There need to be more snakes and ladders in Britain. It is discomfiting that so many deprived children tend to become poor adults, while privileged children are so likely to die rich. Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, has published a serious report on what should be done about it.

The UK has a weak track record on social mobility. It is hard to say how bad: the most recent high-quality data on British social mobility is concerned with people who left school two decades ago. But it is certainly a long way from the levels of mobility achieved in the Nordic countries or Canada.