[jariel]

There's some wilful misattribution or straw-manning by the Guardian here.

'Hard work is an essential ingredient in success' is much more consistent with common beliefs, and it's more or less true.

Nobody is saying 'Just work hard and you will achieve the highest ranks of society'.

It's a 'lie' that anyone actually says that, hence the straw man.

The Guardian however, doesn't really want this to be true, and so like most ideological papers, they shift the goalposts of their supposed ideological opponents and misattribute the logic.

The flaw is right here:

"I have come to understand that the systems that underpin the top professions in Britain are set up to serve only a certain section of society: they’re readily identifiable by privileged backgrounds, particular schools and accents."

Yes, of course, British people, of all people know that.

They've known that for 1000 years.

But saying that 'the top corridors of power are hard to achieve' is a fundamentally different thing then (direct quote): “if you work hard you will get on”.

"If you work hard you will get on" is not "If you work hard you will achieve the top ranks of society".

Finally, there's a woeful lack of gratitude in the author's premise, that he, as an immigrant somehow deserves one of the most choice spots among 60 million residents 'because he worked hard'.

Ironically, as a 'extremely poor immigrant son of a single mother with 12 chilren and a person of colour' - the fact that he was able to receive considerably more and better education than his peers, and has had a very successful career and is a respected member of society actually demonstrates how relatively open, kind and tolerant the UK is at least overall.

He's almost a living, breathing contradiction of his own argument.

This misattribution is a daily, constant problem in the press (almost all of them) and it's a primary source of false information and social malaise.

The G has some great writers, I wish they would try harder.