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.

Litchick

I totally have a problem with career politicians. Is it such an astonishment that some of us would like our ministers to actually know something of what it is they're ministering? Simply getting a politics degree/post-grad' and wheedling in through the side-doors of Westminster does not prepare you for running the country. Can you think of another job that would allow someone into a senior role without having had any direct experience within whichever sector the job is in?

Am getting interested at all the MNers I must have overlapped with in Oxford, given the common experience of, and distain for, Jacob Rees-Mogg. We had quite a serious committee discussion as to whether there were any legitimate grounds on which we could turn down his application (and his cheque) for membership of the Industrial Society

..but to the OP, it is neither a necessarily good nor necessarily bad thing.

Rasputin - rather, I'm saying we need a mix.
And yes I do think it's imperative to ave people in governemnt who have done things other than politics.

Spending ten years in the Westminster bubble does not make you an 'expert' on what the people in your consituents want and need. Nor does it make you an 'expert' on industry or the economy. How could it? They never get any experience of normal life.

It breeds a certain type of politician. Very media savvy, very smooth. But also very tribal. Very protectionist.

I do think there is a place for them, but it pees me off that they get first dibbs during the selection process. Jobs for the boys.

A fair way would be to encourage local people to put themselves forward during the selection process and have selection made fairly and locally. No paratroupers.

Rasputin - the answer used to be - through the Unions. But NewLabour put an end to that . . .

There were plenty of downsides, (particularly the lack of women), but it did bring a different group of people into politics.

And who says Oxbridge are full of the brightest and the best - ok you need to be extremely intelligent/hard working/driven to get in there, but that applies to other Universities too - and in fact I know of young people who are capable of getting into Oxbridge (have been offered places) but have declined on the basis that the facilities there for their chosen degrees are not as up to date/good as others (eg. medicine)

Jacob Rees-Mogg was in the same year as my DH (who is normally very mild-mannered but also loathes him) - no idea what he did to upset his entire year at college. I was a couple of years later.

I prefer watching HoL debates to HoC [saddo emoticon] because the people in there quite often are experts on topic e.g. business leaders, scientists etc. You definately need a mix of good constituency MPs (career politicians or not) and people with real life practical and technical experience.

That's so not how it works, Rasputin.

Local people have stood for safe seats but they never get selected by their parties.

Like I said, I was offered one...as if there was no competition. Because in reality there wouldn't be.

Best? Brightest perhaps, but best?

Most empathetic? Most principled? What?

Litchick - the "flying in" of candidates was a najor influence on how I voted. I did actually vote Tory - because he's local, he knows the local area, and he does actually have a track record of fighting for his constituents

(and incidentaly he went to Grammar school, is a chartered accountant by profession and he's also run a family business and a public company in the past, as well as been a councillor and a school governor) and his wife is on his church PCC

Ambition and drive is all well and good (and lets face it Oxbridge graduates are not the only ones who possess these qualities) but I want to see some other qualities such as the genuine desire to help bring about change for the benefit of society, an ability to connect with people (from all walks of life), self-awareness and self-appraisal. Bit idealistic perhaps - but that is what I'd like to see

I think this thread should be renamed the Jacob Rees Mogg MN Fan Club.

And that's exactly what most consituents want Tocca.
They don't need someone who got a first from Oxbridge,they need someone who really cares about local issues.

I went to Cambridge and today poured a cup of tea back into the kettle for some bizarre reason, then accused DH of drinking it.
I will never be able to organise a piss up in a brewery, and neither could plenty of others I know who are Oxbridge graduates.
Needless to say one of the most practical and brightest people I know went to Reading and would make a brilliant PM.
YABU and a little bit like Hyacinth Bucket

Do Oxbridge not accept women then?

What has happened to the women in either party?
Where are the seats at the cabinet table for women, or ethnic representatives?

What has happened, and why?

I very much doubt that all the women elected are thick. Same goes for everyone who isn't white.

It's a strange sight - all middle class white males...

Is it representative, regardless where they studied?

As oxbridge students tend to be vastly more likely to have gone to public school all it really says about the cabinet is that they are more likely to have gone to public school. And I say that as a state-school educated oxbridge graduate.

Why is there an assumption (from some, not all!) that those who attended Oxbridge aren't also aware of an everyday/realistic/Joe Bloggs life? There is life after Oxbridge, and very often it's a struggle, the same as it can be for everyone else...

Yes, I attended an Oxbridge college, but I'm also concerned with issues that effect my family and friends in areas such the primary school system, childcare, maternity pay, the fate of my husband's military career, the local bus service etc... money can be tight sometimes, same as everyone else, and I have a lot of unemployed Oxbridge graduate friends unable to secure work. Surely this all counts as 'everyday life'?

Perhaps one day I'd like to be a politician - but will lots of people automatically assume I have no idea of the reality of everyday life because I attended Oxbridge for 3 years as a teenager/young adult??

Not because you went to Oxbridge perhaps - but if you had a privileged life aside from your Oxbridge education.

JosephineClaire (and others), I think you have hit the nail on the head. There are lots of ordinary people who go to Oxbridge (as noted on here).

The Cabinet, however, is not a cross-section of Oxbridge types as of 1990, otherwise there would be a great deal more women (over 40%), many more state school educated people (again IIRC over 40%), and more non-white people (don't know the numbers, but there were plenty of non-white people around at C/b in the late 80s/early 90s).

It would also, mind you, have a great deal more pizza eating mathematical geniuses who can't tie their own shoelaces . . .

Fanjo - I remember Jacob Rees-Mogg at the union too! I couldn't quite believe he was for real but of course he was.