The ghosts of British politics: poor white boys

Article here. Excerpt:

'In terms of diversity, what do the two governments in London and Edinburgh have in common? On the face of it, they could not be more different. Yet absent from both are the pale, forgotten ghosts of British politics.

After reshuffles in both Westminster and Holyrood last month, Boris Johnson has 16 men and just six women in his cabinet, while Nicola Sturgeon has chosen the first female-dominated cabinet in Britain. The SNP cabinet is still overwhelmingly white, while the Tory cabinet has more senior ministers from ethnic minorities than ever before. In Holyrood, the SNP and Scots’ Tories have promoted more LGBT ministers, with both sides vying to be more “woke” than the other. In Westminster, the LGBT presence has been emphasised less than the rise of a new, youthful generation of Conservatives — notably the 39-year-old chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Women, ethnic minorities, LGBT, youth — how much more diversity could we hope for from the two front benches, north and south of the border?

Have you noticed who is missing? In both capitals, the lack of young working-class white men is striking. Yet this is the most unlikely demographic to receive a promising education and enjoy the advantages that come with social mobility.
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The race to be the most diverse party, in accordance with the rhetoric of “patriarchy” and “white privilege”, has completely failed the most underprivileged figure in British society: the poor white boy, whose family must pay into the system just as much as the next, but who seems to get so little out of it.

The truth is these boys are far less likely to go on to further education, college or university than their female counterparts or any ethnic or religious minority.'