Socialism likes to present a nice, cuddly image. They pretend, in order to get votes, that their main concern is doing the best for everyone. But once voted in they show their true colours, which are the implementation of dogma above all else. This turns out to be nasty and brutish and has lowered the quality of millions of people’s lives, has cost millions of jobs and makes us all very much poorer. Every time we have had a Labour government in the UK it has been a disaster, they leave the country crippled. Yet, amazingly people have short memories and before too long vote them back in again to redo their damage.

Socialist dogma says that all people are equal and should be rewarded equally in society (except for socialist politicians who have a long tradition of grabbing every penny they can for themselves, by whatever means). Which all sounds very fine except that we all know that it isn’t true. Some people are hard working and industrious whilst others are lazy and feckless. Some people study hard and better themselves whilst others are happy to remain ignorant. Some people are enterprising and create wealth for a wider society whilst others go through life doing the minimum to sustain themselves. Some people have principles and believe in an honest days work whilst others are lazy and work shy. Some reinvest their earnings in their enterprises whilst others fritter away every penny. And so on.

The reality is that the only way we will have equality is by dragging everyone down to the same level. By hammering down on the hard working, the studious, the enterprising, the principled, the entrepreneurial. And this is what happens under socialism. Merit is not rewarded.

So let’s look at the consequences of this idiotic doctrine of equality by looking at what it has done to our appalling education system.

Britain had a fantastic tradition, going back hundreds of years, of Grammar Schools. These were meritocratic places where the brightest, most hard working and most diligent were educated, regardless of class or parental income. They provided the educated elite that allowed Britain to create the world’s greatest empire, to build up a huge industrial base and to lead the world in academia and literature. Prime Ministers came from Grammar Schools. I went to Calday Grange Grammar School on the Wirral where I was in the top arts stream (perhaps not the best advert for the system!).

This was too much inequality for the socialist to put up with so they got rid of the centuries old Grammar School system and replaced it with the comprehensive system where all levels of ability, aptitude and application are thrown in together. Dogma prevailed, all were equal. But of course this act of vandalism meant that the brightest were now dragged down to the level of the most stupid and we were no longer producing the superbly educated elite. It was as if the nation had shot itself in the foot.

And the result, inevitable under the law of unintended consequences, was that the families who could afford it took their children out of the state education system and sent them off to be schooled privately. So instead of a good education being a matter of ability and application it now became a matter of parental wealth. Meritocracy and social mobility went out of the window to be replaced with a rigid class system where only the children of those with money could rise to the top. The stupid socialists achieved the exact opposite of what they intended.

As if this were not bad enough there is another socialist stupidity that damages schools. They see employees as units of labour, all making the same input and all to be strictly treated and rewarded the same. The unions enforce this with a vengeance. Socialists hate the idea of paying someone more money because they are good at what they do. And even more they hate the idea of getting rid of useless employees.

In schools it means that the many very good teachers have no motivation to do a more outstanding job of educating our youth. And it means that the many very bad teachers are secure in their job, like a cancer in our education system, being paid exactly the same as the very good teachers. Now it is obvious that this isn’t fair and it is obvious that it damages the education system. But these don’t seem to matter as long as the socialist dogma of equality is being adhered to.

What I have said about schools applies across every area of British public life where the socialists were able to force their dogma. They did it to the nationalised industries which helped run them into the ground and they have done it to our civil service which employs many people who are just a waste of space, eating up our taxes whilst giving us nothing back.

We need to fix this. Meritocratic countries are, inevitably, outperforming us. We must throw out the socialist dogma and go back to a society were merit is rewarded, where we face up to the reality that all people aren’t equal.