Hysteria and Hypocrisy in the War on Mediocrity

The prime minister’s cheeky pose as Everywoman can be forgiven if, to back it up, she makes social mobility the point of her government. Last week’s speech suggests she is serious. A leader who even entertains academic selection — knowing bien pensants are strident in defence of all those comprehensive schools they do not use — is putting her political capital where her good intentions are. Any move to selection, even one as slight and hedged as hers, will be smeared as a lurch to mid-20th century grammars in all their inequity.