Future looks grim

In any mixed society, some social group is bound to end up at the bottom of the pile. But who could have forecast that the losers in the Britain of 2006 would be white?

The Social Justice Policy Group reports that young, poor white males are the new underclass, doomed to educational failure and wasted lives.

At GCSE, white boys from poor families are well behind Asian and Chinese families and even trail behind black boys who were long believed to be the worst academic performers.

The report stresses that this is not a question of how much we spend on education. Even when money is poured into working-class schools, the white males still come out bottom of the class.

The report, chaired by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, identifies problems which are “deep-rooted and social in character.”

In other words, it is neither colour nor class that determines whether someone succeeds at school. It is a question of culture.

In Chinese and Indian families, family structures are strong and learning is highly valued. In many poor white households the family is falling apart. Those who try to succeed at school are seen as swots or class traitors.

Not long ago, such attitudes were less important. Manual jobs and the armed forces provided employment for boys with no examination passes.

But in today’s knowledge-based economy, there is no place for a sullen, illiterate underclass.

Jobless and hopeless, is it any wonder so many turn to drugs and crime?

Successive governments, lobbied by the race-relations industry, have assumed that all our problems are down to race or faith.

The truth is more complicated. Tens of thousands of white working-class lads are betrayed by the dumbed-down attitudes of their own families, friends and neighbourhoods.

Reversing this self-destructive drift is a massive task.

But the cost of neglecting it will be nothing less than a wasted generation and an epidemic of lawlessness that will make today’s street crime look like a picnic in the park.

Bank on the end to a free service

So farewell, free banking. First Direct is imposing charges on current accounts and other banks will surely follow.

Banks may claim to be independent but when one finds a new way to make a quick buck, the others have a track record of doing the same.

Their profits already run into billions of pounds. If bank charges push those profits even higher, we would expect whoever is Chancellor to consider those three little words that make customers rejoice and bankers wince.

A windfall tax.