In Britain today we face profound questions about our country’s future. About the sort
of relationship we want with our European neighbours and with the wider world.
About the need to protect national security and build inclusive communities. About
turning economic strength into prosperity that everyone can feel. About becoming a
less divided society.
As the recent general election seems to demonstrate there is no consensus in the
nation about how best to answer these questions. The public mood is sour,
sometimes angry. Whole tracts of Britain feel left behind. Whole communities feel the
benefits of globalisation have passed them by. Whole sections of society feel they
are not getting a fair chance to succeed. The growing sense that we have become
an us-and-them society is deeply corrosive of our cohesion as a nation. There is a
mood for change in Britain.
These are volatile and uncertain times. When more and more people feel like they
are losing out, social mobility matters more than ever before. Higher social mobility
can be a rallying point to prove that modern capitalist economies like our own are
capable of creating better, fairer and more inclusive societies. It is the best antidote
to the growth of political populism, both of Right and of Left, that we have witnessed
across the world.