According to the writer Walter Ellis, author of a book called the Oxbridge Conspiracy, Britain is still dominated by the old-boy network: it isn't what you know that matters, but who you know.

Microsoft has chosen to "nurture" the talents of a 14-year-old boy who attempted to hack into the company's online gaming network, Xbox Live, rather than slap the kid with lawsuits.

British managers became managers by studying English literature and Egyptology at Oxford and by going through the old boy network.