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I’ve been drawn back to my article about Labour’s social mobility vacuum, as a nagging question came into focus in my mind: why seek social mobility at all?
Some people won’t be able to move up the class system because they don’t have the brainpower or skills, but that should not disqualify them from being able to live a decent standard of life.
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Also – and this ties in with what was being said before: a government cannot say it is improving social mobility if it doesn’t improve physical mobility – like providing public transport that will get people to places where they can improve their life chances, such as colleges.
The fixation on social mobility itself deserves interrogation, because it quietly smuggles in an assumption that is rarely challenged: that the goal of society is to move people up in the established hierarchy, rather than to ensure everyone can live well within it.
To read the full commentary, head over to The Whip Line.
A paid subscription unlocks all my analysis and helps keep independent UK political journalism going.
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What is the real goal of Labour’s ‘social mobility’ policy – and what SHOULD it be?
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I’ve been drawn back to my article about Labour’s social mobility vacuum, as a nagging question came into focus in my mind: why seek social mobility at all?
Some people won’t be able to move up the class system because they don’t have the brainpower or skills, but that should not disqualify them from being able to live a decent standard of life.
Also – and this ties in with what was being said before: a government cannot say it is improving social mobility if it doesn’t improve physical mobility – like providing public transport that will get people to places where they can improve their life chances, such as colleges.
The fixation on social mobility itself deserves interrogation, because it quietly smuggles in an assumption that is rarely challenged: that the goal of society is to move people up in the established hierarchy, rather than to ensure everyone can live well within it.
To read the full commentary, head over to The Whip Line.
A paid subscription unlocks all my analysis and helps keep independent UK political journalism going.
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