Let's Not Have a Debate

An academic has sparked controversy by claiming that the poor are under-represented in higher education because they are less intelligent.

“Poor people are stupid,” said Bruce Charlton, reader in evolutionary psychiatry at Newcastle University. “What? Don’t look at me like that. What have I said?”

Speaking for the government, however, Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell said: “There are young people with talent, ability and the potential to benefit from higher education who do not currently do so. That should concern us all, albeit not enough to make us abolish the tuition and top-up fees we introduced. I haven’t looked at this Charlton character’s so-called research, of course, in case I catch any unpalatable facts that might possibly back up his elitist claims. But he’s wrong - and probably a Nazi too, I shouldn’t wonder.”

“Perhaps in my next research paper I might take a close look at the under-representation of people from lower-class backgrounds in that other bastion of middle-class privilege, the Parliamentary Labour Party,” announced an unrepentant Mr Charlton.