The tragedy of Britain’s life expectancy divide

The FT Magazine has a great wee cover story on what is, in my view, the no.1 scandal in Britain today: the divergence between life expectancy in rich and poor areas. The author, Hugh Williamson, says:

I’ll give him my answer. First, the richest have the best education. There is noting equal about our comprehensive system schools. The richer the area, the better the school. The government does not recognise this massive problem, which is a direct result of giving local education bureaucracies monopoly control over education. The
Tory scheme of scholarships – where any indepndent school can set up in the state system and be given £5,000 a kid or even more – is the fastest way to righting this appalling and shameful injustice.

Next, welfare. Look at the areas of lowest life expectancy: they’re the areas of higher welfare dependency.