Old Etonians don’t care about being liked. That’s why they make good PMs

22 May 2010

Toby Young suffers from Status Anxiety

Old Etonians weren’t entirely free of this desire to escape censure in virtue of their background, but their method of disarming their critics was to charm rather than deceive. Their impeccable manners were both a way of advertising their membership of the elite and a method of compensating for the antagonism it gave rise to. As a general rule, people liked the idea of OEs less than the idea of OWs, but found their company more pleasant.

To a great extent, the differences between the two can be explained by the location of their alma mater. Eton is in a small town in the English countryside, whereas Westminster is slap bang in the middle of London. Eton’s remoteness accounts for the slightly other-worldly quality of its products, almost as if they’ve beamed down from another planet. Westminster, by contrast, prides itself on being at the cosmopolitan heart of things. This distinction can be summed up by adapting a well-known saying about the difference between the Oxford man and the Cambridge man: the Wet thinks Westminster is the centre of the world, whereas the Etonian thinks the world ends three miles outside Eton.

This helps explains why Clegg did better in the leadership debates than Cameron. It wasn’t that he possessed the common touch, more that he was better at faking it than his opponent. How to pass yourself off as a man of the people is the lesson that every child at Westminster has drilled into them from the age of 13, whereas Eton tries to instil its students with the confidence to stand apart from the mob. In this respect, Old Wets are much more suited to the demands of democratic politics than Old Etonians.

In the end, though, it is OEs who make the better prime ministers, which may account for why Eton has produced so many more than Westminster. The problem with Old Wets is that the desire to be liked gets into their souls. The Liberal Democrat party is their natural home since they want to be all things to all men. OEs have no such desire. When the time comes to start making unpopular decisions, David Cameron won’t hesitate. Nick Clegg, I fear, may prove faithful to his alma mater.