Who cares about the playing fields of Eton?

Alexandrovich

It's a pity the word 'Neather' doesn't make them squirm.

Tron

The reaction of an American to a Rolls Royce car is "one day I'll have one of those". An English bloke would hate the owner who "does't deserve it" and scratch a key down the paintwork.
Look at our left wing media and culture. Rich = bad, Poor = good. Everytime.

Roy Smith

The test is; what do the apposing sides stand for? When they both refuse to recognize such diabolical issues as immigration, the dying British cultural heritage, and over welfare-ism. Then neither have sufficient schooling to call themselves part of the bigger picture. They can't come to grips with reality, they live so far apart from the great unwashed they see themselves as a breed apart. The media continue with this attitude and ignore the ones trapped in their welfare ridden, workless, eldorado. Do they get a word in any fancy TV show? They do not! It would be a surprise to me if they can write their own name, such is the education they have succumbed to, and the political establishment so proud of.

Amadeus Plonquer

I just discovered the surgeon who conducted my triple bypass last year was educated at Eton. The scoundrel.

Shouldn't he be working for free in Africa treating pygmies with distended stomachs instead of scrounging off the NHS?

I think we're in for 6 months of the Eton-Balls game.

TomRom

Eton should become a Direct Grant Grammar School then Cameron would understand how vital they are to the country's future and identity

Ian Walker

Perhaps Cameron and Osbourne should ask Trevor Phillips to step in!

You can tell Campbell's back though.

Sally Chatterjee

In some ways Labour is looking to discriminate. They should be careful, many from Labour were privately educated. Even the Chancellor attended Loretto, an exclusive boarding school.

But just as some commentators have pointed at the Scottish over-representation in Cabinet under Labour, there does seem to be an over-representation of Old Etonians. It gives the impression that there's a cabal and that the "old school tie" works.

Austin Barry

The Tories could turn the Eton jibe to their advantage.

Run an advertisement with the gaunt, tubercular face of George Orwell alongside a grainy monochromatic picture of Brown, Mandy and their Cabinet colleagues. The caption reads:

"George Orwell - This old Etonian wrote a novel about a corrupt government obsessed with control, thought crime, perpetual war and pervasive surveillance.

He did not imagine that the Labour Party would use it as manual."

Andy H

Isn't it funny that those champions of political correctness feel able to reserve upbringing as an area to mock.

Would they use the same approach if the differential was colour, ethnicity or gender?

All of these are defined by birth, as is to a certain degree class.

If the definition is then not one of birth but nurture, then we can include religion.

Should not "classism" be as unacceptable as "racism" to these equality champions?

Alan Phillips

Maybe, just maybe, the Conservative message should be that instead of being beaten with this stick, turn it on Liebour. Tell them what we aspire to do is raise the education of children to levels compared to these schools. Tell them that under the current regime, many of these kids won't get the education to become aspirational for future generations, other than through adult education programmes when they realise that they've been short changed between 1997 and 2010.

Educational success is in the hands of parents, if they can't get their children into decent schools then you get the better off working the system to their advantage, as they do now, under a Liebour Government, this system has failed. Get schools that are fit for purpose and everybody wins...

Sean Haffey

I am sorry, but you are missing the point.

Whether Eton was a public school or a comprehensive, the fact remains that it educates an incredibly tiny percentage of British children: certainly a tiny fraction of one percent. When the percentage of Tory MPs educated at Eton is about 10%, it's impossible to ignore.

Eton is somewhere between 10,000% and 100,000% over-represented among Tory MPs. No matter what kind of school it is, this is staggeringly undemocratic. It's simply not credible that this is a result based on merit.

AAE

For goodness sake! Cameron is an ambitious politician and if he can't handle this bit of wholly predictable knock about, then he neither deserves the top job nor even gives one the hope that he is worthy and capable of meeting it's challenges.

John W

Surely, all the Tories need do is name the 58 Labour MPs who went to Public Schools?

Vulture

The reason Dave's clique feel guilty about their education is that it is a genuine issue. They ARE a clique, and their squillionaire parents DID pay for a privileged education denied to 99% of the population. Nothing wrong with that, of course. (I went to a posh Public School myself and I feel grateful for it).

But it only has traction because Dave surrounds himself with his public school chums like Osbers, Boris, Leftwing,
Zac Goldsmith, Maude et al who adopt their non-Tory leftie policies because they feel so guilty abt being nobs. The Tory plebs like Liam Fox and William Hague (who generally have more realistic right-wing views) are kept at a distance. (Ask any Tory MP outside this magic circle).

You can tell there's an issue here because they are ludicrously trying to hide it on their CVs - which makes it look all the more fishy. It's like Lord Ashcroft's dodgy tax status : it will be an issue until they fess up about it, but they are still trying to dodge it. You can rely on Campbell to go for it like a pit bull.

Myself, I think the Tories should ditch the effete Old Etonians and go for a Hague/Fox dream team with some experience of real life donchaknow. The Tory toff issue is an Achilles heel which will cost the party very dearly. Get Pickles on the case!

Dorothy Wilson

Isn't it the same old story? Labour wants to pull every one down to the lowest common denominator? This came out very clearly in Prescott's ramblings on the Today programme this morning.

My background is in the rural working class - my father spent most of his life working on a farm. I was lucky enough to go to a grammar school and my parent's struggled to pay for the uniform - and they were more than pleased to do so.

They were Labour voters but were they alive now I'm pretty sure they would be devastated at the way in which Labour has betrayed people like them.

These Labour rants about class now sound so old-fashioned. Today's agenda should be - and must be if we are to rebuild a competitive economy - about building a structure within education that encourages everyone to reach their potential.

Despite the gloating shouting Labour's policies do the opposite of that - they bring everyone down to the lowest level.

Dorothy Wilson

PS. As Ian Walker writes, you can tell Campbell is back. Does anyone know if he is scheduled to appear before the Itaq inquiry. If not, why not?

Maggie

Eton has enriched our lives and our history with a galaxy of scientists, explorers, composers, artists, actors, writers, architects, journalists and sportsmen. Labour iconoclasts use the term Old Etonians as a metaphor to justify their attacks on our civilisation, their contempt for our history and their destruction of our culture and way of life. Gordon Brown and his henchmen are philistines and sadly that's how philistines act.

The Puppet Master

I'm not sure it would have much of an effect, class politics isn't what it was. Personally my reasons for disliking Cameron are based on Europe, climate change, banking policy, immigration,Iraq war etc. Pretty much the same reasons I despise Labour.
There are plenty of valid reasons not to vote for any of the main parties, we don't need to invent new ones.

Publius

Floreat Etona!

The Tories should say their aim is to allow every parent to have the choice of sending his child to an equally good school.

warwick

Just where did this National "Brits love a loser and hate a winner" attitude come from?
I don't really know; but one thing seems pretty clear: Brown wants to perpetuate it as it's the only way his sorry bunch have a chance of being re-elected.

But you don't have to have been to Eaton to come up with a list of Labour's (well Brown & Blair's) monumental lies and incompetence.

A simple list printed on a flyer with a background of Pinocchio's face on it with New labour wittled on his extending nose pasted around the country will get through to anyone.

strapworld

Vulture's dream team would resonate with true Tories.

However go to Guido Fawkes Blog an absolutely terrific photograph of Ed Balls which out does the Bullingdon Club photo!

TrevorsDen

Haffey - and Cameron is working hard to get tory party more representative - like more women. And who complains? ConHome.

I see more of mthe same yadda yadda, toss pot rubbish from Vulture, who must clearly be a labour supporter if he.she want to ditch Cameron and reinstate Hague (who I like BTW).

PS
The Brown apologists who decry the Suns attack on Browns appalling condolences letters have clearly forgotten the Suns scurrilous personal attacks on Hague.

and
PPS
its Brown who has an Eton Achilles heel. He is embarrassed by his own privileged fast tracking.

Victor Southern

More than one in five Labour MPs were privately educated at fee-paying schools. Another, similar number, attended grammar schools or their Scottish equivalents.

Ken

Eton (and other similar) represent a standard and an aspiration which the country would be more than foolish to ditch, especially when the attack comes from one such as Brown, a failed politician beneath contempt, and a party in power, abysmally ignorant of democracy.

Cameron and his clan should be trained to disdain them.

strapworld

The wit and wisdom of Trevors Den should be placed in a booklet.
"The Modern Tory Supporter" or 'Politics through rose tinted spectacles'

Inside page:-

"If anyone has done more to turn people off Cameron and the tories it has to be the collective considerations of Trevors Den or Peter DP as he is also known"

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Ben Elford

The 'playing fields of Eton' jibe is a mark of Labour's desperation; it's directed at trying to shore up a collapsing core vote (and yes, to rattle oversensitive Tories).

It's also an attempt to distract attention from the appalling record of state education under Labour's watch.

If I'm to be represented and ruled by a politician, I'd far rather one with a sound and broad education from a leading public school than a semi-literate product of one of Labour's sink schools. In fact I don't see the problem with the entire cabinet being well educated. Sean Haffey, take note.

Sean Haffey

@TrevorsDen ... There is a problem in that Conservative PPC selection is in some disarray. Your best chance is to be female or Eton-educated or a celebrity.

Women are obviously under-represented. SOme of this is fixable, some not. SOme happens because (I suspect) that fewer women want to enter politics; some because women feel unwelcome. I know a number of women who would make good PPCs and MPs but who refuse to enter the mudbath. I know others who are convinced that they are not welcome in the Conservative Party. Some are revolted by the concept of AWS. (I would be).

My own MP, who is both an excellent MP and a good person is an Old Etonian. I am really sorry but if we are to appeal more to the man in the street, we will have to winnow these. It's less of an issue when the OEs are in the background, but when the two most powerful posts in the land are likely to be filled with OEs, with more OEs in lesser posts, there will be profound concerns about the extent to which the Tories are committed to merit and democracy.

You can try and spin this any way you like, but in the end it's putting lipstick on the pig.

Watt Tyler

It just shows how the values in this country have become perverted when an advantage is viewed as a weakness. The Tories don't need leadership that keeps surrendering to this perversion because they are embarrased. They need to reassert that it is a good thing that is attainable by any family - if not in one generation.

The people in this country used to admire and aspire to greatness - now they have been taught to loathe it. The change that has happened has been the Marxist Coup and the Liberal Left. We don't need a Conservative leadership that is going to retreat against that. And I can see now that this current Conservative leadership might be compensating for their embarrasment by adopting the wrong socialiist policies (like actually declaring that the redistribution of wealth was desirable). This is no Conservative leadership at all, and they are not the remedy that this country needs.

Victor Southern

I under-reported in my post above. Over a 100 Labour MPs attended grammar schools.

That means that more than a half of all Labour MPs had a privileged education.

So here we see rampant hypocrisy in evidence. They wish to deny a similar quality of education to others or castigate them for having such a privilege.

In the same way they, who never had to pay university tuition fees themselves, legislated for top-up fees [having stated in a manifesto that they wouldn't].

What is evident is that Labour is not a party for the betterment of the working class; it is a party designed to keep the serfs in their place as clients of the party.

The besetting problem is that Labour MPs and Ministers can issue the most astonishing and provocative statements, based on a tissue of lies and fiddled statistics. The Tory front bench is largely inert. It is peopled by Labradors and we need Dobermanns and Jack Russells to attack and to warn of approaching false statistics.

Dennis Sewell

7 members of Gordon Brown's cabinet went to fee-paying schools for at least part of their education:

Harriet Harman
Ed Balls
Shaun Woodward
Hilary Benn
Peter Hain
Tessa Jowell
Andrew Adonis
(Adonis may not really count as his fees were paid by his local authority while he was in care).

Liz Brown

How many old Etonians have died on the battlefields to save Great Britain?????? How many in Iraq and Afghanistan? How many offspring of Liebour are even in the Armed Forces?

Chuck Unsworth

@ Strapworld

So, you'd obviously prefer to attack the man rather than the ball, eh? Now where have we seen that before?

JohnAnt

There's an important point about educational norms and outcomes here. Brown was able to attend a grammar school, get into University and graduate without spending a penny of his family's money.
By the time Cameron came along, such an educational path would have been impossible. Grammar schools had been abolished; universities were fee-paying.
I'm not suggesting that Cameron would necessarily have had the grammar school path if he'd been born thirty years earlier - he doesn't seem quite bright enough to have passed the eleven-plus, and stockbrokers send their kids to public school for social reasons - but we should see how career outcomes are being striated and restricted to the well-off by the ghastly mistakes of the 1970s, unreformed by the Tories in the 1980s.

Michael Booth

The only class war worth fighting is the one against the political class who take us all for a ride and treat us with contempt. Watched Question Time last night (I know, it really is a waste of time) and found myself seething yet again at the smugness of Margaret 'Our Lady of the Caravan' Beckett. She's happy to talk about those vile bankers and how we need to tax the rich, but how she can without blushing - knowing what we know about her expenses - is beyond me. Then I watched The Politics Show to hear Dianne Abbott admit she sends her own children to Public School but 'that's alright because it's not Eton'. Ye Gods....

Sean Haffey

>Ben Elford

I agree - I'd prefer to be ruled by well-educated people. And let's make it a reasonable cross section of the well-educated.

London Calling

Who cares about the playing fields of Eton?
The children who’s school playing fields have been sold off I guess…

Does class matter? Yes and No is the answer. Yes to the City who want to cherry pick from what they consider the finest. Yes for your CV, a public school education carries much weight. No it doesn’t mean your more intelligent, wise or educated. No it doesn’t make us any different other than privilege.

A joke is a joke, but PMQ was not the correct place for the Westminster playing fields banter, when Britain is in dire need of strong leadership and commitment to the real issues that we are currently faced with. Appalling behaviour from Westminster.

Considering this Government imposed University Grants the debt degree for years to come, particularly hitting the working class, whereby Labour MP’s education was FREE, I hardly think they are in a position to gloat about classes, when in fact they betrayed the working class and can afford to send their children to public schools and pay for their university fees… Hypocrisy is the theme not Democracy…

Bill

I agree with Vulture and Strapworld. The whole Cameroon project was hot air from day one. Too clever by half. What they didn't count on when they were concerning themselves with "sharing the proceeds of growth" chocolate oranges and wind turbines was the economy imploding. The tide has gone out and people aren't prepared to countenance bullshit anymore.

Verity

Bill, thanks. I'd forgotten the chocolate orange episode. I belief chocolate oranges preceeded the Huskies and parka. And 'hug a hoodie'. Then, of course, we had the "stolen" bike. Then thoughtful poses in the Garden of Remembrance with his personal photographer. What a cheap phony!

Swiss Bob

Just saw you on Sky News: Fraser Nelson takes on Bob Ward, Sky News Dec 4th.

You are forgiven.

Dirty Euro

I am not a fan of class warfare. But that does not mean parties should not stand up for public services used by the middle and working classes, equality and social justice.
Sometimes the phrase "class warfare" is used by the right any time a left winger call for redistribution to stop inequality. Or any time a left winger calls for increased taxes on the rich to cut the national debt and improve public services we here the phrase "class warfare". The real class warfare are those that want to cut taxes for the rich and let the working and middle class live in poverty.
THAT IS REAL CLASS WARFARE.
I do not care if the tory leader went to Eton. What bothers me would if either party wanted to cut taxes for the rich and destroy the public services I use. If the extreme right had their way there would be no public services, no public schools, no health or education for the working or middle classes and the rich would be richer.
No doubt someone will tell me I have just resorted to class warfare, well I have not. I think upper class accent is a good reminder of the french conquest of the English.

Beer Moth

Wow Tron that's a belter that. And so fresh and original.

I'll have to use that one in the pub tonight. My what japes we'll have.

You could make a packet writing sit-com scripts for the BBC.

Dirty Euro

Eton has done a good job of preserving the accent of the French conquerors of the English. I say well done. William the Conqueror would be pleased with himself.
I do not care that the tory leader went to Eton or any other French accented fancy school.
Class bigotry is wrong either way. Including the upper class snobs and the inverted snobs (that includes you tory trolls who insult me for my superior intelligence).
I support equality, social justice and taxing the rich to improve public services and reduce inequality. My policies are not class warfare, they are class equality, and class justice.
The real class warfare is from those who seek to cut taxes for the rich and destroy the public services of the working and middle class use, and ton increase inequality injustice and poverty. How many dead and injured will those class tyrants leave in their wake.

Craig Strachan

Right, it's the playing fields of Dollar Academy you should be worried about.

Ex-Tory voter

Wasn't Waterloo won on the playing fields of Eton? Where are you when we need you Wellington and Blücher? It's not Dave's Eton (not Eaton - that's the Duke of Westminster's country seat!) background that worries me, it's the fact he's against grammar schools, the biggest proven aid to social mobility in education for bright children from working class backgrounds. Anthony Crosland has a lot to answer for!

Holly ......

Chocolate oranges? Huskies?
What a cheap phony?
As opposed to who?
Better placed to deal with the downturn?
No more boom, we're BUST?
The £850 Billion phony.
With half to be paid within four years
Yeah right.
Let's talk about phony.

General Zod

Dirty Euro, Eton was founded nearly four centuries after the Norman Conquest.

Verity

General Zod - And how many centuries after the Dane Geld deal? I like to keep my facts straight.

Tapestry

I never noticed Boris Johnson ever bothers about where he went to school or Bullingdon. He just powers ahead. Cameron actually apologised and said he felt guilty. It doesn't work. This is not leadership, which should be - Bugger who I am. There's an important job to be done. If you elect me, I'll get it done. Thank you.

Tapestry

Alternatively Cameron is acting wounded wing like a partridge protecting young. He's acting as if the Eton thing matters, hoping Labour will sense weakness and attack on this stupid point. You never know. If so they're falling for it.