Boris: Why We Need Inequality

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, talking at the Centre for Policy Studies, a free-market think tank:  "Like it or not, the free market economy is the only show in town. Britain is competing in an increasingly impatient and globalised economy, in which the competition is getting ever stiffer.
"No one can ignore the harshness of that competition, or the inequality that it inevitably accentuates; and I am afraid that violent economic centrifuge is operating on human beings who are already very far from equal in raw ability, if not spiritual worth.
"Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests, it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16 per cent of our species have an IQ below 85, while about 2 per cent have an IQ above 130. I stress: I don’t believe that economic equality is possible; indeed, some measure of inequality is essential for the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Joneses that is, like greed, a valuable spur to economic activity.
Johnson nonetheless called for a more meritocratic society that may lead to some reduction in economic inequality. He announced his support of plans for a return of selective state schools and more state-funded scholarships for academically successful students to attend private schools. Read more