Filed under: Politics, Uncategorized | Tags: Boris Johnson, Class War, Conservative Party, David Cameron, Eton college, George Osborne, Labour, PMQs, Politics, Tories
It was Prime minister’s questions where Gordon Brown put in an unusually invigorated performance, but it was also where he asserted that Conservative economic policy was “dreamt up on the playing fields of Eton.” It was with this Brown also signalled a return to class warfare, trying to make it look like the Conservatives have never changed and remain a party staffed to the very top with out of touch members of the upper class.
Accusations were on the basis that Zac Goldsmith, a former Etonian with a estimated wealth of 300m, and Conservative parliamentary candidate had inherited non-domicile tax status meaning the money he made abroad he didn’t have to pay tax on in the UK. Brown knew he couldn’t just attack on the basis of wealth alone, so he used this an excuse to also link Goldsmith with David Cameron who also attended Eton along with George Osborne, who attended St Paul’s, which was linked with plans for a £1million limit on inheritance tax, something the Labour party see’s as a policy for the rich.
We’ve had class warfare throughout modern politics, something that is usually used by the Labour party to attack the supposedly out of touch elites who mainly pass through public school and Oxbridge before becoming a Conservative MP. While Labour criticism might have been justified in the past, when they were a somewhat socialist party, surely they’ve given up the right to use the mantra of ‘you’re more posh than us!’ since Fettes old boy Tony Blair was party leader, who much like the Tories appealed to middle-England voters. If we look at Gordon’s most high profile cabinet ministers it may not contain any old Etonians, but Harriet Harman, Alistair Darling, Jack Straw, Ed Balls and Tessa Jowell all attended independent schools. Is it not just banal and hypocritical to suggest if someone has had a priviledged education, which happens to just be a little more privileged than your own, they are out of touch with normal people.
This was emphasised I feel when Boris Johnson was interviewed by Andrew Marr on the BBC, when it was asked of Boris: “We seem to be going into a period in politics marked by a bit of a class war. Do you think there are enough old Etonians at the top of the Conservative party?” to which Boris reminded Marr that he himself had attended the £30,000 Lorretto school, much like Alistair darling, and if we look into this issue Boris was a scholar at Eton meaning he got in for his intelligence and while he may play up to the stereotype his family were not as privileged as many other politicians whose parents paid for them to go to a better school.
To attack someone for their background is irrelevant when you also have had a privileged upbringing, and it suggests that Labour are trying their best to narrow the polls and take a parting shot at the Tories. While I think that many British people do care about the background of their politicians, parliament isn’t representative and it never has been of society as a whole, it always has been a place for the privileged and maybe this is what we should focus on rather than the fact that a few politicians went to a ‘posher’ school than some others.
Filed under: Education | Tags: Education, Fees, Graduate employment, Graduate Jobs, Intern fees, Internship, Investment Banking, Job Market, Law, Media, Politics, PR, Recession, Unpaid work
In the media this week there has been a variety of stories suggesting that students are paying companies, which seem to be springing up all over the internet, for advice on gaining valuable internships. For some context, students usually are supposed to at some point in their degree (usually in the first and/or second year) find a three to six month unpaid internship in a sector that they wish to work in. However, finding an internship in Media, PR, Law and Investment Banking as just some widely recognised examples is nothing short of extremely hard; without wishing to blame the recession, there has also been suggestions that this has led to firms being more selective and considering students only from the top universities.
While many students are routinely rejected for internships in the summer of both years 1 and 2 of their degree, they tend to worry about the feasibility of working in their preferred industry, which is where we’ve seen companies offer CV advice alongside tailor made help for specific internship programmes (such as help with tests and interviews). It has come to be expected that to work in some industries graduates will have to work going unpaid or with extremely poor pay. For students who wish to work in journalism, the BBCs work experience programmes are highly competitive and while gaining access to work on local papers can be more easily sought almost always these go unpaid and even if the student was lucky enough to gain a job on a local paper as a reporter they’d expect no more than around £12,000 starting pay (hardly a graduate salary). While some other careers promise higher salaries such as those obtained in Public Relations being closer to £20,000 – this is an industry where like journalism, graduates are expected to work for free for a period of time. Now many might argue that if graduates expect to fly up the career ladder in an industry they’ve always wished of working in, they should expect to undertake 6months to a years worth of unpaid work to get their foot in the door so to speak. While this may be true how can graduates from less wealthy backgrounds be expected to afford living for up to a year with no income (bearing in mind most graduate jobs are located in London).
Unpaid graduate internships and even starting salaries for journalism jobs, I would argue lead to less more than qualified yet not quite middle-class enough graduates turning away from these industries, is it any wonder people bleat on all the time about the lack of working class people in newspapers or high paid jobs? It is arguable that we are getting to the point where unpaid internships are leading to the privileged getting necessary experience yet graduates who are equally as qualified turning to lesser jobs merely so they can live comfortably or support their families. I think the government should make it compulsory for graduates to be paid the minimum wage during internships, while this may not solve the problem, it will help considerably – many of those who turned down unpaid work with a prospect of their dream job because they couldn’t afford to live in London for a year going unpaid may now give it a go. Surely the skills of a graduate merit minimum wage pay? Companies which offer unpaid internships on the whole tend to be massive organisations that make staggering profits, while it might be acceptable to expect a first or second year student to undertake a few months work with no pay but essential experience gained it shouldn’t be expected for those who are done studying.
It would be terrible if we got to the point where companies have realised they can take a batch of highly qualified graduates, make them work for a year (yes, proper work – 9-5) then instead of taking on all of those that are good enough, they instead replace many with other highly qualified graduates who will also work for a year for free.
