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.

YABU - some people get into Oxbridge because of their family connections / high society profile and not because they are brilliant.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not really!

I disagree Marantha. I think that Oxbridge graduates should have dispersed a bit more. I think that if almost the entire cabinet is Oxbridge then it shows that it's easier to make it in Politics if you went to Oxbridge. That's the conclusion I would come to. And is that fair to the 99.9999% of the population who will never even get on an open top bus and look around Oxford?

I don't think it's right tbh. But it's just my opinion of course. What's the point of voting them in?! how many millions are spent on elections? You might as well just put the class of '92 in to the cabinet and let them joust it out between them.

I think the Oxbridge bit is a red herring for many of the reasons described on this thread - the public school education is more relevant.

When Boris Johnson and Cameron were in the Bullingdon Club they used to take the piss out of George Osborne becasue he 'only' went to St. Paul's

"if you had been to Oxford and seen the people who get in there you would realise it is somewhere you buy into through status, private education, privilege or family"

Really? we were in different places, then.

Thanks for that, Magaly. Yes I did go to Oxford (there being no such place as "Oxbridge" - the two are very different and it always annoys me that they are lumped together) and no I can't spell.

I don't agree Curiosity - I thought Oxford was a genuine mix, though it did vary from college to college. The likes of Christchurch and Magdalen were definitely the preserve of the rich and well-connected but most of the other colleges were a genuine mix, with a heavy dose of academic geekiness.

I can think of three of my contemporaries who were bought their place via heavy family donations but there were a lot of hard-working above average bright students who loved their subjects.

I thought Oxbridge was a legitimate way of referring to both Cambridge and Oxford. Kind of like "Ivy League' in the US.

Elicit! Sorry and yes!

I disagree as well Curiosity. Maybe it was my college (all female, Cambridge) but actually it was very heavily state school orientated and encouraging ethnic minority state school applicants which is a very good thing. I doubt it has changed much in the 15 years since I left.

There are colleges which have more obnoxious union hacks (at CAmbridge I'd steer well clear of Magdalene and Peterhouse) but again there are normal people everywhere. I also never met someone with seriously rich parents. Believe me, I tried to - just not that many of them about.

It is, but you can't "go to Oxbridge" any more than you can "go to Ivy League" - it makes no sense.

I doubt they are necessarily the brightest. I did my postgraduate degree with lots of oxbridge people (all with 2.1s and above) and they were certainly no more impressive than people who had been to other universities. It seemed like many had got there by a combination of intense 'coaching' from their schools and large amounts of confidence instilled by those schools (I didn't have the confidence to apply). Many were of quite mediocre intelligence. Many of the 'brightest and best' will have gone to other universities and may well have a wider life experience as a result.

The Oxford social mix:

Proper toffs
Public schoolboys and girls.
Lots and lots and lots of nice middle class kids from private schools
Lots from the Buckinghamshire grammars.
Quite a few from comps but from leftie academic families so not really proper comp kids (I'd be in there, comp school but 2 Oxford parents)
Just occasionally, a student from a working class non-selective state school background without any prior Oxbridge or academic connections. But not many of them.

Curiosity: "if you had been to Oxford and seen the people who get in there you would realise it is somewhere you buy into through status, private education, privilege or family. There are very few who come from ordinary state comprehensives and the environment there makes them uncomfortable and excluded on the whole"

Are you kidding?!

Everything you say here is incredibly narrow minded, and put simply....WRONG. (And this, speaking from experience)

Did you go to Oxbridge? .....Didn't think so.

Stealth, It does make sense. It means 'did you go to one of the universities commonly known collectively as Oxbridge'.

There were plenty of seriously rich (and titled) students at college, particularly those from abroad.

But TBH, the students at Newcastle University these days seem to be a LOT richer and more Sloany/public school than my contemporaries at Oxford.

(And sorry, I know 'go to Oxbridge' is bad English, but I'm typing in a rush )!

"Did you go to an Ivy League college?"

"Did you go to an Oxbridge College?"

both make sense

"Did you go to Oxbridge?"

"Did you go to Ivy League?"

don't

I may not be able to spell, but I can still be a pedant.

Stealth - it's laziness! People (myself included) can't be arsed to say Oxford or Cambridge.

ladylush - I know - but Magaly was busy picking me up on my spelling.

So, having gone there yourself Staranise, are you reassured that most of the cabinet went to Oxford or Cambridge?! Does it make you think 'oh good we're in safe hands then'. Or does it make you think 'typical' or 'oh shit'.

I'm just think that considering these guys are voted in, it's very UNrepresentative. This opinion isn't a criticism of any of the universities or public schools for that matter.

Ah I see Then you have every right to be pedantic

Stealth, yes, sorry I embarrassed you by correcting your spelling.

I didn't go although have spent a lot of time there. My sister is at Keble and my friend is doing postgrad at Cambridge. I'm not saying people don't work hard but I am saying you have to buy your way in through either family status or private education, plenty of people who work just as hard and who are much more intelligent who don't get in. Oxford (don't know about Cambridge) is absolutely, positively not a 'genuine mix' the statistics reflect more state educated students going but I believe it is not as simple as the statistics portray. They count you as state if you come from a state college. You can be privately educated from 5-16 and then go to a state college and count as state. My sister has only met one other person who has never been privately educated while she's been there and she's just sitting her finals. There are hardly any northerners too and not really anyone from a working class or poor background. Still maintain it is privilege and opportunity not hard work or intelligence that gets you there.

I went to Oxford. I got a scholarship - ie the top mark of anyone applying to read my subject at my college - in the entrance exam.

I'd come from a middle-class comprehensive where - and this is the important bit - only the really really bright people were considered even eligible to apply.

Whereas when I arrived, I realised that a lot of really not very bright people from posh schools were also there. Because they came from schools which didn't consider 'Oxbridge' only for the absolutely brightest, but something that quite average-bright people could go to.

The two really thick blokes in my year were the Etonians. I don't think this is a coincidence.

So, in short, I think it is quite probable that if you went to Oxford after a normal school you are fairly bright. If you went to a posh school, no.

Incidentally I cannot say I live a life of plutocratic luxury these days, Oxford degree or no.

I think it wouldn't bother me if one group (if I can label them a group?) had such a stronghold on say Advertising, or The Media. But it is worrying that those in power are so homogenous. And they are. Look at Clegg and DC. They are different parties, and they still look like Jedward now.