CD COMICS: e-petition to Parliament

Would you consider signing an e-petition asking Parliament to debate the lack of representation of the State Educated electorate in Parliament?

90%+ of the electorate attended State Schools and the politcal class/elite/MPs in Britain increasingly fail to reflect the make up of the electorate it serves and lacks any diversity.

I've included some data that is available on the Internet. The following figures are taken from data supplied by Sutton Trust in May 2010

PDF download at http://www.suttontrust.com/research/the-educational-backgrounds-of-mps/

The Educational Backgrounds of Members of Parliament in 2010

Over one third (35%) of MPs elected in the 2010 General Election attended independent schools, which educate just 7% of the school population. The proportion of MPs attending independent schools is 3 percentage points higher than in the previous 2005 Parliament.

Nine in ten MPs in 2010 attended university – by far the highest proportion of any Parliament to date. This includes just under three in ten who were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge universities. Oxford has produced 102 MPs serving in the 2010 Parliament.

(The arrogance of youth or the confidence of certainty?)

There are 20 Etonians in the 2010 Parliament -- 5 more than those who served in the 2005 Parliament. Overall 13 schools (12 of which are fee-charging) produce a tenth of all MPs in the new Parliament.

38% of Conservative MPs were educated at Oxford or Cambridge compared with 20% of Labour MPs and 28% of Liberal Democrat MPs.

To combat this inequality Parliament could set targets for the three main parties to increase the number of State Educated MPs.

This could follow a similar format to gender and ethnic minority equality of representation and the target of 90% State Educated MPs, although not immediately achievable, would be a worthy goal.