Class discrimination

SIR – I read with interest the report “Working class need protection too, say campaigners calling for overhaul of discrimination laws” (July 21). Some may think that class discrimination doesn’t happen today, or only to people with a chip on their shoulder. Or perhaps they really were not the best candidate for the job, which might of course be the case.

However, I can assure them that such discrimination does happen, and does hurt both the individual and the organisations that allow it.

Having reached a certain level in a bank, I was astonished to find my strong Yorkshire accent being mocked when I started regularly to visit London to sit on various training and staffing committees. On one occasion, when delegates were being chosen by the chairman to join a government project, he said in an open meeting: “We’d better not ’ave ’t bloke from Yorksheer, no one will understand ’im.” It came as no surprise when a man from Coutts got the job. Disgusted, I created my own, highly successful business.

People who come from industrial “two-up two-down” towns still need to be exceptionally fortunate to reach the top in many traditional organisations, despite, or perhaps because of, a grammar school education.

David Pearson

Haworth, West Yorkshire