Has Corbyn dumbed down the Labour Party by purging Oxbridge grads?

Good, he should be getting rid of rich toffs who dont even know how much a pint of milk costs.

I think the country is fed up with incompetent Oxbridge graduates if I am being honest. What idiot thought that a History graduate could be a Chancellor? Don't make me laugh.

Snobbery against politicians who went to Oxbridge is just as silly as snobbery against those who didn't. It's absolutely ludicrous to suggest that a cabinet made up of more Russell Group than Oxbridge graduates would be a liability on that basis. We should assess an individual's suitability for political leadership by their qualities and achievements, not their alma mater.

It's been said before, but Churchill had to repeat years at Harrow due to academic failure and it took him a few goes to pass the exams to get into Sandhurst, which was the extent of his higher education - and this was despite being the first cousin of the Duke of Marlborough and being raised with every advantage. He later won the Nobel Prize in Literature and has gone down in posterity as one of the greatest British military leaders and orators of all time.

John Major barely got any GCSEs and failed to become a bus driver before becoming Chancellor and then PM.

On the other hand, Nick Griffin went to Cambridge and Enoch Powell achieved a double-starred first in Classics there.

I'm sure we've all met utter cretins who got in to Oxbridge and came out the other end thanks to a combination of luck, mummy's essay-writing skills, daddy's money and the aristocratic confidence and self-belief that kids from the upper and upper-middle classes are often endowed with by their upbringing. Oxbridge degees aren't even much of a guarantee of intelligence anymore - it certainly shouldn't be assumed that between an Oxbridge grad and a non-Oxbridge grad, the former will be the more intelligent in any area - and they certainly aren't guarantees of many of the other qualities we should be looking for in our politicians.

Too right, and John Major wasn't all that bad

The elitism of the OP is quite stark.

Elitism is bad?

Not necessarily, and it was incorrect of me to convey it so simply

I think these is a significant misplaced emphasis from the OP on the importance of people having been to elite academic institutions and then being the ones who run the country.

Elitism has it's place, but not on this occasion.

A number of American unis are often higher rated. Is Cameron dumbing down the Cabinet by having second-rate Oxbridge grads rather than importing Harvard and MIT grads?

A number of American unis are often higher rated. Is Cameron dumbing down the Cabinet by having second-rate Oxbridge grads rather than importing Harvard and MIT grads?

Most people from elite institutions are incredibly smart, but the thing with Oxbridge is they study with some people who will eventually become future-foreign heads of state.

Its easier negotiating a trade deal with China when your Foreign Secretary studied at Oxford with their PM!

Unfortunately, your "less-elite" can't duplicate this to the same degree.

Why do you think JP Morgan hired Tony Blair's son? Because its who you know, not what you know.

We all know that Jezza scraped two E's in his A Levels and could only get into a Poly, but did you know that his support team is almost exclusively red brick, not Oxbridge?

http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/10/labours-purge-of-oxbridge-intellectuals/

Has Corbyn dumbed down the Labour Party in this (and other) ways?

With all out problems, can Britain really risk electing a leader too stupid to even get into university with a Shadow Cabinet composed of graduates of second tier universities?

Not really.

UCL over Oxbridge = dumbing down according to the OP.
So, the logic leads to Oxbridge over Harvard and MIT = dumbing down.

The students at Harvard and Oxbridge are of the same ability, Harvard ranks higher due to spending, citations etc.

The gap between Oxbridge and UCL in terms of student ability is much larger than Oxbridge Harvard.

We all know that Jezza scraped two E's in his A Levels and could only get into a Poly, but did you know that his support team is almost exclusively red brick, not Oxbridge?

http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/10/labours-purge-of-oxbridge-intellectuals/

Has Corbyn dumbed down the Labour Party in this (and other) ways?

With all out problems, can Britain really risk electing a leader too stupid to even get into university with a Shadow Cabinet composed of graduates of second tier universities?