The Ruling Elite

As if we needed to be told that our society is class-based.

Small elites, educated at independent schools and Oxbridge, still dominate top roles, suggests the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission study. Britain is "deeply elitist" because people educated at public school and Oxbridge have in effect created a "closed shop at the top". Elitism was so embedded in Britain "that it could be called 'social engineering'".


Those who had attended fee-paying or independent schools included:
71% of senior judges
62% of senior armed forces officers
55% of permanent secretaries (the most senior civil servants)
53% of senior diplomats.
50% of the House of Lords
45% of chairmen and women of public bodies
44% of the Sunday Times Rich List
43% of newspaper columnists
36% of the Cabinet
33% of MPs
26% of BBC executives
22% of the Shadow Cabinet

In sport, 35% of the England, Scotland and Wales rugby teams and 33% of the England cricket team also went to private schools.

This compares with 7% of the UK population as a whole.

Those who went to Oxford and Cambridge:
75% of senior judges
59% of the Cabinet
57% of permanent secretaries
50% of diplomats
47% of newspaper columnists
38% of the House of Lords
33% of the shadow cabinet
24% of MPs

Less than 1% of the whole population are Oxbridge graduates while 62% did not attend any university.

From here