Gina and Oxford PPE

[Possiblynotever]

My DD is in year 12. She is currently thinking about a History degree and her State school is (heavily) pushing her towards Oxbridge and a double honours. She is giving her best and her results are very good, so she probably will have the marks (although this is no guarantee). She chose a Maths A level and she is finding it hard - she reached an A but with a lot of sweating which in my mind is quite normal. She has decided not to do anything at Uni requiring further maths. Apparently, some of her classmates are amazing, especially those who want to apply for PPE at Oxford, which seems to be the achievement of all achievements. Those who get in are the best of the best, at least in my DD mind. Now, Gina Colandangelo gained an Oxford PPE which means she must have been bloody talented. The only thing she will ever be remembered for was snugging the Health Minister in his office.
What a waste. Why? AIBU in thinking that there is still a cohort of women who work bloody hard to get into the most difficult jobs and then just sit on their achievements? And why do they do this?

Those silly little faces are synonymous with stupidity in my mind.

@Comtesse

OP what are you on about?? PPE is a good course, not everyone is from a wealthy public school background (I wasn’t) but it really doesn’t have much bearing on your marital choices some years later.

Which marital choices?

Some of you, who worked with Gina in the past, say that this amazing fantastic PPE Oxford graduate, which seems to be an arena for the privileged, never stopped working and achieved amazing success. This is first hand facts.

Still, this amazing achiever chose to accept a part time job, unpaid at first, and then snug her employer.
Can I just say this is a suicidal choice if she indeed was so successful.
If she was a consultant in communication she certainly was not successful in her last job ( and not just because she had an affair) and I fail to see how someone could dream of employing her.

Still, this amazing achiever chose to accept a part time job, unpaid at first,

For 15 days a year! While she continued to do her real job as a director of a multi million £ company. Why do you keep on down playing her achievements? It’s utterly bizarre.

For 15 days a year! While she continued to do her real job as a director of a multi million £ company. Why do you keep on down playing her achievements? It’s utterly bizarre.

Yes it’s very odd.

She’s had a successful career by anyone’s standards.

She was the Communications Director for Oliver Bonas

What a bizarre thread.

Her “part time job” is a non exec director of a govt department. She would be on the main board of the department. It’s hardly a minimum wage, zero hours kind of gig. If you see that as “failure” then that would be pretty weird. What do you think most Oxbridge graduates get up to?? Hint - they do NOT end up doing this sort of thing in their 40s.

@Bryonyshcmyony I’m not being ‘silly.’ Boris isn’t bright. He has no grasp of details. He is a poor communicator. He has extremely poor judgement. I admit he has a decent grasp of Latin though.

@Blossomtoes

Those silly little faces are synonymous with stupidity in my mind.

Aren't you a delight

First ever post on Mumsnet but the events of the weekend were so depressing I had to get this off my chest. An earlier post said that GC cheated because she was lazy, but I'm not sure that's right. She cheated because she was careless - not careless in the sense of she got caught, but careless with other people's lives, including (which I can't comprehend) the lives of her children. It's a kind of carelessness that comes with arrogance and being very accustomed to getting what you want.

I strongly suspect GC has been at this with all sorts of people for years (no evidence, granted) and that gave her the confidence to have an affair in the full glare of the public spotlight. But she's well and truly kippered now and her reputation is being trashed in the most abject and humiliating way I can think of. For my money, she's had a brilliant career - but that's all a footnote now. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and two minutes to lose it... The whole thing is so depressing and tragic - two families destroyed through carelessness and indifference.

Aren't you a delight

Yes I am! Glad you appreciate it.

This thread is in the Twilight Zone now.

Still, this amazing achiever chose to accept a part time job, unpaid at first, and then snug her employer.

She’s known him since uni. I think her shagging him led to the fake job that allowed her to hang out in his office no questions asked in the middle of lockdown, not vice versa.

Seems to be a degree held by a lot of crap politicians.

@Blossomtoes

Still, this amazing achiever chose to accept a part time job, unpaid at first,

For 15 days a year! While she continued to do her real job as a director of a multi million £ company. Why do you keep on down playing her achievements? It’s utterly bizarre.

Yes it's really weird!

[quote Jahebejrjr]@Bryonyshcmyony I’m not being ‘silly.’ Boris isn’t bright. He has no grasp of details. He is a poor communicator. He has extremely poor judgement. I admit he has a decent grasp of Latin though.[/quote]
If Eton and Oxford think he is academically bright I'm more inclined to believe them than an Internet randomer. Where's your academic scholarship to Oxford?

I personally can't stand the bloke, but saying he's not or wasn't academic is just daft. It is possible to be extremely academic and a dick!

There is no doubt Boris is very bright indeed

@Blossomtoes

I think this is the most pointless argument ever.

1. You were wrong with your claim that Oxbridge was less represented back in the 60s/70s compared with today. You've still not addressed that nor have you rebutted that in any way. I provided you with data that proved the opposite and you never acknowledged that.

2. You seem to be arguing over semantics. The definition of synonymous simply means 'very closely connected.' In any case, you're taking things far too literally - 60% of MPs being Oxbridge educated is an extreme overrepresentation that doesn't exist to the same extent today.

I think this is the most pointless argument ever

Agreed. That’s why I stopped engaging with you.

@Bryonyshcmyony You do realise that to me, you are also an internet randomer.
I have met enough people who went to Oxbridge in the eighties and nineties to know they are not all highly intelligent. Boris only managed a 2.1 so not the intellectual colossus he’d have us believe he is.
I am quite satisfied with my own academic credentials, scholarship awards and subsequent career thank you.

@SadinOxon

First ever post on Mumsnet but the events of the weekend were so depressing I had to get this off my chest. An earlier post said that GC cheated because she was lazy, but I'm not sure that's right. She cheated because she was careless - not careless in the sense of she got caught, but careless with other people's lives, including (which I can't comprehend) the lives of her children. It's a kind of carelessness that comes with arrogance and being very accustomed to getting what you want.

I strongly suspect GC has been at this with all sorts of people for years (no evidence, granted) and that gave her the confidence to have an affair in the full glare of the public spotlight. But she's well and truly kippered now and her reputation is being trashed in the most abject and humiliating way I can think of. For my money, she's had a brilliant career - but that's all a footnote now. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and two minutes to lose it... The whole thing is so depressing and tragic - two families destroyed through carelessness and indifference.

I agree. I am truly sorry for their children. Those images should have never been released. BUT I do not think she has had a successful career; I think she is privileged, well introduced in the right places, her husband runs Oliver Bonas, and she is his company communication director. So she is very used to get things the way she wants them. As is Hancock btw. She could have had a successful career, but she mixed up work with relationships, and I suspect she did it because it got her somewhere in the first place. She and Hancock have the same education: do you think that the same situation would have occurred in real life? If she were the Minister, would one of her male colleagues with a PPE at Oxford have chosen to become her consultant?

Christ people.

This seems like such a catty thing to be concerned about.

Most people who do PPE at Oxford are mundane, they do mundane jobs, and they'll die mundane nobodies. That's just life - not everyone can be Prime Minister or a cabinet member. The degree itself isn't magic - many of my PPE friends work jobs that many mumsnet people would consider 'beneath' them.

The median PPE Oxford graduate only makes around £56,000 a year 5 years after graduation. For the average PPE graduate, your income will probably top out at around £110-120K. Not bad but not amazingly high either.

Everyone comes in wanting to be Prime Minister but you realize quickly that's not how life works. Not everything in life can come true. I think the main takeaway from this thread should be:

3300 people graduate from Oxford every year. Most will be remarkably average (by average, I mean earning around £56-100k a year) and not being famous.

Maybe the problem is that PPE is as much a fairly exclusive club as it is a degree course? Maybe even moreso?

I do not think she has had a successful career

Please share with us what you see as a successful career. And perhaps you could tell us all about yours while you’re at it. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m getting seriously pissed off by your derogatory remarks about a career very similar to the one I followed (sadly no multi millionaire husband though).

Incidentally this is “real life” and yes, I can imagine a man with a very successful well-paid job taking up a non executive directorship in a female minister’s department. Apparently Philip May gave a lot of unpaid advice to his wife.

OP you sound obsessed and this thread is sounding really bitchy. What is your problem with her? It's like you've started this thread on some jumped up pretext just to have a dig.

Are you Mrs Hancock