{"id":45491,"date":"2026-01-26T06:43:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/bias-against-working-class-should-be-illegal-culture-review-says\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:43:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:43:35","slug":"bias-against-working-class-should-be-illegal-culture-review-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/bias-against-working-class-should-be-illegal-culture-review-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Bias against working class should be illegal, culture review says"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Rumeana Jahangir<\/span>North West<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"BBC\/Gaumont\/BenBBC\/Gaumont\/Ben Blackall<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The BBC drama Film Club, co-written by Stockport actress Aimee Lou Wood, employed workers in north-west England<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Discrimination against working-class people should be illegal, according to a report on employment in the cultural sector.<\/p>\n

More than 50% of respondents told the mainly Greater Manchester-based Class Ceiling survey they had experienced harassment or bias due to their social background.<\/p>\n

It follows calls for better opportunities for working-class creatives, including from award-winning scriptwriter James Graham and performer Jason Manford.<\/p>\n

Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who is chair of the Lowry arts venue in Salford and helped lead the report, said class was a “core inclusion issue” and barriers to the arts were “crushing creativity”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He joined calls from the TUC union and the Co-op firm for socioeconomic background to become the 10th protected characteristic<\/a> under the 2010 Equalities Act.<\/p>\n

More than half of the British public consider themselves to be working-class, according to YouGov data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Class Ceiling review, which surveyed people mainly based in or from Greater Manchester, said: “Britain’s creative industries shape how the country sees itself.”<\/p>\n

It claimed access to such industries “remain[ed] unequal”, adding: “Entry routes still depend on who you know. Early roles still pay too little to live on.<\/p>\n

“Progression still favours those who can absorb risk. Many people leave before their careers begin.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Nazir<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nazir Afzal said the arts sector should treat “class as a core inclusion issue”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The survey received 300 responses from working-class creatives, ranging from Bafta and Emmy award winners to teenage artists, as part of a project supported by the University of Manchester, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Co-op.<\/p>\n

Several musicians spoke about being offered “exposure” instead of payment, with one saying: “It’s not something that pays the bills.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The report found only 44% of respondents earned enough to make a living, with many taking second jobs.<\/p>\n

Some also reported being described as “thick” because of their accent and said their predicted grades had been lowered because of where they lived.<\/p>\n

One respondent said a fellow arts school student shouted “poor” in their face, adding: “I was laughed at for my accent, I was judged for not wearing designer clothing, I was mocked for not going to a private school.<\/p>\n

“It is almost comical how cliched the experience truly was. My fellow students thought ‘the North’ was amusing.”<\/p>\n

Another person said they were “made fun of for qualifying for free school meals, wearing hand-me-downs and not having a phone”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"An<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Many musicians said they were being offered “exposure” instead of payments<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The report said some respondents indicated there was a bias against working-class content being commissioned, with one TV professional saying: “A lot of the commissioners are white, middle-aged and middle-class.”<\/p>\n

Another TV worker said many colleagues “simply don’t understand working-class culture”.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a meritocracy; it’s a mirror-tocracy,” the worker said, adding: “The commissions go to people who are similar to those in charge. They want to see what they think reflects them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Break down barriers’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Among those surveyed was a Bolton headteacher who said arts subjects had been “systematically devalued” by the curriculum, which had contributed to some students hating school and committing truancy.<\/p>\n

He said “lots of kids really value creative subjects”, adding: “If these kids were encouraged to do more creative subjects, it would be better for the country.”<\/p>\n

Afzal said the review “spreads power beyond London” after many respondents said they had to move to the capital to develop an arts career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We are not going to break down barriers that are crushing creativity until we build an arts sector that treats class as a core inclusion issue,” he said.<\/p>\n

As a result of the survey, the Manchester-based Co-op firm is spearheading support for 200 new arts and creative apprenticeships in the area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rumeana JahangirNorth West BBC\/Gaumont\/Ben Blackall The BBC drama Film Club, co-written by Stockport actress Aimee Lou Wood, employed workers in north-west England Discrimination against working-class people should be illegal, according to a report on employment in the cultural sector. More than 50% of respondents told the mainly Greater Manchester-based Class Ceiling survey they had experienced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[9148,1783,3663,2088,1553,4713],"class_list":["post-45491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk","tag-bias","tag-class","tag-culture","tag-illegal","tag-review","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45493,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45491\/revisions\/45493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}