This country is cursed. In particular, it is cursed by the University of Oxford.
These are the last six prime ministers and their degrees:
| Name | Oxford Degree |
|---|---|
| David Cameron | Politics, Philosophy and Economics |
| Theresa May | Geography |
| Boris Johnson | Greats (Greek and Latin) |
| Liz Truss | Politics, Philosophy and Economics |
| Rishi Sunak | Politics, Philosophy and Economics |
| Keir Starmer | Postgraduate Law |
And now note this regarding the person Starmer apparently wants to appoint as the new Cabinet Secretary:
| Name | Oxford Degree |
|---|---|
| Antonia Romeo | Politics, Philosophy and Economics |
The curse continues.
What could possibly go wrong?
Downing Street is briefing that Antonia Romeo is a 'disrupter' and that, they say, is what is needed now in the civil service.
Excuse me? Since when did someone who went to an elite public school and Oxford to pursue a stereotypical degree for someone who wants power in a conventional environment, which they have succeeded in securing over decades, become a disrupter?
With respect to all involved, the only thing I see in this pattern is consistency, and the result has been consistent failure.
Forgive me if I have remarkably low hopes of Antonia Romeo. I see no reason to have anything else.
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Going back even further, we can see how entrenched the influence of Oxford has become. Since 1945, only four prime ministers – Churchill, Callaghan, Major and Brown – didn’t study there.
It would be interesting to carry out a similar exercise in Western European nations
Within Oxford there is also a distinct bias towards Christ Church amongst PM’s who graduated from Oxford, admittedly mostly historic.
Interesting perhaps given their record that The University doesnt seem to have any insight into how their graduates performed and their role in it.
Isn’t it Antonia, not Antonio?
Corrected
Still several Antonio’s!
Done! I think that was all autocorrect
I think PPE should be reclassified as a theological degree. It certainly seems allergic to evidence.
I’m for paying PPE grads 6 figures to stay idle so that they can’t do any more harm.
It’s a tongue in cheek suggestion – but I’m only half-joking!
It seems that our Prime Ministers have degrees which do not equip them to actually do their jobs properly. Instead with degrees which are very traditional and rooted in orthodox thinking. They are all to varying degrees (apologies for the pun!), part of an establishment and therefore unlikely to upset the status quo particularly the reigning neo-liberal, free market situation. So what is the answer?
Also the former cabinet secretary Chris Wormauld, who studied history at Oxford. (He attended the same school as John Major, Rutlish, albeit many years later.).
And another factor in the lack of diversity at senior levels is schooling. Less than 10% of children attend private school. Yet half of the prime ministers since Major attended private school.
But I’d suggest you are being slightly unfair to Keir Starmer. He studied law at Leeds. The one year postgraduate BCL at Oxford is very different to a three year PPE degree.
He still went to Oxford
I’ve been to Oxford, although not studied there, and I expect you have too. It is not a mark of Cain which indoctrinates everyone to the same world view. Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle and Tony Benn all studied PPE at Oxford.
As David below says, we need fewer career politicians and policy wonks, and more scientists, and also doctors. and engineers, and other people with real world experience.
Some analysis here of Starmer’s first cabinet linked below. Lots of graduate of PPE, politics, history, law. Only Angela Rayner has no university degree. Around 30% was a 20 year low point for Oxford graduates.
https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2024/07/10/the-higher-education-backgrounds-of-keir-starmers-new-cabinet/
https://www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion/all-news-opinion/sutton-trust-analysis-of-labour-cabinet/
We’ll have to disagree.
This coincidence between Oxford, arrogance and ineptitude is not chance. Statistically it cannot be.
PPE does tend to suggest a particular world vote that would maintain the status quo.
In that sense a Law degree is an improvement, but there’s a singular lack of sciences – some of the efforts to embrace technology and change may be stymied by MPs general lack of STEM knowledge.
It’s one of the plus points for Badenoch, not that you’d know it from her actions as an MP.
Generally, though, we seem to pick people who have studied how to win an argument over people who have studied how to make sure what they know and say is correct.
In fairness to Thatcher and May, both studied sciences (chemistry for Thatcher, geography for May).
Might the book “Chums: How a TinyCaste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK” by Simon Kuper be of interest/relevance?
https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2022/09/02/chums-book-review/
I have read it
Wilson was an Oxford Don but too thick to see how the Mayfair Set went about eating Britain’s own industry and leaving the state with the consequences. Of course when the asset sell offs went on the p & l accounts of these companies, it looked like industry was being invested in and all was rosy. But they flatlined after that as they were wound up. And we still live with the consequences today. The biggest robbery of productive economic power in this country’s history.
People like Tony Benn quickly cottoned onto what was happening and look what happened to him.
The blasted Labour party – it was always going to end this way and it goes back a long time.
Based on Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift model, applied to politics, the UK feels as it is in a crisis phase where the gap between official narratives and lived reality is becoming impossible to ignore.
If the model holds, disruption won’t come from within the current political circle. Appointments like Antonia Romeo signal continuity, not rupture. Any real shift will build outside the existing frame, like this blog and others, before breaking through and embedding a new model.
Before that, expect some ship-skipping, and plenty claiming they “always saw it coming.”
I hope.
I think you are right.
Oxford University (specifically – don’t forget there’s a major car factory here too) is pretty diverse, though the diversity is not yet as balanced as they would like. To pick out those so deservingly tarred with the brush you wield, focussing on the PPE degree and Oxford Union membership (not even mentioned) would improve the focus.
Yes, there is a pathway – public school (mainly Eton) -> Oxbridge (mainly Oxford) -> politics. But many of us went to Oxford and had no part in any of that (I studied Engineering Science there in 1965, and later I worked in the university, involved with cancer research); I’m used to letting blanket criticism of the university pass over me.
Paul
Noted
In my schooldays a PPE was despised as an ‘also-ran’ degree, a consolation-prize for well-heeled or well-connected youth who weren’t bright enough to read for a ‘real’ degree. (This may have been a little unfair.)
Oxford, in particular, seems to have systematically brainwashed succeeding generations into the neoliberalism straitjacket – and this is in obeisance, surely, to its need to maintain its life-blood of legacies from its neoliberal alumni, money which is, of course, derived from the the multiplier effect of neoliberalism on the wealth of those who have it already. It’s a perpetual-motion machine, and it needs a spanner thrust into its works.