The rebirth of Britain's upper-class

The elites in British life are increasingly drawn from a class privileged by the school their parents sent them to, while the prospect of social mobility for the poorer in society decreases steadily, writes Jill Lawless.

FOR the past three decades, many Britons had hoped that the rigid class system that defined their country, from Dickens to Downton Abbey, was finally dying. Now they fear that class, their old bugbear, is back on the rise.

From 1979, Britain was led for more than a decade by Margaret Thatcher, a grocer’s daughter, and then by John Major, son of a music hall entertainer.