Green Party leadership race – Class Survey
The York Young Green Party has done a survey asking candidates for party leader or deputy various questions relating to class. The results are all interesting. However, amongst the more interesting findings are those on education. None of the four candidates for leader, and only one candidate for deputy, went to a Russell group ‘elite’ university. None had their places at school funded by their parents. Compare this to the most recent Labour leadership contest, where all five candidates attended Oxford or Cambridge.
Obviously this doesn’t mean that the party isn’t disproportionately middle class and white. We are. But it is an indication that, at the top, we are no worse than the Labour party. Which is heartening.
Perhaps just as important, though, is that all of the candidates for both positions engaged seriously with the survey, and almost all have been talking actively about this as a problem in the party both through the survey, and also through their broader campaigns.
The proposed solutions, of course, vary between candidates. When asked about quotas for working class people, they each come to different conclusions. Elsewhere, some candidates (the ones I was expecting not to vote for anyway) give answers I strongly disagree with. However, what I think is telling here is the willingness to talk about class. If ever there was a time when Greens saw such questions as out of date, it seems that almost all candidates for leadership positions now are have moved beyond such twaddle. And in talking about the problem, and debating solutions, we generate ideas, and we move the party forwards.
The Green Party has a problem. We are too white and too middle class. This has always been the case. Pleasingly, for the first time I can remember, we seem to be talking seriously about putting solutions to that problem front and centre. This is a huge step forwards.
We will find out soon enough who has won the Green Party leadership contest. But we already know that we will be the only English party represented in Parliament not to be led by an Oxbridge graduate. And we also know that this person will have a huge amount of work to do to lead the party in changing our class profile. Such work is never easy, because it involves asking many of us – including me – to think again about the privileges life has given us, and to consider how such privilege shapes both our power and our world view. But if a new leader can help pull us forwards, they will have changed the party for good.
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Equally it could be taken as an indication that high achievers who aspire to a role in public life don’t yet look to the Green Party as a viable career path.
I bet you that if the Greens start to win more seats we’ll attract more careerists. It’s already starting to happen.
Hi Alyson,
I agree it’s not the only descriptor, and that questions about parental career, parental education etc are crucial to get a full picture, but I’m not sure I can think of a single better question (other than others on the survey). Maybe ‘how much do you earn’? Or ‘do you own your house?’ or ‘did either of your parents foot university?’ ..?
It’s interesting to have this information, but I don’t think that the university someone went to is the most useful way of defining/measuring social class. There are a substantial number of people from less privileged backgrounds who go to well-regarded universities, and it doesn’t get you a free pass into middle class networks. Yes, you’ll do better career-wise than many of your peers from school, but it won’t open the kind of doors that it will for your university peers who were born into middle class families.
This is just anecdotal, but looking around people I knew at St Andrews, parental occupation and level of education have been huge factors in what we ended up doing after university. Those of us whose parents left education young have gone on to relatively modest jobs, often in the public sector. Those with networks and the family money to do internships or a Masters have gone on to more prestigious and better paid careers in things like finance and the media. It’s particularly frustrating to see people from privileged backgrounds who dropped out of university, but have careers someone like me could never dream of, because who you know is still more important.
Alan, I’m sorry, very good point.
Are Respect led by an Oxbridge graduate?