John Major: he is the boy eh?

Just after throwing a well-aimed spanner into Cameron’s PR machine with his call for a windfall tax on greedy energy companies, Major’s gone and done it again. This time he has pointed out what most sentient beings had noticed - that our government is dominated by posh toffs from public schools. That this has taken so long to hit the headlines is largely down to a media who feature a significant number of chinless charmers themselves. Even when Nadine  ‘LOOK AT MEEE!’  Dorries described Osborne and Cameron as being ‘two posh boys who do not know the price of milk’ the fuss lasted barely a day. 

Then up pops one of the few politicians to merit ‘elder statesman’ to state the obvious. And lo! There is concern around the land. Scribes scribble and pundits ponder...

Or not. 93% of our population did not attend public school. 

To be judged by your ability, your performance and your character is the norm for most of us. The idea of relying on relationships, contacts and networks established before you were fully formed is not only weird, it is also anti-meritocratic. A glance at the loathsome picture of the Bullingdon boys says plenty about their values too. 

It is not just that we are run by a cosseted elite. Many of them have never had what is commonly known as ‘a proper job.’

“In recent years, we have witnessed the 'rise of the spad' - the special advisers who went from carrying ministers' bags to becoming MPs and then ministers themselves. The leaders of all three major political parties - prime minister David Cameron, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and leader of the opposition Ed Miliband - were all spads prior to securing seats in the Commons.

So, how many cabinet and shadow ministers can claim to have worked in the 'real world', rather than the cosy political bubble of Westminster?

A HuffPost UK analysis of the employment backgrounds of the 33 people who attend cabinet found that 11 of those ministers (33%) worked, at some stage, as special advisers, political researchers or speechwriters before being elected to parliament. For Labour, it's an even higher proportion: the current shadow cabinet consists of 32 people, of whom 14 (44%) worked in politics, as spads or researchers, before joining the Commons or the Lords.” Huffington Post 14/11/13

For many of these bright young things, politics is a jolly game and the differences between public school educated tories and public school educated labour politicians is slight. 

The consequences of something as brutal as the bedroom tax are way beyond their ken.