Proving you can be a chinless wonder and an unpleasant bastard at the same time.
One of the points I make in “Murder in Samarkand” is that part of the antagonism towards me in the FCO was class based – I went entirely to state schools.
The FCO were quoted on Radio 4 on 28 July as saying that I was peddling an old-fashioned stereotype, no longer true.
Here is the board of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2004, the year I was sacked as Ambassador. Several of this bunch appear frequently in “Murder in Samarkand”.
Every single member of the board went to private school. (Despite the name, Leeds Grammar is a private school). Which explains a huge amount – including how they can look down their noses at dead children, and think “we must buy Israel more time to complete this.”
Craig
Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs who the members of the Departmental Board are, broken down by (a) gender, (b) race or ethnicity, (c) whether they attended public or independent school and (d) whether they attended Oxford University or Cambridge University; and how long each has been in post. [172117]
Mr. Straw: The Data Protection Act prevents us from providing information about the ethnicity or race of individuals. The members of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Board, and the background information requested, as published in Who’s Who, is as follows:
Sir Michael Jay’Sir Michael has been in his current post for two years. He was educated at Oxford and London Universities, and Winchester College.
Sir Stephen Brown’Sir Stephen has been in his current post for two years. He was educated at Sussex University, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Leeds Grammar School.
John Sawers’ John Sawers has been in his current post for one year. He was educated at Nottingham University, and Beechen Cliff School, Bath.
Kim Darroch’Kim Darroch has been in his current post for one year. He was educated at Durham University, and Abingdon School.
Martin Donnelly’Martin Donnelly has been in his current post for two months. He was educated at Oxford University and Saint Ignatius College.
William Ehrman’William Ehrman has been in his current post for two years. He was educated at Cambridge University, and Eton.
Richard Stagg’Richard Stagg has been in his current post for one year. He was educated at Oxford University, and Winchester College.
David Warren’David Warren has been in his current post for three months. He was educated at Oxford University, and Epsom College.
Simon Fraser’Simon Fraser has been in his current post for two years. He was educated at Cambridge University, and St. Paul’s School.
Simon Gass’Simon Gass has been in his current post for three years. He was educated at Reading University, and Eltham College.
I'm not entirely clear – do you mean that they look down their noses on the dead because of the morally deficient education they received at private school?
Or do they look down their noses at the dead because the dead didn't go to private school themselves?
I mean that the British hereditary ruling classes (and that is indubitably what the above represent) tend to emotional deficiency and arrogance, in my very considerable experience of them.
Craig
Pretty striking as well that there's nary a woman among them. Talk about an old boys' club…
Good point Jean. And all spotlessly white, too.
I believe that about three per cent of the British population attend private school. Would anyone like to venture a defence for the Board of the FCO being drawn entirely from that three per cent?
Craig
Re John Sawers: Beechen Cliff School, Bath, is a state comprehensive school – though it only became a comp in probably his last year there. Sawers probably went to the state grammar school part of the merged school at age 11: City of Bath Boys' School.