Bill Carmichael: Lost aspiration under Labour

This week the Prime Minister revealed plans to "unleash aspirations" and make it easier for those from poor backgrounds to enter elite universities and get top jobs.

The cynicism and sheer brass neck of this is breathtaking. The truth is that during Labour's term social mobility has been thrown into reverse –largely because of government policies.

As a result, Britain in 2010 is far from a land of opportunity. A baby born into poverty today is overwhelmingly likely to die poor, despite whatever marginal impact intelligence, talent and a propensity for hard work may have. What is more, the life chances of that child are pretty much set in stone before he or she is out of nappies.

Take, for example, access to higher education. If you hail from what government statisticians call "low participation neighbourhoods" – in other words the big council estates in most of our cities – your

chances of attending university are slim and of gaining a place at an elite institution vanishingly small.

If you do buck the trend and study for a degree, the likelihood is that it will be at a less prestigious former polytechnic, your chances of dropping out are high and the opportunities of a well-paid job at the end of it much smaller.

Much of this is as the result of deliberate Government policy. Since the disastrous decision to drop mandatory language teaching in 2004, for example, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of state school pupils studying modern languages.

As a result, a growing educational apartheid has developed. At university level, areas such as modern languages, the hard sciences and maths – and the well-paid jobs that go with them – are increasingly the preserve of the public school educated elite with a smattering of

pupils from the selective grammar schools and the comparatively few high-performing comprehensives.

With one eye on the league tables, many "bog standard" comprehensives push pupils towards softer subjects such as media studies and performing arts. This is nothing short of a disgraceful con, as many top universities regard A-levels in such topics as virtually worthless.

The Government's response to this has been a combination of bluster, bullying and bureaucracy. Universities are being browbeaten to accept lower grades from less well-off candidates and there is talk of big increases in fees for middle class students. And no fewer than three new quangos have been set up to police access by less well-off people to the professions such as law and medicine.

Meanwhile, Ed Balls, the public school educated Children's Secretary, has maintained an unremitting persecution of selective grammar schools – one of the few reliable pathways out of disadvantage for poorer pupils.

This is to look at the problem from the wrong end of the telescope. What is needed is not special treatment and discrimination in favour of poorer pupils, but schools where the brightest can receive an education that is as academically rigorous as that routinely offered in the fee-paying sector.

Mercy mission

THE unremitting grim reports from Haiti at last had a bit of good news. After a week buried under the rubble, Kiki, a seven-year-old boy was rescued alive by a US rescue team and sent to an Israeli field hospital for treatment.

I had no idea the Israelis had set up a hospital in the quake zone – it serves me right for relying too heavily on the BBC for my news. One should never under-estimate the vile prejudice against Israel – and the vicious anti-Americanism – routinely displayed by mainstream news organisations, particularly on the left.

But it is true – the tiny Jewish state has sent an entire hospital with 40 doctors, 24 nurses and tonnes of supplies. Thank God for Israel and the US – the world would be much poorer without them.