LONDON -- Gordon Brown, the British chancellor of the Exchequer, has been stirring up media attention by attacking the way in which Oxford and other British universities recruit students. He launched his diatribe against the universities by condemning Magdalen College Oxford (where Prince Chichibu and Prince Tomohito of Mikasa studied) for not accepting an able pupil from a state school to study medicine. The college pointed out that there were many more applicants than places available and others had equally good grades. They noted that the girl in question, lacking self-confidence, did not do well in the final interview. Other able pupils from state schools were admitted to the college.

The chancellor of the Exchequer, unwisely in my view, used this case to declare war on "elitism." His purpose seems to have been to please traditional labor supporters who have not yet been cured of the disease of "class warfare." In the process, however, he offended many middle-income people who thought that "New Labor" was indeed pursuing new policies and had given up out dated ideas about class.

Some unkind observers have suggested that Brown, who would like to have been prime minister, together with John Prescott, the deputy prime minister who is a representative of "Old Labor," were taking advantage of Prime Minister Tony Blair's absence from the political scene while on paternity leave following the birth of his son Leo. If the media are to be believed, Blair who returned to work on June 5, wants to put a stop to this silly campaign. But such antics are unfortunately the stuff of party politics in a parliamentary democracy.