It does in a lot of cases come back to childhood, been mentioned on here a few times. Admittedly if you go to London's poorer areas they are certainly much more populated with a much higher ethnic diversity. I would certainly say you are a rung down the ladder if you wanted to achieve more in life growing up in that environment. All that said, I went to the third worst comprehensive in the country, only 7 of us out of 113 students in our year got 5 GCSEs at grade C or above. As an example my Physics teacher's job before coming into our school was as a dustman and his name was Mr Bates, you can only imagine what it was like attempting to pass that GCSE but I got my head down, put my own time in at home to get through exams, support from parents who refused to blame where we lived or the crap school. I'm doing pretty well now I think - I'm not saying all this to boast, I'm saying this because when people let other circumstances around them dictate what they think they can achieve they have already put a barrier in the way of themselves. Its harder I agree than say young Henry James Montgomery the Third who gets all the best schooling and probably sponsored into a top job, but it's doable, stop blaming the world, pull your finger out and just bloody well get on with it!