UK politics probably doesn’t stir me up as much as it should – perhaps because I have an ignorant sense of futility about it all. Perhaps I feel like I should have a say in it... but can’t...
The recent gaff by the Conservative Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell, in which he allegedly called a police officer a ‘pleb’ – defined by my dictionary as ‘a person of low social class’ - has got me wishing my voice had more grit.
No, I’m not angry – in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if the word ‘pleb’ is just a standard insult from Mr Mitchell which he uses without much conscious affiliation towards class, however, that such a word is thrown about so casually in the vocabulary of the privileged set is where my problem lies. Mr Mitchell’s gaff has given the British media another excuse to start up a fresh round of Tory ‘posh-bashing’. And although I hate to paint with such broad brushes I do tend to agree.
I grew up in a very multi-cultural and relatively poor part of London, and until I went to University, I never really understood anything about the class system. Everyone I had grown up with and went to school with all seemed to be the same... I thought that privilege meant royalty and the aristocracy. University changed that. Work has changed that. I became friends with people who came from a completely different background to me – and there were lots of them. And suddenly, when I returned home to my local high street I no longer felt at home there – I had seen this was not the world that everyone lived in.
At University, I dated a boy who was part of this privileged set, and although he had a thoroughly good and kind character, his contempt for ‘chavs’ was completely incomprehensible to me. When I told him I wore hooped earrings in my youth he said he in a very matter-of-fact way that he doubted we would have got on then. I didn’t understand – I was exactly the same person. I began to learn that his sentiment was common. Those of a ‘lower class’ were different – lesser - foreign. There was almost no compassion.
Carol Midgley wrote in The Times yesterday, "Someone who achieves something through their own merits is more deserving of respect than someone brought up with a sense that they were born to rule… I’d rather be a pleb than a prat."
I have friends who are doctors, lawyers, bankers, etc, and who have achieved these careers through nothing except incredible hard work. With friends like that, it is very difficult to respect anyone who achieves success any other way.
But I don’t believe hard work is enough. What singles me and these friends of mine out from most of the other kids in our hometown is that we received a great education. We were lucky to get into a Grammar School. Honestly, I cannot believe there is any debate at all over the future of Grammar Schools. They are key to giving children from normal backgrounds opportunities which are on par with those provided by the independent education system. Similarly, by raising tuition fees at university, so many talented, intelligent children will be restricted from competing against children from independent schools for the top jobs and positions in society. Just how is that a good thing? This is a wonderful diverse country with incredible, diverse talent. The reality is that 'plebs' are the backbone of real society. Stemming the flow and development of that diversity will stem the growth of this country. Nick 'Westminster School' Clegg, you have no idea what it is like to really feel sorry.
Just as I know people from normal backgrounds who have worked hard to achieve what they deserve, I also know many people from privileged backgrounds who are incredibly intelligent and hard-working. Naturally, I like and respect them as they deserve to be liked and respected.
But, the more restrictions that are placed on this type of enabling education that I was lucky enough to receive, the more a good work ethic becomes irrelevant.
I want to live in a country run by bright and hard working people. I don’t care where they grew up or where they went to school or who their parents are. I like and respect people for their attitudes, humility and ethics. In my opinion, if you don’t have those things, you don’t deserve to hold particular positions in society.
Education is the path to mobility – and I’m not talking about class mobility, I’m talking about individual opportunity and personal success. Class will never be able to define (negatively or positively) any individual in a society where hard work earns respect and achieves results.
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