WE hear a great deal about political change these days. But I note the following on a cursory glance:
PM (Eton); Deputy PM (Westminster); Chancellor of the Exchequer (Westminster); Minister for Energy and Climate Change (Westminster); Attorney General (Westminster); Leader of the Commons (Eton); Minister of State at Cabinet Office, Policy (Eton); Culture Secretary (Charterhouse); International Development Secretary (Rugby); 10. Leader of the Lords (Wellington)
No wonder they get on so well. No wonder they have so little appeal to working-class English voters.
Add in the Scots in the Tory Cabinet (Fox, Gove, Duncan Smith and Strathclyde) representing one Conservative Scottish seat.
Add in new Old Etonian recruits: Jo Johnson (Eton): brother of the Old Etonian Mayor of London; the new MP for Orpington; Rory Stewart; the new MP for Penrith and the Borders; Zac Goldsmith; the new MP for Richmond Park.
No wonder they get on so well with the Lib. Dems.
It is (as usual) a Ministry of Toffs and Scots. We may well regret the abandonment of the 11 plus and the grammar schools. Although there may have been individual injustices in examinations, nevertheless this was a system based on merit and not on inherited privilege. Now we have not merely an injustice against individuals but injustice against a whole class. There are no intellectual Wayne Rooneys in the British Cabinet.
Gerald Morgan (Lydbrook School; English Parliamentary Party).