Social mobility in The Manifesto

(Inspired by JustC’s post!)

Where you have social mobility, you have booms. Look at Labour in 97, they got people behind them because they were prepared to change stuff. To improve the life of the ordinary man. Ditto the SNP, they do a lot of good stuff for the majority in Scotland - free prescriptions, free uni, no bedroom tax, no council tax rises (well thus far, we’re getting one next year due to our council tax band and it’s all going into Education so I’m not too bothered about that). Even Maggie Thatcher deregulated the banks, got credit in place to get the economy moving, helped people buy their homes and supported small businesses (who are the backbone of the UK economy).

And you look at the kids I work with volunteering and you think: You are intelligent, spunky, ambitious… Why shouldn’t you do as well as some kid brought up with their own bedroom and tutors and peace and quiet to do homework and contacts to get them really good work experience? But they won’t. The only people she knows with jobs that pay well are me and her teachers (and by definition to a teenager, Teachers are pretty sad individuals and not something to aspire to). Everyone else is scraping a living and that is what they think is normal, something to aspire to.

Social mobility is a good thing - it gets people dreaming and aspiring and risking stuff and taking personal responsibility for their destiny… but they will only do that if there is sufficient reward and sufficient back up plans if they don’t succeed. And that is where today’s society falls down. If Cameron weren’t such an arse, he’d realise that if you supported people in being passionate about something, they will always vote you back in. No one cares about wars on the other side of the world. They want to be safe here and leave everyone else sorting it out themselves. The shambles that is foreign aid proves we do not help at all when we interfere, so why do we continue to do it? Get rid of Trident, invest a fraction of the cash in the area left vacant, it will do fine - probably better than if that monstrosity was there.

Support new energy providers by creating a not-for-profit company which consumers can sign up to… Ta-dah - you have a profitable company who can invest in wind/wave/solar/whatever to provide energy. Consumers get cheap energy, the company invests in better technology. Leave any form of tax out of the equation - it is the shareholders who have been crippling businesses.

And on the whole subject of pensions (since we were talking about shareholders): I think it’s time we ‘fessed up - there is not going to be a state pension by the time I retire, is there? Or not one which can support anyone. Yes we have these private ones mandated for employees. But actually we should just come clean and say “Yeah, we spent the money - we are no better than Robert Maxwell - you need to make alternative plans”. And on that basis given that my NI contributions pay for F’all for me, since I can’t claim most of the benefits it gives employees, they should just scrap it for self-employed people or let them claim the same benefits that employed people can - sickness, unemployment, etc.