Encouraging aspiration
‘Sometimes the obvious needs to be stated. Britain is an unequal society. The elite look after their own. Poverty traps people from one generation to another. Government action and huge expenditure have at best stopped social division worsening. Encouraging aspiration is hard. And these conclusions, from yesterday’s excellent report on access to the professions, sit alongside some startling individual facts.’ – Editorial, The Guardian
‘Parents with children at persistently failing schools may be given vouchers to enable them to buy a better education elsewhere.’ – The Independent
‘If equal opportunity is like apple pie, then social mobility is like custard. Everyone is in favour of them but everyone disagrees about the best way to make them. There is much in yesterday’s cross-party report chaired by Alan Milburn with which most people will agree. But that concerns its analysis of the problem. Where it is weakest is in the solutions it offers.’ – Leader, The Independent
MPs’ expenses bill
‘A bill aimed at cleaning up Parliament after the MPs’ expenses scandal has become law after getting Royal Assent.’ – BBC
Slow recovery ahead?
‘A leading think-tank is predicting it may take another five years for income per head to return to the level it was before the recession hit in early 2008.’ – BBC
‘UK pubs closed at a rate of 52 per week in the first half of the year – a third more than the same period in 2008 – the British Beer & Pub Association said.
Local pubs were the most vulnerable as communities were hit by the fallout of the economic downturn, it added.’ – BBC
The Macpherson Report: 10 years on
‘The treatment of black people by the police on issues such as stop and search and the national DNA database has worsened since the official inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence 10 years ago, according to MPs.’ – Alan Travis, The Guardian
News Group under pressure
‘The News of the World made payments to its disgraced royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire after the two men were jailed for phone hacking, MPs were told today.’ – Chris Tryhorn and Caroline Davies, The Guardian