Going backwards

Britain is so elitist “that it could be called social engineering”, a study by the social mobility and child poverty commission has found.

It comes as no surprise that people from privileged backgrounds are far more likely to land top jobs than people from poorer backgrounds.

This ingrained inequality extends so much further than the “Eton mess” of government. As political author Owen Jones recently wrote in the Guardian, “It is quite something when the ‘cabinet of millionaires’ is one of the less unrepresentative pillars of power.”

Although only seven per cent of the UK population has attended an independent school, 71 per cent of judges, 62 per cent of senior armed forces, 50 per cent of members of the House of Lords, 44 per cent of the Sunday Times Rich List, 36 per cent of cabinet and 33 per cent of MPs attended independent schools. Only 40 per cent of MPs attended a comprehensive school, compared to 88 per cent of the general population.

The report also highlights geographical inequality, with 45 per cent of cabinet and 45 per cent of the judiciary educated in London and the South East.

Ethnic minorities make up more than 10 per cent of the UK population but less than five per cent of MPs.

Gender inequality is also rife – only 23 per cent of members of the House of Commons are women and, amazingly, there are more male CEOs of the FTSE 350 called David than there are female CEOs.

The report also found that 60 per cent of jobs are not advertised but are recruited through networks – proof that in this unfair and unequal society, it is not what you know but who you know.

Of the UK population, 95 per cent agree that, “in a fairer society every person should have an equal opportunity to get ahead.” It is clear from this report that Britain is not as fair as the elite coalition government pretend it is.

Commission chairman and former Labour MP Alan Milburn said in the report that elitism, “risks narrowing the conduct of public life to a small few, who are very familiar with each other but far less familiar with the day-to-day challenges facing ordinary people.”

Unite believes to tackle this inequality, we need to see an end to unpaid internships, as people from poorer backgrounds cannot afford to work for free.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, said, “Britain is going backwards. Social mobility has been thrown into arrest by this government – our kids must overcome greater barriers than we did as for the first time in generations, our children will be worse off than their parents.

“Privilege once again trumps talent.  This is the UK in 2014; this is what happens when a government uses a global banking failure to redistribute wealth and opportunity away from the many and towards the few.”