The World's Fair

Teenager’s the world over have a cry that, although the language in which it’s spoken may change, carries precisely the same meaning and exasperation for their parents.

‘It’s not fair!’

And you know what? The teenager’s right. But get over it, kid. Life’s not fair for any of us. It never was. And anyhow, you don’t really mean that ‘the world’s not fair’. What you really mean is ‘the world doesn’t operate the way that I want it to’.

The concept of fairness is incredibly hard to define. The King of All Dictionaries, the Oxford, defines fair as “just or appropriate in the circumstances”. Look up ‘just’ and you’ll see “based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair”. So fair equals just and just equals fair. These are not black and white, they’re judgement calls and each of us would have our own choice of what they mean.

Imagine two men in the same town. Your town, maybe. Perhaps even your street. Let’s call them John and Paul.

Now John has his own business and employs quite a few men and women in the area. He looks at Paul and sees a man of his own age who has spent more than half his life claiming various benefits and thinks that life just isn’t fair. Why should he pay his taxes to support a guy who doesn’t support himself or his family? It just isn’t fair.

Paul on the other hand has tried to look for work, he really has, but there aren’t any jobs out there for a man of his age that it would be worth his while to take, not when he’s got three children to look after as well. The way he sees it, people like John should help him out. John can afford a nanny to look after his kids. It just isn’t fair.

Which one’s right? Both. Or neither. Which one you would agree with depends on your political view. A succession of governments have implemented what they believe to be the best policies to make our society fair but without a generally accepted definition of what ‘fair’ actually is, they face an impossible task. Both Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair won landslide election victories by promoting a vision of a fairer Britain. Whatever you might think of their respective levels of success, it’s difficult to see either of them being elected today.

Or perhaps I’m being unfair?