# Life Peers in the UK: Respected or Rejected? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-peers-in-the-uk-respected-or-rejected/528763 "2010-02-12T19:46:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-peers-in-the-uk-respected-or-rejected/528763/21 "2010-02-14T17:45:48Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Perhaps this isn’t clear to non-Brits here, but my impression (from three years living in the U.K.) is that the vast majority of Brits don’t remotely care about peers regardless of what period their peerage is over. In fact, I’ve observed that whether or not you care about the nobility is a sign of your political leanings. The Liberals/Left have been against nobility for at least 200 years. The Conservatives have respected the nobility, often for their own purposes. I also notice a disturbing tendency for both sides and corporate people in general to respect a “university education” far more than in the US. A university education seems to be limited to Oxford or Cambridge in the UK and Berlin, Munich or another major university in Germany. These seems to perpetuate a dominance of business by a conservative upper-middle-class elite. In the Silicon Valley where I work, it’s a geek elite. Woz only got his undergrad after he _left_ Apple; I’m not sure that Jobs ever got a degree. Larry and Sergey were in a Phd Computer Science program when they started Google, which is obviously an excellent background for starting a company. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-peers-in-the-uk-respected-or-rejected/528763/22 "2010-02-14T18:38:51Z")
> [@I shall now give SuaSponte an ego boost.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shall-now-give-suasponte-an-ego-boost/59050/12): > > I also notice a disturbing tendency for both sides and corporate people in general to respect a “university education” far more than in the US. A university education seems to be limited to Oxford or Cambridge in the UK and Berlin, Munich or another major university in Germany. These seems to perpetuate a dominance of business by a conservative upper-middle-class elite. > > In the Silicon Valley where I work, it’s a geek elite. Woz only got his undergrad after he _left_ Apple; I’m not sure that Jobs ever got a degree. Larry and Sergey were in a Phd Computer Science program when they started Google, which is obviously an excellent background for starting a company. I would disagree with the idea that a degree from certain universities is particularly required, or that Silicon Valley somehow looks past people’s educational record. Steve Wozniak and people like that are rare exceptions. Some university degrees are more prestigious than others, certainly, and there has been the phenomenon in the UK in recent years of polytechnics suddenly declaring themselves to be “universities”, which has perhaps devalued the idea of a university degree, but having the letters BA or BSc still matters in the job market, and not just if it is an “Oxbridge” degree. I don’t see how that is different from the situation in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-peers-in-the-uk-respected-or-rejected/528763/23 "2010-02-14T21:08:31Z")
> [@](#): > > I also notice a disturbing tendency for both sides and corporate people in general to respect a “university education” far more than in the US. That’s changing, now that just about everyone’s got one, or getting one. The government thinks 50% of the population is capable of going to university. Not without a radical redefinition of what university is for. Conservative politician Michael Ancram is the hereditary Marquess of Lothian, but you would be hard put to know it, from his website. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-peers-in-the-uk-respected-or-rejected/528763.md?page=1)