The tyranny of choice

In the early stages of the recent campaign, one of the things that the parties tried to outdo each other in promising was choice. Choice of school for the kids and choice of hospital for the sick. Who said we want a choice? Who is going to pick the 'worst' service? We just want the nearest service to our home to be good enough that we don't have to worry about it. Anything else simply creates a market in which the rich win out at the expense of the poor. As an example, consider schools. In my town, there is a school that is considered 'better' than the others. The difference in price between an equivalent house in the catchment area for the 'good' school and one in the catchment areas for the other schools is pretty much the same as the cost of a private secondary education. I don't think this is a coincidence, it is just the market working.

I've never been so insulted in my life

Well, actually I have, but let's not discuss that now. What I'm talking about is the Conservative party's belief that they can get my vote by appealing to my xenophobia and greed. I'm not xenophobic, and I'm not greedy in the sense that the Tories seem to think I am. As I write this, the first results in the UK General Election are being announced and it seems that the Tories have done rather better than the polls had indicated they would. I hope that this does not indicate that my fellow citizens are impressed by Michael Howard's cynical attempt to encourage racism and the pusuit of personal gain. There aren't that many Daily Mail readers, are there?