Onwards and upwards
The Spectator on social mobility
Social mobility is enhanced when poverty of aspiration is banished. If people believe that their future is determined by their birth, or are consistently told that this is so, such prophecies tend to be self-fulfilling. For all its flaws, the idea of the American dream is a powerful social tool. As a country we should celebrate those like Mr Milburn who have risen from a council estate to high office.
Social mobility in Britain has not recovered from the closure of the grammar schools. The current composition of the Tory front bench is testament to how the gap created by this act of educational vandalism has been filled by those who went to private schools. This is scarcely surprising. What is surprising — scandalous, in fact — is that no major party has the guts to promise to open more grammar schools, although the public is overwhelmingly in favour of such a strategy. How craven is it possible for our political class to be?
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