I think the most important issue in the UK is whether your parents can afford to send you to a 'public school'. Public in this sense means 'not at home with a t

I think the most important issue in the UK is whether your parents can afford to send you to a 'public school'. Public in this sense means 'not at home with a tutor', and actually means an obscenely expensive school with hundreds of years of history. Think 'Hogwarts' and you will be very close. A boy attending one of these (yes a boy, the situation is not quite the same for girls) has a very high chance of getting into the best universities and of getting a well paid job afterwards. The 'old boys network' ensures this continues. Pick 10 random Members of Parliament and see where they went to school. Pick 10 random VC partners. The barrister clerk one is at least honest and open. They live in a world of wigs and gowns and oak panelled rooms where the clerks call them 'sir'. 'Pupils' (trainee barristers who have finished their academic training of law school plus specific training ) traditionally work for free in their early years, which keeps the poor people out pretty effectively. Alas I was born to the wrong family...