ABSTRACT
Several factors were responsible for the transformation, one that would result in recognition that the discussion of inequality in Britain could no longer be confined to the direct consequences of a hierarchy based on status and income. There are many elements to this shift in how British social inequality is perceived, becoming more complex in the process because it more obviously has a broader base. Inequality was largely conceived in one dimension: it was about a nation-wide class divide, in which on both sides of that divide a “traditional” family unit was the central social structure. Social inequality varied by area as well as along class lines. Diversity has obvious advantages for a society, and some diversity is inevitable, but facilitating the promotion of equality in society by means that are consensual is not necessarily one of them. The rights of different groups can, and do, conflict, because only with some rights is there a strict hierarchy of them.
