Comments on: The level of inequality in this country is a scandal http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2007/11/level-of-inequality-in-this-country-is.htm Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:02:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Tristan http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2007/11/level-of-inequality-in-this-country-is.htm/comment-page-1#comment-794 Tristan Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:32:00 +0000 http://localhost/wp28/?p=1465#comment-794 So why is Chris refusing to look at liberal systems which give power to the consumer of public services.<br/><br/>In the US it is the poor and disenfranchised who want education vouchers or tax credits so they can get out of the trap.<br/><br/>It seems that for many equality no longer means equality of opportunity, it means the old socialist cry of equality of outcome, something which can only be achieved with equality in poverty (or equality in poor service like the NHS and state education sector).<br/><br/>I'd rather give people power over their own lives and free them from the arbitrary state. That would do more to increase equality of wealth than anything else (apart from perhaps LVT, but Chris has been very quiet on that, even though he's president of ALTER). So why is Chris refusing to look at liberal systems which give power to the consumer of public services.

In the US it is the poor and disenfranchised who want education vouchers or tax credits so they can get out of the trap.

It seems that for many equality no longer means equality of opportunity, it means the old socialist cry of equality of outcome, something which can only be achieved with equality in poverty (or equality in poor service like the NHS and state education sector).

I’d rather give people power over their own lives and free them from the arbitrary state. That would do more to increase equality of wealth than anything else (apart from perhaps LVT, but Chris has been very quiet on that, even though he’s president of ALTER).

]]> By: dreamingspire http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2007/11/level-of-inequality-in-this-country-is.htm/comment-page-1#comment-793 dreamingspire Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:26:00 +0000 http://localhost/wp28/?p=1465#comment-793 Actually the modern expousing of meritocracy as providing a route out of relative poverty can be traced back almost 50 years. My introduction to it was through the statements being made by the then Sir Eric James (later Lord James of Rusholme) when he was High Master of Manchester Grammar. That was then a Direct Grant school with a significant number of pupils funded by local authorities, and thus family income was not a factor in the decision to give them a place. (MGS and Manchester were not unique: other LAs did the same in their areas, sometimes offering weekly boarding places for pupils from rural areas – Yorkshire North Riding was an example of this.)<br/>Successful passage through the Direct Grant schools led to entry to any university, although I do remember one student who passed the Cambridge Open Scholarship exams but was deemed unsuitable (it was said that he went out one night to a pub while staying in a Cambridge College for the exams, and was caught climbing into the College after the gate was locked).<br/>Lord James’ views on meritocracy were later regarded as ‘controversial’<br/>http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/40thanniversary/1960s.htm<br/>(There was a discussion paper on the web in its entirety, but I didn’t preserve the link and Google doesn’t find it now.)<br/>Chris Huhne’s article also reminds me that it was not so long ago that we were lamenting the loss of both managerial and academic talent to the USA because of the higher salaries offered there, and so we need to increase remuneration here. Then we had (and still have) the loss of public sector talent here to the private sector: going for more money and less stressful jobs. The private sector here has of course been following the USA pattern of growing inequalities, and now the public sector has followed suit. <br/>I doubt that we can do much about pay inequalities, so we have to widen those routes that allow merit to shine. That leads us to looking at reversing the ‘dumbing down’ tendency, most obvious in those large sections of the public sector where competence is derided, as repeated Commons Select Committee reports witness. Actually the modern expousing of meritocracy as providing a route out of relative poverty can be traced back almost 50 years. My introduction to it was through the statements being made by the then Sir Eric James (later Lord James of Rusholme) when he was High Master of Manchester Grammar. That was then a Direct Grant school with a significant number of pupils funded by local authorities, and thus family income was not a factor in the decision to give them a place. (MGS and Manchester were not unique: other LAs did the same in their areas, sometimes offering weekly boarding places for pupils from rural areas – Yorkshire North Riding was an example of this.)
Successful passage through the Direct Grant schools led to entry to any university, although I do remember one student who passed the Cambridge Open Scholarship exams but was deemed unsuitable (it was said that he went out one night to a pub while staying in a Cambridge College for the exams, and was caught climbing into the College after the gate was locked).
Lord James’ views on meritocracy were later regarded as ‘controversial’
http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/40thanniversary/1960s.htm
(There was a discussion paper on the web in its entirety, but I didn’t preserve the link and Google doesn’t find it now.)
Chris Huhne’s article also reminds me that it was not so long ago that we were lamenting the loss of both managerial and academic talent to the USA because of the higher salaries offered there, and so we need to increase remuneration here. Then we had (and still have) the loss of public sector talent here to the private sector: going for more money and less stressful jobs. The private sector here has of course been following the USA pattern of growing inequalities, and now the public sector has followed suit.
I doubt that we can do much about pay inequalities, so we have to widen those routes that allow merit to shine. That leads us to looking at reversing the ‘dumbing down’ tendency, most obvious in those large sections of the public sector where competence is derided, as repeated Commons Select Committee reports witness.

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