If you want to improve social mobility, dish out new genes

Sir John Major left office less than 17 years ago, but already he seems some rare relic of a long-lost meritocratic age. The impoverished young Major left grammar school at 16 with three O-levels and rose to become prime minister — and the last Conservative leader to win a general election outright. No wonder the Tory party — constantly dogged by accusations of public-school elitism — is trying to rebuild itself in his image.

Last week Grant Shapps, the Conservative chairman, appeared alongside Major to rebrand the Conservatives as the “workers’ party”, the party best placed to restore Major’s dream of a classless society. Shapps also launched a “John Major apprenticeship programme”, which gives young non-graduates a chance to prosper at Westminster.

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In a 2012 analysis of Who’s Who by the Sutton Trust, it was discovered that 31% of the UK’s powerbrokers had been to Oxford or Cambridge, and 44% had attended private schools. A few of these were scholarship pupils from poor backgrounds, like Ishak Ayiris. But the vast majority were the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the richest people in British society.

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