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Opinion: Firms shouldn’t just talk the talk on ‘class’ diversity

I wonder if your correspondent is mixing up two distinct issues- a "working class" accent and ungrammatical/inarticulate speech patterns. I grew up in a council flat and went to local schools in East London where my peers spoke classic " Cockney". I did smooth out my accent a bit but more importantly learnt to speak coherently and fluently (with some help from my parents who would not have tolerated "aitch dropping" etc . I have worked with inarticulate public school boys and highly articulate East Enders who had the benefit of an education system which did not patronise them but taught them to speak grammatically even if with a regional accent. Who would want an inarticulate ungrammatical lawyer and why is it racist to require high standards of speech and grammar from a lawyer ?

10-Jan-2011

5:12 pm