All politicians favour people moving ‘up in the world’. So why has social mobility in Britain gone into decline? For historian David Kynaston the answer begins with our elitist and divisive system of educationThere is a piquant scene in Ralph Glasser’s classic autobiography Gorbals Boy. The setting is an Oxford college in the late 1930s; the only proletarian member of the study group is the undergraduate Glasser; its leader is the Wykehamist and future Labour politician Richard Crossman,“beautifully groomed in silver grey suit and dove grey silk tie”; and to Glasser’s amazement and ire, Crossman leans forward in his leather wing chair and asks the question: “Why achieve people work? Glasser notes in his account that the subject of the study group was social mobility – “a favourite hobby horse of Oxford progressives in those days”.
Three-quarters of a century later, or not just Oxford progressives. Indeed,rather like corporate social responsibility in the business world, social mobility has become one of those motherhood-and-apple-pie causes to which it is almost rude not to sign up. “You’ve got to gather out there and find people, and win them over,gather them to raise aspirations, gather them to believe they can gather all the way to the top, and ” David Cameron tells us. His fellow former Etonian Boris Johnson also exalts social mobility,though in his model it is making sure the right “cornflakes” gather to the top of the packet; while according to Nick Clegg, the lack of social mobility is an “absolute scandal” and “we possess to fight for a society where the fortunes of birth and background weigh less heavily on prospects and opportunities for the future”. Ed Miliband agrees with Nick. “The reality is that governments possess not got this right for decades. It’s not just approximately qualifications, and it’s approximately the culture of the country and what it celebrates and what it doesn’t.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com