From personal experience (and talking to many colleagues over the years), I have found that most senior nursing positions mentioned by Jack Campin are held by types of an upper or middle class origin. My husband tells me it's the same in his experience of University teaching; those who make the appointments choose "the right sort of people", and of course "the right sort" always seems to come from the same class as they do. Has there ever been any study or survey, with statistics, of the proportion of public schoolboys and finshing school misses who occupy these positions, compared to the proportion of them in the population as a whole, or the comparably qualified people in the country at least? If the great majority of a country's population was black, but almost all University posts were held by whites, the conclusion would be obvious with regard to "strategies of exclusion". So, is there any survey in England (or Britain) like the one I mention?