"A new report shows that Britain as much cause for pride as worry"
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"Social mobility is one of the biggest problems facing Britain. Article after article has been written (not least by me) bemoaning the fact that the rich are getting richer, the poor and getting poorer, and the middle class are trapped in the middle. We’ve even set up an official commission devoted to suggesting ways that disadvantaged children can finally have a better chance in life.
"But a fascinating new survey from academics at Oxford University and the LSE suggests that actually, social mobility's not much of a problem at all. Or rather, that it's a problem that's mostly been fixed.
"... [However], as the researchers say, if there is a ‘mobility problem in present-day Britain, it is not that mobility overall has fallen. It is, rather, that the balance of upward and downward mobility ... is moving in an unfavourable direction. Perhaps it is this that has been sensed by politicians in their concern with mobility'.
"This potential problem does, as they also say, carry 'potentially far-reaching political and wider social implications'. If we're moving towards a situation in which there are fewer people at the top, and more at the bottom, and people are more likely to have worse jobs than their parents, we should clearly be concerned."
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