Why are politicians so ignorant about history?

The news over the weekend that Russell Group universities are letting in students from overseas on lower grades than home students has provoked understandable fury. Having been the proud vice-chancellor for five years of the university Margaret Thatcher helped found, Buckingham, I wince at the story. The fact that undercover journalists for the Sunday Times winkled out the widespread practice made it sound even murkier than it is. The response of the Russell Group that the lower offers applied to ‘foundation’, not undergraduate degrees, and that numbers of domestic students are rising more quickly than overseas students, has been lost in the noise. Universities need to get their act together and be on the front foot, focusing more on the experience they are giving students. They will never become the powerhouses on the public stage that they should be otherwise. They will continue to be eaten alive by journalists and politicians until they change.

Monday’s concert at Epsom College was, the previous year, the last school event my predecessor Emma Pattison attended. She and her young daughter, Lettie, were killed days later. She went around after the concert chatting individually to the musicians. Emma was a magical and brilliant head, inspiring, funny, passionate about languages, learning, the arts and the development of good character. Her life epitomised the very qualities overlooked in the philistine vision for education of our political masters. Her legacy of kindness, integrity and ambition will always live on at this remarkable school and far, far beyond.

Joy and positivity are exactly what coach Brendon McCullum has brought to English cricket. We couldn’t stop watching the stunning test victory his ‘Bazball’ philosophy inspired against India last weekend, while staying with friends at St Columba’s College in Dublin.