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The Sun
05-08-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
There's a really simple way to sort out our dysfunctional civil service, Keir – your latest gimmick is a waste of time
LABOUR is to make the civil service more 'working class' by offering internships only to those from 'lower socio-economic backgrounds'. Their eligibility will be judged on what job their parents did when they were 14. 4 4 Meaning that Sir Keir 'my father was a toolmaker' Starmer would make the cut. But his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, whose parents were teachers and therefore classed as 'professionals', would not. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. Look, I'm not against limiting the number of Tristams and Jemimas who find themselves interning at the Houses of Parliament because 'Daddy' knows some politician 'from his club'. And the thought of some hand-picked, 'working class' realists rolling their eyes in despair behind the lectern every time the Government announces its latest, daft initiative is admittedly an appealing one. But what does 'class' actually mean these days, and how is it judged? Take me, for example. Born in 1962, my mum brought me up alone, I went to state school, and for several years we lived extremely happily with my godparents in their council house. Mum worked as a stable girl, then became a secretary, and eventually trained as a teacher — a job she was doing when I was 14. Which, according to the Social Mobility Commission that advises the Government on such matters, is a 'professional and managerial' occupation along with chief executive, doctor, journalist, engineer and nurse. So, along with Ms Reeves, that rules me out too. PM vows to drastically increase the numbers of channel migrants sent back to France 'Intermediate' occupations include driving instructor, IT engineer, shopkeeper and hotel manager, while 'working class' jobs are those such as cleaner, waiter and bricklayer. It's all very prescriptive and, let's face it, old-fashioned. Aside from a few Hyacinth 'Bouquets' in the suburbs, does anyone really care about class any more? And isn't this seeming Labour obsession with it just inverted snobbery? Back in the day when I was in charge of a busy newspaper department, I always recruited the best person for the job, regardless of their background. Pipe dream I met some immensely stupid people who'd been to private school, and some immensely smart ones who hadn't. And vice versa. Their education, class, religious beliefs, ethnicity, sexual preferences, eating habits, whatever, were irrelevant, and so too was whatever Mummy or Daddy did for a living. I looked for punctuality, enthusiasm, honesty, quick-thinking and a willingness to work hard. And that's what the civil service should be looking for too. Meanwhile, it's curious to learn that, despite its keenness to attract kids from lower socio-economic backgrounds, Labour's internships are still only being offered to undergraduates studying for a degree. Which rules out those bright 'working-class' kids for whom university is but a pipe dream for fear of racking up huge student debt. Such hard work A FRIEND of mine who runs a small business frequently regales me with amusing stories about the entitled attitude of some of those applying for junior positions. 'I don't work on Fridays,' said one applying for a 'full-time' role, while another stressed she would need at least a two-hour lunch break every day to return home and check on her new puppy. 'Some of them act like they'd be doing me a favour by turning up at all for the job I'd be paying them to do,' she laughs. I thought of this when I read this week that a 45-year-old asset manager on £330k a year took his employers to a tribunal after feeling 'shocked' and 'angry' at how small his £10k annual bonus was despite being 'almost entirely absent from work' while suffering from long Covid. Apparently, he thought his bonus (on top of his salary) should have been around £100k. For. Doing. Virtually. Nothing. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and the judge ruled in his employer's favour. But honestly, some people. Kinnock tax on health a big turn-off LABOUR'S former leader Lord Kinnock has called for the Government to slap VAT on private healthcare to help fund the NHS. Hmmm. Except it probably wouldn't because, chances are, it would simply result in a significant number of people giving up private healthcare to rely on the already overstretched NHS instead. Much like Labour's VAT raid on private schools which has forced many families to pull their children out and, instead, send them to the nearest good – and therefore oversubscribed – state school. Following the closure of the private Bishop Challoner School in Bromley, South East London, last month, state alternatives in the county received around 100 enquiries in just 48 hours. So it remains to be seen whether Chancellor Rachel Reeves – pictured this week at a holiday camp in Kent – takes the advice of Lord Kinnock, who has also suggested the introduction of a 'wealth tax' that, without doubt, would result in even more high-net-worth individuals departing these shores. Little wonder that, when polls suggested (wrongly) back in 1992 that he might win the general election, The Sun ran the front page headline: 'If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.' The public aren't stupid and Ms Reeves et al would be wise to remember that. JOB TO TACKLE CRIME 'IF I left my job, these would be the number one reason,' says a police officer. Is it lawless street thugs? The poor prosecution rates in courts? Or a lack of support from their superiors? Nope. It's too much support in the groin area. Namely the standard- issue cargo trousers that have been described by 69 per cent of officers as 'problematic'. 'They teach us all these good restraints and moves in public-safety training but I can't do half of them in these trousers,' says one officer. The study, by Lancaster University Law School, says officers have complained of crushed testicles, cuts, blisters and swelling from the tight, chafing fabric. Ouch. The Police Federation agrees, saying the restrictive uniforms are stopping officers from keeping their communities safe. In other words, it's tough to tackle crooks when your tackle's crooked. CHEERS TO OLD TIMERS AFTER emerging damp and starving from the I'm A Celebrity jungle last year, I was keen to indulge in a late night out. But post-8pm, the restaurants of Brisbane's Surfers Paradise were virtually deserted. Like Americans, they eat early. 'You Brits are party animals,' one muscle-bound waiter told me disapprovingly when I ordered an Aperol Spritz at, er, 8.30pm. Now it seems that restaurants in the UK are adapting to accommodate a growing trend for 6pm dining here too. Richard Piper, of Alcohol Change UK, says: 'Younger diners especially are making choices that reflect physical and mental well-being but also financial health. 'Earlier dining helps avoid expensive late-night drinking. People want to socialise without the hangover.' Great idea. So last week, a friend and I arranged to meet for dinner at 6pm. Trouble is, we were still there at 9.30pm, having scoffed and quaffed far more than if we'd stuck to our usual 8pm meeting time. Clearly, we're not cut out for this modern world. LIFE IN CHECK THE new grandmaster (shouldn't that be grandmistress?) of the Women's Chess World Cup is 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh from India. Former chess coach RB Ramesh says: 'She was a confident girl from a very young age. 'She didn't have that negative side to her, the one that tends to create self-doubt. That inner chatter that wrecks things, fortunately, was missing in her.' Maybe. Or perhaps, given that much of her spare time is spent practising chess moves, she isn't constantly on social media being fed impossible depictions of 'perfection' or hate-filled judgments from people who don't even know her.
Daily Mirror
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Government internships to be restricted to working-class in major shake-up
New civil service intern scheme will be limited to students from 'lower socio-economic backgrounds' and based on which jobs their parents held when they were 14 Government internships will be restricted to people from working-class backgrounds in a major shake-up next year. The move is designed to recruit more students to the civil service from lower incomes and boost representation. Set to be launched in 2026 the new scheme will replace an existing intern programme that is currently open to all. Research in 2021 showed nearly three in four civil servants were from privileged backgrounds and more likely to hold jobs at centre of power at the Treasury of Foreign Office. The report by the Social Mobility Commission also suggested hidden rules favoured those with the "right accent". It comes after The Mirror's Kevin Maguire wrote: 'Labour must find engaging story for the UK - or face election wipeout'. The Cabinet Office said it will give around 200 undergraduates the chance to work for a government department for two months. It will be limited to students from "lower socio-economic backgrounds" and based on which jobs their parents held when they were 14. Cabinet Office chief Pat McFadden said: 'We need to get more working class young people into the Civil Service so it harnesses the broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country. Government makes better decisions when it represents and understands the people we serve." He added: 'I want to open up opportunities for students from all backgrounds, and in every corner of the UK, so they can take a leading role at the heart of government as we re-wire the state and deliver the Plan for Change.' Changes are expected to take effect from summer 2026 and will give young people experience writing briefings, planning events, conducting policy research and shadowing civil servants, according to the broadcaster. It could help students win a place on the civil service fast stream programme - the top graduate programme for working in government. Currently just 11.6% of successful applicants to the scheme are students from lower income backgrounds, according to the most recent data. After winning the General Election last year, Keir Starmer said he was "proud" to have the most ever Cabinet ministers from comprehensive schools. 'I'm really proud of the fact that my cabinet reflects the aspiration that I believe lies at the heart of our country,' he said. "I'm proud of the fact that we have people around that Cabinet table who didn't have the easiest of starts in life. To see them sitting in the cabinet this morning was a proud moment for me.'
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Oldham's relationship with Manchester makes things more complex'
He's one of the country's most influential voices urging our political leaders to do more on social mobility: the all-important issue of ensuring everyone has a chance to succeed in life regardless of their background. And Alun Francis, the current chair of the Social Mobility Commission (SMC), can trace back his passion for the subject to his time as Principal of Oldham College, where he realised the debate was leaving out many of the young people studying there. As a typical further education college, the majority of students will come with lower school grades and are unlikely to end up at Oxbridge but can still be trained and prepared for important, interesting occupations which will improve their lives. READ MORE: Liverpool FC parade crash press conference: All the key points READ MORE: Liverpool parade incident LIVE as 27 - including four children - in hospital after car drives into crowd Mr Francis, who grew up in north Wales, tells The Northern Agenda podcast about his work to help these young people in Oldham and his new role as Principal and Chief Executive of Blackpool and The Fylde College. Listen to the full episode here: "I felt too much of the debate about social mobility had become a bit narrow," he says. "It was very much focused on what we've recently called the lucky few. "Those are the academically very able, but poorer members of the community. I'm not saying they don't need some help, I'm not criticising that, but I think that can be a very narrow way of doing social mobility. "Particularly if you start to think of it in terms of the shape of our economy, because it does tend to then lead to 'well let's find people with the talent to go to elite universities and then to professional jobs'. "Those elite universities often means leaving home, leaving the place you grew up in and for professional jobs the epicentre has been London and the South East. "And if you follow that route then it becomes 'well we've strengthened London, we know London's economy is very strong you can see the pipeline of talent going into those areas, that's absolutely fine'. "Except that the reality is we look out the window and we can see huge regional disparities. We can see significant differences in terms of economic opportunity." He advocated this new way of looking at the problem when applying for a role at the SMC, the body that promotes social mobility in England and assesses whether progress is being made on the commission. This year is the 15th anniversary of the Child Poverty Act, the legislation that brought the commission into being. And there remain huge disparities in the life opportunities young people enjoy depending on where they're born. A recent report by the Sutton Trust charity revealed the top 20 constituencies for opportunity are all in London, with the North East and North West in England over-represented among the lowest ranked areas. Mr Francis says education isn't a magic bullet to bridge the gap and that the state of the economy - and a lack of higher-paid professional jobs in some parts of the country - is at the heart of the issue. "We've also got some issues around opportunity for those at the bottom end," he says. "An inability to move out of what might be described as an opportunity bottleneck. "That's where there's a mixture of low paid, low qualification work, welfare, family breakdown, a range of interconnected problems which actually mean that instead of having a trampoline those who grow up in those areas end up having a bit of a swamp which holds them back rather than projects them forward." Mr Francis joined Blackpool and The Fylde College in 2023 after 13 years at Oldham College, and says the Greater Manchester borough and the Lancashire coast have a number of similar challenges. And he says in one respect, Blackpool has more economic opportunities than Oldham because of the resort's strong tourism economy and recent successful regeneration work. The Blackpool Multiversity scheme will see some of the country's worst housing stock knocked down and replaced with a centre for learning that offers a variety of ways to acquire higher level skills, rather than just one route to university. Oldham's relationship to the booming city of Manchester "makes things more complex", he says, though praises the Atom Valley development zone to the north of the city bringing world-class research, manufacturing and materials together. Mr Francis says: "Manchester has boomed incredibly quickly but the vast majority of the jobs have tended to be south side of the city region. For a long time, people thought it was just about transport, but the Metrolink gives people access into the city centre. "It doesn't allow you to get across Greater Manchester that easily. If you're looking for a job in the airport, but live in the north side of Greater Manchester, that's quite difficult. However, the Metrolink hasn't proved to be the solution." So what are the solutions to improving social mobility? Mr Francis tells me an approach that adapts to the varying needs of different places is the way forward. But what hasn't helped is the constant churn of policies and decision-makers, with more than 20 Ministers for skills coming and going over the course of the last three or four Westminster administrations. And he says governments need to stop doing things that are very expensive but not necessarily effective. Perhaps surprisingly he cites New Labour's flagship policy of Sure Start centres as an example of this. The centres did "definitely achieve some good outcomes", he says, but only improved education achievement by one GCSE grade for people living nearby. "When you consider how much it cost, there may be other ways of achieving that improvement in grades which would be more effective." He adds: "We need to come up with better solutions that are more affordable, but also start to have a better track record in terms of effectiveness. "And that's why we've moved down the direction of the place-based approaches, because quite honestly, there's not a great toolkit of things that we can say 'do these things and everything will be fine'."
