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The narrowness of political "differences" in the UK is such that I often find it hard to think of a topic on which the political parties actually disagree. For example, that "forced sterilisation" thing seems to have fallen off the political agenda, doesn't it? And I was wondering whether I would be allowed to specify, when letting a flat, "no young women", on the grounds that they are the worst tenants in the universe - spoilt, incapable of boiling an egg, and always at home, rather than out boozing, as blokes are. And you can also guarantee that, when you let a flat to three women, you are usually going to have five people living there.
Political parties are rather like the Baptist churches in southern Tennessee. While they might scream "heretic!" at each other across the street, no sane outsider can see any difference between the pair.
So, let's raise a hand and a jar for Jamie Whyte in today's FT, for an article that says that one of our main problems in society today is that there is too much social mobility. Well, ya gotta admire someone who comes out with something that would bring about silence at just about any political party meeting.
Whyte's simple point is that, people confuse "social mobility" with "people becoming better off". But, for every person who moves up in the comparative social scale, someone else has to move down. And if, as I suspect, "wealth" is far more a matter in the developed world of comparisons rather than absolutes, "social mobility" doesn't make the country better off at all.
Or perhaps they are confusing social mobility with meritorious allocation of assets. But they aren't the same thing at all. I'm all in favour of maximising the opportunity of all people to reach the best of their potential -- although it seems to me that the UK eduication system does its level best to prevent that by discouraging any concept of "superiority". But that is nothing to do with social mobility. Indeed, the biggest cause of sudden social mobility in the UK is probably the lottery. And I don't think that the ability to pick the right six numbers at random is something that you can teach (or learn) at school.
So, the next time you ever get to speak to a prospective parliamentary candidate, ask them whether they think comparative social mobility is a good thing.
Then shoot them down in flames.
Political parties are rather like the Baptist churches in southern Tennessee. While they might scream "heretic!" at each other across the street, no sane outsider can see any difference between the pair.
So, let's raise a hand and a jar for Jamie Whyte in today's FT, for an article that says that one of our main problems in society today is that there is too much social mobility. Well, ya gotta admire someone who comes out with something that would bring about silence at just about any political party meeting.
Whyte's simple point is that, people confuse "social mobility" with "people becoming better off". But, for every person who moves up in the comparative social scale, someone else has to move down. And if, as I suspect, "wealth" is far more a matter in the developed world of comparisons rather than absolutes, "social mobility" doesn't make the country better off at all.
Or perhaps they are confusing social mobility with meritorious allocation of assets. But they aren't the same thing at all. I'm all in favour of maximising the opportunity of all people to reach the best of their potential -- although it seems to me that the UK eduication system does its level best to prevent that by discouraging any concept of "superiority". But that is nothing to do with social mobility. Indeed, the biggest cause of sudden social mobility in the UK is probably the lottery. And I don't think that the ability to pick the right six numbers at random is something that you can teach (or learn) at school.
So, the next time you ever get to speak to a prospective parliamentary candidate, ask them whether they think comparative social mobility is a good thing.
Then shoot them down in flames.
