Watch the press get their knives out!

Yes Pantglas as was Gordon Brown, all state educated as of course, was Starmer. All academically bright with successful careers though, except Major - who is apparently now worth £50m. Just shows, really.

Also Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Looking back, since the war very few of our Prime Ministers have had inherited wealth, Halrold Wilosn, James Callaghan, Edward Heath, even Winston Churchill lived his life in debt. Sir Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan (whose money came from publishing) and Lord Alec Douglas-Hume, may have had the aristocratic connections, but none of them were outstandingly wealthy.

M0nica

Also Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Looking back, since the war very few of our Prime Ministers have had inherited wealth, Halrold Wilosn, James Callaghan, Edward Heath, even Winston Churchill lived his life in debt. Sir Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan (whose money came from publishing) and Lord Alec Douglas-Hume, may have had the aristocratic connections, but none of them were outstandingly wealthy.

Tony Blair went to Fettes College. His father was a barrister and law lecturer at Durham University.

Not exactly a miner or bus conductor.

Harold Wilson came from a middle class family.

I thought the discussion was about the wealth of the respective PMs.

Tony Blair's father had very humble origins, he was adopted by a loving, but very poor couple and spent part of his childhood in care, yet still managed to go to university, get a degree in law and train as a barrister

He had a stroke when he was 40 and Tony Blair was only 10. he could not speak for 3 years, which affected the families income adversely.

Tony Blair won a scholarship to Fettes, his parents would never have been able to afford the fees www.morethanourchildhoods.org/stories/leo-blair/

Tony Blair did actually come from a far from affluent background and with his father's stroke and illness elsewhere in the family, did not have the gilded childhood some people on GN suppose.

How many of those who were state educated did well because they attended grammar schools? We are told these days that social mobility is declining. I’m sure that is true.

Starmer also went to Leeds University.

I went to university in the early 1960s. It was a northern university predominantly producing graduate engineers and associated subjects.

I would have said that at least half the students there came from working class homes, having got there by passing the 11 plus and going to grammar school. Including my DH. Most of my boyfriends while I was there were from similar backgrounds.

MayBee70

Starmer also went to Leeds University.

Is that a good or bad thing?

My three grandchildren went to university, their father a carpenter. A cousin went to a London university 1960, his father a farm labourer.

Oreo

MayBee70

Starmer also went to Leeds University.

Is that a good or bad thing?

Pretty good imo. Makes a change from Oxbridge.

I dislike the disdain that some people express when they speak of Oxbridge. The young people who go there work extremely hard to get there. I should know, my son went to Oxford, and he most certainly was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Incidentally Leeds is a perfectly good and well thought of university. And so is Oxford!

I don't think they have much of an experience of normal people’s lives though when they go there straight from Eton though. Or Winchester College.

My son went to neither of those schools. He worked very hard to get to Oxford, and equally hard if not more so, to get his degree. People are often scathing about Oxbridge, but my son described it as ‘the bastion of the middle classes.’ Some of his friends at university went to independent schools, but most went to state schools. All were lovely young people and some visited our home on a few occasions. They were always polite and respectful, as you would expect any young visitor to your home to be.

I should add, they were without exception, normal young people.

maddyone

My son went to neither of those schools. He worked very hard to get to Oxford, and equally hard if not more so, to get his degree. People are often scathing about Oxbridge, but my son described it as ‘the bastion of the middle classes.’ Some of his friends at university went to independent schools, but most went to state schools. All were lovely young people and some visited our home on a few occasions. They were always polite and respectful, as you would expect any young visitor to your home to be.

I’m not talking about your son. I’m talking about people that govern this country without having any knowledge of what it is to lead a normal life.

If people don't know about Keir Starmer's background, I would suggest that they read the recent Tom Baldwin biography. I would have thought that growing up in a family in difficult circumstances, where money was very tight, becoming a young carer for his severely disabled mother and playing a key roll in holding the family together, would give him pretty good insight into normal life.
I can't understand the negativity towards someone from a working-class background passing the 11+, going to university and becoming a barrister and then Director of Public Prosecutions. Isn't that what success in life is meant to look like?
My overwhelming impression is of somebody driven by a sense of duty and commitment.

Mamie I imagine most people, including me didn’t know about his background. So judgements about whether anyone likes him or thinks he’s trustworthy are made on the basis of what they see or hear now rather than what went on in the past.

Wyllow3, but Sunak married most of that money, didn’t he?
His own upbringing was much more relatively normal.

I won’t be voting Tory but I do think Sunak gets a lot of very unfair slagging off. He inherited a very poisoned chalice - post Boris/Covid - I’m not sure Labour would have done much better. And I do think at least some of the slagging arises from jealousy/resentment of his wealth, with - I wouldn’t mind betting - an element of racism too often mixed in.

Also judgements are formed from what is written in the media.

I know you’re not talking about my son Maybee, but you appeared, like many others I’ve had to listen to over the years, to be quite scathing about people who are Oxbridge educated, and like others, appear to think they are all born with a silver spoon in their mouths. However I know the truth, and the truth is that the majority of Oxbridge students are just ordinary middle class students, who have attended either very minor independent schools (that no one’s ever heard of) or state schools. Most have not attended Eton or Winchester, or any other similar institution. I will not be dismissed about this, because as long as people make these type of false claims, I will continue to refute them!

Witzend

*Wyllow3*, but Sunak married most of that money, didn’t he?
His own upbringing was much more relatively normal.

I won’t be voting Tory but I do think Sunak gets a lot of very unfair slagging off. He inherited a very poisoned chalice - post Boris/Covid - I’m not sure Labour would have done much better. And I do think at least some of the slagging arises from jealousy/resentment of his wealth, with - I wouldn’t mind betting - an element of racism too often mixed in.

Fair comments.

maddyone

I know you’re not talking about my son Maybee, but you appeared, like many others I’ve had to listen to over the years, to be quite scathing about people who are Oxbridge educated, and like others, appear to think they are all born with a silver spoon in their mouths. However I know the truth, and the truth is that the majority of Oxbridge students are just ordinary middle class students, who have attended either very minor independent schools (that no one’s ever heard of) or state schools. Most have not attended Eton or Winchester, or any other similar institution. I will not be dismissed about this, because as long as people make these type of false claims, I will continue to refute them!

Good for you, I think most people’s perception of Oxford and Cambridge is based on the past.

With regard to Starmer’s background, I think we all know he came from an ordinary working class background. It’s not a badge of honour, it’s where he came from. A respectable, working class background. He attended Reigate Grammar School, which became an independent school whilst he was a pupil there. He went on to gain a Bachelor of Laws degree from Leeds University and then went on to study for a post graduate degree at Oxford University, St Edmund Hall. In 2008 he became Director of Public Prosecutions, under the Blair/Brown administration. He was honoured in 2014, becoming Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, under the Cameron/Clegg administration.

As someone with nothing but disdain for the media I will be listening in to some podcasts and TV coverage. It will be the usual courting of the predicted winners (Labour) and some whipping of the party in power, becoming more obvious but only because of their past fawning.
The emphasis on Reform is all wrong, I switch off whenever those nonentities Tice and Farage appear but as usual the Greens will be mostly ignored.

Thanks Oreo.
Additionally, whilst my son was at Oxford, he took part in a scheme whereby he visited state secondary schools all around the country, where he talked to pupils about applying to Oxford, and encouraging them to think about it, because Oxbridge actually wants state pupils who are bright and capable to attend its colleges. They will not lower their standards though, as many other universities are said to have done, because they wish to remain a centre of excellence.