2 The dream that turned pear-shaped
-
Daniel Dorling
Abstract
For international readers I’m afraid (as the English tend to say) that this is a very British tale beginning with a very British piece of slang, so I had better define at least one of my terms:
The dream, the perfect-policy-circle that was going to deliver so much was fully recognised to be pear-shaped only in the tenth year of its dreaming. The dream was that inequalities would be reduced by a government committed to social justice. This included all kinds of inequalities, but it made sense in the journal this chapter was first published in to begin with those concerning economic geography:
On the 20th of March 2006 The Financial Times published the results of its investigation which…
“…uncovered a startling picture of underperformance in the very regions of the country the government came to office vowing to revitalise. The stark message of the statistics is that regional and local economies under Mr Blair’s government have become divergent more quickly than under Margaret Thatcher, generally seen as the premier whose policies did most to entrench the north-south divide.” (Giles, 2006)
The growing divide they found was not just between regions of the country but “at the level of parts of UK cities and small rural areas … the richest areas benefited from faster growth since 1997 than poorer areas” (ibid).The newspaper quoted Professor Andrew Henley of Swansea University as saying that it was “shocking, really” and that “we have had more dispersion between 1995 and 2001 than between 1977 and 1995”, and that developments since 1997 are pointing towards the growth of “extremely productive breakaway regions including London, the South-East and a few cities elsewhere, a few intermediate areas – and a big rump of poor performance”.
Abstract
For international readers I’m afraid (as the English tend to say) that this is a very British tale beginning with a very British piece of slang, so I had better define at least one of my terms:
The dream, the perfect-policy-circle that was going to deliver so much was fully recognised to be pear-shaped only in the tenth year of its dreaming. The dream was that inequalities would be reduced by a government committed to social justice. This included all kinds of inequalities, but it made sense in the journal this chapter was first published in to begin with those concerning economic geography:
On the 20th of March 2006 The Financial Times published the results of its investigation which…
“…uncovered a startling picture of underperformance in the very regions of the country the government came to office vowing to revitalise. The stark message of the statistics is that regional and local economies under Mr Blair’s government have become divergent more quickly than under Margaret Thatcher, generally seen as the premier whose policies did most to entrench the north-south divide.” (Giles, 2006)
The growing divide they found was not just between regions of the country but “at the level of parts of UK cities and small rural areas … the richest areas benefited from faster growth since 1997 than poorer areas” (ibid).The newspaper quoted Professor Andrew Henley of Swansea University as saying that it was “shocking, really” and that “we have had more dispersion between 1995 and 2001 than between 1977 and 1995”, and that developments since 1997 are pointing towards the growth of “extremely productive breakaway regions including London, the South-East and a few cities elsewhere, a few intermediate areas – and a big rump of poor performance”.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Sources of extracts vii
- Foreword xi
- Acknowledgements xiv
- Introduction 1
-
Inequality and poverty
- Prime suspect: murder in Britain 13
- The dream that turned pear-shaped 31
- The soul searching within New Labour 41
- Unequal Britain 49
- Axing the child poverty measure is wrong 57
-
Injustice and ideology
- Brutal budget to entrench inequality 63
- New Labour and inequality: Thatcherism continued? 65
- All in the mind? Why social inequalities persist 83
- Glass conflict: David Cameron’s claim to understand poverty 93
- Clearing the poor away 97
-
Race and identity
- Ghettos in the sky 103
- Worlds apart: how inequality breeds fear and prejudice in Britain 111
- How much evidence do you need? Ethnicity, harm and crime 115
- UK medical school admissions by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sex 121
- Race and the repercussions of recession 125
-
Education and hierarchy
- What’s it to do with the price of fish? 133
- Little progress towards a fairer education system 139
- One of Labour’s great successes 147
- Do three points make a trend? 149
- Educational mobility, England and Germany 155
- Cash and the not so classless society 159
- Britain must close the great pay divide 165
- Raising equality in access to higher education 170
-
Elitism and geneticism
- The Darwins and the Cecils are only empty vessels 189
- The Fabian essay: the myth of inherited inequality 193
- The return to elitism in education 199
- The super-rich are still soaring away 209
-
Mobility and employment
- The trouble with moving upmarket 217
- Britain – split and divided by inequality 221
- London and the English desert: the grain of truth in a stereotype 225
- Are the times changing back? 237
- Unemployment and health 243
-
Bricks and mortar
- Mortality amongst street sleeping youth in the UK 249
- Daylight robbery: there’s no shortage of housing 251
- The influence of selective migration patterns 255
- The geography of poverty, inequality and wealth in the UK and abroad 263
- All connected? Geographies of race, death, wealth, votes and births 291
-
Well-being and misery
- Against the organization of misery? The Marmot Review of Health Inequalities 299
- Inequality kills 307
- The geography of social inequality and health 311
- The cartographer’s mad project 327
- The fading of the dream: widening inequalities in life expectancy in America 333
- The importance of circumstance 339
-
Advocacy and action
- Mean machine: how structural inequality makes social inequality seem natural 347
- Policing the borders of crime: who decides research? 351
- Learning the hard way 357
- When the social divide deepens 363
- Ending the scandal of complacency 365
- Our grandchildren will wonder why we were addicted to social inequality 369
- Mind the gap: New Labour’s legacy on child poverty 373
- Remapping the world’s population: visualizing data using cartograms 379
- If I were king 385
- Bibliography 387
- Index 389
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Sources of extracts vii
- Foreword xi
- Acknowledgements xiv
- Introduction 1
-
Inequality and poverty
- Prime suspect: murder in Britain 13
- The dream that turned pear-shaped 31
- The soul searching within New Labour 41
- Unequal Britain 49
- Axing the child poverty measure is wrong 57
-
Injustice and ideology
- Brutal budget to entrench inequality 63
- New Labour and inequality: Thatcherism continued? 65
- All in the mind? Why social inequalities persist 83
- Glass conflict: David Cameron’s claim to understand poverty 93
- Clearing the poor away 97
-
Race and identity
- Ghettos in the sky 103
- Worlds apart: how inequality breeds fear and prejudice in Britain 111
- How much evidence do you need? Ethnicity, harm and crime 115
- UK medical school admissions by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sex 121
- Race and the repercussions of recession 125
-
Education and hierarchy
- What’s it to do with the price of fish? 133
- Little progress towards a fairer education system 139
- One of Labour’s great successes 147
- Do three points make a trend? 149
- Educational mobility, England and Germany 155
- Cash and the not so classless society 159
- Britain must close the great pay divide 165
- Raising equality in access to higher education 170
-
Elitism and geneticism
- The Darwins and the Cecils are only empty vessels 189
- The Fabian essay: the myth of inherited inequality 193
- The return to elitism in education 199
- The super-rich are still soaring away 209
-
Mobility and employment
- The trouble with moving upmarket 217
- Britain – split and divided by inequality 221
- London and the English desert: the grain of truth in a stereotype 225
- Are the times changing back? 237
- Unemployment and health 243
-
Bricks and mortar
- Mortality amongst street sleeping youth in the UK 249
- Daylight robbery: there’s no shortage of housing 251
- The influence of selective migration patterns 255
- The geography of poverty, inequality and wealth in the UK and abroad 263
- All connected? Geographies of race, death, wealth, votes and births 291
-
Well-being and misery
- Against the organization of misery? The Marmot Review of Health Inequalities 299
- Inequality kills 307
- The geography of social inequality and health 311
- The cartographer’s mad project 327
- The fading of the dream: widening inequalities in life expectancy in America 333
- The importance of circumstance 339
-
Advocacy and action
- Mean machine: how structural inequality makes social inequality seem natural 347
- Policing the borders of crime: who decides research? 351
- Learning the hard way 357
- When the social divide deepens 363
- Ending the scandal of complacency 365
- Our grandchildren will wonder why we were addicted to social inequality 369
- Mind the gap: New Labour’s legacy on child poverty 373
- Remapping the world’s population: visualizing data using cartograms 379
- If I were king 385
- Bibliography 387
- Index 389
