@chris - Absolutely, I was going to mention race but decided that might be pudding-over-egging, given you hadn't mentioned anyone of colour. I didn't at all think you were thinking of Sands's gender - but as a posh bloke who tries not to be a dick when I'm doing things and who's been in charge of hiring, gender, race and class are all things that have come to mind while doing this. Obviously, part of that process still ends up that posh white women, posh black men, working class white men, etc, are more likely to get hired than their counterparts who have more than one Axis Of Being Screwed Over.

Interesting corollary though - everything you say here about class is also true for gender, with women doing worse than men on exactly the same measures as above for exactly the same reasons. In this context Sands seems like a worse choice of target than Farage or Cameron.