Archive for October, 2004
Should Gambling be Regulated?
Posted by David Green in Civil Liberty on 20/10/2004
An unusual coalition against reform of the gambling law has emerged. The Daily Mail is running a campaign but will not have expected support from Polly Toynbee in today’s Guardian. The main thrust of her argument was that deregulation will increase addiction. She also reminds her readers of the experience of Atlantic City in the USA. It was hoped that the introduction of gambling would bring about economic regeneration, a hope that the British Government shares. But, if you drive to the gambling district of Atlantic City, you drive through the same slums that were there before the casinos opened. Moreover, there is even evidence that the casinos have driven out local leisure-related businesses. The free drinks that are liberally dispensed to encourage gamblers to go further, the free or cut-price food, and free shows make it impossible for rivals to survive for miles around.
The Tomlinson report is a distraction
Posted by David Green in Education on 19/10/2004
The Tomlinson report into the education of 14-19 year-olds is a missed opportunity. By common consent our system, supposedly designed to ensure that rich and poor alike receive a good education, fails many of our children.
About 5% reach the end of compulsory schooling with no formal qualifications. Only 42% of 16 year-olds achieve a grade C or higher in both English and Maths GCSE. Many employers find young recruits lacking in basic skills. And worse still, even among those taking A-levels, a significant number of universities find that they have to provide catch-up courses for first-year students.
We should be having an entirely different debate. The introduction of a diploma with entry, foundation, intermediate and advanced stages will, of itself, be irrelevant. Reducing the number of external examinations, as the report proposes, will lower standards. Teacher assessment is notoriously unreliable because it expects each teacher to be a judge in his or her own cause. If a large number of their pupils do badly, perhaps it is because of bad teaching, a conclusion no teacher is likely to encourage. And the attempt to equalise status – parity of esteem – is a naïve absurdity. The status of occupations cannot be dictated by law or determined by a government policy. Such attempts are simply futile.
Instead of restructuring the qualifications framework, we should be focusing on the underlying causes of education failure. Above all, it is because the public sector is a monopoly. The small private sector allows an escape for some, but the real challenge is to create opportunities for the vast majority of the population by allowing new schools committed to high standards in learning to be established. Monopoly tends to diminish the discovery of better ways of meeting human needs and competition increases the chances that better solutions will be found.
Boris Johnson should not have apologised
Posted by David Green in Political Correctness on 18/10/2004
The editor of the Spectator, Boris Johnson, should not have apologised for the leading article in last week’s issue. Instead, he should have offered someone from Liverpool equal space to reply.
The Spectator leader drew attention to legitimate concerns. It may be that, in the light of criticism, the writer would want to amend or tone down some of what was said, but the main concern was valid: that the one-minute silence at the England/Wales football match and the two-minute silence in Liverpool were not justified.
But isn’t it a good thing if people come together in periodic acts of solidarity? Yes it is and, perhaps, we don’t do it often enough. But when a decision is made to display our unity we should be careful about the message that we are sending. The focus of the criticism in the Spectator was on the motivation of Liverpudlians for taking part. They stand accused of wallowing in victim status. In reality, I suspect that many were drawn in, as they were into the public displays of grief after the death of Princess Diana, for far worthier reasons. Above all, they felt a wish to belong, to be part of something bigger than themselves. But such a longing can be made to serve noble or ignoble, wise or unwise, purposes and it is reasonable for us all to ask ourselves what exactly we are giving our loyalty to when we take part in public displays.
Gangsta Rap and the Public Good
Posted by David Conway in Race and Equality on 14/10/2004
As a rule, Afro-American rap artists are not a group noted for the profundity of their political insight. The wording used by one in an advertisement for an employee reveals him as something of an exception.
Today’s London Times reports Sean “P Diddy” Combs as having advertised for a new butler by declaring himself looking for a white man. ‘I am an equal opportunities employer’, he is reported as having claimed.
On one level, Mr Combs’ advertisement exhibits no more than the sort of anti-white animus all too frequently voiced in the lyrics of his musical fraternity. What Mr Combs appears to be indicating is that he would prefer being served by a white man than by a black man so that he would then be able to triumph over someone of the colour of those who for so long subordinated to themselves those of his own colour. Since to express any such preference openly would violate anti-discrimination employment law, Mr Combs seems to be wittily exploiting the language of affirmative action to get away with doing so. In this way, he seems also to be cocking a further snook at whitey through openly defying his laws. Not much in Mr Combs’ advertisement for a classical liberal to admire, you might think. And were that all there was to it you would be right.
The moral authority of the United Nations
Posted by David Green in Foreign Affairs on 13/10/2004
There has been a lot of attention this week to the report of the Iraqi Survey Group, which confirmed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. However, the far more important revelation is that United Nations sanctions were being circumvented and that voting in the Security Council by France, Russia and China was distorted by secret payments made by Saddam Hussein. Andrew Neil relates the facts in this week’s The Business.
Work Until You Drop
Posted by David Green in Social Security on 12/10/2004
The independent commission, chaired by Adair Turner, has warned of the need for pension reform. Some groups are demanding an increase in the basic pension at the taxpayer’s expense, others an end to means testing, and a few are calling for raising the pension age.
A basic safety net is a necessity, but if we want to remain a free people and to enjoy independence in old age, the best safeguard is to rely on self-help: save as much as you can during your working life and ‘work until you drop’. Further discussion.