Joan Smith in the Independent
There is a genuine problem here, but it isn’t the one put forward by the BNP. This country has suffered for years from a chronic lack of apprenticeships and hence modern skills, thwarting the class mobility the Government would like to see. “If the cause of disadvantage is social class, we will promote opportunity,” Denham said. “And if the cause is a combination of racism and social class, we will tackle both together.”
Labour has left it rather late in the day to come up with a new and more complex analysis of the causes of social deprivation, but it’s welcome for all that, not least because it goes some way towards addressing genuine if poorly articulated anxieties. The BNP sows discord, encouraging working-class people to feel angry towards other working-class people who happen to belong to a different ethnic group. But the Government is saying something with the potential to create common cause: in modern Britain, social class still matters.
I’m not going to write a long commentary about class (which I am sure will please many) but is she near the truth or not?
