IT is good to hear even the BBC recognising that social mobility has declined badly in recent years. If education is the main ladder of opportunity, it has been moved away from the children of those on low incomes. The ladders are very firmly rooted in?? middle class areas, in an era when we have comprehensive schools throughout most of the country and when the standards of those schools vary widely. The old ladders, the grammar schools, assisted places and direct grant schools have been removed and nothing has been put in their place that works.

When the NTB Group of MPs first highlighted this issue in?? a pamphlet??in February ("The Caravan moves on…Putting social mobility back into Britain by Michael Fallon and the NTB Group of MPs)??the BBC and Labour were reluctant to take it up and had no wish to give us air time. I am glad they have reflected on it further and see the pressing need for new ideas to give people opportunity whatever their background. They should not ignore the power of enterprise, setting up your own business, as well as the power of education. A package of measures to make it easier to set up your own enterprise, by deregulating and cutting taxes for small businesses, would be a wonderful promoter of social mobility.

??In our pamphlet we identified three routes out of poverty. One was educational acheievment. The other two were climbing the property ladder and setting up your own business. You do not need a smart degree to either of those. Let’s make more progress on all three.

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