I laughed out loud when I saw that Lord Wei (Big Society Tsar) is cutting his voluntary role from 3 days per week to 2 days. The guardian say Wei has told friends he is cutting his hours to allow him to earn more money and “have more of a life”.
NO SHIT. If someone in a position of privilege (although not as wealthy as say, David Cameron) is finding it difficult to maintain voluntary work alongside making a living, then perhaps they may be able to empathise better with the common man. Probably not. We had an interesting conversation in the pub last night about the implications of Prime Minister being a voluntary role, or one that just paid a median wage. We concluded that with all the perks and property, it would still be an incredible well rewarded position.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/01/big…
On BBC2 last night: ‘Who gets the best jobs’
With the current government’s plans for education I can only imagine that the elitist system of internships and working for free is going to get worse. The programme looks at who is getting into the best professions and how.
“Britain is a less equal society than at any time since World War One. In Who Gets the Best Jobs, Richard Bilton investigates access to the professions – and finds that the best jobs are being snapped up by an increasingly small gene pool of privileged, well-connected families.
Getting a good degree matters more than ever – and those from low income families can no longer easily work their way up from the bottom without the qualifications, contacts and social skills that their more fortunate counterparts make full use of.”
It’s available until Feb 16th on iplayer here:
