Apparently we're not democratic enough

In The Times today, Carol Midgley rightly criticises how artificial society’s endless series of examinations are, blaming our “elitist” attitude to education for allowing this system to overlook intelligent children. She points out the likes of Sir Tom Jones, Simon Cowell, Delia Smith, Sir Alan Sugar, Jamie Oliver, Duncan Bannatyne, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Philip Green all never advanced beyond the level of GCSE, but she overlooks that out of 100 people you would be lucky to find one with the genius of her examples. Ms Midgley’s propositions in themselves contradict her claims of elitism, for our education is structured to fit the majority and sadly the small number of geniuses will always be overlooked. To favour the budding Bransons of our society would require us to be intellectually elitist, which many would see as a positive change, but the majority will be unable to reap the benefits and for that reason no government would ever implement such a move.