Alan Mak and Simon Maynard explains why building the Opportunity Society is the Conservatives' most important long-term task
Whilst restoring Britain’s public finances and securing
economic growth is the Coalition’s most pressing short-term priority, building
the Opportunity Society is the Conservatives' most important long-term task,
and should form the basis of a distinctive Conservative platform for the next
general election. The Opportunity Society has two dimensions: first, a society
where community spirit and pride are renewed, so individuals take greater
responsibility for themselves and their neighbours; and secondly, and most
importantly, a society where social mobility flourishes, so that people can go
as far and as fast in life as their talents will take them. Greater social mobility
and community spirit are crucial not only to creating a fairer, more open
society at ease with itself, but also to creating empowered individuals,
stronger communities, and an economically competitive nation. In the
Opportunity Society the State’s role will be to empower and enable individuals
to make the most of their abilities, reward their hard work, and bring down the
barriers that prevent their success. Respublica's key themes
for 2012 focus on "re-moralising the market, re-localising the
economy and re-capitalising the poor". The Opportunity Society
provides a framework for all these things are more.
After 13 years of Labour, there is much to do. Today, the
life-chances of British children remain heavily dependent on the circumstances
of their birth. According to the Cabinet
Office, only 20% of young people from the poorest families achieve five
good GCSEs, compared to 75% from richer families, whilst the Sutton
Trust found that between 2007-2009, four schools and one college sent more
students to Oxbridge than 2000 other state schools combined. An LSE study
found Britain lagging behind our competitors such as Germany, France, Canada
and Australia in terms of social mobility. We can’t afford to waste such talent.
Britain needs to be an Opportunity Society, where success in life is based on
talent and ambition not family background, the school you attended or the
postcode you grew up in.
The Coalition has already made a good start: the new Pupil
Premium to raise attainment for the most disadvantaged pupils; IDS’ Work
Programme to help people from welfare into work; Michael Gove’s new generation
of free schools and academies; more apprenticeships; and the publication of a
cross-departmental Social
Mobility Strategy. But it needs to go further. For example, Carol
Vorderman’s recommendation
that British students should study maths until 18 should be adopted. Pupils
should also keep going with a modern foreign language until the same age, and
every sixth former should have a mentor, such as a local business person. We
will also need to tackle major issues such as the "crony
capitalism" described by Jesse Norman, and the UK's Digital Divide by
providing greater access to broadband and computers. In the coming years, Britain’s economy needs
a deep pool of numerate, multilingual, innovative, commercially-savvy workers
from which the nation can draw. In the era of globalisation, it makes sense
economically for Britain to be an Opportunity Society. It can’t afford not to
be. As Conservatives, our task is to prepare Britain for the future by building
the Opportunity Society.
It also makes sense politically. Inter-generational fairness
and social mobility resonate with voters. It goes to the heart of what most
people want from life, and it wins elections amongst a key group of voters: the
aspirational workers on middle and modest incomes. ConservativeHome labels them "the battlers/strivers". In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher, the grocer’s
daughter from Grantham instinctively understood what motivated them, and her
policies, like "right to buy", ensured a period of political
domination which changed British politics forever. According to Ipsos-MORI,
at the 2010 general election, Conservatives secured 39% of the C1 (lower middle
class) against 28% for Labour, and 37% of the C2 (skilled workers) vote to
Labour's 29%. Thatcher and Blair both cleaned up amongst C1s and C2s, usually
breaking the 40% barrier.
In a speech yesterday, David
Cameron presented new plans for providing practical support to entrepreneurs
and start-up businesses. As well as enabling the new business entrepreneur, our
mission come 2015 will be to act on behalf of the hard working family; the
small business taking on an apprentice or new graduate; the middle manager
putting in extra hours to pay for a family holiday; the single parent going out
to work for the first time to give their child a better future. These are the
mainstream majority in Britain – and they are yearning for our Party to build
the Opportunity Society to help them get on in life, not just get by.
Freedom, opportunity and success are precious gifts and our
Party’s purpose has always been to ensure they are within reach of everyone,
not just the few. As Conservatives our instincts are to help individuals and
communities who strive to achieve and to better themselves. Offering to build
the Opportunity Society is the key to winning the next election – and the key
to winning Britain’s future. In his first Conference speech in 2010 Ed Miliband
talked of building the “Good Society” and the “British Promise”, but the damage
Labour did to communities and social mobility means they lack credibility. That
presents our party with an opportunity. The Conservatives need a positive,
inspiring platform and a new political paradigm that can unite the country. We
need to set out a new vision underpinned by equality of opportunity that unites
rather than divides us from each other, that supports people who strive to
achieve and to better themselves, but which also asks each of us to support our
neighbours in the same way. At the next election, our mission is to build not
just the Good Society or even the Big Society – but to start building, at last,
the Opportunity Society.
A version of this blog was first published on
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