[Hardy-l] Class - Past and Present

[Angelique Richardson]

It's perhaps worth noting, as the list considers C19th, C20th and C21st
attitudes towards children that, in Britain at least, and notwithstanding
the now infamous remarks of Major about a classless society, the charity
End Child Poverty notes that 3.8 million children (1 in 3) currently live
in poverty in the UK (http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/). A recent report
(June 2007) finds that 'one out of every ten children in the UK is living
in severe poverty. A total of 1.3 million children have an income well
below the government's poverty line and lack basic necessities that most
people in the UK take for granted'.  (This study uses a new measure that
combines household income with recent data on other indicators of
deprivation (see http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/54_2196.htm)

And, if we are thinking of the homeless state of the Bridehead-Fawley
family, displaced, deracinated, and homeless both materially and more
metaphysically, the UK charity Shelter, founded in 1966, notes that
'nearly one in 10 children in England lives in overcrowded housing -
enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium 10 times over. More than one
million homes in Britain are unfit for human habitation - and yet more
than 90 per cent of these are occupied.  One in 12 children in Britain are
more likely to develop diseases such as bronchitis, TB, or asthma, because
of bad housing'.

Shelter notes 'homeless children living in bed and breakfast hotels are
twice as likely to be admitted to A&E with burns and scalding.' While Jude
Junior's murders and suicide are not accidents, they do occur within
temporary accommodation, another marker of the family's nonbelonging.

And, to conclude on the question of gradually increasing upward mobility,
the relationship between family income and educational attainment is,
sadly, both strong and increasing. A recent London School of Economics
study comparing children born in 1958 and in 1970, found that, among those
from the poorest fifth of families, the proportion obtaining a degree had
risen from 6% to 9%. Among the richest fifth it had risen from 20% to 47%.
Children born in the 1950s had a better chance of escaping poverty than
those born in 1970, and while the decline in social mobility witnessed in
the 1970s and 1980s has now flattened off, a new study concludes that it
shows no sign of reversing.  The UK comes bottom of the table of developed
countries for which there is data available
(http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/newsAndEvents/archives/2005/LSE_SuttonTrust_report.htm)


Angelique

--

It just seems to me that today's social attitudes are more effective in
caring for the poor victims - and that our great efforts for a better
world should apply to other objects.
    Sorry if this doesn't answer your query.
    Eric



--
Dr Angelique Richardson
Department of English
Member of Advisory Committee, Centre for Medical History
http://www.centres.ex.ac.uk/medhist
Research Associate, ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society
(Egenis)http://www.centres.ex.ac.uk/egenis
University of Exeter

http://www.sall.ex.ac.uk/english/content/view/227/3/1/1/

Email: A.Richardson at exeter.ac.uk
Telephone: ++(44) (0)1392 264354

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