Ex-grammar school boy's Julia Hartley-Brewer jibe

Owen Jones triggered the MSM over the weekend when he took to social media to complain that too many journalists went to private school and were not representative of society at large. While Mr S directs the Guardian columnist to this article on representation at Jones’s paper of choice, a number of hacks have risen to the bait.

However, Steerpike is more interested in some of the curious responses. Julia Hartley-Brewer – the commentator – took to social media to say she had attended a comprehensive and got into Oxford university on merit. Surely a great achievement and one which the meritocracy-loving Left could get behind?

I didn’t go to Oxford because I was privileged. I went to Oxford because I was clever.

— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) April 20, 2018

Apparently not. Robert Webb – the former Labour supporter, Twitter centrist and Peep Show actor – did not see the merit in Hartley-Brewer’s achievement and seemingly sub-tweeted Hartley-Brewer to suggest that she was a… ‘thick Oxford twat’:

I didn’t go to Cambridge because I was clever. I went because I was a white male from a stable family who encouraged me to work hard at an excellent state school. That’s all privilege. All of it. You thick Oxford twat. pic.twitter.com/NxQ9iIsmFH

— Robert Webb (@arobertwebb) April 22, 2018

Webb’s state school was a grammar school. That tweet – which has now been deleted – has 6.8K likes. So much for the tolerant Left.

Update: Webb has finally apologised