So That's All Right, Then?

I am very sorry that one Max Gogarty, who is the same age as my tutees, has felt forced to stop blogging for the Guardian about his gap year because of the negative reaction from readers.

But I hope that the Guardian has learnt its lesson. On almost a weekly basis, it gives space to some teenager with family ties to its office, who is presented as if chosen at random to bang on about attending “an inner city comprehensive” school in one of those parts of London where only Guardian staff and their like can afford to live.

Do they realise that this sort of thing goes onto UCAS forms, and that the publication of an article specifically about one’s university (Oxbridge, of course) application from “an inner city comprehensive school” makes it practically impossible for that university (Oxbridge, of course) to reject one? Of course they do. That is the whole point.

And after university (Oxbridge, of course), then what? Why, the lower rungs of either or both of the political and media ladders, of course. Which means unadvertised jobs that are only open to people who can live in Central London on little or no pay. In other words, to independently rich people. Who, of course, went to “an inner city comprehensive school”. So that’s all right, then. Isn’t it?