Published by , January 13th 2010 at 10:12 am
Theresa May refuses to defend Thatcher on inequality
Bright Blue, a new Conservative party pressure group described as “the Compass of the right”, held their first public meeting last night in Westminster. Shadow secretary of state for work and pensions, Theresa May MP, and Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee discussed the topic of “Does inequality matter?” with the Tory frontbencher unwilling to defend her party’s record on inequality during the Thatcher/Major era.
Toynbee outlined the British public believed that society was too unequal. She criticised both Tony Blair and David Cameron for believing that efforts could be focused on the bottom but not the top of the income scale.
May dismissed a narrow approach to inequality focused on “income and financial targets” and said that a Conservative government would examine the “causes of inequality” including access to good schools and worklessness. When asked by Left Foot Forward to compare the 1979-97 period with the Blair/Brown era on measures of inequality, good schools, and labour market participation, May was unwilling to defend the Thatcher/Major period. Instead, she pointed out that
“the gini coefficient is now higher than it’s ever been.”
As this blog has frequently pointed out, inequality rose dramatically during the last Conservative government. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Gini coefficient measure rose from 0.25 in 1979 to 0.33 to 1997. Under Labour, the gini coefficient first rose, then fell, and is now rising again. As May pointed out it currently stands at its highest ever level of 0.36 but many expect the recession to cause it to fall. Other measures show that inequality peaked in the early-1990s. Earlier Toynbee said,
“Inequality has continued to increase … [but] Labour has made progress. The 1980s was a cataclysmic time. If a bit of society broke off, that was when it broke off and we’ve never recovered from that.”
For May’s benefit, since 1997, the number of children achieving the expected level in English at age 11 has risen by 18 percentage points, and by 16 percentage points in maths while the proportion of young people achieving five or more good GCSEs is up by nearly 20 percentage points. There are over 2.5 million more people in work today than in 1997. Although the impact of the recession has been damaging, unemployment may peak at 2.5 million below the 3 million predicted by many economists.
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Hardly a headline – the Tories have been more sober in their attitude towards Thatcher for months, perhaps even years now
We need to do more to stop harmful inequality so this http://is.gd/6biD3 is welcome but all parties need to do more via @leftfootfwd
RT @Tweet4Labour: We need to do more to stop harmful inequality so this http://is.gd/6biD3 is welcome but all parties need to do more vi …
@equalitytrust http://is.gd/6biD3 Seen this?
RT @Tweet4Labour: We need to do more to stop harmful inequality so this http://is.gd/6biD3 is welcome but all parties need to do more vi …
Is it not too narrow to focus on income inequality. Imagine a street, say in a deprived area of Liverpool. You can give the people more income via tax credits and offer them social services, you can improve their lives. But then imagine Steven Gerrard buys a house on the road, suddenly the inequality on the street soars, the Gini number goes beserk. Is this bad?
I’d say no. Instead, we should focus on outcomes, like life expectancy, general health, literacy, happiness, crime and the ability to work. I don’t mind what your income is, it’s about how we treat the poor. Sadly Britain has enclaves of deep poverty, as said before life expectancy in some areas of Liverpool, Manchester and Scotland is lower than in Pakistan or Palestine.
It is interesting to note that Thatcher remains such a divisive figure. I suspect Brown’s legacy will be universally accepted as disastrous.
RT @Tweet4Labour: We need to do more to stop harmful inequality so this http://is.gd/6biD3 is welcome but all parties need to do more vi …
RT @Tweet4Labour: We need to do more to stop harmful inequality so this http://is.gd/6biD3 is welcome but all parties need to do more vi …
RT @Tweet4Labour: We need to do more to stop harmful inequality so this http://is.gd/6biD3 is welcome but all parties need to do more vi …
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by jamescowley: RT @Tweet4Labour: We need to do more to stop harmful inequality so this http://is.gd/6biD3 is welcome but all parties need to do more vi ……
[...] May (not to be confused with Teresa May), the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, who on Tuesday refused to defend Margaret Thatcher on her record in tackling inequality. Asked by Left Foot Forward to [...]