Old Oxfordian overseers...

Now you would expect that those that rule over the UK, sorry, I mean those who do the UK citizens bidding, well them in parliament (!!) would be well educated, even very well educated, even attending the best universities...but what do they all do? The older generation of politicians all seem to be solicitors or barristers...lawyers. Not any more: the new crop of modern, "trendy", "professional" politicians seem to be very similar, and with reason: half of them seem to have done the same degree at the same university: PPE at Oxford. From Little Man in a Toque

"I was reading this Guardian article about which of the Miliband brothers is least obnoxious when I got bored and scrolled down to the comments. And the comments alerted me to a very interesting fact: Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University is responsible for much of our failed political class."

The article in question is HERE and the comments provide much of the info, but not all at once. Only the Miliband brothers at first then bit by bit other comments add to the list until we end up with the following by Trigmar posted at 25 Nov 2009, 12:45PM, albeit quoting several others as well (Toque has added more to get a mini cabinet and shadow cabinet)...startling. Ominous.

So to recap, the choices are: David Miliband (PPE degree from Oxford), Ed Miliband (PPE degree from Oxford), James Purnell (PPE degree from Oxford) and Ed Balls (PPE degree from Oxford).

I think this is New Labour's idea of diversity.

If they want a bit of female diversity they could always choose

Jaqui Smith (PPE oxford)
Yvette Cooper (PPE oxford)
Ruth Kelly (PPE oxford)

If they wanted a bit of unelected dark-knighted-ness they could always choose

Peter Mandelson (PPE oxford)

And hey, if the proles want a bit of a change we could always elect

David Cameron (PPE oxford) ably assisted by William Hauge (PPE oxford) [sic]

...and if we wanted to really push the boat out we could go crazy and go for a crazy liberal like

Chris Huhne (PPE oxford)

Is it any wonder that all our politicians say the same thing? The most influential political figures in British politics are the Oxford PPE lecturers...

And the proles could hear about it through the wonderful media:

Stephanie Flanders (PPE oxford)
Rupert Murdoch (PPE oxford)
Nick Robinson (PPE oxford)
Nick Cohen (PPE oxford)
Michael Crick (PPE oxford)
Krishnan Guru-Murthy (PPE oxford)
John Sergeant (PPE oxford)
James Robbins (PPE oxford)
Evan Davis (PPE oxford)
David Dimbleby (PPE oxford)

What would be interesting if some decent journalist/anyone with time could compile a list of all University PPE course graduates...it seems to me to be more urgent now - rather than just important - that any new MPs should have actually "lived" before joining the ruling elite.