Eton
Michael Beloff QC drops names – but they’re not the ones we’re curious about
‘The law,’ according to W.S. Gilbert’s Lord Chancellor, ‘is the true embodiment of everything that’s excellent’ and, by common consent,…
Prince Charles and a living history lesson
When I was a lobby journalist, I never went to the State Opening of Parliament. I much regret it, because…
Richard Needham takes a businesslike attitude to the Troubles
This memoir from Sir Richard Needham, 6th Earl of Kilmorey, businessman and former Northern Ireland minister, has a frank opening:…
The boys who never grow up: Sad Little Men, by Richard Beard, reviewed
I can’t recall reading an angrier book than this. Richard Beard has written what I hope for his sake is…
Will Knowland, Eton and the problem with the teaching misconduct panel
When Eton master Will Knowland was sacked last year over anti-feminist views contained in a YouTube video which he refused…
How do we stop the next David Cameron?
One of the enduring charms of British politics is how slight the pecuniary rewards are for taking up the job…
Why I was sacked from Eton
On being sacked from the College
Quentin Letts: The unstoppable rise of June Sarpong
Eton’s free-speech rumpus must surely become a David Hare play, Goodbye Mr Had-Yer-Chips, starring Jeremy Irons as the headmaster and…
Letters: Eton is failing to protect freedom of speech
Eton mess Sir: As much as I am a great admirer of Charles Moore, as a former Eton master and…
The battle for Eton’s soul
When trying to get my head around the row that has engulfed Eton College in the past two weeks I…
In defence of Eton’s headmaster
My inbox is crowded with messages from Old Etonians attacking Simon Henderson, the headmaster of Eton. They are furious that…
Helena Morrissey: my manifesto for the next govenor of the Bank of England
The start of term at Oxford University is bittersweet for the close-knit Morrisseys; we have just ‘lost’ three offspring to…
Gratitude lessons show Eton is losing its way
‘Repeat after me, gentlemen: “Thank you for not letting me into your Oxbridge college because I belong to the wrong…
What would happen if the Gospels were judged in a history contest?
This week, the Wolfson History Prize announced its shortlist. It is always worth drawing attention to, precisely because it is…
Our public schools now resemble five-star hotels — with a Russian and Asian clientele
Deplore it or revere it, you cannot but respect the private school industry’s wart-like survival in modern Britain. Has any…
I wish I had kept my Brummie accent. I’d be taken more seriously
‘No one wants to send their son to Eton any more,’ I learned from last week’s Spectator Schools supplement. It…
In most state schools, cricket is a dead ball game
The England team may be riding high, but state schools have all but abandoned cricket
Charles Moore’s Notes: cheap trickery in the Economist’s assisted dying campaign
Because, it says, of its ‘liberal values and respect for human dignity’, the Economist has put out a film about…
Charles Moore’s Notes: If we want to save the elephant, we must legalise the ivory trade
How good a deal for Britain is it that the president of China got a state visit and a nuclear…
How to get a good education — from the former headmaster of Eton
An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Education is Tony Little’s valedictory meditation on his profession, published on his retirement as headmaster…
William Waldegrave: too nice ever to have been PM
‘Lobbying,’ writes William Waldegrave in this extraordinary memoir, ‘takes many forms.’ But he has surely reported a variant hitherto unrecorded…
A rebellion among Rugby schoolboys proved perfect training for its ringleader in putting down a Jamaican slave-rising in later life
The public schools ought to have gone out of business long ago. The Education Act of 1944, which promised ‘state-aided…
James Blunt’s sense of entitlement is so palpable you could wear it as a hat
Only a fool would mess with James Blunt. As his Twitter followers know, he has a sharp wit, and, as…
Why there’s no such thing as an Etonian
Finally, just in the last few years I’d say, we’ve all begun to accept the role of nature in the…
