Onwards and upwards
Philip Collins’s article (“The social mobility myth,” October) and the accompanying interview with John Goldthorpe refer to our findings on the decline in intergenerational income mobility in Britain as “mistaken” and “flawed—both empirically and conceptually.”
Many of Goldthorpe’s points are well taken. However, not all the points made in the article and interview are accurate.
The observation that trends in mobility as measured by social class and income differ is not controversial. But just looking at differences across social class groups, as Goldthorpe’s work does, entirely misses important aspects of changes in inequality unrelated to social class that have occurred over the past 30 years in Britain.
On the conceptual side, the measure of intergenerational income mobility used in our research is relative, and we have always been clear on this. What is being measured is the connection between parents’ position in the income distribution and the position of their children in the income distribution 15-20 years later. Sufficient economic growth will mean that all children will achieve absolute upward income mobility, it is not a “zero-sum game.” Progressives have always emphasised that economic growth by itself is insufficient—if relative differences get worse then we should not just shrug our shoulders.
Jo Blanden, University of Surrey, and Stephen Machin, University College London
My husband and I, both educated to PhD level and correspondingly affluent, adopted two boys from babyhood. One was the child of a middle-class teenage mother who had had no antenatal care and was playing hockey at school up to a late stage of pregnancy. Our other son was the offspring of a mother with special educational needs, and a low-achieving father. Both boys experienced all the environmental advantages that we could muster for them, educationally and otherwise. Neither achieved high-level GCSE grades or took A-levels. Both are in relatively low-paid work.
Our experience suggests that two of the many variables that may influence social mobility are abnormalities of brain development and, dare I say it, genetic inheritance. Both these factors need to be taken into account when discussing trends in social mobility, which they very rarely are.
Incidentally, we are hugely proud of both our sons: both are fully contributing members of society, and both have, we believe, amply fulfilled their potential.
Professor Jill Boucher, Department of Psychology, City University
Snap decisions
Andrew Adonis remarks on the speed with which government was once able to make such decisions as where to put London’s first airport after the Second World War (“Boris has failed,” October). Actually, as recorded in my father Douglas Jay’s memoirs, it took a meeting in 1944, which he attended, lasting all of 40 minutes, time much grudged from the war effort.
Later, as President of the Board of Trade, he announced in May 1967 the Wilson government’s decision—after many months of argument and millions of pounds of expenditure on inquiries, official committees and the like—to locate London’s third airport at Stansted. Twenty-four years and hundreds of millions of pounds of argument later, he attended as an official guest the opening of Stansted by the Queen in 1991.
As he remarked sardonically: “It is charitable to regard the story of the Third Airport as just another example of British Cabinets muddling through… Frequently throughout this long story I used to remember the wartime meeting when we decided in 40 minutes on the site of Heathrow.”
Peter Jay, Woodstock
Farming today
Patrick Barkham (“Will this cull work?”, October) argues that bovine TB is the result of ever more intensive farming. This is not the case. Our experience in Wales is that the disease is being found in all systems of production, high-input and low-input, conventional and organic.
Sarah Jones, National Farmers’ Union Cymru
Stuck in the past
At last, a measured essay—by Paul Collier—on economic migration which advances the debate (“How much is enough?”, October). In recent years opinion on the left has been shaped by social scientists, politicians and commentators with a romantic view of open door policies. Their arguments are rooted in the very different circumstances and scale of mid-20th century immigration and are irrelevant today.
Anne Rothschild, London
A painful adjustment
Richard Dowden (“Mugabe won—Britain lost,” October) is as keen an observer of Zimbabwe as any, but overlooks the policy decision to which the major events of the last two decades of Zimbabwean history serve as mere footnotes.
In the early 90s, Harare undertook a suite of Thatcherite reforms under the banner of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme. Badly designed, timed and executed, ESAP was a disaster. It removed protections that had nurtured and sustained Zimbabwean industry for decades.
T Munyaradzi, Prospect website
Iron in the soul
Can I advise Desmond Morris (“If I ruled the world,” October) that he does contain iron—it’s in the haemoglobin of his red blood cells, among other places. Can I further advise him that the presence of iron has nothing to do with gravity? He might have noticed that paper, water and lead don’t contain iron and seem to be as equally attracted by that force as he is.
CP Snow despaired at scientific illiteracy among supposedly educated people. I am amazed to find it in Desmond Morris. What next? A health minister who believes in homeopathy ?
James Barrett, London
Have your say: Email letters@prospectmagazine.co.uk
Philip Collins’s article (“The social mobility myth,” October) and the accompanying interview with John Goldthorpe refer to our findings on the decline in intergenerational income mobility in Britain as “mistaken” and “flawed—both empirically and conceptually.”
Many of Goldthorpe’s points are well taken. However, not all the points made in the article and interview are accurate.
The observation that trends in mobility as measured by social class and income differ is not controversial. But just looking at differences across social class groups, as Goldthorpe’s work does, entirely misses important aspects of changes in inequality unrelated to social class that have occurred over the past 30 years in Britain.
On the conceptual side, the measure of intergenerational income mobility used in our research is relative, and we have always been clear on this. What is being measured is the connection between parents’ position in the income distribution and the position of their children in the income distribution 15-20 years later. Sufficient economic growth will mean that all children will achieve absolute upward income mobility, it is not a “zero-sum game.” Progressives have always emphasised that economic growth by itself is insufficient—if relative differences get worse then we should not just shrug our shoulders.
Jo Blanden, University of Surrey, and Stephen Machin, University College London
My husband and I, both educated to PhD level and correspondingly affluent, adopted two boys from babyhood. One was the child of a middle-class teenage mother who had had no antenatal care and was playing hockey at school up to a late stage of pregnancy. Our other son was the offspring of a mother with special educational needs, and a low-achieving father. Both boys experienced all the environmental advantages that we could muster for them, educationally and otherwise. Neither achieved high-level GCSE grades or took A-levels. Both are in relatively low-paid work.
Our experience suggests that two of the many variables that may influence social mobility are abnormalities of brain development and, dare I say it, genetic inheritance. Both these factors need to be taken into account when discussing trends in social mobility, which they very rarely are.
Incidentally, we are hugely proud of both our sons: both are fully contributing members of society, and both have, we believe, amply fulfilled their potential.
Professor Jill Boucher, Department of Psychology, City University
Snap decisions
Andrew Adonis remarks on the speed with which government was once able to make such decisions as where to put London’s first airport after the Second World War (“Boris has failed,” October). Actually, as recorded in my father Douglas Jay’s memoirs, it took a meeting in 1944, which he attended, lasting all of 40 minutes, time much grudged from the war effort.
Later, as President of the Board of Trade, he announced in May 1967 the Wilson government’s decision—after many months of argument and millions of pounds of expenditure on inquiries, official committees and the like—to locate London’s third airport at Stansted. Twenty-four years and hundreds of millions of pounds of argument later, he attended as an official guest the opening of Stansted by the Queen in 1991.
As he remarked sardonically: “It is charitable to regard the story of the Third Airport as just another example of British Cabinets muddling through… Frequently throughout this long story I used to remember the wartime meeting when we decided in 40 minutes on the site of Heathrow.”
Peter Jay, Woodstock
Farming today
Patrick Barkham (“Will this cull work?”, October) argues that bovine TB is the result of ever more intensive farming. This is not the case. Our experience in Wales is that the disease is being found in all systems of production, high-input and low-input, conventional and organic.
Sarah Jones, National Farmers’ Union Cymru
Stuck in the past
At last, a measured essay—by Paul Collier—on economic migration which advances the debate (“How much is enough?”, October). In recent years opinion on the left has been shaped by social scientists, politicians and commentators with a romantic view of open door policies. Their arguments are rooted in the very different circumstances and scale of mid-20th century immigration and are irrelevant today.
Anne Rothschild, London
A painful adjustment
Richard Dowden (“Mugabe won—Britain lost,” October) is as keen an observer of Zimbabwe as any, but overlooks the policy decision to which the major events of the last two decades of Zimbabwean history serve as mere footnotes.
In the early 90s, Harare undertook a suite of Thatcherite reforms under the banner of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme. Badly designed, timed and executed, ESAP was a disaster. It removed protections that had nurtured and sustained Zimbabwean industry for decades.
T Munyaradzi, Prospect website
Iron in the soul
Can I advise Desmond Morris (“If I ruled the world,” October) that he does contain iron—it’s in the haemoglobin of his red blood cells, among other places. Can I further advise him that the presence of iron has nothing to do with gravity? He might have noticed that paper, water and lead don’t contain iron and seem to be as equally attracted by that force as he is.
CP Snow despaired at scientific illiteracy among supposedly educated people. I am amazed to find it in Desmond Morris. What next? A health minister who believes in homeopathy ?
James Barrett, London
Have your say: Email letters@prospectmagazine.co.uk
