Tag Archives: Social Mobility

The decline of working-class MPs?

Who are our MPs? I became interested in the question after I read Dave’s post about Disraeli and his blue-collar Toryism, and wondered how many blue-collar MPs there are. Thanks to the House of Commons Library, it proved easy to plot … Continue reading

Posted in Party Politics | Tagged , , , | 78 Comments

Luke’s World: It doesn’t have to be like this

Luke wants to be a vet. But you’ve heard him. He doesn’t think he’ll make it. He doesn’t know how to make it from where he is. He’s fatalistic – he thinks he’ll probably end up like his sister. There … Continue reading

Posted in Big Society | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Is Miliband’s “British Promise” one to watch?

Ed Miliband spoke at the weekend to the Progress conference. It hardly won critical acclaim: a New Statesman blog called it the ‘worst speech he has ever delivered’ and John Rentoul wasn’t impressed by its ‘cliché-wridden verbiage.’ The speech did have one … Continue reading

Posted in Social Justice | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Why everyone should be hoping the Big Society works

In my first blog post on Platform 10, I commented that “[the] Big Society is so very often considered a domestic phenomenon.” This isn’t surprising, given that we have a huge array of domestic problems from a dangerous high level … Continue reading

Posted in Big Society | Tagged , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Why Dave Clements is wrong on nudge and the Big Society

Dave Clements at the Guardian Joe Public Blog has got entirely the wrong end of the stick on nudging, the Big Society and indeed the Tories generally. He seems to think that there is some great conspiracy to entrench government … Continue reading

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments