Idiot of the Day: Laurie Penny

Laurie Penny, apparently without any sense of irony:

In my final year at a British private school, over 30 kids were handheld through the application process for Oxford or Cambridge, whereas in most state schools a maximum of one or two begin the gruelling process, usually without the considerable staff support that we enjoyed.

Of those 30, about half were successful, and at least four or five of those were -- excuse my French -- thick as congealed slurry on the bridle path. They were dull, unimaginative posh kids who had no real interest in learning , who were just good at passing exams with the right training. What they had was the confidence to shine at interviews, and most importantly, the right kind of swagger to fit in. They had grown up being told they belonged at Oxford or Cambridge. As a consequence, they were deemed Oxbridge material, whereas thousands of state school pupils were not.

And where did Penny go to university, I hear you ask? Why Oxford, of course. Which surely makes her one of those "handheld through the application process". It also makes her as "thick as congealed slurry" and possessing "the right kind of swagger to fit in". Either that, or she's a total fucking hypocrite.

Of course, I do realise she could be all of the above...

UPDATE: Matt M in the coments section rightly points out that Penny could be classing herself (hell, she probably is) as one of the two thirds of the successful applicants that weren't as thick as congealed slurry. My bad; I meant to re-edit the article before publishing it but didn't. It should have read "it also gives her a circa 33% of being as "thick as congealed slurry".." She's still a fucking hypocrite, though, as she clearly benefitted from the private school hand-holding she now seeks to rebuke.