The End of Social Mobility and the Demise of Opportunity

Social mobility, or "bettering yourself", as it used to be called, is seen now as being in a bad way. The Guardian, which takes an interest in this subject, has devoted a whole web page to it - see here. Those who take the time to read it will find some very astute, if depressing, articles, to which I shall refer occasionally. I take an interest in this subject because, like many of my friends and contemporaries, I am a beneficiary of social mobility, albeit in an unusual way.
Like most people of working class origin (Father a storeman; mother a barmaid) born after the Second World War, I was given opportunities for social advancement of which my parents' generation could only have dreamed. The opportunity was provided by a massive expansion of education, with government investment in schools and the introduction of comprehensive education. The outmoded class society that existed in Britain was seen as being overthrown by the opportunity for working class kids to go to university, supported by maintenance grants, and aspire to the top jobs that were previously open only to the privileged few who had benefitted from private, elitist, education. This brave new world was symbolised also in the fields of art and popular culture, with singers and actors of humble origin, such as the Beatles and Michael Caine, rising to fame and acclaim. Most of my friends who continued in education at that time gained university degrees (or equivalent) and entered professional jobs. By doing this, of course, they rose in social status, from working/lower middle to middle class.
My own story was somewhat different. Because of ill-health, I missed out on full time education, and left school with no qualifications. At that time, however, there was very good evening class provision in my hometown of Southport, Lancashire. Over time I gained several of what were then called "O" (Ordinary) GCE levels. After my health improved, I began working as a Parks Gardener, and took an English "A" (Advanced) level in 1977, again at an evening class at what was then Southport Technical College. After gaining a good grade, a friend in Southport, who I shall call "JB", advised me that Salford University would accept entrants with one "A" level. I applied successfully, gained my degree in 1980, and qualified as a teacher in 1981. Some people find my story unusual, but there was a number of other mature students, as we were called, on my course and on others in the university. A remarkable thing for me was finding myself financially better off on a student grant than when I was working. This is my social mobility story. Despite my earlier problems, opportunity still existed for me. Oh, the rich were always better situated than we were, but surely we lived in a meritocracy?
Well, we might have done then, but we don't now. As Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett says in her Guardian article:
"The gap between rich and poor remains a gulf. Even when you’ve been to the same university and had the same education, the disadvantages of coming from a poor family can mean earning around 20% less."
And that, of course, is if you can afford to go to university in the first place. As we know, the student grants that my generation enjoyed have been replaced by student loans. This measure has made life much more difficult for poorer students, who lack the extra financial support that richer students get from their families. Gaining a B.A. or B.SC is one thing, but only richer students are able to progress to higher or research degrees nowadays. If you wish to advance in the academic world, these degrees are essential. They, plus private education, can even make a difference whether you get a job or not. As for top jobs, Owen Jones says in his Guardian article:
"  More than seven in 10 of Britain’s top military brass had parents with the means to send them to private schools; the proportion is even higher with top judges. The world of journalism is dominated by gilded backgrounds: according to the study, over half of the top journalists are privately educated, with just 19% having attended a comprehensive. As for politics: well, half the cabinet went to fee-paying schools very few of their electors could hope to attend."
Besides this, there are the people who find themselves in a similar situation that I was in from 1966 to 1977: those who did not do well at school but want to better themselves. This apparent "failure" on their part can happen for a number of reasons: ill-health, family breakdown, bullying, truanting, moving house frequently or being part of an anti-school culture. A year or so back, I wondered what would have happened if I had been in the same situation I found myself back in the seventies. At that time, Southport Technical College, as it was then called, offered a wide variety of examination classes in the evening at both "O" and "A" level. When I looked at similar courses on offer today, at what is now called Southport College, I was shocked to see that there were very few such courses. I mentioned this to my old friend JB; he shook his head and said:
"There's no social mobility any more"
Southport is a small seaside town in the north of England, but things are not much different here  in London. My local council, Hounslow, offers very few examination courses, as does the nearest provider of post-18 courses, West Thames College. Nearly every evening class is geared either for leisure or for English as a Second Language students. West Thames College provides what are known as "Access" courses, but not subject related, and during the daytime only, which is not helpful for people working during the day. It is possible to take "A" levels by correspondence course, but the cost, on average, is £400 per subject, and not the best option for someone on a low wage or benefits. Even should someone in this situation get to university, they will struggle financially, with no certainty of a better job at the end of it - and then be stuck with loan repayments. Again, this is an easier burden ( or none at all) for richer students. The Open University is an option, but it takes six years to get a degree, and is not cheap. For those who fall through the educational net nowadays, it is going to be much tougher to improve their circumstances than it was for me - perhaps impossibly so.
Sorry to have laboured the above point, but it is something of great personal importance to me, and I am well aware that Britain's brief meritocratic dalliance is coming to an end in other ways. In the field of the arts, for example, there is a growing imbalance towards children from privileged backgrounds. Poorer students are unlikely to take up a career in acting when they simply cannot afford to fund themselves while training, or struggling to establish themselves as actors. As Stuart Maconie says in the New Statesman:
"The great cultural tide that surged through Harold Wilson’s 1960s and beyond, the sea change that swept the McCartneys, Finneys, Bakewells, Courtenays, Baileys, Bennetts et al to positions of influence and eminence, if not actual power, has ebbed and turned. The children of the middle and upper classes are beginning to reassert a much older order. In the arts generally – music, theatre, literature for sure – it is clear that cuts to benefits, the disappearance of the art school (where many a luminous layabout found room to bloom) and the harsh cost of further and higher education are pricing the working class out of careers in the arts and making it increasingly a playground for the comfortably off."
He is right. Florence Welch, Laura Marling, Cara Delevigne and James Blunt, to mention but a few, were all privately educated and, as Maconie pointed out in the Radio Times last week, all three male leads in "The Night Manager", as well as Jack Davenport, Emma Watson and comic jack Whitehall all attended the Dragon boarding school in Oxford. This school has an outstanding drama department, and charges £28 000 a year per pupil. Maconie quotes Alexei Sayle as saying of "The Night Manager":
..."even generic Arab terrorist number four has been to Balliol College".
Very few people with any sanity could describe this a healthy situation. If we are reverting to a society governed by class, wealth and privilege, we are excluding very many talented people from important places in our society. History teaches us that when such people feel excluded and alienated, then serious problems can erupt violently. Bastilles fall; Winter Palaces are stormed; mansion houses burn; intelligent criminals grow in number. What is the alternative? None appears to be on offer.