And not because social mobility is such that class boundaries have been eliminated - far from it. As the party returns from its annual conference in Manchester this week, it is crucial for the country's future that it will have grappled properly with the problem of the rise of the underclass and its impact on child poverty. Unlike the working classes of yesteryear, today's underclass lacks any sense of group struggle or identification. They are shorn of hope, alienated from society.
Despite Labour's laudable intentions to eradicate child poverty within a generation, by its own admission a less-able child from a wealthy family overtakes a more-able child from a poor family by the time they are six. Social class is the main reason children fail to reach their potential.
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