The sight of an Old Etonian pitying poor kids may seem a throwback to the Victorian age but it happened just days ago. That was the sight of Tory leader David "call me Dave" Cameron wandering through a backdrop of "deprived" youngsters in south London on the day his party published their social justice report, Breakthrough Britain. The report promoted marriage as the solution to a lot of social ills, but it merely skirted around the edges of what is one of the most blatant factors in keeping poor kids poor: education.
Cameron could have come to this simple answer by taking a good look in the mirror. That an old Etonian is vying for the leadership of this country is no coincidence. Kids who don't have a chance of doing that didn't have acres of playing fields and academic hot-housing that only the rich in this country can pay for with their easy access to private and public schools. If you can't pay, yours is an educational lottery, with the worst schools producing an underclass.
In the same week that Cameron perfected his pious and pained look of sympathy for the poor, Sally Keeble, a Labour MP was telling parliament about a young offender called Gareth Myatt. 15-year-old Gareth suffocated to death after being restrained by staff at Rainsbrook secure training centre in 2004. Although he was "academically very able" the education system struggled to engage with him throughout his life, and by the end of 2003, he was not receiving any education at all, Keeble said.
Gareth didn't end his life vying to run the country like Cameron, his life was ended for him by a system that didn't care. Following his death, one member of staff who had restrained Gareth described the incident "rather like having run over a cat".
The story of Gareth, and those children like him who form a colourful backdrop to politician's photoshoots, is the story of a failing system. A divided system, that allows the Camerons of this world to ascend with seemingly little effort, and the Gareths to sink almost without trace save for the passionate anger of a dedicated MP.
David Cameron would do well to do a little self-inventory of the privileges that made him what he is today, and reflect on how he will ensure that children like Gareth might experience a little of the same boost to ensure that one day they might also vie to run the country.