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Re:'We Are Being Levelled Down’: Why the UK’s Wealth Gap Is ... by ClumsyPilot on Sunday January 29, 2023 @08:09AM (#34567748)
The British political system isn't hiring Scientists, Engineers or MBA graduates out of Cambridge. It's also about Eton. Look at the last 3 that won elections:

David Cameron - Eton, Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford, went straight into politics.

Theresa May studied Geography at Oxford, worked at Bank of England and a few other institutions for a while.

Boris Johnson - Eton, study of the Classics, ancient literature and classical philosophy. Worked as a journalist, was fired for lying, then became a politician.

Re:'We Are Being Levelled Down’: Why the UK’s Wealth Gap Is ... by sandworm101 on Sunday January 29, 2023 @08:17AM (#34567799)
Eton is more important. Children go to Eton. They dont chose to go. Their wealthy parents send them. Eton is where elite families form the bonds that are the backbone of the UK elite. Oxbridge is just the finishing school.

How many politicians are hired or promoted by prime ministers not because of quality or background but social debts between families? Nobody really tracks those relationships.

Re:'We Are Being Levelled Down’: Why the UK’s Wealth Gap Is ... by skippyboxedhero on Sunday January 29, 2023 @08:47AM (#34568027)
No, it isn't. People outside the UK have this fascination with Eton. And don't seem to realise that there are hundreds of other independent schools, grammar schools (which are often as good or better than many independent schools), and (if we are talking about history) grant-maintained schools.

Eton isn't regarded as a particularly good school. It is relatively expensive, and preferred by people outside the UK. Their academic results aren't that strong.

And social connections are an aspect of almost every political party. Blair hired almost everyone in Derry Irvine's chambers. Most of the SNP are not only friends, they are actually related to each other. The Tories are possibly the least incestuous because Cameron made a concerted effort to widen the reach of the party in the mid-2000s (this is why the current Cabinet is so diverse).

The reason why there is a concentration of Oxbridge is because, when most of these people went to uni, they were far and away the best. In Scotland, you see the exact same thing with Edinburgh (and strangely, no-one talks about the fact that almost of Sturgeon's clique went to Glasgow...which is, generally, an inferior university). And what you are actually seeing now is that more and more politicians are going to other universities reflecting the fact that non-Oxbridge unis caught up in the 90/00s (and recently, they have dropped off far more...Imperial is ahead in sciences, Oxford PPE is still very good though).

Re:'We Are Being Levelled Down’: Why the UK’s Wealth Gap Is ... by sandworm101 on Sunday January 29, 2023 @09:00AM (#34568138)
"Eton" stands for that class of schools, just as "oxbridge" really covers a cluster of elite institutions.
Re:'We Are Being Levelled Down’: Why the UK’s Wealth Gap Is ... by skippyboxedhero on Sunday January 29, 2023 @09:21AM (#34568337)
The person isn't referring to the Eton group. You know this.
Re:'We Are Being Levelled Down’: Why the UK’s Wealth Gap Is ... by eynsham on Sunday January 29, 2023 @10:25AM (#34568904)
Nonsense. Which?