Mind the Gap The New Class Divide in Britain

by Mount, Ferdinand

• ISBN13: 9781904095941
• ISBN10: 1904095941
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-09-01
• Publisher: Short Books

Summary

This is a daring, provocative, and unusually frank discussion of the Gapthe invisible, yet powerful, divide between classeswhich always has, and perhaps always will, plague Britain. To pretend that class distinctions are a thing of the past, is, as Ferdinand Mount argues, nothing more than an ostrich-like attempt at idealism. Through fine observation and extensive research, covering issues as diverse as the distribution of wealth, the significance of speech patterns, and the politics of egalitarianism, the author pursues an oft-times illusive answer to the fundamental question:How can oppressive inequality in Britain be wiped out once and for all?

Table of Contents

Preface	9	(7)
Outworn Shibboleths	16	(9)
Three Versions of Classlessness	25	(37)
Economic equality and its eclipse
One Volk, one lifestyle?
Opportunity knocks but doesn't answer
The Uppers and the Downers	62	(53)
The Invention of the Masses	115	(18)
Looking into the Abyss	133	(28)
A Hidden Civilisation	161	(39)
Morality and the family
Heathen hordes
Education, education, education
Welfare before the Welfare State
`Go out and govern New South Wales'
Abodes of Desolation	200	(58)
How the institutions of the lower class were destroyed
The growth of cultural condescension
The indifference of capitalism
The infantilising of patriotism
Fragile harbour
The Present State	258	(50)
What about poverty?
Managing the lower orders
Glimmerings
Unlock and allot - a rough guide to the future
Becoming Visible	308