Professional black man David Lammy MP was outraged last week as freedom of information requests revealed that only 1.5% of offers for a place at Oxford or Cambridge Universities went to black British A-level students.
Over a six-year period to 2015, just three Oxford and six Cambridge colleges offered a place to at least one black British A-level pupil.
“Difficult questions have to be asked, including whether there is systematic bias inherent in the Oxbridge admissions process that is working against talented young people from ethnic minority backgrounds,” lamented Mr Lammy.
Currently, Labour Party MP for Tottenham, Lammy’s whinging was overheard by Jo Johnson, the Tory higher education minister, who urged Oxford to “open up to underrepresented groups”.
This is despite Cambridge University spending millions of pounds each year on ‘access measures’, much of it spent on working with children from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds.
How can this be?
Academia – like most of our establishment – bends heavily towards the liberal-left wavelength on the political spectrum, particularly since the 1960s.
Don’t just take our word for it, read the Adam Smith Institute’s report from earlier this year.
So many academics would surely love to bring the diversity that they advocate in our towns into their very lecture theatres and halls of residences.
However, the admissions criteria for an Oxbridge college are strict, the processes are thorough, and these universities wish to keep their imposing aura of intellectualism.
Perhaps the black communities and their leaders need to do more to address their cultural priorities, and prize education above the gangs, girls and guns culture.
But when equality of opportunity doesn’t lead to equality of outcome, David Lammy prefers to blame other groups than his own.
Last year, David Lammy was ordered to pay thousands of pounds after his campaign to become Labour’s London mayoral candidate made 35,000 nuisance phone calls.
He also called for Parliament to ignore the democratic mandate of the British people, and vote against exiting the EU.
Of course, there are those notable individuals who break into the top universities.
But just think – if more black students went to the top universities, such as the grammar school and Cambridge-educated Diane Abbott, we could have more people like her representing us!
