Talent is Everywhere, Opportunity isn't.

Last Friday evening I lay in bed before putting the light out doing what I often do at that time of the week – trying to complete the New Statesman cryptic crossword. I receive my weekly copy of the magazine each Friday and reading it is my bedtime reading for the weekend.  Last week’s crossword was a little different – as well as solving the cryptic clues one had to use the answers to solve another problem – identify a famous book, its author and the place where the book’s action takes place. In fact, I was quite pleased with myself because I managed to identify the book before I had solved all the clues and as I knew the book very well immediately knew the author and the place where the action took place in the tale.

As I turned out the light feeling rather pleased with myself a few lines from the book came into my mind: ‘… What we call civilisation – the accumulation of knowledge which has come down to us from our forefathers – is the fruit of thousands of years of human thought and toil. It is not the result of the labour of the ancestors of any separate class of people who exist today, and therefore it is by right the common heritage of all. Every little child that is born into the world, no matter whether he is clever or dull, whether he is physically perfect or lame, or blind; no matter how much he may excel or fall short of his fellows in other respects, in one thing at least he is their equal – he is one of the heirs of all the ages that have gone before.  The book is Robert Tressell’s “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” and was written just over a century ago; it is one of the great socialist books and a great favourite of mine. It gently but so tellingly pulls apart the capitalist system. The words I quote are spoken by the “hero” of the story Frank Owen as he explains to his fellow workmen how they are being made fools of and being cheated by their employers and the capitalists of the world.

When I woke the following morning I read  that the BBC news presenter Mishal Husain had been interviewed about her career. Husain is one of my favourite news presenters – she is clear, concise and, importantly for me, always strives to present the news in an impartial, factual manner – not like the modern trend where one so often can work out what the presenter thinks about a particular story by the inflection in their voice and the expression  on their faces. In the interview she commented that given the present world “With a name like mine, my career would only have been possible in Britain.”  

Mishal Husain - an excellent news anchor - and fully deserving

of her position - but let's not go over the top

about how well she has done. She had a good deal of help.

I know what she means – given the climate of animosity against Muslims to have a Muslim,  and a woman as well – heading the UK’s premier news programmes like Today  is no mean achievement. And certainly, I suspect she would have found it impossible in many countries of the world. I have absolutely no doubts that Husain is the right person for the job  and fully deserves her position at the top of the tree.

But I wondered , is that all there is to it? Clearly, Mishal Husain has done very well for herself but if one digs a bit deeper she did start out from a pretty high level. A quick look at Wikipedia gives the basics; she is the daughter of a doctor who worked in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where foreign workers don’t pay income tax. Her grandfather was a general in the Pakistani army. She attended international schools in the Gulf states and then to £10,000  a term Cobham Hall School in Kent before, rightly,  going on to Cambridge University.  Given that privileged background I wonder to myself should we be surprised that she has been successful – indeed, would it not be reasonable to believe that given that start she ought to  be successful. From where I stand anything less than  complete success in one's life and career from those starting points would seem to be an abject failure. Husain has done well but so should. In the end fate dealt her a winning hand so we should not feel the need to applaud her in any special way; no more, no less.

She is excellent at her job – no question, and fully deserves to be where she is but imagine if she’d been born in Bradford or Halifax or an inner city area of any of our major cities, perhaps the daughter of a Pakistani shopkeeper or factory worker or hospital porter. What if she had  attended one of  the local comprehensive schools so much maligned by the Tory party in favour of grammar schools.  Suppose she had won a place at one of our lesser universities other than Oxbridge?  I wonder would this Bradford-born Husain, without status and wealth and with a broad Yorkshire or Lancashire or Geordie accent and vernacular conversational style, have been able to work her way up so smoothly through the corridors of power to the top of the tree? 

Well, maybe she would, but to be honest I’m a bit sceptical! If the young Muslim Mishal came from Bradford, Liverpool or Sunderland - and all places in between - had made her way from her father's corner shop via Bog Standard Street Comprehensive School and then Gas Works University to the top of the BBC and establishment tree than that indeed would be real cause for celebration.

Cobham Hall School - not your average neighbourhood

comprehensive. Pay your £10,000 each term and you buy

a future.

As I read the article over my cornflakes the words of  Robert Tressell’s “hero” in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists came back to me from the previous evening:  “....Every little child that is born into the world, no matter whether he is clever or dull, whether he is physically perfect or lame, or blind; no matter how much he may excel or fall short of his fellows in other respects, in one thing at least he is their equal – he is one of the heirs of all the ages that have gone before....” . We live in a world that is becoming more unequal by the day and education is one of the few vehicles that can slow this trend. In the UK we have an increasingly unequal education system where social class, money, home tutoring by rich parents, the old boy network,  public schools (which for anyone reading this abroad are anything but “public” - they are highly  selective and fee paying), independent schools, grammar schools and not least the policies of the Tory Party buys success. Our educational "system"  - I use that word loosely since "system" implies something planned and organised to provide something of benefit - a description that in no way fits the ramshackle, vested interest  shambles that we actually have - seeks to give some already wealthy or fortuitously able and thus privileged  children an extra advantage,  an extra step up the ladder, at the expense of the majority, the ordinary rest. We owe it to all our children and future generations to ensure that they are all - bright, rich, poor, average, lucky, unlucky, disabled, black, white, boy, girl - equal heirs  and have equal access to the "accumulation of knowledge" that we call civilization - to do less is to diminish the notion of "civilization". As Orwell reminded us in Animal Farm "All animals are born equal but some are more equal than others". Mishal Husain is a wonderful professional who deserves every possible success and plaudit - but she was born "more equal", she was given a head start, a few steps up the ladder of success than many other young Muslim girls and that is the context upon which she must be judged - not to deny her success and position but to at least put it into context.

As I finished the article and finished my bowl of cereal a few of Hillary Clinton’s words which I wrote in my little book of quotations in 2013 came back to me: “Talent is everywhere opportunity isn’t.” Quite.