SamCam giving up her job....

[DecorHate]

What do you think - letting the side down or a sensible approach?

TheCrackFox, the PM can be any religion he wants to be, but it probably would have been controversial if he had converted to Catholism while PM.

Crikey - what a horrible, judgemental thread!

Has it occurred to any of the critics that perhaps there aren't 'sides' to let down - perhaps they are a truly modern couple, and consider themselves a partnership? They may even have talked about, and agreed this?

Believe me 'Creative Director' is absolutely a 'proper job' requiring skill and experience, and commitment. And why shouldn't she have a job, even if she does have 'family money'?

Honestly, some of the comments on here are so bizarre - she clearly wouldn't please the Tory-bashers on here whatever she chose to do.

Her decision seems well thought-out and sensible in my opinion.

I don't think that in general anyone should be deferential without good reason. But I don't get the podium thing. DC is the elected leader of the country. His wife in this context is just that. His wife. Personally I don't think that she should in evidence at all, but if she is it should be very much in the background. And I'd think exactly the same if the roles were reversed. The whole parading of family that politicians seem to think is required is IMO very distasteful - what other sphere of life does that happen in? Do Nobel prize winner bring their partners up to the podium? I am quite sure that this comes from paternalism, but apart from not actually being there, I'm not quite sure how this could have been handled better?

I agree nooka, spouses just don't need to be present. We no longer live in the 1950s when wives were expected to court their husband's employers and clients. Politics should move on too.

The parading of other halves must have been imported from the US. But in US there is a proper Office of First Lady and she has her own staff.

In UK, there is quite a lot of media scrutiny interest in the wives of the party leaders, which is in turn exploited by the wives like Sarah Brown, with her ex-PR background, and ultimately their husbands as a lead-in to certain sections of the electorate.

If politics was solely about policies, then the spouses have no place on the podium. But since it as much about the hearts of the electorate as their head, then inevitably the spouses are here to stay.

Hmm...just been looking at that Smythson link. Is that WHSmith for posh people?

I am v. feminist and don't like to think of a woman giving up her job just because her husband becomes PM. But, give her a break, she is expecting a baby (on top of having had a deeply traumatic time recently) and will have three to look after, and she will still be involved at work. She's in a situation where many women would do the same but because of her prominence it will attract all kinds of comments.

How is she letting the side down? What side? I can never see how whether a mother works or not is anyone's affair but hers and her family.

She was in that job because of her moneyed connections. Big deal she has quit.

How many people who attended state school and then go onto study at a polytechnic end up in a high paying non-job like that? Very few. She on the other hand, studies Fine Art at Bristol Polytechnic (despite her expensive private education) and ends up earning £400k.

Money begats money. Talent on the other hands has a long mountain to climb in order to get recognised

"She was in that job because of her moneyed connections. Big deal she has quit."

MariePuree - I think you'll find many people get jobs through connections, moneyed or otherwise - it's why professional networking sites have taken off. It's always been the case, and probably always will be - nothing wrong with it - it's basically using recommendations as a screening tool.

However few businesses 'prop up' an employee in a role like Creative Director unless they have talent too, so cut her some slack, and perhaps accept that she might actually be good at her job??

Oh, and by the way, she hasn't 'quit' - she's reduced her hours. Very different.

You sound pathetically bitter and twisted....

I can't believe how many people are calling her job a 'non-job'! Just how bitter, jealous and generally horrible can you be?

How do you know that wasn't a very respected course? The polys focused on vocational courses, and although some of them weren't terribly taxing some were very well respected. Not as academic as a traditional university degree, but if your talent is in art then a practical course as opposed to an academic one is a perfectly sensible option.

Just because you might not know what an Artistic Director does doesn't mean that they do nothing.

I'm not bitter and twisted. I am entitled to express my view, doh.

Its funny, state educated pupils who go on to do courses like media studies, etc are criticised because the courses are deemed as non-academic, waste of time, and too easy.

On the other hand, when someone from private school goes to a poly to study fine art, then it is a respected course.

Yes, hyprocrisy reigns.

Who cares?

I don't arf agree with mariepuree

...love the assumption that if wealthy, well connected and otherwise privileged folk get a bit of a leg up, and you get annoyed about it, you're "bitter and twisted"

'Letting the side down' - what aload of bollocks and feminsist drivel.

Sensible approach 4th child on way , major upheavval in her life and that of her two other children and dare I say - her DH.

I don't blame her at all for giving up her job.

However, I am thinking there aren't many people who can cope with a drop of £400,000 PA in their income.

Have to agree with mariepuree, not many UWE (as Bristol Poly is now known) graduates tend to earn that kind of money, however 'talented' they are (waits for rush of Fine Art graduates to tell me they are all earning that sort of money, don't be so horrid etc etc.....hmm thought not).

Although I have no doubt that Sam Cam got initially got her job because of her connections, I really can't believe that you can rise to those sorts of levels unless you are actually quite good.

It's one thing to give a job to a new grad as a favour for a friend, pay them 20K a year and "see how they do" but totally another to pay someone 400K a year if their work is total shite.

I'm sure her work is not 'total shite' at all!

However, there will be plenty of equally talented people who are just as able to do a job such as hers but who haven't been given the job in the first place due to 'connections'.

Still twas always thus. To be fair SC probably genuinely believes she was given the job on talent alone.

I expect she will be able to carry on with her job anyway once she decides she would like to return.

There is simply no point in trying to equate her career with most mothers/fathers in this country trying to juggle parenthood and careers. The Camerons might as well be on a different planet!

'when someone from private school goes to a poly to study fine art, then it is a respected course.'

Polytechnics back before they were turned into 'universities' were very well-regarded in particular areas. I have been all around the world and heard good things about several of them.

At school we were told that if we wanted to study certain subjects (business French, for instance), polys were better.

I was at Bristol Uni and shared a flat with someone from Bristol Poly who went on to earn at least £250K a year in her own profession.

God I hate the whingers who complain about connections, and 'leg-ups' blah, blah.

If you're talented and self-motivated it's perfectly possible to succeed at this level. If you haven't got family connections, then you damn well make sure you MAKE alternaive ones through friends/ tutors/work experience/ just putting yourself into the right environment.

Mostly people who complain about this stuff are just jealous. If they put as much effort into succeeding as they did whinging, then they might surprise themselves.

I am not disputing the quality of courses delivered by former polys. Cass Business School is one of the best in the world and is part of City University which use to be a poly.

As for being twisted and jealous, I am just waiting for a half-wit to say that I have a chip on my shoulder.

My annoyance is with the hyprocrisy of those who denounce courses like Media Studies but stay silent on courses such as Fine Art, Medieval History, Ancient Civilisation etc. The head of Harrow said that qualifications in courses such as Media Studies were "dumbing down" the curriculum for state children. Well I could the say the same about Fine Art but I don't because despite what he and others like him think, not everyone is an academic.

Private schools either kick out those who will drag down their grades or they carefully select those who will make the grade. Either way, for him to compare private education is laughable because 7% selected is not the same as 97% inclusive.

Cameron went to private school, ended up at a poly to study a non-academic course. I can guarantee that the head of Harrow was not thinking of the likes of her when he spewed his claptrap.

Bristol Poly was always a perfectly acceptable place to study Fine Art. She was probably being a bit 'edgy' going there rather than the Courtauld Institute and History of Art.

The point is if you come from a certain kind of background,such as Samantha Cameron, it doesn't really matter what one studies or where. She probably is pretty talented at design but she most likely would have been given the job as Creative Director whether she had taken her degree at Bristol Poly or the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford or indeed scribbled a few designs on the back of an envelope. As I said, it is a totally different world from those who have to apply for directors' post in a more erm convential way.

I am not bitter, not jealous, not surprised. It is just how it is.

It's not fair but then Life Isn't Fair as DC and NC like to point out, it's just alot 'fairer' for them some people than others, and so it will continue.

However, this has nothing to do as to whether she should give up her job, and I don't blame her one bit for giving it up.

*conventional

By the time anyone is applying to director level posts where you studied for your original degree is utterly irrelevant. In very academically related fields where you study is really important, but in those fields you'd be expected to have masters and possibly PhDs as well. Having connections certainly gives people significant leg ups, but generally these are at the early stages of your career (granted these can make all the difference between getting into that area or not).

Anyway as I personally couldn't really care less about her, I'm not going to start researching whether or not she has any talent in what she does. I just think that people are all to ready to dismiss courses and job roles with no knowledge about them at all. Sounds like that might include the Head of Harrow too.