21st century Britain has seen the perpetuation of a system that has almost nothing to do with educational equity and equal opportunity. In search of higher profits, many of the elite schools have opened up branches in China, Singapore, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, offering the children of the elite the best education possible. Meanwhile, the mantra of social mobility in Britain has remained as hollow as ever. Indeed, independent studies have found that the boundaries between the very top and the very bottom are becoming increasingly impermeable. “A child today has less chance of breaking through the class and career barrier than their grandparents born in the 1950s,” writes Robert Verkaik in his book Posh Boys.

Figure 2. Age-adjusted drug overdose death rates, by sex and by urban and rural residence, 2017

Michael Harrington, dust jacket photo from Twilight of Capitalism (1977).