Archive for November, 2004
Call Me Old-fashioned or What … But What Did the Prince Say Wrong?
Posted by David Conway in Education on 19/11/2004
Outraged attacks on the Prince of Wales filled today’s airwaves and press. What occasioned the wrath of so many was his having had the apparent effrontery to remark in a private email that far too many of his younger compatriots today consider themselves qualified for jobs far beyond their talents and aptitudes.
The burden of the attacks on the Prince are two-fold. First, it is no bad thing so many young people today harbour high personal ambitions. Second, the Prince has no business to criticise others for wanting to better themselves, when he is able to lead the life of Riley without enjoying any conspicuously greater talents or natural abilities than they.
Neither criticism seems at all justified.
Mr Trevor Phillips Puts His Foot In It …
Posted by David Conway in Race and Equality on 18/11/2004
The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was set up by the Race Relations Act to foster racial equality by rooting out racial discrimination and racial hatred.
In recent years, the CRE has become one of the most vociferous advocates of a change in the law so that the current prohibition of incitement of hatred towards racial groups becomes extended so as to cover religious groups too.
The chief intended beneficiary of the extension are British Muslims. Not coinciding with any single racial group, they currently remain unprotected in law from hatred being incited against them on account of their religion.
Alternatives to Prison
Posted by David Green in Crime on 17/11/2004
This week a private commission of inquiry (the Coulsfield Inquiry) has made yet another call for greater use of alternatives to prison. It criticises prison for failing to prevent former inmates from committing crimes when they are released into the community and then calls for more of them to be given sentences in the community. At least when offenders are in jail they can’t commit crimes against the public. When on community sentences they can and do reoffend frequently.
The Coulsfield Inquiry purports to have surveyed the evidence but doesn’t take the slightest notice of it in framing its recommendations. At least it did not stoop as low as the Youth Justice Board, which recently put out a press release claiming that a failed programme was a success.
New Labour – the New Puritans?
Posted by David Green in Health on 16/11/2004
The Government thinks we eat too much, drink too much and smoke too much, and it’s going to use the full weight of the law to put a stop to any further irresponsibility. But a consistent puritan would want gambling stopped too, and yet the Government wants us to gamble more. This inconsistency helps us to see more clearly the motivation of New Labour.
The Welfare State We’re In
Posted by David Green in Social Security on 15/11/2004
The Welfare State We’re In by James Bartholomew has just been published. It looks afresh at all aspects of the welfare state, from schools and hospitals to pensions and child benefit, and asks whether we made a mistake in placing so much confidence in government-provided welfare.
It deserves the strongest recommendation. The book presents the evidence on complex issues while remaining highly readable and avoiding over-simplification. It is available from Amazon at 30% off.
The Police: Reassuring the Public or Enforcing the Law
Posted by David Green in Crime on 11/11/2004
David Blunkett’s police reforms are intended to reassure the public. But as Julia Magnet, a New Yorker now living in London, points out in The Times, the aim of Mayor Guiliani’s police reforms was, not to pacify frightened citizens, but to stop crime.