Working class people have lower IQs than those from wealthy backgrounds and should not expect to win places at top universities, an academic has claimed.

Newcastle University’s Bruce Charlton said fewer working class students at elite universities was the “natural outcome” of class IQ differences.

BBC News

Bruce: fuck off.

Sorry, perhaps I should phrase that differently… Bruce, have you ever considered that the reason less working class students go to university is perhaps that there is less of an expectation that they should go to university? That perhaps working class people — particularly those on the poorest incomes or unemployed — need to have an income now to support their families and so they can’t afford to take on additional crippling student debt?

Or perhaps that people from backgrounds where they see their friends and family unemployed or with poor jobs do not have the same impetus to stay on at school because they perceive unemployment or poorly-paid jobs will be their lot no matter what they do?

Or even maybe that people from poor backgrounds want to escape from those backgrounds through the use of drink or drugs — or even playstation games — all of which means that they’ve got less time available to study and are less likely to be in a good condition to study even if they do get the time?

Or have you considered the possibility that maybe the children of those who are well off have access to better schools, better textbooks, and better all-round educational support than those who can’t afford it? Do you not think that makes a difference?

Has it occurred to you that the measure of innate intelligence through the use of an IQ test is inherently flawed and has been criticised many times? That IQ tests measure what the people who set them think people ought to know, and if they are being set by these upper class twits who studied classical Greek but couldn’t put a sparkplug in a car, then of course the self-same upper class twits are going to score more highly on them?

Has it occurred to you that yes, some people are smarter than others, and that smarter people might well do better in life and make more money — but it ain’t necessarily so — and to effectively tell the poor that it’s their own fault they are poor because they are stupid, is nothing more than an arrogant political belief dressed up as science? Or is it not possible that clever children can be born into poor families…

No, actually, I think I phrased it best first time round. Bruce, fuck off. Your views are offensive, wrong, unscientific, and bordering on the imbecilic.

By your own judgement then, this would make you working class, with no right to attend university…