Letter: A lesson in self-congratulation

Anthony Hartnett
Saturday 26 September 1992 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

BARONESS Perry's idea of a university seems to be a mixture of the philosophy of De Lorean and Ratner: find out what the customer wants, give it to them, but make them pay for it ('My Biggest Mistake', 20 September).

During the 1980s schools, hospitals, BBC, HMI, local education authorities, public transport and universities have been forced to pretend they are businesses. The problem (as the speculators have rumbled) is that the only part of British life not being run as a successful business is industry itself (especially manufacturing).

The Baroness did the easy thing: following the fashionable prejudices of the politically powerful. Let's hope that when the history of the 1980s comes to be written she gets a small footnote for her role in bringing about the intellectual, moral, economic and spiritual decline of Britain.

Anthony Hartnett

Senior Lecturer in Education

University of Liverpool

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in