tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7985429043801017839.post7074023911309978509..comments2023-10-27T07:50:27.411+01:00Comments on Next Left: That Liberal Democrat budgetTom Hampsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05917325958130851128noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7985429043801017839.post-18728337996487893262009-04-28T12:27:00.000+01:002009-04-28T12:27:00.000+01:00And then what? Labour save the day? Does the Labou...And then what? Labour save the day? Does the Labour government ever come down from it's glass house and have a good look at people in council estates who make a living from having more kids to more government money??<br /><br />Labour with all the right intentions has created this depressing mess that we now have of children having children and proffessional mothers! And guess what? No one is happy! Least of all the public who have to put up with agressive behaviour from kids who've not been taught right from wrong and brought up through abuse.<br /><br />I wish they would answer to this.<br /><br />Labour is not about social mobility anymore. It's out of touch. It's all reports and figures.<br /><br />As an alleged social government maybe they need to actually see how effective these policies are.<br /><br />It seems to me that they are hanging on to this dream like notion of effective social mobility because it is the only thing that now links them to what it meant to a leftist party. And in doing that, they are making things worse by ignoring were they have failed.<br /><br />Maybe we need to give the Libs a chance to mess up eh? Seems to be the only party that is pragmatic and realistic enough to present a budget model that reflects the 21st century society we live in. Not 1966... like the Labour party...or the 19th century like the ToriesUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07239553236804761905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7985429043801017839.post-13025536770763750732009-04-24T17:12:00.000+01:002009-04-24T17:12:00.000+01:00Rob:
the beauty of the CTF is that it ensures tha...Rob:<br /><br />the beauty of the CTF is that it ensures that something is put aside for children so that they have some capital at 18. A general tax cut doesn't do that.<br /><br />On your second point: yes, but it still means that the net gain to these families from Lib Dem policies is much lower than the headline £700. If you want that fugure as a net gain, you'll either have to cut the tax by even more, or go easy on the increased means-testing.Stuart Whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05090728365798166746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7985429043801017839.post-41040435835913014322009-04-24T13:25:00.000+01:002009-04-24T13:25:00.000+01:00Wouldn't the extra £700 (each, if both parents wor...Wouldn't the extra £700 (<I>each</I>, if both parents work) <I>per year</I> more than outweigh the occasional £250 inputs from the government? Isn't it more valuable to give the parents the means of making their own payments into a savings account, which <I>could</I> be given to the child if the parents decide to?<br /><br />Reduction in tax credits for the better-off would mean more means testing, which is true. But, again, against a backdrop of tax cuts there would simply be less need for the credit. It hardly makes sense to argue that we should keep tax where it is, then have another system devoted to handing that money back out again to the same people.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18043589000537697186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7985429043801017839.post-7020892937099956982009-04-23T15:50:00.000+01:002009-04-23T15:50:00.000+01:00Alex: I take it that the gist of your point is: 'L...Alex: I take it that the gist of your point is: 'Labour isn't in a position to criticise because social mobility has risen on its watch'?<br /><br />Even if this were the case, the point does not address the specific criticisms made in my post about Lib Dem policy. Labour's having a bad record would not refute the argument that Lib Dem policies would have a bad effect on social mobility, which is the main point of the post.<br /><br />On the substance of your claim: the Sutton Trust did publish a study in March on access to higher professional positions. The study showed the following:<br /><br />(1) People in top professional jobs tend to come disproprionately from Independent school and Oxbridge backgrounds.<br /><br />(2) In all professions, except journalism and medicine, the proportion coming from Independent Schools and Oxbridge has fallen since the late 1980s (or from some earlier point in time). In medicine the proportion from Independent schools has remained constant; in journalism it has risen from 49% to 54%.<br /><br />(3) In the case of 'magic circle law firms', the proportion of young partners coming from the Independent school sector was higher in 2004 than in 1988 (71% as against 59%).<br /><br />It would be a foolhardy sociologist who claimed on the basis of this evidence alone that social mobility in general has declined since 1997. Why? Partly because the baseline of comparison is the late 1980s (or before) with 2004/7, not between the situation in 1997 and 2004/7. And partly because one cannot infer directly from trends in one profession, e.g., magic circle law firms, what is happening in society at large. Recall that the Sutton Trust study shows that Independent school/Oxbridge dominance has declined since the late 1980s in most professions. (And there is, anyway, a lot more to overall social mobility than access to high professions, e.g., whether the children of unskilled manual working-class parents move up into non-elite, but nevertheless better jobs.)<br /><br />There is, of course, a widely cited study by Jo Blanden and associates at the LSE which shows that income mobility for the 1970 birth cohort was lower than for a cohort born in the late 1950s. But that tells us little about the impact of post-1997 policies as the main formative effects of policy on the 1970 cohort occured in the 1970s/80s.Stuart Whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05090728365798166746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7985429043801017839.post-37004417630398089992009-04-23T13:38:00.000+01:002009-04-23T13:38:00.000+01:00Hasn't the Sutton trust published results which sa...Hasn't the Sutton trust published results which say that social mobility has fallen since 1997?Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15252787492578916404noreply@blogger.com