It would also worry the party's new friends in affluent middle Britain. So much for the cold cunning of political calculation. Put aside the specifics of Laura' s case. The key facts are these. According to a study by the Sutton Trust, state schools produce two thirds of the pupils qualified for Britain's five best universities - yet they get only half the places.
Private schools turn out only one third of qualified leavers, yet they get half the places.
But the trust's findings prove that the ancient universities could have a two-thirds state intake, and still maintain the same high standards, if they wanted to. Call it the privilege gap. If Britain genuinely believes in equal opportunity, he says, it cannot tolerate a system which allows such overt bias. He looks at Harvard, which transformed itself from a finishing school for the elite into a modern centre of excellence by dispatching 50 fulltime recruiters into America's poorest neighbourhoods, scouting for the brightest kids in the country. The left critique is that Brown should spend more money on schools, make them better and boost state kids' chances.