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So @TrussLiz wants informed debate on equality and mobility. OK, here's why she should buy my next book Snakes and Ladders: the Great British Social Mobility Myth https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55346920
@trussliz says low aspirations hold people back. But 'low aspiration' tends to mean debt aversion to crippling university fees or a desire to do work that's underpaid but socially valuable - like care work. Why not pay care workers more & provide progression/training.
@trussliz wants 'character' to determine a person's place in society. What kind of character do we want to reward? Generosity of spirit, desire to work for others, interest in new ideas were key to innovations for past century and to NHS workers' ability to get us through Covid.
But my book also shows that it's hard to measure or assess 'character' - and is that government's job anyway? A more robust way of rewarding these virtues (tried and tested in 1945) is to reward work that encompasses them. So professionalise care work for starters.
@trussliz also needs to recognise it isn't low aspiration or character holding people back. It's lack of room at the top, & the understandable desire of those holding wealth & power to keep it. They use every chance to discriminate against/exploit those who may dislodge them.
A possibly unpalatable truth for the Tories is that social mobility was at its highest in places and times when the state expanded room at the top through funding the welfare state. Adult education was also key.
But what @trussliz has got right is the need for informed debate about who experiences inequality and why. That requires robust evidence. My book shows that sex and race have been crucial - black Britons, immigrants and women emerge as the majority of the working class.
Women, black Britons and immigrants weren't victims. Their self-organisation was key to expanding their opportunities and opening up chances that other groups could benefit from too. @trussliz could begin by consulting mainstream women's groups like @Womans_Place_UK
