Britain will pay the price for shafting the Working Class

Of the attributes Britons hold dear, the most potent is stability. Our traditions endure, institutions survive. We seem loth to countenance revolution. And yet we have experienced a coup d'etat of sorts and the question must be asked: just when did the middle classes take untrammelled control of the levers? It always was a force; but now there is hegemony. Today, a glimpse of what has happened to the vanquished.

According to the conservative thinktank Policy Exchange, the under-representation of people from working-class backgrounds in public spheres such as parliament and magistrates courts can reasonably described as "shameful". It suggests an inquiry is necessary, perhaps run by the government equalities office and the equality and human rights commission. One can disagree with its diagnosis of the problem. Policy Exchange, true to its leaning, says the diversity policies of the last Labour government were too narrow – too much focus on race and gender – but that feels like scratching at the surface. Still, who can dispute that the problem exists?

One can look to the figures. According to the Sutton Trust thinktank – which focuses on social mobility – 68% of leading "public servants" went to private schools. It says 63% of leading lawyers were privately educated, as were 60% of the upper ranks of the armed forces. Independent schools produce more than half of the nation's leading journalists, diplomats, financiers and business people. Policy Exchange says just 4% of MPs previously worked in manual trades.

A few weeks ago, I spoke to a would-be Labour councillor; a busy man; a professional. So busy that he thought the task of actually campaigning to get himself elected might be too time consuming. So he placed an advert online seeking someone to do his campaigning for him. The powers that be took a dim view and the ad was promptly withdrawn, but I took to wondering what the councillors I knew in Newham in London, where I grew up and was a cub reporter, would have thought of him. These were people who had graduated to the council having been shop stewards and tenants' association leaders. Charlie, the taxi driver, Lew, the tube driver, Jim, the car plant worker. Sue, the diffident single mother who galvanised the residents in one tower block and then another and then built a campaign that culminated in a clutch of dangerous tower blocks being demolished. There were working-class people in representative positions, voicing the concerns of people from their communities. Fewer now. What happened?

Thatcherism happened. The social geographer Danny Dorling details how the grocer's daughter from Grantham, fractured the post-war reality of the poor becoming less poor and the narrowing of the gap between the very poor and very rich. "By the time Thatcher left office in 1990, the annual incomes of the richest 0.01% of society had climbed to 70 times the national mean." For them to win, as they did under Thatcher and New Labour, others had to lose. Those who lost most were working-class communities.

With their institutions unravelled and a daily battle for subsistence, how are they to seek office in meaningful numbers? With what support? There are excellent groups building capacity, such as Citizens UK, but still the fundamental problem remains. Dorling recently estimated that of the bottom 50% of people in Britain by income "all are financially insecure". How is that a springboard?

The total capture of the professions by the middle-classes happened. Take journalism. I entered national journalism 27 years ago with no degree; just a year's college training – funded by a council grant – and after an apprenticeship on the Newham Recorder. That was when journalism was a trade, not a profession and there were routes of entry for other than the middle classes. People took those routes to senior positions in our industry. With the middle class self-selecting, we wouldn't stand a chance today.

The country ticks along, stable and first-world prosperous. So why does the absence of working-class representation matter? Because it conflicts with everything we say we want for Britain; inclusion, fairness, equality of opportunity. Because without the broadest input, our institutions become myopic; our democracy atrophies. Isn't that the story of the last 30 years?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/13/britain-working-middle-class

We cannot call it democracy if a large part of the population are not represented and I think he makes a very good point. We need inclusion at every level, not the middle class telling the rest what to do and how to live.

There are a few MPs still who 'came up through the ranks', but when Dennis Skinner retires we won't hear from them very much.

This has happened with just about every job, only doctors, lawyers, scientists and such went to university most all other jobs were a learn on the job type thing, now even the police seem to expect mainly graduates to apply, so just whose fault is this? It may well be the Thatcher years but Labour seemed to want the vast majority of people to attend university when ordinary people could plainly benefit from a good basic education, an actual apprentiship or that type of training (sandwich course)and life experience before rising up the ranks, now we have a demand for graduates in just about everything who are placed too early in positions they are not ready for, based only on mainly book learning. So could it be that the expectation of the apparent higher qualifications is driving the demand and leaving perfectly capable but possibly not university suitable people behind?

Vintage wrote:This has happened with just about every job, only doctors, lawyers, scientists and such went to university most all other jobs were a learn on the job type thing, now even the police seem to expect  mainly graduates to apply, so just whose fault is this? It may well be the Thatcher years but Labour seemed to want the vast majority of people to attend university when ordinary people could plainly benefit from a good basic education, an actual apprentiship or that type of training (sandwich course)and life experience before rising up the ranks, now we have a demand for graduates in just about everything who are placed too early in positions they are not ready for, based only on mainly book learning. So could it be that the expectation of the apparent higher qualifications is driving the demand and leaving perfectly capable but possibly not university suitable people behind?

I agree with so much of what you have said and much more attention should be made to getting young people into craft apprenticeships instead of leading them down the path that university is the place they need to go to if they want a decent career.
Student loans are offered to young people to attend university and I would like to see a system of sorts that gives a similar type of help to young people who may not have achieved the grades required for university, or who have no interest in going there, to persue a craft apprenticeships as their preferred choice.

Irn Bru wrote:

Vintage wrote:This has happened with just about every job, only doctors, lawyers, scientists and such went to university most all other jobs were a learn on the job type thing, now even the police seem to expect  mainly graduates to apply, so just whose fault is this? It may well be the Thatcher years but Labour seemed to want the vast majority of people to attend university when ordinary people could plainly benefit from a good basic education, an actual apprentiship or that type of training (sandwich course)and life experience before rising up the ranks, now we have a demand for graduates in just about everything who are placed too early in positions they are not ready for, based only on mainly book learning. So could it be that the expectation of the apparent higher qualifications is driving the demand and leaving perfectly capable but possibly not university suitable people behind?

I agree with so much of what you have said and much more attention should be made to getting young people into craft apprenticeships instead of leading them down the path that university is the place they need to go to if they want a decent career.
Student loans are offered to young people to attend university and I would like to see a system of sorts that gives a similar type of help to young people who may not have achieved the grades required for university, or who have no interest in going there, to persue a craft apprenticeships as their preferred choice.

Absolutely, not everyone is cut out for a life in academia. Small businesses struggle to support apprentices, some level of funding or loans would enable many to gain access to invaluable training

Irn Bru wrote:

Vintage wrote:This has happened with just about every job, only doctors, lawyers, scientists and such went to university most all other jobs were a learn on the job type thing, now even the police seem to expect  mainly graduates to apply, so just whose fault is this? It may well be the Thatcher years but Labour seemed to want the vast majority of people to attend university when ordinary people could plainly benefit from a good basic education, an actual apprentiship or that type of training (sandwich course)and life experience before rising up the ranks, now we have a demand for graduates in just about everything who are placed too early in positions they are not ready for, based only on mainly book learning. So could it be that the expectation of the apparent higher qualifications is driving the demand and leaving perfectly capable but possibly not university suitable people behind?

I agree with so much of what you have said and much more attention should be made to getting young people into craft apprenticeships instead of leading them down the path that university is the place they need to go to if they want a decent career.
Student loans are offered to young people to attend university and I would like to see a system of sorts that gives a similar type of help to young people who may not have achieved the grades required for university, or who have no interest in going there, to persue a craft apprenticeships as their preferred choice.

Very good idea, there are definitely not enough proper apprenticeships, the more manufacturing we lost, the more apprenticeships we lost. We should have a really deep enquiry into what skills are going to be needed in the future and apprenticeships for them, with the apprentices being supported, because not everyone has a Mum and Dad who can support them. Its great that if they are living at home and don't have so much to pay out, but nobody can live on what an apprentice would earn.