As the son of a Railwayman and a Bakery worker who spent the first 18 years of my life living in a Council House I think it is clear to say that my background was truly working class.
In 1968 my father bought his first ever car with his 21 years of railway employment redundancy money. He bought it cash, not HP or on the never/never. My father was not required to shovel tons of coal into a steam engine and with the introduction of diesel locomotives there was no need for two people to sit up front.
My parents had no debts, no visit of the club-book man - they refused credit. The reason they gave is they remember their youth of the back street loan sharks of the 1930s - from an early age they saw what debt could do.
In 1937 my father passed his 11 plus and won a place at Hele's School, Exeter, my grandparents could not afford to send him to Grammar School and in my opinion the World lost the chance to see Desmond William Gooding on a bigger stage.
When I went to University in 1982 it was clear that there were few of us working class lads there, but the system, support and my "ard graft" allowed for the first time a member of our family to go University.
Although times have changed if I was 17/18 and thinking of University next year my parents would have a huge influence in my future. There is no way that my parents would have rested happy in their beds knowing I would end up with 60000 pounds of debt at the end of my course. I would not be going to University next year - at 18 I still listen to my parents and have a huge influence in my life.
It is easy for people to say that you will not pay anything until the end of the course and earning over 21k - however working class minds do not operate in that way. 60000 pounds is 5 times the average salary of a working class family. My parents would not have let me go to University in the future knowing the debt I would incur - the working class rarely do debts!
I want a workforce that represents life and our country - not one made solely from the rich South East and the Middle class which I am now clearly one of.
I want kids who work hard to have the same chances as me and support their parents in making the right choice.
I make the point because I have yet to be convinced that a whole generation of kids like me will be influenced through peer pressure not to rack up debts because it is not "the working class" way. The coalition and the policy gurus at the heart of government will have had no idea of the "working class" factor - its is time they work up to start enfranchising working class kids and their parents to the opportunities that University can bring.
3 comments:
Eloquent and erudite. I think you are right. My daughter is paying off her student date still and it is 7 years since her graduation.
I think there's a debate to be had over whether or not the working class 'do debt', particularly after today's furore over Dave's aborted comments on credit card repayments.
Karl - with 12% of the UK now deemed working class and "68%" deemed middle class using the usual economic indicators - it is the middle class who will carry the burden to UK Credit debt most of which secured against high loan to value mortgages of the past. The current 12% English working class CORE is unlikely to have huge credit card debt because of scoring because of the nature of their factors such as social housing etc.
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