I hear this take a lot and it just frustrates me, as it does feel dismissive of the people who others claim they are looking out for.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with South Italy but it is pretty barren. Beautiful yes, but barren. Fair enough my family didn't flee a war or dictatorship but they came to the UK with nothing nonetheless.

I wasn't "thrown a bone" either and I don't live in the South East. I'm not sure what critical information you think I'm missing out, but I went to school, got good grades, went to uni, got my degree, joined a small company, performed well, got poached by a larger company, and now I run one of their divisions. Yes it is a finance company but not sure why that changes things?

Perhaps the one point you could pick up on is as I went to uni in Scotland, I didn't have to pay tuition. I did have to work to pay other living expenses while I was there though.

In any case, as someone who came from very little I can safely say that a lot of what is said of the "poor" or "lower class" these days is just patronising and derogatory. I still keep with my friends from school and from the same area. None of them have done particularly well in life financially but they are good people. As someone who grew up with them though, they are where they are because of the decisions they made. Yes, there were more distractions along they way perhaps, bad crowds at school, the constant temptation of underage drinking, but no one forces you into these things.