No such thing as society
The government’s ‘Big Society’ project is partly inspired by a desire to undo the damage created by a remark made by Mrs Thatcher in an interview with Woman’s Own on 31 October 1987. Here are some extracts from the transcript:
‘I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand “I have a problem, it is the government’s job to cope with it!”… If children have a problem, it is society that is at fault. There is no such thing as society. There is a living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.’
Inflation
Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, warned that inflation may go to 5%. Some prices, however, have risen more quickly.
Price rise since Dec 2009 Price in Dec 2010
71% One cauliflower £1.37
38% 1kg salmon fillet £15.83
20% 1kg British lamb shoulder £6.30
19% 1.5kg self-raising flour £1.20
18% 250g British butter £1.23
13% One orange 35p
Source: ONS
Adoption
There are 4,000 children in Britain waiting to be adopted. One in four people who applied to adopt children are rejected. These are some common reasons:
13% – Wrong ethnicity
11.1% – ‘Personal profile’ didn’t match children needing to be adopted
5.6% – Blacklisted because initially they had said they only wanted to adopt a baby
3.7% – Too old
11.1% – No reason given
Source: Adoption UK
Shaky foundations
The economy shrank by 0.5% in the last quarter of 2010. The building industry was hard hit. Here is the percentage change in revenue for each type of construction between the last quarters of 2009 and 2010:
Residential –31%
Commercial –20%
Civil Engineering –50%
Source: Glenigan
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