Clegg isn't a commie but social mobility is an issue

The Daily Mail thinks that Nick Clegg is a communist - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2148484/Nick-Clegg-accused-adopting-communist-policies-state-school-students-universities.html
This is a bit of an about turn for the Mail who accused him of being a Nazi during the 2010 General Election!

The Daily Mail blasted Clegg because he has highlighted the widening gap between the educational performances and opportunities between private and state school pupils.

Before Tony Blair, the previous 5 Prime Ministers were all state educated. In the 80s and early 90s the problem seemed to be in decline with John Major declaring Britain to be a classless society.

Now most of the Cabinet and the majority of the opposition front bench are privately educated. It's a problem across many major industries - those who have over the last ten years risen to the top tend to have the "old school tie".

So what has happened in the last twenty years to halt and reverse social mobility?  you could write a book on it (and I don't intend too). Andrew Neill presented a documentary on it, where he lamented the loss of Grammar Schools. I don't intend to either agree or disagree with his verdict, but as I am a former Grammar School pupil I did find his view interesting.

One personal point I would make one assertion between the difference between my experience at a Grammar School and my wife's experience at a Comp. My wife is brighter than me, she achieved straight As in her GCSEs and A-Levels. I was pretty much a straight B pupil - good, but not great. Yet, when we looking for Universities, I was hauled into the Head of 6th Forms' office and he made it clear to me that I could get into a Russell Group University and it was important that I applied for them. My wife, on the other hand received no such encouragement, had she gone to my school she would have been told to apply for Oxbridge. This is of course just one example from more than a decade ago, but I do wonder whether Comps do enough to open the eyes of their brightest pupils to the possibilities that they could pursue.