Social mobility -- the long road from here to there

Alan Milburn is right. In our class-ridden and unequal society we waste talent and limit lives and this must change. But the journey from here to there is longer than anyone imagines.

Last week I met a 14-year-old girl who was so bright and sparky and engaged with life that she could easily be a top lawyer, senior civil servant, doctor, politician or finance director. But she won't.

She lives in a modest suburb on the edge of a recession-hit town in the north west, and goes to her tatty local comprehensive where results are adequate but not outstanding. She is also black, with an African name which may indicate that her parents are struggling new immigrants.

She might well get to university, if she can rise above the low aspirations around her and her parents support her, but it won't be a top one, and anyway, a university degree is only the beginning.

These days the CVs of young graduates applying for sought-after jobs are eye-wateringly gold-plated. A barrister friend says he might as well put a pin in the list of the hundreds of young law students applying for pupillage at his chambers. A newspaper editor says the same about his applicants. After Oxbridge or the LSE they will have done top internships here, there and everywhere, taught street children in Bolivia, done a Masters at Harvard or Yale, sailed a tall ship around the world and set up their own web-based design company. To do this they will have had to have had brains and initiative, but also money, contacts and -- most importantly of all -- the supreme confidence that comes from knowing their natural place is at the top of the pile.

To change such a culture of contacts and privilege would need a radical rethink by everyone concerned -- schools, universities and the workplace -- plus the willingness of many people to roll up their sleeves and help engineer the changes. But why bother? There are plenty of good chaps around to fill the jobs that matter. Why make all that effort if the system works perfectly well as it is?