New UK Cabinet Criticised for Lack of Diversity- Posted by Eve David (London)

It’s much worse than a glass ceiling

The old saying holds as true today as it did years ago: the more things change, the more they stay the same. And while the new coalition is the first of its kind in a generation, Prime Minister David Cameron has still managed to miss the mark.

While many women’s groups are already complaining that there are only four women in cabinet – and only two running government departments – the larger issue is the overall whiteness and upper class composition of the cabinet.

Yes, Britain now has its first Muslim woman sitting in Cabinet and that’s a step in the right direction. But the larger question here is why did Mr. Cameron choose so many of his cabinet members from Oxford and Cambridge backgrounds (16 out of 23)? And then he turned around and said it wouldn’t be an old boys club. How could it not be?

And why does Mr. Cameron believe that the only people qualified to run the country are public school graduates who probably have not experienced most of the problems experienced by the majority of the UK population today?

Unemployment. The need for flexible working conditions. Childcare. Economic downturns. Poverty. These are not the primary concerns of the upper-class. However, they are the concerns of an overwhelming majority of Britons.

It seems to me that Cameron has chosen to maintain the same elitist old boys club that has overseen the running of the country for the past several centuries. This newest round of ministers has virtually no minority representation, no knowledge of the immigrant experience, and definitely no worries about where their next meal will come from.

It is interesting to note that both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had more representative cabinets. And what about the fact that both the Indian and Pakistani communities represent a sizeable slice of UK society today?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. What a wasted opportunity.

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