{"id":46847,"date":"2014-08-28T09:42:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T09:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=1aa5c2e885a073ae1281ea2b849e713f"},"modified":"2014-08-28T09:42:25","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T09:42:25","slug":"press-release-elitist-britain-report-published","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=46847","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Elitist Britain? report published"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/elitist-britain\">report,<\/a> which is published today from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (<abbr title=\"Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission\">SMCPC<\/abbr>), examines who is in charge of our country. The report\u2019s research highlights a dramatic over-representation of those educated at independent schools and Oxbridge across the institutions that have such a profound influence on what happens in our country. <\/p>\n<p>Few people believe that the sum total of talent in Britain exists in just 7% of our country\u2019s schools and less than 2% of our universities. The risk is that the more the few dominate our country\u2019s leading institutions, the less likely it is that people believe they can make a valuable contribution.<\/p>\n<p>Some key findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>research conducted by <abbr title=\"Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission\">SMCPC<\/abbr> found that 65% of people believe \u2018who you know\u2019 is more important than \u2018what you know\u2019, and 3 quarters of people think family background has a significant influence on life chances in Britain today<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>71% of senior judges, 53% of diplomats, 50% of members of the House of Lords, 45% of public body chairs, 44% of the Sunday Times Rich List, 35% of the national rugby teams and 33% of the England cricket team attended independent schools (compared to 7% of the population as a whole)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>75% of senior judges, 59% of the cabinet, 57% of permanent secretaries, 50% of diplomats, 47% of newspaper columnists,  44% of public body chairs, 38% of members of the House of Lords and 12% of the Sunday Times Rich List attended Oxbridge (compared to less than 1% of the population as a whole)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>59% of the Cabinet and 33% of the Shadow Cabinet attended Oxbridge compared to less than 1% of the UK population as a whole<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Rt Hon Alan Milburn, the Chair of the Commission, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We in the Commission hope this report prompts a re-think in the institutions that have such a critical role to play in making Britain a country where success relies on aptitude and ability more than background or birth.<\/p>\n<p>To confront the challenges and seize the opportunities that Britain faces a broader range of experiences and talents need to be harnessed.<\/p>\n<p>The risk, however, is that the more a few dominate our country\u2019s leading institutions the less likely it is that the many believe they can make a valuable contribution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">A closed shop at the top can all too easily give rise to a \u2018not for the likes of me\u2019 syndrome in the rest of society.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_967\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Contact Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"fn\">Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission<\/span><br \/><span class=\"street-address\">Sanctuary Buildings<br \/>\n<br \/>\n20 Great Smith Street<br \/>\n<br \/><\/span><br \/><span class=\"locality\">London<\/span><br \/><span class=\"postal-code\">SW1P 3BT <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:contact@smcpcommission.gsi.gov.uk\">contact@smcpcommission.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission has published a report on social mobility: Elitist Britain?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}