To be pleased most of the cabinet are Oxbridge graduates?

[sagerosemaryandthyme]

That's it really. Surely we want the brightest and best in the cabinet.

Park End!! And DTMs...brings back some hideous memories... and what was that one on the Cowley Road?

We all worked in the holidays - not allowed during term time, though the tutors would turn a blind eye (one of them told me that a MacDonalds uniform wouldn't be allowed in college!). The college was falling over itself to hand out bursaries though plus we didn't have tuition fees.

Not saying tuition fees are more expensive, I'm saying my parent's total costs are more than for my brother and other sister who were at Liverpool. Their cost of living is lower partly through being in the north and the balls are not too much different to the costs of the medical balls my other sister had.

I don't know any comtemporaries who didn't work. it was banned in term-time, admittedly. but we all worked in the holidays.

Staranise - the zodiac! It's changed to something a bit snazzier looking now though

Curiosity - yes of course you can have a job, it is discouraged during termtime except for college stuff (I worked in the college library about 12hrs/wk) which is fair enough as the workload is high and the terms intense, in the (very long) holidays though it is fine and I worked fulltime every holiday which paid all my living expenses. My parents didn't (couldn't afford to) give me anything at all so I funded it all myself.

Your sister is right not to take a job in term time, because there simply isn't time and the university don't allow it - but she could certainly work over the holidays. Especially since Oxford terms total 24 weeks a year - less than half a year....

I'm really not trying to get in a personal argument Curiosity (honest!) I just find it frustrating when people make 'statements' such as " you only get into Oxford through money/family/private education/privilege" (paraphrasing!) - when it clearly is not the case...

star - the one near the tesco express? i know which one you mean, but i never went to it. A few of my mates got into a fight there with some non uni people, so put me off.

Were you there when they did Crunchy on a friday night at brookes? the walk back downhill when drunk was always entertaining!

was it the Coven on cowley road? or am I confusing nightclubs I have frequented?

Never went to Brookes. I seem to remember some fashionable place near the station (The Box?) plus spending a lot of time at that cavernous bar in Jericho (Freuds??). And the best college bar was New College, we used to hang out there a bit.

It worries me that many of the people in the Cabinet come from aristocratic monied backgrounds (Cameron, Clegg and Osborne in particular). That they all went to the same universities and that they are all career politicians. It seems to be a club into which ordinary people like me never pass.

To the OP - I'm not reassured that they all went to Oxbridge. My DH did and whilst he has many fine qualities, commonsense is not one of them. It is ludicrous to suggest other people, perhaps those even without a degree are less suited to hold public office.

Freuds..I remember that! The small bar you walked down some stairs to get to. What was the place in the old church?

Ah thems the days!

Everyone I knew worked in the holidays to pay off debt accrued during term time (well, except the one who went off to one of Daddy's Chateaux / the pied a terre in Knightsbridge - but she was the exception that proved the rule )

Hat - it is possible. I imagine you werent stone cold when arriving at them.

Freuds (Frauds) was the old church one.

Raoul's.

My sis sometimes does temporary work over the holidays but this only support her during the holidays - gives her a bit of spending money. Most jobs go before she gets home and she has other learning commitments in the holidays.

Josephine - I still believe you have to come from a privileged background, being middle class IS privilege. My sister is privileged. I think Oxford is not accessible for the average, intelligent, hard working, state educated pupil from a northern town with working class parents. For this reason, and because they let people in purely through family status/wealth I think it is an elitist and exclusive establishment. I'm not trying to take away your great achievement in getting there through hard-work but no-one has demonstrated that Oxford is truly accessible to anyone from any background through intelligence and hard-work and therefore not changed my mind.

Curiosity - yes, we were told that too - not about holiday jobs though! Those have always been fine. You're also allowed certain jobs (eg. working in the college bar) if you ask permission. However, increasingly people just break the rules quietly, as they need money. Virtually all postgraduates have jobs, and that is considered perfectly acceptable.

I honestly can't understand how Oxbridge could be more expensive than any other university. It does sound as if your sister got in with a bit of an awkward group of friends, unfortunately. Most of us didn't have money to play with and it was fine.

Btw, star, is Freuds disappointing? It looks so lovely but I've heard it's a bit crap inside. (Being a broke student, I haven't had the chance to go there much).

"I'm more concerned that the Cabinet is heavily white, privately-educated and male than their choice of university."
WHY ?
Shouldn't the most capable people get the jobs, regardless of who they are.

Are you suggesting that there's something wrong with being white? Or male?
What is wrong with private education?

Freuds is the one in the old church. Very nice. DTMs wqs downstairs - I think its closed now and Park End is trying to go upmarket

just been googling - I think the coven was near the ice rink

Raouls (with the lecherous barman) was on Walton St at the bottom of Little Clarendon St.

"there's a huge difference between "eton and oxford" and "oxford""

I agree. A huge difference. Trouble is, most of the Caminet appear to be in the first category.

lol at us all trying to remember the nightclubs! talk about taking the thread off piste!

I used to live on Little Clarendon Street! DP's work got taken to Raouls for Christmas drinks, lucky sod.

Btw, I could add DP to the stats/anecdote: He went to private school because he's Russian and couldn't attend a British state school (obviously). He went to Oxford but his mum is, by British standards, extremely poor and he never had any spare cash, worked as a translator throughout. He loves Oxford to bits and speaks with a posh accent, though, so he is a bit of a mixture.