It's been a long time coming, but here it is - class war. Harriet Harman, who recently said something sensible (I forget what it was), has reverted to form big-time with her proposals for a 'new social order' - can anyone with any residual sense of history hear that phrase without a shudder? 'We want to do more than just provide escape routes out of poverty for a talented few,' she declares. 'We want to tackle the class divide.' I suppose that's just as well, as they've effectively closed down most such escape routes - hence their reverse progress on social mobility - so now it's time to unveil the real agenda, the 'new social order'. How delusional do you have to be to believe that social engineering of this kind - even if it was practicable - would benefit anyone?
(On the currently hot topic of social mobility, is no one going to mention the only demonstrably effective engine of social mobility in recent times (for all the shortcomings of the system of which it was a part) - the grammar school? Jim Naughtie on Radio 4 this morning almost hinted at it towards the end of a soft interview with the ghastly Liam Byrne, but couldn't quite bring himself to say the words. Social mobility won't resume until schools are reclaimed from the dead hands of the state and the local authority.)
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Well said, Nige. Labour have made it more difficult than ever to break out of a low income rut. They have been less friendly to the aspirational working classes than any Tory government. They could do it because they have always been as the party of the worker. It's a joke. The Tories were perhaps rightly accused of promoting a sink or swim approach unemployment but at least there was an option for those of us willing to put the effort into swimming. Looking out from my low wage rut, I can see only the obstacles the government have put in my way.
ReplyDeleteCarefull Nige, mention grammar schools during a labour term and the ghost of Keir Hardy will be set upon you. Comprehensive is king, let's level 'em all down so nobody will feel left out. She may not actually have said that but Shirley Williams bloody well thought it as she stood on the podium wearing her scruffy raincoat in Stevenage town centre circa the late sixties, her kids I believe were privately educated.
ReplyDeleteYes young ones, she was a labour politician in those days.