WHEN politicians tell you an issue is above politics or too important for party point-scoring it's a sure sign they are itching for a good old-fashioned party political scrap.

But there is one exception to that general rule at Holyrood and it was highlighted by a powerful report this week from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission and the David Hume Institute.

Elitist Scotland confirmed what we already knew: that Scotland's top jobs are dominated by people from privileged backgrounds.

Those who were privately educated and who studied at elite universities are over-represented in the upper echelons of business, politics, the law, media, and public sector.

Yet broken down into hard statistics, the message was still shocking.

The reaction from the Holyrood parties also came as something of a surprise. All agreed that greater efforts were needed to give youngsters a fairer start in life and to widen access to universities.

Such sentiments have long been expressed by Labour and the SNP, though neither party has made much impact on the problem during their spells in power.

The real surprise was seeing the Scottish Conservative emerge as a vocal champion of social mobility.

"People from the most deprived backgrounds are not getting their foot through the door," Ruth Davidson told MSPs during First Minister's Questions. A Scots Tory leader accusing an SNP first minister of doing too little to create a more equal society. For a moment, Nicola Sturgeon was at a loss for words.

Ms Davidson will press home the message in an unashamedly campaigning speech on Monday marking 150 days to go until the Holyrood election.

Whether her focus on equality will reap rewards at the polls remains to be seen but it means there is an unusual degree of consensus at Holyrood on the issue. Approaches differ but creating a fairer Scotland is now at the top of everyone's agenda.

The Elitist Scotland report showed why.

Based on a study of 850 people in the most influential jobs in the country, it found nearly a quarter (23 per cent) attended private schools, compared with less than six per cent of the population as whole.

Almost two thirds (63 per cent) went on to an elite university, including half who studied at one of Scotland's ancient universities.

Amid the welter of data in the report, researchers discovered that 45 per cent of senior judges, 32 per cent of top media professionals and 28 per cent of Scotland's business leaders were privately educated.

Scotland is not as elitist as the UK establishment, the commission found (it published a similar report, Elitist Britain, last year with an even starker set of statistics) but the same pattern existed.

The commission said the report "bust the myth that Scotland does not have a social mobility problem".

"Low social mobility is not just an English disease. It is a Scottish one and UK-wide one," added Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister who chairs the group.

"Our Elitist Scotland report should remove any shred of complacency there might be on the issue."

The evidence and the conclusions, then, are clear. But the report also considered the consequences of failing to address the problem. It's verdict is worth quoting at length.

Asking why greater social mobility matters, it says:

"Locking out many of those not from advantaged backgrounds risks making Scotland’s leading institutions less informed, less representative and ultimately less credible than they should be. "Where institutions rely on too narrow a range of people, from too narrow a range of backgrounds, with too narrow a range of experiences, they risk behaving in ways and focusing on issues that are of salience only to a minority but not the majority in society.

"The lack of people from ordinary social backgrounds at the top of Scottish society indicates that a lot of talent is going to waste."

It is unfair, the commission argues, that talented people from ordinary backgrounds still find a "class ceiling" that stops them from reaching the top.

Holyrood is a slightly less elitist place than Westminster yet one in five MSPs was educated privately and nearly half studied at St Andrew's, Edinburgh, Glasgow or Aberdeen university, according to the report.

But if 100 per cent are committed to ensuring a wider range of people have the chance to join them, the commission should feel a little happier.