The young Charlie Whelan

I find that I posted an interesting snippet on my long-neglected anthology blog Serendib a few years ago:

Charlie Whelan
Born in Peckham in 1955, Whelan would above all be obedient and loyal to Brown's cause. "Able but very lazy," was his headmaster's conclusion after the young Whelan failed one examination. In the hope of solving the problem, his parents sent him to a fee-paying boarding school in Surrey. He secured an unimpressive degree in politics at the City of London Polytechnic.

When he started his first job as a foreign exchange dealer in the City, he spoke in a home counties accent. One year later, employed as a researcher by the AEUW, he spoke like a Cockney.

Tom Bower Gordon Brown (2004)

My understanding is that Whelan's school, Ottershaw School, was in fact a council-run boarding school and not a private, fee-paying one, but it is interesting that we can add him to the long list of present-day comedians and Labour politicians who are just too mockney to be true.