Snakes And Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth
Selina Todd Chatto & Windus, £25
As the pandemic sees the gap between rich and poor grow ever wider, Oxford Professor of Modern History Selina Todd asks how we can build a more fair and balanced society, offering equal opportunities for all, regardless of background.
She examines class in Britain through hundreds of life stories. She speaks to people who have climbed the ranks from a working-class background to enjoy a middle-class lifestyle and to those who slid down the ladder, having a lower quality of life than their parents.
Her account stretches back to 1880, using Mass Observation to track the views of ordinary people. Within this timeframe, there have been periods when people stood little chance of improving their lot, due to recession, depression or war.
However, at other times, people stood a decent chance of “getting on” in life. These opportunities could come from “above” with, for example, the foundation of the NHS or free university tuition.
The welfare state safety net also enabled people to innovate in the job market. Sometimes those chances came from “below”, such as when generations became activists or feminists, joining forces to effect change.
But just as certain generations achieved social mobility – such as when children of working-class families became the first to go to university or to enter white-collar professions – these gains have at other times been eroded by governments championing the individual and the myth that “hard work pays off”.
Margaret Thatcher is arguably the most influential figure of the post-war period. Todd concedes “a small number of people did grow very rich in the 1980s but tended to be from relatively wealthy backgrounds – and their success did not benefit others. Instead, the gap between the rich and the rest grew dramatically”.
As far as Todd is concerned, “inequality is neither natural nor inevitable. Social mobility has not created a fairer society – instead it has helped those at the top to justify their position”. And those elites jealously guard that, whether through wealth, education, or connections – or usually all three.
Her recommendations range from abolishing state support for private education and democratising the workplace with more grassroots decision-making to increasing salaries of workers who are poorly paid yet essential, from paramedics to store staff.
Snakes And Ladders is a brilliant, forcefully argued book that should be read by anyone wondering how we reached our current crisis point, and what we can do to level up.