Toby Young: I’m too posh for the Tories. I should try Labour

I’m still weighing up whether to run for Parliament, but after this week’s reshuffle I’ve concluded I’m in the wrong party. If you’re a middle-aged white male, particularly one who’s been to Oxford, your chances of becoming a Conservative minister are negligible. Unless you’re a pal of George Osborne’s, obviously, in which case it doesn’t matter if you have B-U-L-L-E-R tattooed on your knuckles, you’ll still get promoted.

In the Labour party, by contrast, coming from a privileged background actually seems to help. I’m not just talking about the usual suspects, like Lord Longford’s niece Harriet Harman and ex-public schoolboy Ed Balls. I’m thinking of the new shadow education secretary. Under Ed Miliband, holders of that particular office have been getting posher and posher. Indeed, if you put Andy Burnham, Stephen Twigg and Tristram Hunt side by side it would be a bit like that famous sketch with John Cleese and the Two Ronnies.