part of the general public, and the ones I considered heavily before deciding differently.
They are not part of the general public because they are the people making very important decisions which they sometimes have to keep secret so the public don't know. They have lots of information they don't share and are the only ones who know about it except from other politicians. If they were part of the general public, then they wouldn't know about the crucial information which helps get things done (resolving Brexit, what to do about the Corona Virus). They are highly trusted people above everybody else, and you are expected to live up to those standards, even if you sometimes make mistakes; everyone does at some point in their life. In addition to this, they need to be formal while it doesn't matter if the general public aren't as long as it isn't all the time.
They are part of the general public because, like us, they are humans and should be treated as such and not to be held to higher standards. Even though they do have to be formal, it doesn't matter if they make mistakes occasionally as long as it isn't all the time. It is discrimination if we single them out for their mistakes and wrong decisions therefore we don't need to find a flaw in everything they have done. Despite this, MPs have realised what they have signed up for, and if they don't like it they can resign to become part of the general public. But if politicians do this, they might get singled out for they are giving in and letting people get the better of them. This could cause them to get portrayed as weak by the media who have a big influence on the public. The media will publish anything interesting even if it might not be true, and they could forget that politicians are humans as well, causing the politicians to be dehumanised.
succinct_leaves
In this issue, the hardest thing to make my mind up about was how bad of a crime each Prime Minister had committed. I found it very hard to decide between certain Prime Minister’s crimes. Some crimes were very similar, therefore creating a difficulty of strong decisions.
One thing that I found challenging, was deciding which politician to vote for! To expand on this, if I choose one politician and say if every one else (a few people) voted for that same politician and of which politician has popularity and becomes Prime Minister. But, what if the an other of which politician takes it personal and causes a big accident.
My other reason comes from decisions. My point is that sometimes, I can get a bit stuck with which politician. Even though I can not vote, I can still be allowed to make my opinion of which team I agree with. There can sometimes be two decisions which I really like but are from different parties. One time I was stuck with either choosing 'labor' or 'The green house'. For the 'Green house', I really liked how they have argued about the environment. Although, for 'Labor', I liked how they have argued that we need to improve on our NHS which will help a lot. Combining those two together, which causes a big dilemma.
brilliant_fossil
If I was a prime minister and I had to make a decision I would base my opinions on what the people are saying.
In this issue the hardest thing to make my mind on is do politicians deserve more respect because they are the highest in the country and they decide our rules . But we should get the same respect as equality is vital in life. I was in the middle on that question
In this issue the hardest thing to make my mind up about was if the politicians were telling the whole truth or just telling what they wanted us to hear. In the run up to the election there were lots of the same arguments with lots of different answers, how to decide who was being more honest, or were they all being honest about bits of the issue but not all of the issue. When listening to debates or reading articles in different newspapers again it’s hard to find the truth and to know who to trust. So I think the hardest part was finding the answers that I had and getting answers to specific questions.
In this issue, the hardest thing to make my mind up about was to see if I disagreed with someone or agreed because I was a bit new to politicians and the government and i didn't really understand but the more I got into it the more i understood it
when lots people disagreed with comment and i realised my side of argument was wrong
In this issue, the hardest thing to make my mind up on is to see which one is the most nonpareil one- responsibility, power, democracy and justice. These four are the most important things that you use everyday life.
Responsibility is one, you use it by looking after someone, doing your job and many more, you use it all the time.
Also, power is normally needed, as most politicians rule over some stuff-like the country-and power is very essential in the world as you need it to make people hear your voice
At the same time, democracy is important and relevant as it is another word for government and comes from two Greek words meaning "rule by people".
As justice, you balance it out; making it fair- if it weren't justice things will be unequal!
We have these useful things all around the world, but which one is the best? I can't make my mind up!
Thank you for reading, from memorable_raccoon.
In this issue, the most hardest thing to make my mind up on is whether everyone HAS to vote. As 'The more the merrier!', meaning the bigger amount of people voting, the better effect it will have on us, not to mention that voting is the time where we will have the power over who will have power over us (We are the ones to choose our leader). In addition, it may be your only chance to get your voice heard. Therefore, that would mean everyone SHOULD vote. However, everyone is different, so there would be some people who may not have much interest in politics. Bare in mind, voting is not an event where you must go to. As in Britain, human rights are very vital, meaning they would have the right not to vote. Some may not be able to vote. For example, someone very elderly or a person with dementia for example, may not be able vote as their memory would not be as good, and they would not be capable to store much information as you and I can. Also, tax paying and working people are the ones who help us get most of our things free, making them very helpful to our society. Since they are a big help to us, they possibly could be the only ones allowed to vote. Therefore, that would mean everybody SHOULDN'T vote. To make a definite decision, I would need to be confident with one side, and not in the middle. In conclusion this is the thing I have personally found challenging to make my mind up on.
Thank you for reading.
memorable_orchard
Whilst being part of The Burnet News Club, a question I have often thought about is whether it is necessary to have politicians.
On one hand, politicians are relevant to decisions being made in our country and represent the voice of their constituents. Additionally, it is easier to have someone who has been elected by the public to run a large area rather than more than one person being ‘in charge’ as it would be too chaotic.
However on the other hand, sometimes politicians take advantage of their roles. For instance they may think they are superior and abuse their position in parliament. We have seen examples in the media where politicians have financially misused their power with regards to their expenses.
Taking this into account, I found it hard to make my mind up and has made me think long and hard about this question.
In this issue, the main thing that I couldn’t make my mind on is how much should we respect politicians. The reason for this is that I never knew what politicians have to do so I never really respected them but now I know that they represent their constituents and don’t only argue in the House Of Commons. They listen to our voices but most people don’t rate them. I don’t understand why, because they don’t talk for themselves, they pretty much do the work for us. So this is why this is the part of this issue that my mind make it up on.
The hardest thing to make up my mind about in the issue so far was: Who has more power in our democracy, the politicians or the people. I have come to the conclusion that the politicians {only some politicians} have more power, I think this because: Firstly, I understand that the public can influence politicians in several ways such as protests, the politicians should listen because we live in a democracy however, the politicians' can decide to what degree they carry out a task. For example: the public might want to raise pensions by 50% but politicians can alter the amount they raise it by and when they do it.
Secondly, we live in an indirect democracy and so, although we vote on somethings, a lot of the decisions are left to the MPs to vote on, this means the public have limited power over what they want. For example: the majority of people in the UK want to leave the EU so we have but, it is up to the MPs to reject and approve deals.
Finally, more on the topic of why only some politicians have more power than the people, MPs have about the same power as us. It is only when MPs are sitting parliament that their collective power has greater influence but a Minister like Rishi Sunak has more power than the people because he is in-charge of the country's money however, after the government reshuffle he has less power so I will provide another example: The Home minister has more power than the public because she is in-charge of Immigration and security of the country.
The hardest thing to make my mind up on would be whether the people should be the ones to make decisions or the government and politicians. Because the public should get the right to make the decisions but it is a lot easier just to have one person that can make the decisions. However the public may put on a protest for this decision and may protest when a politician makes a decision they dont like. This is also unfair because the public wouldn't get any say in the result of their country. This is why I am finding it hard to make a decision that I still cannot decide. Thank you for taking in my opinion on a decision that I found hard to make.