Watch now on BBC iPlayer: Posh and Posher: Why Public School Boys Run Britain
They say you don’t know a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. And as the country prepares itself to face the worst economic squeeze since the 1920s, the shoes of those who are making the cuts – three quarters of whom are millionaires – are looking pretty comfortable.
Whilst 7% of the population attend fee-paying schools, an astonishingly disproportionate 60% of MPs were privately educated. In fact, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and George Osborne all went to public schools with annual fees now higher than the average salary, and a third of labour’s front-benchers are Oxbridge graduates.
These are just a few of the shocking statistics exposed by Andrew Neil in BBC2’s Posh and Posher: Why Public School Boys Run Britain as he sets out to question the journey towards a meritocratic society. Himself the result of a grammar school education which enabled his generation to compete on a level playing field with their public school peers, today’s comprehensive schools are returning competition – and therefore social mobility – to pre-Harold Wilson lows. This seems to be particularly prevalent in the House of Commons which has seen progressively worsening social diversity in the last decade, favouring instead the posh and moneyed “career politician”.
The glaring problem with a system that makes it increasingly difficult for your average Joe Bloggs to become an MP is that it results in parliamentary misrepresentation. Take, for example, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who witters away in his toff accent about being “a man of the people”, and explains that his father, just like yours and mine, isn’t an MP. “No, he’s in the House of Lords!” points out Neil, as sharp as ever. Cue the awkward squirming and reference to “vox populi, vox dei”, oblivious to the fact that Joe Bloggs didn’t learn Latin at his local state school.
OK, so referencing 12th century proverbs doesn’t mean you’re unfit for the job, and of course nobody should be discriminated against because of their background or education, private or otherwise. But how can the sort of politician, oozing with all the advantages of a privileged upbringing where it’s not a case of what you know, but who you know, have any idea what it’s like being at the other end of the social scale, where every last penny has life-changing consequences and life comes down to the role of the dice?
With cuts to public services that will inevitably and seemingly unashamedly hit Britain’s poorest the worst, social divides can only get wider. And unless the meritocratic revolution is reignited, we will continue to be at the mercy of a narrow elite who not only cease to be a representation of ourselves, but who have no idea what it’s like to walk in our shoes.
Watch now on BBC iPlayer: Posh and Posher: Why Public School Boys Run Britain
Statistical analysis by Andrew Neil and his team of researchers has now exposed the unrepresentative nature of our Parliamentary system, a fact of which many individuals of enquiring minds have suspected for some time but without having definitive factual information to base their arguments. This type of investigative journalism is so necessary in modern Britain and Alexandra plays her part in highlighting the content and bringing the salient points to the attention of the readers and viewers.
I ask myself, “Why should a privileged class surrender its inherent advantage to the masses?” It has its own inertia, its own self-interest, to remain rigidly in the status quo.
What will bring about a change? This will be imposed from without, from competitive forces beyond our borders, which will expose Britain as a backward- looking country, living in the past and unable to compete in the new global markets.
During the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th Century with Scotland enjoying the highest level of literacy in the known world, Edinburgh was at the World epi-centre of rational thought. This lasted for 50 to 100 years before values based on logic and reason spread around the world. Can we recapture this energy, this thirst for knowledge, this egalitarian enterprise which we gave to World, or do a docile, uneducated magority wait in ingnorance until outside influences force all of us to make a change, including those on the front benches?
I wrote the above before I had the opportunity to view the programme on e-player. Has the programme changed my mind about what I wrote. The answer is a resounding “NO”. I see that I miss- spelled “majority”, probably because I did not have a SPAD to spell check for me.
What would the great philosopher, David Hume or Adam Smith, who wrote the economics classic “The Wealth of Nations” say about the present situation?
Read next week’s installment here: http://www.tvbomb.co.uk/?p=6689
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