Four Yorkshiremen offer four social mobility lessons

Socioeconomic diversity is a hot-button issue

Monty Python is renowned for bringing intelligence and an independence of thought to any subject its creators turned their hands to.

Four Yorkshiremen, a sketch depicting four middle-aged men recounting the hardships of their youths in an ever disintegrating and absurd manner, is no different. One-upmanship and chest-beating exaggeration abound as each try to out-do their peers, regaling their working-class hardships like badges of honour. On watching it back recently, we were struck how many lessons resonate in the social mobility debate happening today. First, they were simply talking about it. Although doing so in a deliberately un-politically correct way - and not one we would recommend - the fact the four of t...