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What the Papers Say

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Following the publication of his new book, "Unhealthy Societies: the Afflictions of Inequality" (Routledge), Richard Wilkinson (Trafford Centre) has received a vast amount of media attention, including a Channel 4 documentary based on his work. His book, which was apparently inspired by a Brazilian traffic jam, compares the relationship between equality and road accidents. One of the questions he tries to answer is: "Do people see other members of the public as fellow citizens with whom their welfare is interdependent, or... merely as obstacles in each other's way?"

In an article published in The Observer (15 September) Drew Milne (EAM) bites back at Melanie Phillips' condemnation of British education and her anti-liberal vision for the future, where "freedom... needs to be policed and not to be free." In addition to providing an eloquent repudiation of Phillips' charges Drew also proceeded to perform surgery upon her own use of English (one of her complaints being how the future of education lies in eradicating poor spelling). Drew ended his piece by saying: "If journalists can propose scrapping teacher-training colleges, then my modest suggestion would be to scrap miseducational journalism."

With the closure of the Centre for Future Research, at the University of California, fears rose for the future of futurology. However David Gann (SPRU) dismissed speculation that innovation is dying (The Observer 1 September), pointing out that progressive trends usually need at least 50 years to take effect.

"International research has found that the occupational system in Britain is just as open as that in any other western country" claimed Peter Saunders (SOC) in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (6 September). "Many of the social advantages which are commonly assumed to be crucial in achieving success turn out to be relatively unimportant".

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Friday October 11th 1996