It Is Cheaper To Build Schools Than Jails

The key, I believe with all my heart, is social mobility.
Children of every background need to believe that hard work will be rewarded.
That if you study at school it will result in higher education and a job.
That – no matter where you come from – it is possible to get up and out if you want it bad enough, and if you work hard enough.
But social mobility is dead in this country now.
Too many have no hope of self-improvement.
There is an Old Etonian in 10 Downing Street who despises the idea of grammar schools.
Because they are unfair. Just like life, you mean?
I spent the first five years of my life living in a flat above a greengrocer’s shop.
Yet I never doubted I could be anything I wanted to be.
Why did the riots happen?
Because we live with a lot of scum in our midst.
Mark Twain said, it is cheaper to build schools than jails.
But we did not build the schools, and we let the schools we do have rot.
Now we must build the jails.
(Tony Parsons)