[0762]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/48745093
This depressing report by the Sutton Trust really epitomises how favour is still proffered to "select people" from privileged backgrounds although one positive note is that soccer has not been infested by an educated group who only take up about 4%-5% of the total number of kids who could and should be given equal opps (and more importantly, the same facilities/provision!!) to try and succeed at a chosen sport!! Soccer, unsurprisingly, is hardly affected with only 3% intake, which almost "ties in" with the % private proportion of total pupils, nationwide.

[0762]

Looking further into other findings of the Sutton Trust and one discovers that the most influential people in the UK are more than 5 x more likely to have been educated at a fee-paying school than the general population - just 6% of the latter is privately educated, compared to 39% in top positions. This is part of a report titled "Elitist Britain 2019". The most common jobs were senior judges (65%), civil service permanent secretaries (59%), House of Lords members (57%) and FCO diplomats (52%). I would add that the majority of these people speak with an artificial snobby accent, they vote Tory, love the Royal family, they shop at Harrods or possibly Waitrose and many of them genuinely believe that they are better human beings than mere mortals who have attained less or attained exceptionally great success in state schools. The report's reference to 2019 is IMO a misnomer because this disproportionate representation has been going on for a long, long time in the UK and is an absolute disgrace when one considers that we are well into the 21st century and compare this type of bias/favouritism in many Euro countries - it disnae exist and rightly so because they favour equal opps for all their kids!!!

[spireitematt]

In other news water is wet.

It's been well known for years that Cricket and Rugby is the worse for this because they pick people who went to public or grammar schools.

I was listening to LBC on Sunday and Nigel Farage was hosting it and they were talking about the Conservative Party leadership and talking about Boris Johnson etc and one caller a Conservative member said this. "Our leaders should go to the best schools and should come from the very best stock". It sounded like the caller had an inferiority complex.

[0762]

I "rest my case"! Add in old cliches such as that arrogant one, "The party that is the only one to govern this country properly" and these c#### truly believe this shit!! I see this disgrace as an evolved process that emanates back well over a century to when the word "Tory" became part of the English language and class division/privilege/snobiness was all part of their philosophy together with a governance of the country that favours their "group of like-minded people", many of whom sent their kids to private schools to "gain an advantage" over other less privileged individuals than them!!! That was well over a hundred years ago and the UK is still "stuck with this divisive legacy" and part of a population that still supports this elitist ideology to the detriment of many of our kids and grand kids throughout the country!! 21st century Britain eh!!

[0762]

I'm not a Labour Party supporter but I was intrigued to read a part of Labour's election manifesto that proposes to strip the assets of private schools, integrate said schools into the state school ed system and redistribute the money accordingly - huge applause from me personally because I'd love to see this unacceptable divisive two tier ed system finally smashed and converted into a one tier ed system for all our kids. I live in Edinburgh and did you know that Edinburgh "bucks the private school trend" considerably where 1 in 5 kids actually attend a private school in the Scottish capital, IMO that is an absolute disgrace under the guise of "freedom of choice" esp in a small country like Scotland where all our kids should naturally be equally educated and forthcoming equal opps and jobs in later years should be a given right rather than a distinct advantage being created for certain privileged kids whose intellectual capacities are comparable with other kids who have not been "advantaged" with such financial backing.

[St Charles Owl]

Can't agree with what Labour are proposing there if I read it right!! I cannot fathom why governments think that to fix a general problem you tear down or reduce the effectiveness of the part that is working to bring it down to the level of the rest, therefore levelling the playing field!!! More cricketers and rugby players come from private schools for the simple reason that private schools still teach these sports and still have the sports fields to do it as well.

If the government wants to correct this inequality, then it needs to spend more money on the public school system, not "asset strip" those schools that are succeeding. From a sport perspective how about providing sports fields where public schools can play cricket or rugby, provide the budget so that PE and competitive sports have some importance and not just an unpaid pastime for the teachers that do it. How about they get the professional sports involved with the school systems to help provide instruction?

Schools of all types should be palaces, places where learning is focused and encouraged along with kids having some fun. Teachers should be paid properly just like you see in private schools. If we continue to try to save money and cut costs in the public school system then guess what we get - a less educated average school kid and a very undereducated or demotivated above average kid. We need to produce more engineers, plumbers, entrepreneurs, business professionals etc etc, dumbing down private schools and still not spending properly on public schools will not achieve that.

[0762]

It sometimes "takes a sledge hammer to crack a nut" SCO! I personally don't think this proposal would materialise anyway but I would love to smash down this obscene bastion of privilege and favour that suits a certain group of people who will fight to keep that status quo in the interests of their own kids, the few, and stuff the interests of the many!