Beak - so close, SO close...
firstly - you do NOT need a first in Maths to get into the banks. Far from it. You need luck, a decent education or -and here's the kicker, it's the most important of all - to KNOW someone who can get you in. I've spent my working life in the city - I know of what I speak. Of course, you're also right, that a first from Oxbridge will see a blank cheque land on your desk from most of the banks...but that's not the ONLY way.
You're absolutely spot on that we don't help ourselves by allowing anyone to train. However, be careful here. Oxford, for all their failings DO at least insist on a minimum of 5 GCSEs A-C and DO have (however inadequate it may be) a selection process which a LOT of people fail.
Yes, IMHO, the industry would be enormously helped by at the very least introducing a bare minimum qualification. Name ANY other profession where someone with no GCSEs/O levels can get in and hope to earn >£100k a year. (hope - not necessarily achieve!)
Pilots - sad as it is - do not add much value. They are almost without exception an addition to teh cost base and not much more. HOWEVER....where this industry has lost it's way is in the lack of understanding that they're a vital cog in the commercial offering. A good salesman could bolster load factors and add turnover....but lose the salesmen and the company continues. Lose the pilots and the company is dead....this is the part that has been forgotten.
Pilots are to aviation what Cacao is to Chocolatiers....and somehow, somewhere along the line, this got lost.