Thursday 15 January 2009

Class does matter: no need for war

Funny old words about class war in the funny old Daily Express. This odd dinosaur of a paper has taken to accusing the Left of all sorts, but now it reckons we are plotting to start a class war. There have been suggestions that the Fabians could be involved.
Now anyone that knows anything about the Fabian Society knows that it believes in slow, incremental change, so we are not ideal combatants for a class war really, or only if it is a really, really slow one.
And our advice to any would-be class warriors -- "you might want to take it at a faster pace".
Let's put it this way if you were planning a class war, would the first thing you did be to introduce a new responsibility for a body called the Equalities and Human Rights Commission? No, I thought not.
Would it be to process a bill through parliament? No, not really.

And what are the scary doom-doom laden things that the The Daily Mail seem scared by the following:
more university places for teenagers from deprived backgrounds and more council tax spent on poorer families


and - horror of horrors

Health campaigns could also focus on deprived areas.!
.

Well that certainly is worrying. So let's get this straight, the Mail is suggesting spending money on areas which have terrible health and education records to improve the lives of people in those areas would be a bad thing. Surely the Mail is in favour of improving people's lives and giving them chances to live better and longer lives? It would seem not.

The Fabians have been arguing that class does still matter in British society, it holds people back, leaving them with poorer health and poorer education results.

By the time children start school there are already stark differences between children from social backgrounds in terms of achievement, according to Fabian research going back to our Narrowing the Gap report.

No one can really think keeping that class difference helps create a better Britain. If they do, we don't.

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