CentreForum takes a keen interest in social mobility.  We've written about it several times - most notably in 'Climbing the ladder: how can Britain become more socially mobile'.

It is therefore no surprise that our collective eye was caught by a piece by Jenni Russell in The Guardian today, entitled 'The mirage of meritocracy has sold our children short'.

In it, she reports on of the lack of social mobility amongst her children's peers.  She bemoans the fact that Labour have done so little to improve social mobility.

This might well a little harsh.  Any accurate assessment of social mobility will measure the standing of a fully grown adult against his/her parents.  However, even after 11 years of government, Labour's child poverty measures haven't been in place long enough to impact on intergenerational social mobility. The real answer Labour's impact on social mobility might be that its just too early to tell.

However, her anecdotal evidence is powerful. She goes on to say that:

'The government is exasperated by what it calls the "poverty of aspiration" and exhorts people to have more ambition. It talks as if the only obstacle that lies between talent and success is an absence of will. But that isn't true.'

Unfortunately, she doesn't back up her claim that a lack of ambition isn't causing low social mobility.  She merely says that young people in today's Britain know that the UK's fabled meritocracy is just a myth and give up.

It might well be true that there is a vicious circle where low social mobility fuels lack of aspiration.

However, I couldn't help recalling an comparison made by the former US ambassador to the UK Raymond Seitz between out-of-work coal miners in America and the UK.  They were very similar except in the field of aspiration.  The American workers said "It's a tough and gruelling job that destroys your health, but I want my job back so that I can give my children a decent education and so that they can have a better life.'

By contrast, the British said "It's a tough and gruelling job that destroys your health, but I want my job back so that our children will have a similar trade they can pass on to their children.'

Aspiration is very difficult to measure but, Seitz concluded that certain parts of British society had very low levels.