The New Elite

So who are our new political masters?

The Times describe how MPs’ background shows that the new House of Commons is more socially exclusive than it was in 2005.Nine in ten were university educated, almost three in ten being graduates of Oxford or Cambridge.The study suggests that being a politician has become a graduate profession.

Fewer than half of MPs went to comprehensive schools, with the remainder taught at grammar or independent schools. Thirteen schools — 12 of them fee charging — produced a tenth of all MPs.

The report concluded: “The creation of the country’s social elites is largely a result of educational inequalities exhibited in the school and university system. Children at leading independent and state schools dominate entry to the country’s most highly academically selective universities, which in turn produce the lion’s share of graduates in the professions...Parliament does not reflect society at large. Parliament as a whole remains very much a social elite. "