Jump-starting social mobility

Gary Duncan has an important piece in this morning’s Times keying off Reform’s report on social mobility. As Gary writes,

“The realities behind Mr Brown’s rhetoric on poverty are a lot less impressive than his boasts of being the best friend of the disadvantaged imply. The stark truth is that after a decade of Labour Government, Britain is a nation of greater income inequality, in which the plight of the very poor has worsened. True, Labour has succeeded in lifting half a million children out of poverty since 1998. Yet the Government’s figures are based on a poverty line drawn at 60 per cent of average incomes. If it is placed, instead, at 40 per cent – officially defined as “severe poverty” – the picture looks much bleaker, with the numbers of children in such dire straits no lower than in 1997.”