Independent School/Oxbridge types predominantly staff the media, according to a report last week by the Sutton Trust, . Significantly this was not reported in either The Times or The Telegraph. Will Hutton commented in yesterday's "Observer" that the media are one of several professions in which new entrants benefit from having well-heeled parents able to subsidise living in London early in their careers and so freeze out the less well-heeled. "The British Middle Class is operating a closed shop."
I benefited from a Grammar School and University education financed by local government. But I have always been conscious that this was denied the majority of my contemporaries who "failed" the eleven-plus (or "The Scholarship" as it was known in my day) – who knows how narrowly. So I have always favoured the Comprehensive ideal. Norman Tebbit (to my surprise) caused me to think again. It's only fair, he says, to keep Grammar Schools to give working class boys and girls a chance to compete with the products of private education.
The trend, however, is the other way. Increasingly top universities and top jobs are no-go areas for state school children. Could a Norman Tebbit rise in the Tory ranks today – or in the Labour Party for that matter? These two parties are led by wealthy Public School/Oxbridge types and most of their associates come from the same background. As I blogged before, that was one reason why I voted for Ming Campbell as leader of the Lib-Dems. Is much of the media criticism levelled at him – and John Prescott – consciously or unconsciously class-based (they've risen above their station)?
What can be done about the Independent Schools? Their tax-exempt status is a scandal. Why not remove their status as charities and require them to pay corporation tax and VAT on fees? No chance: the people with money and power went there and send their children to them.
(Email comments welcome)