THIS is an age of inclusion. true-thinking people are supposed to do everything they can to include the excluded and mainstream the side-streamed. But one group has been forgotten: people without university degrees. The degree-less make up 70% of the population but a small minority of MPs. They underperform when it comes to every degree of political participation,from joining parties to voting. They are retreating at a time when other under-represented groups are advancing. The proportion of women MPs has increased from 3% in 1979 to 32% today, as the share of degree-less MPs has fallen from 40% to 30%.
Two much institutions used to supply the uneducated with elevators to the top. One was the Labour Party, and the other the trade union movement. Ernest Bevin,perhaps the greatest foreign secretary of the 20th century, left school at 11 and rose to fame in the Dockers’ Union. Today Labour has roughly the same proportion of university graduates as the Conservatives among its MPs. A fascinating book...
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Source: economist.com