"Class-riven UK exposed in new study" 

 Britain is still a class-ridden society with the gap in educational and job
 opportunities between rich and poor as deep as ever, according to a new "map of
 inequality in Britain" to be published this week. 

 The report, commissioned by the health minister Yvette Cooper, will form a central
 part of the factual and ideological justification for the big increases in public
 spending to be announced by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, in his spending
 review next week. Mr Brown is billing the £40bn extra cash over three years as part
 of a crusade to extend opportunity in Britain. 

 The findings, which suggest that today's 30-year-olds are still haunted by
 disadvantage and poverty at birth, are likely to be highly sensitive within New
 Labour. Tony Blair fears that any overt drive to cut inequality might alienate his
 middle-class base.  

 In the past, he has implied that the class divide is already over in Britain, arguing
 that the real enemies are the forces of  conservatism. 

 The new research, by the Smith Institute, is based on two massive tracking surveys
 of 16,000 people born in single weeks in 1958 and 1970. 

 In a foreword, Ms Cooper writes: "The opportunities gap between those from
 different social backgrounds was no different from those born in 1970 than it
 was for children born in 1958. 

 "Although those born in 1970 had better educated parents and so started from a
 better position, the gap between those from professional and unskilled
 backgrounds has remained the same."  

 In some areas, she claims, "the detrimental effects of inequality of
 opportunity are actually growing stronger and more debilitating. The relative risk of
 becoming a teenage mother from unskilled families compared to
 professional families almost doubled between the 1958 and 1970 generations. 

 "Daughters of unskilled men born in 1970 were an astonishing nine times more
 likely to become a teenage mother than girls whose fathers were more highly
 qualified," she says.  

 Even daughters of skilled manual fathers in both generations were four times more
 likely to have a teenage child than the the daughter of a professional couple. Other
 findings highlighted include:  

 • Men born in 1970 with no qualifications were 12 times more likely to be out of
 work by the age of 26 than those with degrees. Of those who were in work, their
 pay was also considerably lower than the children of professional parents. 

 • Women's chances of being in full time employment - rather than in part-time
 work or staying home with children - were eight times higher for graduates than for
 those with no qualifications.  

 • The impact of class on qualifications was just as great for the 1970 generation
 as for the 1958. "The average gap between the daughters of an educated
 professional father and the daughters of an unskilled man who left school at the
 minimum age represents about three rungs of a six-rung educational ladder. For
 sons, the gap in both generations is about two and a half grades." The three rungs
 are equivalent to the difference between a degree and GCSEs. 

 • In both generations, those with no qualifications were about three times more
 likely to be classed as depressed at ages 33 and 26 than graduates. 

 • For both generations, if one or both of a child's parents had left school at the
 minimum age, the chances of the child doing the same were doubled. In 1970,
 the sons of an unskilled male were seven times more likely to leave school at the
 minimum age than those of a professional man. 

 The researchers say at the end of their exhaustive analysis that "the figures
 demonstrated convincingly that family social class and parents' educational level
 at the time our respondents were born were critically important factors in
 determining what was going to happen to them 16 years later". 

 The report does, however, find that a child's performance at school, as much as
 their class background, is starting to become a major predictor of whether
 someone will leave school at 16.  

 Nevertheless, a child's family background at birth and subsequent poverty are still a
 clear influence.  

 The researchers also found that boys were less capable of breaking out of their
 class background than girls. 

 The study examined whether people born in rural Britain fared less well than their
 urban counterparts, but the research shows there is no discernible independent
 impact. 

 In her report, Ms Cooper warns that Labour has failed in the past to reduce
 inequality, and emphasises that the government of which she is a member will
 ignore the research at its peril.

 Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent 
 Wednesday July 12, 2000 

 "The Guardian" - English broadsheet

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