> ...is awful at achieving a fair system [...] because schools are so stratified - by design of funding rules etc.
I'd say it was more down to the culture of parents in the poor areas mostly not giving a shit about their kid's education (and the roots of that aren't that the parents are intrinsically bad, it's a mindset of apathy inherited from their parents and the daily pressures that come with permanently worrying about money).
That said I also believe that the current UK government is far beyond any benefit of a doubt in terms of competence and maliciousnes.
But OMG the competence of the UK govt. It's like they literally can't do... anything without screwing it up. It is bizarre. Then they try to paper over it with words.
"I'd say it was more down to the culture of parents in the poor areas mostly not giving a shit about their kid's education"
Which sounds nasty, but rings true for a big part of England. It's also an uncomfortable truth, which basically always leads to downvotes.
Once a year (safe for this year, obviously) I'm in Blackpool at the Rebellion Punk Festival[1]. What you see in Blackpool and how people live there is very, very different from the impression you get when just visiting London.
People wouldn't believe how poor and destitute some areas in the UK are and the priority of a lot of people in such areas is not really education. Young women want as many kids as possible, since government benefits beat the shitty work prospects they have in such areas and the future for young people in general in those places are so bleak that it often leads to an understandable "why bother?" attitude.
And yes, this attitude is inherited, or actually worse. When there is a rare young person trying to be an achiever you can almost be sure he's mocked and bullied by his peers.
> rare young person trying to be an achiever you can almost be sure he's mocked and bullied by his peers
Yes. Someone on the web (maybe here, maybe slashdot) said that when someone tries, they're seen as trying to get above their station. Consequences follow.
I spent a couple of years on a sink estate in the UK as a kid. I know what it does to people.