One reason it is such a good slogan is that it is not an ideological appeal – it is a practical one.
Piketty and Sandel belong to an elite which maintains its privileges by proclaiming its egalitarianism.
The Education Secretary has made it very plain that unless the fundamental structures of education are reformed completely, the mediocre regime favoured by councils and trades unions will just reassert itself.
The former Chairman of the 1922 Committee points out that the 2010-15 coalition could seek no improvement in Britain’s relations with the EU.
Roads are disintegrating, drains go uncleared, weeds grow unhindered, endless cycle lanes, and the Clean Air Zone saga have shown what a Labour government devoid of ideas and principles looks like.
Calls for a supposedly humane alternative just reduce the signal produced by results to mere noise, and would leave universities and employers sorting candidates by other means.
Both the wish to improve education and to offer more help to families require more public spending, not less. Such proposals only make sense if government is willing to be tougher in other areas.
The twenty-third article in a new series on ConHome about how government might be made smaller, taxpayers better off and and society stronger – through strong families, better schools and good jobs.
The comprehensivisation experiment begun by the Wilson government helped to bring down the curtain on an age of social mobility.
Rishi Sunak’s fighting talk about the “hardworking aspiration of millions of people” will fall on barren ground so long as the middle classes can’t afford fees.
A lower tax burden will be impossible without less supply of government. And for there to be less supply, there must first be less demand.
The debate on social mobility in this leadership contest should be more wide-ranging than a myopic focus on lifting the ban on a particular kind of school.
Sunak and Truss are indicative of an educational world divided between private schools and state comprehensives. Grammars can play a role alongside Gove’s reforms in ending that dichotomy.
She explains why she changed her mind on Brexit, confirms she would change the Bank’s mandate, and says she would be happy to find a place for Sunak in her team.
For many state schools, already thinly-resourced and stretched to capacity, a sudden influx of students from the independent sector would be a disaster.