No Vice, we’re not all members of the parasitic elite

I was just trying to have a laugh at The Boat Race

boat race class VICE

“I’m reporting to you from the top of a cube of very posh men”. This is how VICE’s video, “Talking politics with posh Toffs” begins. What a great place to have a balanced debate about British politics – interviewing drunks at a party.

“Do you think this country is run by the elite?” is a difficult one to answer after a Pimms or two. You may as well just hold the general election debates down the pub and have a discussion about gay marriage at Sarah Palin’s house.

Ugh, look at these elitists at the elitist boat race in their elitist blazers smoking their elitist cigars

This is a lazy attempt to shame students for letting their hair down once in a while, to portray all Oxbridge students as if this is their lifestyle. Needless to say, it’s not. Most of us spend our entire day in the library (literally, we will queue outside before it opens) and then go to bed. We do not all refer to David Cameron as “a good chap”. This is not what we are all like.

Our universities have some of the best outreach programs in the country and despite not having a quota, not all students went to the hallowed halls of Eton, Harrow or Westminster. State school pupils at Oxbridge are not an elusive bunch, like Gavin Haynes would like us to believe; they are not referred to as the “lesser spotted state school pupil”.

Please do not call us a parasitic elite. The institutions we go to attempt to open our minds to new ideas and give us the tools to help society. Whilst you may assume all our young people want to go and work in banking, the fact is that many of the current students want to go and work for NGOs or the UN. We want to help make the world a better place.

No…we asked those guys in the boats wearing lycra as well…

We are not a drain on society. If anything, your attempts to spread these false ideas of privilege in the 21st century is the issue we face. Our politicians still use outdated class models to try and appeal to us, don’t you start as well. These terms simply prolong the prejudices in our society even if they do not exist.

VICE are trying to start a fight where there isn’t one to be had. I didn’t drink at the Boat Race and neither did many of my friends. Why didn’t Vice come and ask us about the political system? We would have been happy to discuss it with them. But that wouldn’t have served their agenda, would it.

We already have Russell Brand telling us that we should be ashamed that many of us have worked our socks off to be where we are now. Most of us were shocked when we were accepted. Most of us are still shocked to be here. We didn’t all walk into the interview expecting a place. We’re normal people too. So stop demonising us: there are far bigger issues in society to focus on.

If the so-called “parasitic elite” is the alternative to whatever VICE is hoping for, then sign me up.

Oh and quite a lot of people know what BNY Mellon is  – it stands for Bank of New York (and I don’t earn £50,000 annually).