Commoners #006
Helping Common People become more common in the creative industries
Hello Common friends
It’s finally Spring! Behind the scenes at Common People we have been busy working on a partnership with The Social Mobility Foundation which we can’t wait to tell you all about. We’ve also been working on a new look for Common People and a new website which we hope to launch soon.
We’re hosting a virtual Common People Meet Up in April. If you wanted to put some faces to names join us on Tuesday, April 11 from 7:00 – 9:00pm. We’ll share more details on the WhatsApp group soon.
We’ve been watching
Kathy Burke: Growing Up. The two-part documentary about getting older also shares plenty of insight on class and life. It is well worth a watch.
We learnt about the show following a recommendation in our WhatsApp group. For those of you who haven’t joined yet, please do. We’re a friendly bunch that share things like this brilliant tweet from Kathy Burke in response to Helena Bonham Carter for saying that if you’re not pretty and you’re working class, you have an easier time in terms of people’s attitudes to you.
You can join the group here: Common People WhatsApp. We promise we don’t just talk about Kathy Burke and Greggs. Speaking of which…
We’ve been talking about
Greggs named strongest brand in the restaurant sector
According to Brand Finance, Greggs is smashing it. Greggs says its brand health and market share has “never been higher”.
Class, taste and a simple palate
An interview with Martin Daubney, the longest-serving editor of Loaded got us talking. We naturally took offence with how being working class was being used as a shorthand to denote lack of taste. We also learnt that this stereotype was part of the inspiration behind The Department of Opportunities brilliant Stay Down Campaign.
For a different perspective on Loaded, Tom recommended the founder James Brown’s autobiography which came out last year:
‘People either forget or don’t realise that the magazine didn’t start out as what it became. The first few years’ issues were full of brilliant long reads on music, films, football, clubbing etc and it won every publishing award going. The book tells this story very well, along with themes of addiction, loss and other subjects.’
How artists are Structurally F–cked.
Industria, an artist-run organisation published a report in early March into artists’ pay and working conditions titled Structurally F–cked. Its title is a spoiler alert to its findings; that both artists pay and conditions are grim. While it comes as no surprise that Artists in the UK public sector are underpaid, it came as a shock to learn that an artist’s median hourly rate is just £2.60. That isn’t even enough to afford a latte from Pret (which is now £3.75).
We’ve been reading
Daisy May Cooper's Q&A with The Guardian where she talks about the new BBC comedy-drama series created by Cash Carraway, author of Skint Estate. During the Q&A May Cooper talks about her personal experience of poverty inspired her new role:
‘Growing up in poverty is such a bloody ball-ache. Money doesn’t buy happiness but it gives you options. Not having money is like playing a constant game of chess. You think: “If I spend my money on tampons, that means I have to choose between getting food or taking the bus.” You have to plan ahead all the time and it’s exhausting. Rain Dogs captures all that. And to seal the deal, my character said the word “c**t” on the first page of the script, so I had to do it.’
How to use data to improve social mobility at work
In this article, Dan Cave highlights that only 9% of firms have support for social mobility in place. When you consider that around half of UK adults say they’re working class this is a depressing stat.
We all know that measurement is the ‘critical first step’ in understanding the socioeconomic diversity of a workforce. If you work somewhere that doesn’t measure social mobility, now is the time to shout about the Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index. The Index for 2023 is currently open. Taking part in the Index helps organisations assess their performance on socioeconomic diversity and get a bespoke action plan on boosting it.
Further education increases students earning potential
In early February the Social Mobility Commission released a report looking at the effect that further education has on a student's earning potential which showed that these courses lead to better earnings. However, Alun Francis, the Interim chair, argues that their social mobility potential is limited by patchy and poorly communicated data.
Broken News
The Guardian are keen to support underrepresented groups break into journalism with their positive action scheme. However, they overlook people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. This is a real shame when you consider that around 80% of journalists come from professional and upper-class backgrounds and working class representation in UK journalism is at a record low. If the Guardian opened the scheme up to a wider group defined by socio-economic factors it would make a huge difference.
We’re celebrating
Saatchi & Saatchi for launching Upriser with ITV. Upriser is a nationwide schools platform to address a ‘creative crisis’ following a sustained lack of funding for creative and cultural programmes in school.
The Ideas Foundation for injecting fresh blood into the creative world since 2000. A member of the group shared a link with the group to highlight their partnership with Pantene to launch #PowerOfHair Schools Programme to help end hair discrimination and inspire the next generation of hair confidence.
In the news and Government stuff
The BBC found that a quarter of England’s state grammar schools still let in hardly any poorer children, despite efforts to improve their admissions procedures.
However in better news, state-school admissions are rising at Oxford and Cambridge which means fewer privately educated students are getting in. Swings and roundabouts.
Helping Common People
The easiest way to help is to share this with some Common People Like YOU. Whether they’re an industry leader, or someone wanting to break into the industry, we can help. Point them in our direction.
If you’ve got jobs or opportunities that you’d like to share, send them our way.
If you see anything interesting that you think us Commoners would like, send that too.
If you’d like to offer up yourself as a mentor or find a mentor, reply to this email and we can help.
If you’d like to support Common People by helping out, then we’re always looking for people to join the group that puts a lot of this sort of stuff together.
We hope you enjoyed our latest newsletter. Let us know what you think - we’re a friendly bunch.
And never forget, we’re Common People, and proudly a different class.
See you again, take care, and stay in touch,
Your fellow Commoner