Spirit Level

A colleague dined with Ken Livingstone recently and said he was enthusing about a book, The Spirit Level, which identifies a link between anti-social behaviour and social inequalities.  In countries like Japan and Scandinavia that have a flatter social and financial hierarchy, anti-social behaviour is minimal.  Ken puts a lot of the blame at the great council housing sell-off, conducted under the auspices of Margaret Thatcher, as it took away the internal communities that kept people safe.  He said that if the Alpha Male in your community is not the priest, the teacher or the local success story but the drug dealer flaunting wealth and apparent security then why are we surprised that young people look anywhere else for a role model?    Apparently the discussion then degenerated into lambasting Boris and alarming Bullingdon Club stories, as you'd expect....  I am going to get The Spirit Level although I foresee a depressing read ahead of me.