Not new, but worth repeating

From The Daily Mail:

* Labour supporters slam party for giving safe seats to children of ex-MPs
* Will Straw, Stephen Kinnock and Emily Benn will all stand in 2015
* Euan Blair was also linked to a safe seat, but another candidate was chosen
* Working-class candidates are overlooked in their favour, campaigners say

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

From the BBC:

The UK is "deeply elitist" according to an analysis of the backgrounds of more than 4,000 business, political, media and public sector leaders. Small elites, educated at independent schools and Oxbridge, still dominate top roles, suggests the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission study...

It found that those who had attended fee-paying schools included 71% of senior judges, 62% of senior armed forces officers, 55% of permanent secretaries (the most senior civil servants) and 53% of senior diplomats...

Figures for top people who went to Oxford and Cambridge paint a similar picture. Some 75% of senior judges, 59% of the Cabinet, 57% of permanent secretaries, 50% of diplomats, 47% of newspaper columnists, 38% of the House of Lords, 33% of the shadow cabinet and 24% of MPs hold Oxbridge degrees.

Yes, the top level of the public sector is a bunch of self-serving, self-selected, inbred, clueless twats, we knew this.

But I think that Oxford and Cambridge are between a rock and a hard place here.

Oxford says that 56.8% of its intake is from state schools; for Cambridge it's 63.3%. So they're still skewed towards private school pupils, but it's not out of all proportion.

Now, those top two universities want to get the cleverest students, with a reasonable smattering of children of supremely wealthy parents to make large donations. Fair enough. And if those top two universities have the cleverest students, whether from state school or private school, we would expect their alumni to be at the top of many professions.

So ultimately their dilemma is this: if we take the most able state school pupils in preference to some private school also-rans, then we are doing out bit for equality and social mobility. But if we do that, then even more of our alumni will get into the top jobs and we end up being slammed for being elitist again.

And quite possibly, the equality campaigners are confusing cause and effect.

It's not so much that the self-selected people get to the top because they went to Oxford or Cambridge; they probably got into Oxford or Cambridge for the same reason that they get top civil service jobs. The same applies to those who went to private school.

Etonians at Westminster

From the BBC

In an interview in Saturday's FT, the education secretary said: "It doesn't make me feel personally uncomfortable, because I like each of the individuals concerned.

"But it's ridiculous. I don't know where you can find a similar situation in any other developed economy."

The FT said Mr Gove was reflecting on the number of those close to the prime minister who were educated, like Mr Cameron, at the boys' independent school.

The reason is the same as the reason why we've had 2 Milibands in parliament, a couple of Bottomleys, The Wintertons, Kirkbride/McKay, Mr and Mrs Dromey, Mr and Mrs Ed Balls, a clutch of Benns and the Eagle sisters, and that is that we have the First Past the Post electoral system and most of the world doesn't. And one of the results of that is you get "safe seats" where anyone can win for your party. So why bother picking the best candidate when you can give the job to your mates/wife/brother?

And it's also why the USA has the same problem with Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes, Ron and Rand Paul and so forth. Because they have the same rotten electoral system with little competition for most seats.

That's not to say that there shouldn't be these connections, but if you look at genuinely competitive markets, you see a lot less of them. Take football: there's lots of footballing families, but you don't find many cases where someone who hit the top of the game has a son or brother who also hits the top of the game. There's the Charltons, the Redknapps and the Nevilles, and that's about it.

Just Fancy That - or "compare and contrast" - a déja vu edition

1. The Manchester Gazette yesterday, singing the praises of Hazel Blears’ work experience scheme.

2. The Manchester Gazette yesterday, on the subject of "A Fair Day’s Pay For A Fair Day’s Work" complete with a special mention of the work being put in on this important campaign by one Hazel Blears...

It further coincides with a renewed call last month by Salford and Eccles MP Hazel Blears for all employers, including her fellow Parliamentarians, to end the practice of offering unpaid internships. Not only are they unlawful, Ms Blears believes that they are morally wrong because they give an unfair advantage to young people from better off backgrounds who can afford to work for free.

She took to the floor of the House of Commons to ask Prime Minister David Cameron to ensure that the National Minimum Wage was enforced, and that there would be no “exploitation” of students graduating from university in her constituency, and from across the country, this summer. As the law stands, anyone who works set hours and has set responsibilities is entitled to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage.

So according to Hazel and apparently the Manchester Gazette it is (still) definitely the case that forcing graduates to take unpaid internships in order to gain experience is very very wrong, but having unemployed non-graduates do unpaid work experience under a scheme to which Hazel attaches her name is fine... especially if it offers up a "photo op" or two...

See also Just Fancy That - or "compare and contrast"

Just Fancy That - or "compare and contrast"

To be found at the personal web site of Hazel Blears MP

Item 1: Name and shame firms which use unpaid interns says Hazel

Hazel is calling on treasury chiefs to name and shame companies found to be employing unpaid interns.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has revealed that during 2012/13 it ordered nine firms to pay £200,000 to people who had worked for them as unpaid interns. But it has refused to identify any of the companies involved.

Under the law, anyone with set hours and responsibilities should be paid at least the National Minimum Wage.

Hazel called for Treasury officials to do more to enforce the law when she met with Treasury officials and employment minister Jo Swinson about the problem in January...

Item 2: Kids Without Connections was launched by Salford and Eccles MP Hazel Blears last year when young people did placements with local firms.

Ms Blears began the scheme after becoming increasingly concerned by the number of young people who told her they had missed out on jobs because they did not have the experience, but they could not get the experience because they had not had a job.

But within a couple of months of celebrating their involvement in the first Kids Without Connection at a special Parliament reception, around half of the 23 young people involved had found meaningful jobs.

Ms Blears is now inviting companies interested in offering a young person up to four weeks of unpaid work experience during the second Kids Without Connections scheme to learn more about what is involved...

Obviously some types of "unemployed people" deserve to be paid at least national minimum wage whilst gaining all important work experience and some - those from poorer backgrounds, whose families may not have connections among relatives, friends and colleagues to help them get work experience, it would appear - don't.

No doubt Hazel can explain why the distinction?

Laffer Curve Fun, with a side serving of nepotism

HM Revenue & Customs has finally come up with a sixty-page report explaining why total revenues will not fall if the 50% income tax rate is reduced to 45%, here's the chart showing possible Laffer Curves from page 51:(image pinched from The Guardian, that's a good article if you ignore the leftie spin).

Fair enough, but what is this TIE of which they speak? It's short for 'Taxable income elasticity', see page 14:

The measure of the overall responsiveness of total taxable incomes to changes in marginal tax rates is the "taxable income elasticity" (TIE). This estimates the percentage change in total taxable incomes in response to a one per cent change in the net-of-tax rate (the proportion of each additional pound earned received by the individual after tax, also known as the marginal retention rate), and therefore captures all the behavioural responses described in Chapter 2.

Chapter 2 isn't much use either, but basically TIE is some sort of estimate of the price-elasticity of supply of labour. So if TIE is low at 0.35, people don't drop out the (taxpaying) workforce in response to lower post-tax incomes, and the increase in tax revenues by nudging the rate up to 50% outweighs the effect of the smaller tax base. If TIE is high, at 0.55, then once you get to an income tax rate of 43%, so many people drop out of the (taxpaying) workforce that total revenues start to fall if you nudge the rate any higher.

But HMRC cheerfully admit that they have no idea what the average TIE of higher earners is, so the whole thing is fairly useless, except to illustrate the point that a reasonable man concludes that while there must be a revenue-maximising income tax rate:

a) Whatever the true TIE is, the revenue-maximising tax rate could be anywhere within a very wide range (between 43% and 57%, going by the chart) and caution dictates we ought to go for the lowest figure in that range (43%).

b) We do not want to be anywhere near the revenue-maximising income tax rate anyway, we would rather be at the economy-maximising income tax rate, which happens to be zero per cent.

For your side-serving of nepotism, see City AM.

"Nepotism row as Campbell son is given a plum job with Labour"

From The Daily Mail:

Labour has been accused of nepotism after handing a plum job to the son of former Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell.

Calum Campbell, 22, has been a member of the party’s fundraising team since December and his role involves working closely with Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman. He was appointed to the post just five months after his father made a donation of £10,000 to the party...

Not much to add, I'm just posting it here so that I can add it to The List (click 'Nepotism' label).

Mili-Band Of Brothers

This story has got EVERYTHING

From yesterday's Evening Standard:

The employment tribunal of Cherie Blair's stepmother opens today — the outcome of which could determine her chances of becoming an MP. Stephenie Booth (1) - the fourth wife of Mrs Blair's TV actor father Tony Booth (2) - is fighting the marginal seat of Calder Valley, Yorkshire, for Labour. Her reputation and chances of success could rest on the outcome of the case, in which she claims she was sacked as a whistleblower from her job helping difficult teenagers... (3)

Mrs Booth, 55, worked for Cool UK, a private company which helps 14 to 16-year-olds, many of which have been excluded from school. (4) She started in April 2008 in a teaching role and was then asked to join the senior management team. But she was horrified by what she saw as scandalous conditions and attitudes - ranging from health and safety issues (5) to the alleged behaviour of staff...

Mrs Booth told the tribunal she had suffered “detriment and victimisation”. “As a whistleblower (6) I complained about a number of matters but I was effectively ignored,” she said. She was attacked by a female student which left her feeling “upset, frightened and intimidated” (7) but when she reported the assault to Mr Binding he told her not to go to the police (8), the tribunal heard. She went on (9): “A group of employees were buying porn on a regular basis each week from a man who would come to the unit. As far as I was aware this was adult pornography (10) and the transactions took place with students on the premises.” (11)

... Mrs Booth, who has been married four times and has four sons (12), was selected as Labour candidate in last April - despite allegations of voting irregularities (13) - and has paid tribute to Tony and Cherie Blair for supporting her political ambitions. (14)

1) Stupidly spelled name? Check.

2) There's a nice symmetry here - she is Mr Booth's fourth wife and he is her fourth husband.

3) "helping difficult teenagers..." FakePrivateCompany alert!

4) Yup. According to its website, its partners are ... er ... make that singular ... CSV: The UK's leading volunteering and training charity. Yawn. According to page 13 of CSV's accounts, CSV's income came from Learning and Skills Council £8,819,000; Cabinet Office and other Government departments £6,427,000; Fees, services and other income £5,881,000; Local and health authorities £4,663,000; Grants general £2,117,000; European funding £463,000 etc etc.

5) What Elfin Safety issues? It appears to be a school rather than, let's say, a building site or a farm or something dangerous.

6) Doesn't "whistleblower" imply that you report stuff internally first, and if nothing is done about it, you go to the press or something (and then promptly get the sack)? Nothing in the article suggests that she every went public on anything.

7) Diddums. That's what happens when you are "helping difficult teenagers", I guess. It goes with the job.

8) And how was Mr Binding going to stop her, exactly? But she didn't go to the police anyway, despite being told not to, which might just about have qualified her as a "whistleblower" (see 6).

9) And on and on and on.

10) Would she have preferred them to buy child pornography? What's her point?

11) You call 'em "students", I call 'em "difficult teenagers who'd think nothing of attacking their teacher". I don't think that a couple of porn mag's on the premises are going to corrupt them, not at this stage.

12) I'm sure there's a funny angle, but I can't quite pin it down.

13) "Voting irregularities". Nice.

14) She thought she'd just mention for the zillionth time that her step-daughter's husband used to be Prime Minister, you know, just in case the Tribunal judges, or indeed her local Labour Party were having second thoughts. Interestingly, Mrs Booth is 55 and Tony Blair is 56.

Fun Online Poll: Who is the Conservative Scumbag of this week?

Over at ShareCrazy. Choose from Call Me Dave, Nadine Dorries, David Wilshire and Tony Blair. Results will be published on Sunday.

Labour and inherited privilege (4)

I don't particularly like quoting from the Daily Hatemail, but here goes:

Lord Kinnock was appointed as a European Commissioner in 1995, on a salary of £105,584 a year. By the time he stepped down in 2004, he was earning £163,453 in salary, a £24,000-a-year housekeeping allowance and a £7,000 entertainment budget. Mr Kinnock received almost £273,000 when he left the job to help him adjust to life outside the Commission. He can also draw on a £64,000-a-year pension...

Mrs Kinnock, 64, and her husband have earned a reputation as serial junketeers after jumping on the EU gravy train in the 1990s. During her 15 years as Labour's MEP for South Wales East, Mrs Kinnock's salary had risen from £31,686 to £63,291, plus substantial expenses. Yet a surprise call from Number 10 means she will make the transition from £63,291-a-year euro MP to £83,275-a-year Europe Minister...

Their son, Stephen Kinnock, headed the St Petersburg office of the publicly funded British Council until October. Its unpaid chairman is Lord Kinnock. The 39-year-old now works as a director of the World Economic Forum.

The Kinnocks’ daughter, 37-year-old Rachel, landed a job on Mr Brown’s political staff two years ago.

New Labour and inherited privilege (3)

Another instalment of my occasional series from The Metro:

Mr Martin is said to be keen to stay on for an another year so he can keep his £141,000 salary and to maximise his chances of passing on his safe Glasgow seat to his son, Paul.

His son would presumably be known as 'Gorbals Paul' ab initio, which makes it a crying shame he wasn't christened 'Josef'.

Labour and inherited privilege (2)

Continuing my occasional series, it transpires that Siobhain McDonagh MP, the Whip who was sacked for suggesting that The Goblin King might seriously consider f***ing off, is the sister of Baroness McDonagh, who was the Labour party's General Secretary under Tony Bliar.

Even by Nulab standards, Ms McDonut has an impressive CV:

She was a clerical officer for the DHSS between 1981-3, then a Housing benefit (sic) from 1983-4, then a receptionist at the Wandsworth Homeless Persons Unit from 1984-6, and a housing adviser from 1986-8. Prior to being elected to Parliament she worked as a Development Manager for Battersea Churches Housing Trust from 1988-97.

"Cameron targets by-election win"

Priceless.

The party of inherited privilege throws down the gauntlet to the ... er ... other party of inherited privilege.

Labour and inherited privilege

The Labour Party's nepotism reaches new extremes - according to the ASI and LabourHome, they are seriously considering selecting Tamsin Dunwoody, the former Labour Welsh Assembly Member for Preseli & Pembrokeshire, as Crewe & Nantwich by-election candidate.

Tamsin got where she is today because her mum Gwyneth Dunwoody was a long-serving MP; who in turn was the daughter of a former General Secretary of the Labour Party...

Update - they've actually gone and selected her!

Gwyneth Dunwoody 1930 - 2008

A lot of tributes are being paid over at LabourHome. Apparently, "She was born into the Party as daughter of the longtime General Secretary, Morgan Phillips ..."

For a political party that is supposed to be in favour of meritocracy and against hereditary privilege and/or nepotism, it is quite amazing how many Labour politicians rest on their ancestors' laurels - Peter Mandelson (Herbert Morrison), Hilary Benn (Tony Benn), Emily Benn (Hilary Benn), the Miliband bros - or are indeed married to each other - Ed Balls & Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman & Jack Dromey.

Those are the examples that immediately spring to mind, I am sure that there are others.