Alan Milburn diplomatically attributed the government`s failure to "deliver on the issue" of social mobility to there being "too much focus on Brexit" (Brexit and fairness don`t add up, 04/12/17). One does not, however, need to be left of the "far- centre of an opposition", as Zoe Williams claims, to be finding "May`s equality shtick rather hard to swallow", as her repeated failures to act on any one of her aims regarding "burning injustices" stated in her Downing Street speech lead to an all too obvious conclusion (Never mind social mobility. Poverty is an insult to us all, 04/12/17).
Williams is right to say that support for the Child Poverty Act was "only skin-deep", but sadly, the same is true of all recent Tory announcements on social improvement. Giving priority to policies of austerity, tax reduction and state-shrinking means everything else becomes mere rhetoric, designed only to win votes. The Social Justice and Mobility Commission was never intended to have the power to initiate change; after all, giving more opportunities to people from working-class backgrounds inevitably means less opportunities for the middle and upper classes. Having the EU around as a scapegoat, deflecting blame from the government for the poverty and minimal opportunities for improvement, came in particularly handy for the dominant faction in government, leaving us, of course, with an ever "worsening problem".
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