I had only knowingly met one person who was privately educated - then I got into journalism.
Back then I presumed the supposedly politically left wing would be working class and vice-versa. It was not the case.
A lot of the faux ‘liberals’ I met on my journalism training course had been to independent schools and feigned embarrassment at their privilege, alluding, if they could, to bad behaviour and expulsion to gain credibility points.
As the years went on, those that climbed the ladder onto the likes of Sky News and the then broadsheets undoubtedly had parents/family members with connections. I’m not saying I was good enough to follow suit, but would they have got there otherwise?
Then the arrival of the internet and, in particular, Wikipedia, led to me looking up actors, musicians, comedians and writers, at first just out of interest as to what other programmes/films they had been in other that what I had just seen, what other books they had written etc.
It was then that the ‘Early Life’ section began to rise to prominence in my research. The vast majority had been educated privately, were the sons and daughters of famous or wealthy parents and, quite often, related to the royal family.
I won’t name too many (Lady Gaga, Florence Welch, Frank Turner, Chris Martin, FKA Twigs, the Mumfords, Lily Allen, Bruce Dickinson, Taylor Swift, Matty Healy, Eddie Redmayne, Bear Grylls, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael McIntyre, Jack Whitehall, Tom Hardy, Shane MacGowan (scholarship), Harry Judd, Ian Curtis, Jack Dee, Yungblud, Jeremy Clarkson, Daniel Radcliffe, Dawn French, Freddie Mercury, Clare Balding, Miranda Hart, Guy Richie, Joe Root, Joe Strummer, Al Murray, Alan Carr, so many indie band members, authors, most politicians – often Labour – cricketers and rugby players) but it started to get me down. There’s loads more but, to be honest, plenty of them are way too obvious. I mean, Jocob Rhys-Mogg didn’t go to the local comp did he? Nor did Nigel Farage, for that matter.
You could say I’m a bit obsessed, maybe even have something of a chip on my shoulder. Yes, I am. Yes, I have. I have been told before that it’s convenient for me to use this as a reason for my ‘lack of success’. After all the Gallagher brothers didn’t do too badly, did they? Indeed they did not, neither did Shaun Ryder, but for every one of those examples there are a thousand who didn’t grow up in a terrace or council house which put them at risk of falling from any rung of the ladder on the way up.
Recently I have seen posts from people I once knew reasonably well who have sent their children to private schools. Whatever their reasoning, they didn’t afford to do so through working in the same jobs as myself – which they did – and it’s a move that supports the very inequality they are known to speak about.
Talk about racism, sexism, homophobia – it’s all a class issue, it’s all about one country/race/colour/sex attempting getting a head start on the others, and independent schools were born from the same desire.
Those who speak out against the advantages they were given in early life rarely tend to hand back the financial gains they made as a result of connections they made.
None of these worlds ever truly belonged to the working class but the entry level was easier and, unless you have an incredible plan to get through life without having a ‘proper job’, or are talented or lucky enough to make it quickly, the barriers will remain down.
They came for our sport, they came for our politics, they came for our artisan crafts (that’s another issue!), working men’s clubs, chippies and pubs, they came for our politics, and they’ve come for our entertainment. Well, they’ve taken it.
It’s bothered me for a lot of years. What would I have done if I had been born into that level of privilege or been able to bestow it on someone else? I will never know, will I?