What’s wrong with Special?

All the Same

© Alexey Lisovoy | Dreamstime.com

I’m at a loss to explain it…why is this government working so hard to eliminate anything that is different?  Same old, same old, seems to be their template for the future.

Once we Britons were known for our originality, if not eccentricity, and we provided the World with thousands of innovative inventions that have shaped everyone’s lives.  We’ve always celebrated “the different”… be that people or things…and these islands have always been home to the special, the unusual and the anomalous.

Now “anomaly” is spoken of as equal to wrong or unfair…something that must be wiped out or at least ignored.  It is becoming “the norm” for Government to seek out and dispose of anomalies.  As evidence I cite:

The Pasty Tax – said to remove an anomaly in the application of VAT on hot food but which puts up the price of the workers’ lunch.

The Heritage Tax – the chancellor says this will avoid the anomaly of not having VAT on repairs to old buildings, but zero tax encourages the owners of listed buildings to keep them serviceable for the Nation.

The Abolition of the 50% tax rate – the chancellor believes that everyone should have the same top rate.

I suppose these instances have highlighted the current trend to make everything the same…and the Government would probably argue, make things fairer…but then a state where everyone is the same and there is nothing worth striving for is surely the life of a drone?

This is not a new situation, though…just look at the way we run junior school sports days (no winners or losers), allocate university places (by quota) and fill jobs (by quota).  We are on the road to everything of equal value…and with it…mediocrity.

One thought on “What’s wrong with Special?

  1. This advice is also good for grtauade students don’t wait until you get on the tenure track to start cultivating these habits! It’s difficult to be active in a lot of library science programs these days, with so many classes going online to accommodate distance learning. But if you can, attend as many events as possible! University officials may not be monitoring which grad students attend, but faculty members do notice. And, if you’re in grad school, you are starting on a career path if all you want is a job, why spend that time, money, and energy in getting a grtauade degree?I hope that following your advice will be easy once I land a tenure track position, since the same basic principles were drilled into my head in grad school!

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