Jeremy Corbyn's intellectual credentials... or lack of.

Alternatively you can be an Eton boy, descended from King William IV via a long line of bankers to the monarchy.

Are you seriously suggesting that his admission to Oxford had nothing to with his grades at Eton? Even if that was the case, he still graduated with a first from Oxford, and with extremely high praises from his lecturers which are well recorded. You simply cannot pretend that David Cameron is not a very intelligent man.

This might not apply to Corbyn, but your general statement reeks of snottiness.

You need to read this: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/09/the-politics-of-ppe/

Read it properly.

Then have a think.

Cameron=puppeteer politician who stands above society pulling strings
Corbyn=man who represents solid interests within society (arguably, runs away from Torys )

The article presents an interesting theory, linking the "flittiness" of the PPE degree with political practice. However, the article really provides very little to support the veracity of this theory, besides the author's own assertion.

their respective academic careers does indisputably indicate that Cameron is cleverer than Corbyn.

Are you seriously suggesting that his admission to Oxford had nothing to with his grades at Eton? Even if that was the case, he still graduated with a first from Oxford, and with extremely high praises from his lecturers which are well recorded. You simply cannot pretend that David Cameron is not a very intelligent man.

My mum is from a middle-class family, my dad from a working-class one. I went to a state school, and am now at Cardiff University, and am hoping to go to the University of Birmingham next year. Happy?

Intelligence =/= academic record
There are many different types and facets of intelligence.

Basically what I said but the concise version. Thanks. Can you follow me around TSR and do that more often?

Although I despise Corbyn, the fact that he dropped out from LMU and still became someone would make him more sympathetic to my eyes than an old Etonian that has been favoured in life since his birth.

I have a lot of respect for self-made men, and I also dropped out from a polytechnics college - but managed to get an offer for a PhD at Oxford in the end. We shouldn't judge someone on the university he attended, but on his ideas/accomplishments. In the case of Corbyn, it's easy enough to deride him on the latter point; there's no need to use personal attack.

Okay thanks for clarifying. Their respective academic careers do indicate that but I am really unclear of the relevance, especially in light of that article. His academic education has taught him a lot of stuff yeah, and he's clearly good at doing well in exams and is high functioning but that doesn't make him at the baseline more 'intelligent' or 'clever'. Yes, academic results and university prestige etc. are society's way of representing intelligence, but social and emotional intelligence are also incredibly important, especially in politics. Politicians need to empathise with and understand the reality of people who live within the society they are governing. The torys demonstrate their lack of understanding (or lack of caring) on this time and time again. Look at what they are doing to junior doctors, for example.

What is happening. Another post that I completely agree with. I feel confused about you. Very very mixed feelings right now.

It's even simpler than that. I always got top grades - although, I will concede, I went to uni a step down from Oxbridge. But, even with a long-standing interest in politics into the bargain, I don't have the faintest glimmer of an idea how to run a country, or anything else for that matter, and absolutely no experience of real life. That's what matters.

At least Corbyn has been working for the unions, representing the interests of normal people. Whose interests, other than his own, has Cameron ever attempted to represent?

And when has he ever demonstrated any more competence in the real world than Corbyn? Even with his education, he couldn't get a job outside the walls of Millbank Tower without Samantha's mum fixing him up with something.

Btw it matters little even if Tories do care or empathise. They have been funded by the City and by rentiers of various sorts. And they must act in the interests of their clients as far as possible.

You despise Corbyn too?

Are you seriously suggesting that his admission to Oxford had nothing to with his grades at Eton? Even if that was the case, he still graduated with a first from Oxford, and with extremely high praises from his lecturers which are well recorded. You simply cannot pretend that David Cameron is not a very intelligent man.

You despise Corbyn too?

She's a Corbyn fanboy

You do know that you're preaching to the converted right now don't you?!

So? Why should I care? Plato was intelligent. He also thought women had less teeth than men.

He purposely did that to wind me up. He's getting under my skin with this good cop bad cop routine.I don't despise him (Corbyn) nor am I a 'fanboy'.I don't really align with party politics on the whole because it stops you from thinking independently. But my independent thinking does align with the left wing. Doesn't make me a leftie or a Corbyn fanboy. It just makes me a person who has ideas and principles.