1/ #WhitePrivilege It is not anti-racism that has caused white working class kids to perform badly at school, and it's cynical and divisive of the Tories to suggest otherwise.
But there is clearly a problem among a segment of the white working class. So some thoughts.
But there is clearly a problem among a segment of the white working class. So some thoughts.
2/ Deindustrialisation has hit the working class hard. Employment patterns, communities and working class organisations have crumbled. Millions of stable unskilled jobs have disappeared and those that remain are often in the gig economy.
3/ Since the 1970s patterns of working class life that had endured for generations have disappeared. Many working class people have adapted and thrived in the post-industrial economy, but many others are struggling in a less stable economy that demands higher skills.
4/ If I am right, and I could well be wrong, this has particularly hit the unskilled working class. A harsh but stable economy, with little economic mobility meant that they saw little benefit in education, and much benefit in getting into paid work as soon as possible.
5/ The UK was the first country to industrialise. In consequence its economic growth rate was slow compared to countries which have industrialised more recently. That meant that class structures could ossify over generations.
6/ In faster growing economies the poor can aspire for their children to do better than them, and that puts a premium on education. But in economically and socially ossified Britain many people abandoned hope of advancement and took pride in being just where they were.
7/ So, if I am right, attitudes to education which made sense to many people in socially ossified industrial Britain are now blocking the educational paths of a significant proportion of working class children.
8/ This naturally affects the white working class most because over the 150 years or so of industrial Britain the working class was overwhelmingly white. We've thought a lot about the economic effects of deindustrialisation, but little about the cultural and social effects.
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