The Awful Truth, Indeed

Catherine Bennett has a very good and timely article. But she falls short of the necessary conclusion, namely calling for the restoration of the grammar schools. And she repeats an old chestnut, namely that Margaret Thatcher went to a state school. She did not, nor did she ever quite make that claim in so many words. But she did allow other people to draw that conclusion from her carefully chosen words.

Thatcher did not come from a humble background, unless you are comparing it to that of David Cameron or George Osborne. By that measure, even the Royal Family are nothing but nouveaux riches immigrants. Thatcher’s father was a prominent local businessman and politician who ran most of the committees and charities for miles around. He sent her to what was then a fee-paying school, and he put her through Oxford without a scholarship. She was born into the upper middle class, she married within it, and she devoted her political life to its supremacy both over the lower orders and over toffs.