Dat Deus Incrementum

But of what, exactly?

For various reasons, people who went to Westminster could call themselves Old Elizabethans, Old Henricians, Old Alexandrians or Old Petrines. Yet for some reason they call themselves Old Westminsters, which does not sound right at all.

Oh, well, how to distinguish them from Old Etonians at Oxford is now the stuff of mainstream political comment since an Old Westminster managed to become an Old Etonian's Deputy Prime Minister by coming third out of three and experiencing a net loss of seats.

Those penning this stuff are rarely, if ever, from that background. Oxbridge, yes. But major public school? They wish. Though not half as much as they wished when they were at Oxford or Cambridge.

I have never knowingly met an Old Westminster, but I have never met an Old Etonian whom I did not like, and in fact I shared a student house with one who is still my friend on Facebook. They are not at all like the wannabes. Admittedly, I have never met a member of the Bullingdon Club.

Welcome back to Tory Britain, to every Tory Government ever, to any Tory Government by definition. It is like they have never been away. And welcome back to exactly the level of scrutiny that such a Government always receives from the wannabes in the media, by no means only the right-wing media.