Watch the press get their knives out!

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.

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

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 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.

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!

Oreo

MayBee70

Starmer also went to Leeds University.

Is that a good or bad thing?

Pretty good imo. Makes a change from Oxbridge.

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

MayBee70

Starmer also went to Leeds University.

Is that a good or bad thing?

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.

Starmer also went to Leeds University.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I think JohnMajor and Theresa May would count as poor relations who rose to highest office since I started voting in 1974.

Although she was a shopkeeper’s daughter Thatcher married a very rich man which helped her ascendancy no doubt.

Freya5

Katie590

Wyllow3

Best I could find, mostly her money but his own

"Sunak became a “multimillionaire in his mid-twenties”, according to The Sunday Times. He was a partner at the hedge fund TCI, where bosses “shared nearly £100m after an audacious stock market bet that lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis”."

theweek.com/rishi-sunak/957385/how-rishi-sunaks-in-laws-made-their-billions

His wealth is always going to dog him in politics however well intentioned he is, why bother, but I guess if you have everything money can buy you need a challenge

Well as Starmer is a also millionaire, guess we can say the same about him. Wonder how he made his millions? Obviously being a Human Rights lawyer paid dividends, land worth 10 million, house worth 1 million. Book sales lucrative,So let's not be hypocrites, he's not your average Jo, as much as they like to play it that way.

I think it would be fair to say we are talking about a very different scale of wealth for Sunak though. He’s on the Rich List, and he and his wife are wealthier than the king!

I can’t imagine anybody would rise to be PM without considerable personal wealth related to professional success, except perhaps Boris Johnson, who was lucky enough to have a mate to lend him £800k when he needed it.

Starmer is definitely not your average man at all. He had about as much idea about how ordinary people live as does Sunak.

Kier Starmer’s net worth is reportedly 7.7 million, this does not include the land he owns which is worth 10 million at todays prices nor revenue from book sales etc.,

Katie590

Wyllow3

Best I could find, mostly her money but his own

"Sunak became a “multimillionaire in his mid-twenties”, according to The Sunday Times. He was a partner at the hedge fund TCI, where bosses “shared nearly £100m after an audacious stock market bet that lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis”."

theweek.com/rishi-sunak/957385/how-rishi-sunaks-in-laws-made-their-billions

His wealth is always going to dog him in politics however well intentioned he is, why bother, but I guess if you have everything money can buy you need a challenge

Well as Starmer is a also millionaire, guess we can say the same about him. Wonder how he made his millions? Obviously being a Human Rights lawyer paid dividends, land worth 10 million, house worth 1 million. Book sales lucrative,So let's not be hypocrites, he's not your average Jo, as much as they like to play it that way.

M0nica

JudyBloom

Reform is the only party that have any common sense and that would get our country back on track and I am all for them. That's my view.

As you say, that is your view. my view would be the exact opposite.

Which Reform policies do you believe will transform the UK? They want to more or less privatise the NHS and scrap Zero emissions policy. They are nostalgic "little englanders" with little or no experience or track record in politics.

Wyllow3

Best I could find, mostly her money but his own

"Sunak became a “multimillionaire in his mid-twenties”, according to The Sunday Times. He was a partner at the hedge fund TCI, where bosses “shared nearly £100m after an audacious stock market bet that lit the touchpaper on the 2008 financial crisis”."

theweek.com/rishi-sunak/957385/how-rishi-sunaks-in-laws-made-their-billions

His wealth is always going to dog him in politics however well intentioned he is, why bother, but I guess if you have everything money can buy you need a challenge

JudyBloom

Reform is the only party that have any common sense and that would get our country back on track and I am all for them. That's my view.

As you say, that is your view. my view would be the exact opposite.

maddyone

nanna8

From the river to the sea is genocide as far as I’m concerned. Up there with the terrible Nazi slogans. Disgusting.

I agree.
But not quite sure why it’s in a thread about the press and next election.

From the river to the sea is direct support of Hamas and is only going to result in bloodshed that will make the current Gaza war look like a picnic in the park.

nanna8

From the river to the sea is genocide as far as I’m concerned. Up there with the terrible Nazi slogans. Disgusting.

I agree.
But not quite sure why it’s in a thread about the press and next election.