I've always marvelled at the way we, the 93% of the population who went to state schools, are so sanguine about the utter domination of every sphere of our lives by the 7% that received an elite education. Given that the principle qualification for attending an elite school is that your parents have lots of money it seems unlikely this 7% truly represent the best and the brightest. So I thought: what if they were a visible ethnic minority? Would we mind then?

So let's put on the special sunglasses and maybe we might just realise what's really going on.

Thursday 14 April 2011

David Cameron's Cabinet

I thought that David Cameron's first coalition cabinet would be an excellent place to start. The picture was taken on May 13, 2010. In case you're wondering there are 18 Purple People and 12 Ordinary.

Front row, L to R:
Iain Duncan Smith, Liam Fox, George Osborne, William Hague, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Sayeeda Warsi, Cheryl Gillan, Caroline Spelman, Ken Clarke, David Laws.
(Back rows L-R)
Patrick McLoughlin, Theresa May, David Willetts, Oliver Letwin, Vince Cable, Francis Maude, Eric Pickles, Tom Strathclyde, Andrew Lansley, George Young, Michael Gove, Andrew Mitchell, Philip Hammond, Chris Huhne, Jeremy Hunt, Owen Paterson, Danny Alexander, Dominic Grieve, Gus O'Donnell.

2 comments:

  1. Neat conceit, and an admirable consciousness-raising exercise.

    As a former scholarship boy, though, I do feel obliged to take issue with the idea that your parents having pots of cash is a requirement for attending public school. It just really, really helps.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's why I said it was the principle qualification. It's very hard to get figures on what percentage of student intake each year are scholarship students and what their background is.

    ReplyDelete