A-level Results day.

The day of judgement has come and hundreds of thousands of students up and down the country (myself included) will have raced down to their schools this morning in order to recieve those dreaded A-level results. Well I have been and have been accepted to my personal jubilation by my first choice even though I got a little under the grades required! (The powers of supply and demand once again work in my favour). There were a couple of people crying there as they found out they didn't get the grades they wanted, and there were a few people in utter extasy. Me on the other hand, I was happy, content, secure.

This changed however when I got home and took a look on the bbc's website to see how the country had done. Well is the word, if you went to a private school like I did, If you went to a secondary modern on the other hand things aren't so great. I have had this nasty feeling for a while that we are slowly through the powers of new right economics creating a more divided Britain where chav hunts are quite acceptable and people stick their noses up at teenage mothers (going to a private school I have seen my fair share of snobbery). The graph to the right seems to support my worse fears. Sure, there's been improvements for those at the bottom, its just improving behind the rest of the country which seems to be a hallmark of Labour's social policy. Labour's answer to the problem: create more private and independent schools because selective education will always succeed (for who though?) and comprehensive will fail like it did in the nasty old days of the EUGHHHH (spits) publicly owned (but highly effective even if it wasnt efficient) welfare state. This is what New Labour and the third way is. They are the true Thatcherites in sheeps clothing. They have accepted all the right wing beliefs of the new right and believe that by applying these beliefs (private > public, all human beings should be treated as self seeking individuals, sorting by numbers and exams will provide better results) to the public sector they will have more equitable results for the whole of society.

When reality kicks in and they suddenly find out that these methods have led to a growth in inequality their response is one of crude, abusable legislation to discriminate on class. This is why some people who get 5 As at A level are turned down by three of their university choices because they chose the wrong subjects and went to the wrong school. The liberal response is impressive to the problem of education but not very vocal (see the mini manifesto) and I am rather tired of having to explain to every one I meet while canvassing about the huge range of reforms we want to take in education because nobody else (including some of our owwn party members) has a clue what we stand for.

Anyway, I shouldn't get angry over this really, after all I did pretty well out of the system. It just pisses me off that others didn't.