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It’s interesting how the press is jumping all over Nick Clegg for taking advantage of his parents’ network to secure valuable internships in Brussels, Helsinki and NYC. They are quick to label him a hypocrite for this and to lambast him for his millionaire parentage and private education.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not fair that some people have early access to excellent internships when others don’t. Nor is it fair that these internships are often only suitable for those that have substantial financial support.

It’s well known that politics, and PR and communications, are some of the most closed off careers; surrounded by mystery over what exactly they do and how to get a foot in the door, let alone understanding which academic courses will help get them there. Research last year from our client Race for Opportunity, which campaigns for race diversity in the workplace, showed that the professions of Education, Banking/Finance, Legal/Law Media, Medicine, Politics as well as the Armed Forces and the Police, were seen as closed off to young people from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background.

So, as much as this is an easy headline story for journalists, maybe they should take a second to recognise that their own profession (media) isn’t as open to those lacking parental connections and money as they might like to think.

I for one am proud that this morning Speed’s MD Stephen Waddington ran a PR workshop with interns from the fantastic Taylor Bennett Foundation, which seeks to directly to address the need for greater diversity in the communications & PR industry.

The cause of enabling social mobility is one to be applauded. It shouldn’t just be an opportunity to lambast Nick Clegg for the lucky breaks in his life. It just smacks of bitterness, right?

This headline story should be a taken as an opportunity for the media to put pressure on all businesses and professions to offer work experience and internships that are financially viable and open and accessible to people from all backgrounds and education; not just those with a private sector education or related to the Director’s best mate.

By ignoring a huge swathe of the next generation of employees, our economy is missing out on a whole load of untapped talent; and it becomes even harder for us as a nation to move away from a class-society.

The result of our internal staff poll suggest that the Conservatives will enjoy a landslide victory with 44 per cent of the vote. The Liberal Democrats are put in second place with 36 per cent and the Labour party is placed in third position with just 12 per cent.

The results of the poll also revealed that 4 per cent of Speed staff would be voting for independent candidates. Another 4 per cent said that they intended to vote for John Brown, despite him not running for a parliamentary seat.

The results are based on a turnout of 67.57 per cent, which is markedly higher than the turnout at the 2005 General Election when just 61.3 per cent of people bothered to vote.

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