Tuesday
To London for a meeting of Public School Alumni for Comprehensive Education. It is not an organisation for which I greatly care, but many of my fellow Liberal Democrats are staunch members.
The speaker explains that if bright children from working-class backgrounds are able to compete with the products of Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference establishments then the British Way of Doing Things will indeed be under threat. The tone of the dinner is celebratory, as several of the group’s members occupy senior positions in the new Cabinet.
And who should I find myself sitting between but Freddie and Fiona? It seems they are now working for an educational think-tank. ("If you want to know what needs to be done in our schools you should ask someone who has studied PPE at Oxford not an experienced headteacher, obviously." "Obviously.") I ask them if they attended a comprehensive. “Our parents were great believers in state education," explains one, "but we were so musical…."
Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West 1906-10.
Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary:
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