Wednesday 11 November 2009

MPs' backgrounds

"Those who make it their business to look at parliament's composition from a broad, non-partisan perspective are worried about what the 2010 intake will say about social mobility. Dr Lee Elliott Major, research director of the Sutton Trust, which campaigns to increase opportunity for non-privileged children, said: "Our big fear is that the golden generation who managed to be socially mobile in the post-war period are going to turn out to be a blip, and in terms of the domination of a lot of public life, things are now moving in the opposite direction.""

I'm from a decent background, probably lower middle class. I was lucky in that I went to a very good state school. But even I feel that politics is largely ruled by people from a class above me and they ignore me for being poor, uneducated and unorthodox.
I have no problem with where people come from: Bevan and Foot are my heros (to some extent). Bevan was from a poor mining community, Foot was born and bred in the lap of luxury and his family had Prime Ministers round for tea.
But there is a serious problem with representation in politics. If even I feel unrepresented (middle class, good school, masters degree) then what must most others feel like?

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