07.05.07
Remember Laura Spence, the straight-A, state-school girl who was refused a place at Oxford in 2000? With her champion, Gordon Brown, poised to become Prime Minister any day now, it?s a good time to review what the affair tells us about the heir-apparent?s attitude to widening participation
What is fascinating about the Laura Spence affair is the way it got behind the caution of Brown’s public demeanour to reveal a passion for social justice that the privately-educated Blair could never comfortably display. This passion was clearly strong enough to cause Brown an uncharacteristic blunder over some of the key facts of the case.
Diverse candidates
Oxford made sure to point out that it could hardly be discrimination when all the other candidates had straight As and that, of the five who did get places, three were women, three were from minorities, and two were from comprehensives.
However, it is Brown’s underlying attitude to the affair that is most worth reflecting on.
Quoted in James Naughtie’s ‘The Rivals’, Brown speaks to a TUC lunch when the affair broke. ‘This is an interview system that is more reminiscent of the old-boy network and the old-school tie than genuine justice in our society,’ he says. ‘It is about time that we had an end to that old Britain when what matters to some people are the privileges you were born with rather than the potential you actually have. I say it is time that these old universities open their doors to women and people from all backgrounds.’
The future of social inclusion
Brown won’t make the same uninformed mistakes again, but the passion and attitude underlying his pronouncements won’t have gone away either. Take note: if he does become Prime Minister, the atmosphere on social inclusion is going to change.