NOVANEWS
modernityblog06/11/2010Tags: British class system, British government, Classless society, General Election, Mandarins, Old Etonians, Politicians, The Tories | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p4XPG-2rC |
No, I’m not going to tally up the number of old Etonian’s in the Tory party, it would take forever and only annoy me.
But it is interesting to think how the expected role of old Etonians, to run the upper reaches of British government is still continuing, when it should have died off ages ago, if we were to believe all of the guff about a classless society.
The Guardian has an interesting piece, Ten things you didn’t know about the 2010 general election:
“4. Sun readers swung towards the Tories more than the readers of any other paper. In 2010, 43% of Sun readers voted Tory and 28% voted Labour. Compared with 2005, that represented a 13.5% swing. The next largest swing was among readers of the Daily Star, where the swing from Labour to the Conservatives was 10%.
5. Guardian readers were less likely to vote Lib Dem in 2010 than in 2005 – even though the paper endorsed the Lib Dems this year in a leader. Some 46% of Guardian readers backed Labour, 37% the Lib Dems (down four points since 2005) and 9% the Tories.
…
7. Almost as many Old Etonians were elected to parliament (20) as former manual workers (25). There’s one Lib Dem Old Etonian, John Thurso, and 19 Tories. Interestingly, the 19 Tories include Jo Johnson and Rory Stewart, meaning that 50% of the “new blood” Tories elected to parliament went to David Cameron’s old school.
8. No Labour Old Etonians were elected, which means that the parliamentary Labour party is without an Old Etonian for the first time since 1923. (Mark Fisher was Labour’s only Old Etonian in the last parliament.) “
