DIVA MAGAZINE AND SOCIAL MOBILITY

That this House notes that Simone Webb is a17 year old Harlow College student hoping to study at Oxford University; further notes that she was offered a one month unpaid internship at DIVA magazine, but was later refused on the grounds that she hoped to be reimbursed just 5 transport expenses a day, and was told that DIVA was `uncomfortable' offering her an internship as she was `so young and without an independent budget of [her] own'; believes that barriers of this kind are a major threat to social mobility and that this is an outrageous example of internships being abused; andcalls for DIVA magazine to pay reasonable transport expenses where it can, and to drop its discriminatory policy of refusing to employ people who lack `an independent budget'.