My god Ed Balls is getting better - a fine interview on the Politics Show yesterday, when he got onto the topic of today's social mobility announcements.
It's a very welcome development that Gordon Brown and Alan Milburn can come together to discuss this topic, because I think Milburn's research last year, went a long way to describing the problem of how quality well paid jobs are increasingly being filled by those from privileged backgrounds, and the more typical working class weren't working their way into them.
On this, I think Ed Balls missed the trick against Suchet. Suchet's point was that Social Mobility has hardly moved after 13 years of a Labour Government.
But in truth, these things take generations before you even know if you are making progress.
To be able to measure whether more working class people are successful lawyers, requires at least 4-6 years while they go through education (and only because Labour have put half of all 18 year olds into uni at all) and then we have to watch them struggle through early years of work.
Aspiration is, of course, still a huge issue about whether an individual decides to apply themselves to making it in the professions, and we still have work to do on that level and with mentors.
But it did occur to me that David Cameron's claim to be 'brazenly elitist' in his new plans for teachers, will encourage more upper class kids to become teachers, opening up opportunity in the other professions.
No, I don't believe it will happen either…
SH
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