The contradictions of Starmer’s ambition
Keir Starmer has been speaking a lot about ambition in recent weeks. The core of it is a broad aim that people from less privileged backgrounds, as he was in Woking, should be able to get on in society but many at the moment don’t.
Of course it being exam result time the point might be made that a system which fails a certain number of candidates on a quota basis irrespective of whether or not they have actually met a wider standard doesn’t help.
Starmer’s use of ambition seems to oscillate between the self-made man (lots of others, not named are usually involved) and the reasonable point that people would like to see a better Britain. That is improved services and chances to progress.
The question then comes as to whether this is a collective or individual ambition. Collectively it could be about better pay and conditions, better housing and transport, achieved by union organisation and political reform. Starmer’s usage may have something of this but in the Fabian sense of doing it from above by State action, rather than by people organising from below.
A check of Raymond Williams Keywords will find no mention of the word ambition. There is a sense as above of individuals wanting to get on, get promotion, do well for themselves. Starmer often seems to have this ‘I’ve got the foreman’s job at last’ focus.
But there are other senses of self-improvement, of professionals from teachers to scientists seeking to gain more knowledge and expertise. It may help their careers but it will certainly help the public and the general good.
The nineteenth century understanding might be along the lines of ‘light more light’. That is a desire to seek more knowledge about society and the world and how it works with a view to changing it for the better. I’m not sure this meaning is in Starmer’s vocabulary but we’ll see.
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