Tweet
Starmer will soon make a speech in Kent about "snobbery" in education. The central claim and assumption is that non-vocational education is discriminatory and letting children down, and that academic education is, and should be, for everyone.
But is it snobbery?
I can see both academic and non-academic people giving this short shrift. Some people are interested in academia. Some are more practical / vocational and not so interested in advanced maths, history, philosophy etc. as it simply does nothing for their future career or job. I find it odd that Starmer says that not making all children be academic is "snobbery". This is a good example of upper middle class people, or rich people, showing their sense of "noblesse oblige". They mix and operate in social bubbles, never mixing with the working classes, nor socialising with people who are have vocational work. Disconnected. Just like Nick Clegg. Just like Boris. Just like Rich-y Soon-Out. And so it is for Starmer, the North London millionaire QC that he is.
Prior form from politicians
This isn't the first time we have heard such pompous diagnosis of doom for those poor non-academics. It was ever thus in the 1960s and 1970s when there was a groundswell amongst the political elite that grammar schools were snobby and technical colleges were for down-and-outs. As a result we have people going through university, thinking that there are more clever people than they really are. I see it in the City. Amongst the bright sparks, I also see plenty of overrated dirge. On the other side, and unlike Germany, we have a lack of appreciation for technical apprenticeships and engineering. We need to stop attacking the vocational education route. It is horses for courses, and all horses need to choose their own paddock, rather than all being whipped in the same direction.
Bubbled snobbery elsewhere - social circles
The real snobbery here is upper middle class bubbled folk pitying the vocationally trained - the car mechanics, plumbers, joiners, production operatives, car manufacturing engineers and the like. They look down on them with a false sense of superiority because they "read Philosophy at Cambridge" and "these poor sods didn't". My grandfather went to Pontypridd boys grammar school because he was intelligent. But he never liked it and left at 14 to work in the coal mines with his friends, and chiefly to support his ill parents. He just wanted a job where he could use his very good arithmetic skills, but never had an interest in studying calculus nor algebra. It simply wasn't of any practical use to him. He ended up in factory as a foreman on Trefforest Industrial estate in the 1960s and 1970s. He loved his job. An honest days wage for an honest days work, and a bit of overtime when needed. Not everyone wants an academic education even if they are clever. Not everyone is fit for it either. And many non-academics do well without it, thank you. And I say that, as an academic myself.
But these bubbled people, where lawyer socialises with lawyers, and accountants only mix with their work accountants mates, and directors with directors (because they are useful networks) are often unaware that many self employed plumbers and carpenters, car mechanics running their own garages, and engineers working their way up, is that salaries of £45,000-£70,000 are quite achievable. Ladies running their own hairdresser salons or coffee chops can earn £30k a year and enjoy their job mixing with all in the community, enjoying their work, and taking a comfortable wage. This is clear to me, hanging out in my local rugby club, football club and local watering hole. Meanwhile, many academic accountants and teachers barely pass the 30k mark in many parts of the country, take work home and are even working on holidays. The Brucie Bonus is that many of these non-academic folk have no university debt and enjoy their weekends quite freely without having to "log on to catch up", or have "worlidays" (working on holidays).
Horses for Courses
If only these bubbled, wealthy, middle class / upper class people suffering from middle class guilt would stop reading the bubbled "mea culpa" stories in The Guardian, The Independent and The Times, stopped trying to be Mother Theresa to all sundry and assessed themselves first. If they actually got involved in the local communities they would see that "reading at Uni" isn't for everyone. But that is where the real snobbery lies - what elite lawyer or director mixes with a local car mechanic and plumber, eh? Oh no, not a "valuable social network contact" there is there? Bubbled inside their own cocoons. Oblivious to life outside it. As ignorant as they come.
Politicians of all colours should be sorting out the national debt, generating a sound economy, and providing basic services. Not being a Nanny State and telling us what choices to make, and to wipe our own arse with. Humans adults can think for themselves - if they are allowed to think like adults, and not be baby-fied by pompous, preaching politicians. This is Starmer's first mistake. I wonder how the electorate will read this faux pas?
But is it snobbery?
I can see both academic and non-academic people giving this short shrift. Some people are interested in academia. Some are more practical / vocational and not so interested in advanced maths, history, philosophy etc. as it simply does nothing for their future career or job. I find it odd that Starmer says that not making all children be academic is "snobbery". This is a good example of upper middle class people, or rich people, showing their sense of "noblesse oblige". They mix and operate in social bubbles, never mixing with the working classes, nor socialising with people who are have vocational work. Disconnected. Just like Nick Clegg. Just like Boris. Just like Rich-y Soon-Out. And so it is for Starmer, the North London millionaire QC that he is.
Prior form from politicians
This isn't the first time we have heard such pompous diagnosis of doom for those poor non-academics. It was ever thus in the 1960s and 1970s when there was a groundswell amongst the political elite that grammar schools were snobby and technical colleges were for down-and-outs. As a result we have people going through university, thinking that there are more clever people than they really are. I see it in the City. Amongst the bright sparks, I also see plenty of overrated dirge. On the other side, and unlike Germany, we have a lack of appreciation for technical apprenticeships and engineering. We need to stop attacking the vocational education route. It is horses for courses, and all horses need to choose their own paddock, rather than all being whipped in the same direction.
Bubbled snobbery elsewhere - social circles
The real snobbery here is upper middle class bubbled folk pitying the vocationally trained - the car mechanics, plumbers, joiners, production operatives, car manufacturing engineers and the like. They look down on them with a false sense of superiority because they "read Philosophy at Cambridge" and "these poor sods didn't". My grandfather went to Pontypridd boys grammar school because he was intelligent. But he never liked it and left at 14 to work in the coal mines with his friends, and chiefly to support his ill parents. He just wanted a job where he could use his very good arithmetic skills, but never had an interest in studying calculus nor algebra. It simply wasn't of any practical use to him. He ended up in factory as a foreman on Trefforest Industrial estate in the 1960s and 1970s. He loved his job. An honest days wage for an honest days work, and a bit of overtime when needed. Not everyone wants an academic education even if they are clever. Not everyone is fit for it either. And many non-academics do well without it, thank you. And I say that, as an academic myself.
But these bubbled people, where lawyer socialises with lawyers, and accountants only mix with their work accountants mates, and directors with directors (because they are useful networks) are often unaware that many self employed plumbers and carpenters, car mechanics running their own garages, and engineers working their way up, is that salaries of £45,000-£70,000 are quite achievable. Ladies running their own hairdresser salons or coffee chops can earn £30k a year and enjoy their job mixing with all in the community, enjoying their work, and taking a comfortable wage. This is clear to me, hanging out in my local rugby club, football club and local watering hole. Meanwhile, many academic accountants and teachers barely pass the 30k mark in many parts of the country, take work home and are even working on holidays. The Brucie Bonus is that many of these non-academic folk have no university debt and enjoy their weekends quite freely without having to "log on to catch up", or have "worlidays" (working on holidays).
Horses for Courses
If only these bubbled, wealthy, middle class / upper class people suffering from middle class guilt would stop reading the bubbled "mea culpa" stories in The Guardian, The Independent and The Times, stopped trying to be Mother Theresa to all sundry and assessed themselves first. If they actually got involved in the local communities they would see that "reading at Uni" isn't for everyone. But that is where the real snobbery lies - what elite lawyer or director mixes with a local car mechanic and plumber, eh? Oh no, not a "valuable social network contact" there is there? Bubbled inside their own cocoons. Oblivious to life outside it. As ignorant as they come.
Politicians of all colours should be sorting out the national debt, generating a sound economy, and providing basic services. Not being a Nanny State and telling us what choices to make, and to wipe our own arse with. Humans adults can think for themselves - if they are allowed to think like adults, and not be baby-fied by pompous, preaching politicians. This is Starmer's first mistake. I wonder how the electorate will read this faux pas?
Comment