I was reading an article in the Economist about social
mobility in the USA, and reflecting on my social mobility. I came from dust,
from nothing. I have come as far or further than anyone older than I in either branch of my family, the
first person in all the twentieth century to have attained to higher education
– the first in many generations. My dad and my mum were clever enough, but the
opportunities were not afforded to them. I have come further and higher than
any before me in my family – and the reason is social mobility. Social mobility
in the 1980’s has got me where I am now. I got A levels, got into a
polytechnic, and got a job – all through either luck or just brains. This
illumines my politics and my beliefs. It is why I have no patience with public
school educated sons or daughters of privilege who have got to top jobs through
background and education. This is why I admire Mrs Thatcher – who got into
Somerville on a scholarship, and that by luck rather than anything else. It is
why I can feel a bit chippy about many members of the front bench on both sides of the House – they are in the main, public school educated sons and daughters of privilege. I'm no socialist,
but am a firm believer in social mobility. I believe opportunities should be
available for people from the lower depths to rise to the top – the Clive James’s, the
Norman Tebbits of this world. It is why I have little patience or empathy with those who have
a huge weight of generational expectation behind them – four generations a
clergyman, or four generations an officer of the Royal Navy. I recall talking
to the wife of one such officer at a party. What’s that like to be?
