BBC Radio 4 2016-10-14

Good morning.

It was more than twenty years ago that I first learnt of the great disparity in health and life expectancy between different parts of the country. What shocked me then was not so much the disparity itself but the fact that that the difference in life expectancy had widened out considerably over the previous 10 years. This week the Office of National Statistics reported its latest findings and they make sober reading. Women in Richmond in South West London will live 15 years longer in good or very good health than women in Tower Hamlets in East London. Men in Wokingham in Berkshire will have 14 more years good or very good health than men in Manchester. All parties agree this is simply not acceptable, and we need to look at the range policies which bear on this, education, employment opportunities lifestyle, the environment and so on. It is highly relevant for example that the unemployment rate in Richmond is only 3% and the average income is over ￡41, 000 a year.

However we work out what is fair the need for fairness seems deeply ingrained in us. From an early age children can he heard to say "Its not fair" if another child has been given a bigger share. Sometimes when they say this adults have been known to respond " Well, Life isn't fair"-not a very helpful reply I have always thought. Surely it should be, "No it isn't and we ought to do what we can to make it fairer." But having said that there will always be some unfairness that cannot simply be eliminated. The subject in Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, feeling very sorry for himself and cursing his fate, finds himself "desiring this man's art, and that man's scope". There is likely to be a bit of this in most of us. I don't think I have ever envied the rich, but I do envy people with musical and linguistic ability for example and we have to deal with any such feelings of envy, resentment or self pity we may find in ourselves .

Jesus told a surprising story with a rather tough message about 10 people who were given very different amounts of money. Those who had been given more went out and made even more. The person who had been given little moaned that life was unfair and simply buried the little he had been given in the ground. When the boss returned, far from feeling sympathetic to the poor man, he gave him a very hard time.
Life is unfair and there is a moral obligation to make it fairer for those who are losing out. But when it comes to ourselves, even if we do feel that fate has dealt us a rather poor hand, it looks as though we are expected to make something of our life.