French 'old boys' network' far worse than Britain's, book claims

By Kim Willsher. University lecturer Peter Gumbel turns his attention from education to the Gallic corridors of power and business. Left, right or centre, France's politicians are a ruling elite that resembles an ancien regime desperately clinging to its privilege and power, according to a new book by a Paris-based British author.
If you thought David Cameron and his Eton and Oxbridge clique were posh toffs out of touch with the real world, take a look over the Channel at the "tiny number of brilliant and charming men and women" who constitute the Gallic ruling class, says university lecturer Peter Gumbel.
In his new book, France's Got Talent: the Woeful Consequences of French Elitism, published on Wednesday, Gumbel takes a hard swipe at France's new nobility: the fewer than 500 graduates of elite schools that dominate the highest echelons of business and politics.
Often arrogant, untouchable, unaccountable – and almost certainly unsackable – Gumbel says France is still controlled by an "old boys' network", that makes the British government and business Britain appear a model of social diversity. Just three years after he rattled the French establishment with a scathing indictment of the country's highly selective education system, Gumbel has turned his attention to the Gallic corridors of power and business.
"Since the Revolution, France has had this mythology that it is a meritocracy, that anyone can rise to the highest positions in society by virtue of their intellectual brilliance," Gumbel told the Guardian. Read more...