Are private schools losing their grip on the
British elite? – podcast
Presented by Helen Pidd with Sam Friedman;
produced by Courtney Yusuf, Ruth Abrahams and Joel Cox; executive producer Sami
Kent
Wed 8 Jan 2025 03.00 GMT
Professor
of sociology Sam Friedman charts the enduring influence of private schools in
the making of the British elite and asks whether the Labour government is
looking finally to curtail it
The
current Labour cabinet has been described as the most state-educated in British
history: it’s not just Keir Starmer who went to a grammar school, all four
holders of the great offices of state were state-educated.
It is, as
LSE professor of sociology Sam Friedman explains, a marked departure from
governments of the past – traditionally dominated not only by old public school
boys, but by alumni of an even more exclusive circle. Two-thirds of the
country’s prime ministers have come from so-called Clarendon schools – a group
of nine of the most elite, prestigious, and expensive private boys’ schools in
the country.
Indeed,
it is not just positions of government – private school graduates are vastly,
disproportionately likely to take up places among Britain’s elite, as judges
and CEOs, newspaper editors and pop stars.
It is a
power, Friedman writes in his new book Born to Rule – written with Aaron Reeves
– that has had a profoundly unequal influence on British life, and still one
that is underappreciated in the way we talk about class.
Yet
starting this school term, and despite vociferous opposition in the rightwing
press, the Labour government has repealed a VAT tax exemption enjoyed by
private schools in the UK. As Helen Pidd asks, is this finally a moment when
the influence of private schools will be curtailed?
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