Tackling elitism

Sunday, December 11th, 2009

It would seem that our Government has just noticed that our professions, legal, medical, journalists, top army officers and the like, are dominated by middle or upper class people many of whom have been privately educated. It is said that some of these professions put barriers in the way of the lower ranks like the dining rituals of the Inns of Court. I smiled at this for I know the chavs could show those barristers a thing or two about how to handle a knife.

Quite honestly none of this ever bothered me even though my Brummie accent was not universally acceptable nor my lack of an Oxbridge degree but then I did not seek employment in the professions as they are called. I really couldn't give a damn if these professions were dominated by pygmies, robots, dykes or anything else as long as they did their jobs properly. (As an aside, I observe that it really doesn't matter how well or how badly they do their jobs for they are somehow protected. As my mom said about doctors, 'they bury their mistakes, literally.') But this state of affairs is not of course acceptable to a 'caring' Government which seeks to compensate a world for any misfortune it may suffer - well as long as it is near the bottom on the social scale.

So we have a former Minister to chair a commision to address this 'problem'. I do not doubt for one second that he will bitch on and on about prejudice and he may be right in part. But you know where he will keep his gob shut, don't you? He will say nothing about the superior education offered in private schools and Oxbridge and the fact that this may have something to do with the success of these people.

I am a product of the Labour Party's original attack on elitism which originated back in the 1940's but that was then they tried to lift people from the bottom without taking anything away from those at the top. I do wonder if this initiative will be different.