To think that cash-for-internships shows what the Tories think about who should have opportunities

[Himalaya]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356469/Tory-backers-pay-party-2-000-buy-children-work-experience.html

Folks at tory party HQ don't think that it is a problem that access to first steps on the career ladder in jobs with influence in finance, policy, media, PR etc depend on who-you-know networks and the ability to work for free and live in London... In fact they think it's a good fundraising opportunity and have been selling off internships at top firms for 2-3K.

Tells you all you need to know, really about their views on social mobility and equality of opportunity.

I can't get your link to work

All work should be paid at least NMW even if it is an internship, at least will cover expenses like travel

I can't get the link to work either, or by removing the errant space from experience.

My sons internship paid 900 a week, two years on the trot!

Any internship pays if you are taking the right degree. My son is taking Maths.

It's no different to forking out for university places.

Trying again with the link

Sorry folks.

I think it is a bit different to forking out for uni places (not that I am advocating for fees), because top uni places aren't auctioned off to Tory party members at exclusive events. Maybe that's their next policy idea though .

Outrageous, of course.

Surprising, not.

I don't know how you can turn things around to be based on merit - this stuff is all so entrenched, the wealthy give their mates a leg up, us proles don't even know the half of it, and if you don't know about it how can you stop it.

I'll be using every contact I can get hold of for my children. My dh has helped a few friends children with internships, they've been offered the interview on their own merit but he has helped them to understand some of the trickier financial products initially and pointed them in the direction of applicable reading and quotable authors.

They've all been paid by the company too.

You'll never stop parents trying to do their best for their children. Why would you want to?

The point is that parents who are less well off are not able to do these things for their children. We do not live in a meritocracy. We live in a society where wealth and connections can guarantee a glowing future for your child (unless they are spectacularly and exceptionally dim) while bright able children who are poor stand little to no chance of achieving that.

I can understand why the wealthy want to keep all of the power wealth and privilege for them and theirs, it's understandable. The question is, is that a fair way to run a society. I think not.

NWM should not be paid for internships. It will stop internships. I did a 6 month unpaid internship in Parliament when I was younger and was lucky enough to have parental support but there was another girl in the office who got a bar job in the evenings and supported herself through that - if you want it enough you'll do it and internships should go to those who want the opportunity enough to sacrifice short-term gain

And hang on...

If you're against this surely you should be against proposed grade inflation or positive (ha) action to allow poor kids with lower A level grades to take the places of smarter richer ones in universities?

What's NWM?

I love the way that there is always an example of one person who was from a poor background and worked their socks off, to demonstrate that actually everything is open to anyone really. Look at the people who run everything and strangely very few of them are from poor backgrounds, or are women, or are from ethnic minotiries.

I suppose the only conclusion one can come to is that people who are poor, female or from ethnic minority backgrounds are mostly stupid and lazy. Do people really believe this? That only wealthy white men really have what it takes to achieve? Pull the other one.

"It's not what you know, it's who you know" doesn't just apply to the wealthy, though, does it? Lots of people follow their parents into the same jobs because they grow up in a particular environment, know the ropes and have someone who'll put a good word in for them. Closed shops operate at all levels of society.

happiestblonde do you believe that the children of people who can afford private schooling are innately more intelligent that children of parents who cannot?

God I hope some more reasonable lefties come and join this thread, I don't know if I can handle the most excessive right wing contingent on MN all by myself!

YANBU

It's very different to forking out for university. University places are subsidised for the poor. Internships are not. You also need to know the right people to get them.

It's the old boys club at its worst.

To be honest, I think the fact that people paid £400 a head for dinner, and someone paid £25,000 for a round of golf with Andrew Strauss, shows that actually the bidders were very interested in adding to the Party's coffers more than anything else.

Which is ok if your money is honestly earned, and it's what you want to do.

Sardine I believe that those getting higher grades are potentially more intelligent than those who are getting lower ones and it is not the job of the university - a rightfully elitist institution - to perform left-wing social engineering.

I will use every last one of my contacts for my DCs and send them to private school if I can afford it without a second of guilt.

LOL at 'reasonable' and 'leftie' being used in same sentence.

NMW - national minimum wage

And yeah there are examples. My father is the classic... brought up diluting soup in a former mining town in Yorkshire, kicked out of school at 15, wanted more so moved South and worked ultra hard, set up businesses etc got into property and brought me up in Surrey with private education and my own property as soon as I turned 18 - he loves Thatcher because she enabled this sort of social mobility.

was a tv programme about this on tuesday night, was very interesting! def who you know and who can pay for accommodation etc in the city etc.

having said that, i still think good attitude and hard work can get you on the right track (though i am mostly taking about creative industries)

So you you do believe that the children of wealthy people are innately more intelligent than the children of less wealthy people.

From that standpoint of course everything the conservatives do will make perfect sense. They are rewarding the right people and punishing the right people.

You also confuse a personal issue with a wider political one. No-one is asking you not to do the best for your children, with your offspring it makes sense to exploit every advantage that you can. Contradictory though to exploit these advantages while claiming that there are no advantages for the wealthy. If there are really no advantages for the wealthy then why bother shelling out for a private school? In a fair society there would not be all this stuff going on in the background, everything would happen according to merit.

happiestblonde
My Dad passed for grammar school but couldn't go because his parents couldn't afford the uniform. His father was long term sick, and they had problems feeding their family, never mind niceties like education.
He worked seriously hard, made sacrifices, and had lots of support from Mum, and we had a very good upbringing - with love, standards and education. And the willingness to work hard.
As a young lad working in a steel works, he refused to join the union because the shop steward lived the highlife on the subs he collected, and never wanted to help those in need.

My son knew nobody, his internships were based purely on merit, his ability to apply for the right places.

I think that anybody from any walk of life can get on at Uni and get the right internships if they try bloody hard, and get through the gruelling interview process.

Sardinequeen - no i suppose you are right. Depressingly unsurprising. But I guess still a little surprised at what a tin ear they have for how bad this looks.

Alouiseg and Happiestblonde - yes you are right that parents do use their resources and contacts to give their kids a leg up.

But employers should be in the business of selecting on potential, not on who has the most sharp elbowed parents. And political parties shouldn't encourage cronyism and nepotism in th institutions of power as a way of shoring up their power (it didn't work out so well for President Mubarak in Egypt after all).