Britain will pay the price for shafting the working class - (and not only Britain)- excellent read

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/13/britain-working-middle-class
<snip>
One can look to the figures. According to the Sutton Trust thinktank – which focuses on social mobility – 68% of leading "public servants" went to private schools. It says 63% of leading lawyers were privately educated, as were 60% of the upper ranks of the armed forces. Independent schools produce more than half of the nation's leading journalists, diplomats, financiers and business people. Policy Exchange says just 4% of MPs previously worked in manual trades.

Thatcherism happened. The social geographer Danny Dorling details how the grocer's daughter from Grantham, fractured the post-war reality of the poor becoming less poor and the narrowing of the gap between the very poor and very rich. "By the time Thatcher left office in 1990, the annual incomes of the richest 0.01% of society had climbed to 70 times the national mean." For them to win, as they did under Thatcher and New Labour, others had to lose. Those who lost most were working-class communities.

The total capture of the professions by the middle-classes happened. Take journalism. I entered national journalism 27 years ago with no degree; just a year's college training – funded by a council grant – and after an apprenticeship on the Newham Recorder. That was when journalism was a trade, not a profession and there were routes of entry for other than the middle classes. People took those routes to senior positions in our industry. With the middle class self-selecting, we wouldn't stand a chance today.

The country ticks along, stable and first-world prosperous. So why does the absence of working-class representation matter? Because it conflicts with everything we say we want for Britain; inclusion, fairness, equality of opportunity. Because without the broadest input, our institutions become myopic; our democracy atrophies. Isn't that the story of the last 30 years?

• This article was amended on 13 December 2013. It originally stated that the Sutton Trust had found that 68% of public servants were privately educated. This should have read "leading public servants" – the missing word has now been added, along with a link to the study

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Kurovski]

2. Da!

Thatcher (like Reagan) equaled ultimate economic decline for all but the wealthiest.

The chickens come home to roost, not roast.

Or maybe someone's ass will get "roasted"? Me not know.

[malaise]

3. We did warn them Comrade Leader

[madrchsod]

4. "living on a thin line"

the davies brothers.