Perhaps we should welcome the coalition government’s assurance of the payment of child benefit to families with two parenting adults whose combined earnings are £86,000 per annum, even though it seems we must also accept - because otherwise it would create too much bureaucracy - that it is better for children who are in families with only one adult earning £45.000 in total not to receive any child benefit at all. It is to avoid bizarre situations like this arising that legislation needs modifying clauses and that we do need sufficient ‘bureaucrats’ in town halls and government institutions to make sure that unjust anomalies like this do not operate and that government edicts are moderated. Of course the officials in council offices, county halls and government ministries may soon no longer be available to help us avoid such injustice.
In any event the new coalition government insists “we are all in this together” and that poor children should not suffer. What a good time to make sure that all children in our community benefit in all things and to the same degree. Would it not be fairer to say that at birth no child should be poorer than another and that families and communities should share their wealth with all children equally ? Is the child of the wealthy captain of industry, or indeed the child of parents with combined earnings of £86,000 any more deserving of our planet’s resources than those of the child of an office cleaner working for £11,000 per annum ?
Is it fair that the prime minister, or indeed a social work team leader is paid more than someone who looks after people who are frail ? What is our response when questions like these are raised ? “What a ridiculously naive notion !” or “Well, up to a point” or “I like the idea, but how practical is it ?”
If a radical gesture towards equality for all children is not acceptable to the majority of people in our community, that may have to be accepted but, given that this is the case, let’s not listen to either politicians or indeed ourselves declaring that we really want to build a fairer society. Let’s all at least be honest if this is our view : we prefer to be richer, better educated, healthier and more powerful than others.
This article is written to a background of worrying news about children excluded from their mainstream schools. To be sure these are predominantly children from our least affluent families. Equally certain is that they are being excluded by mainstream schools which have clearly rejected the tub thumping idea “we are all in this together.”
A growing number of readers are writing to inform us that projects and centres which have been successfully providing for children excluded from their schools are under threat of closure and that many of the staff of these resources have already been served with redundancy notices. Where’s the togetherness and fairness here ?
(Originally posted on the goodenoughcaring hom page on October 5th, 2010)
Comments
Although not directly referring to the above article, David Cameron's thoughts on fairness expressed in his October 6th speech to the Conservative Party conference make interesting reading.
"I think it's time for a new conversation about what fairness really means. Fairness isn't just about who gets help from the state. The other part of the equation is who gives that help, through their taxes. Fairness means giving people what they deserve - and what people deserve depends on how they behave."
David Cameron, October 6th, 2010
