Social mobility is dead in this country. Economists say it’s harder now than at any point in the last half-century to move up in life if you’re born working-class.

I was raised in a period when working-class voices, whilst not exactly the dominant sound in society, were certainly well-heard, particularly in the arts and politics. If you worked hard, you could build a better life than your parents.

That’s the philosophy which took my family from rural farms and Victorian mills to a position where my generation became the first to attend university and enter professions like medicine, teaching and the law.

Hard slog, being good citizens, making the most of your natural talents, and studying changed lives. Today, the landscape is awash with the privately-educated scions of the rich, powerful and famous. Natural talents aren’t required to get on any more, you simply need money and the connections money buys.

Read more by Neil Mackay

Despite today’s young folk being just as educated as my generation, for those born poor their prospects take them backward. The battle the young must fight simply to find affordable rents, let alone mortgages, is the metaphor for this social regression.

The consequences are plain to see. Our economy favours those with wealth, our culture has become middle-class and monochrome, our politics is disconnected from the lives of voters who need good government the most. Indeed, there’s a sense of social apartheid when it comes to the benefits of being a citizen.

An invisible line exists barring the working-class from fully participating in society. If you must scrabble around working three low-paid part-time jobs to make ends meet how can you fully enjoy the gifts of citizenship? For today, the vast majority of those who are poor are........

© Herald Scotland