{"id":89975,"date":"2026-02-13T07:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=89975"},"modified":"2026-02-13T10:34:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T10:34:47","slug":"we-are-cursed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/13\/we-are-cursed\/","title":{"rendered":"We are cursed"},"content":{"rendered":"

This country is cursed. In particular, it is cursed by the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n

These are the last six prime ministers and their degrees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Name<\/th>\nOxford Degree<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
David Cameron<\/td>\nPolitics, Philosophy and Economics<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Theresa May<\/td>\nGeography<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Boris Johnson<\/td>\nGreats (Greek and Latin)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Liz Truss<\/td>\nPolitics, Philosophy and Economics<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rishi Sunak<\/td>\nPolitics, Philosophy and Economics<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Keir Starmer<\/td>\nPostgraduate Law<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

And now note this regarding the person Starmer apparently wants to appoint as the new Cabinet Secretary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Name<\/th>\nOxford Degree<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Antonia Romeo<\/td>\nPolitics, Philosophy and Economics<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The curse continues.<\/p>\n

What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

Downing Street is briefing that Antonia Romeo is a 'disrupter' and that, they say, is what is needed now in the civil service.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

With respect to all involved, the only thing I see in this pattern is consistency, and the result has been consistent failure.<\/p>\n

Forgive me if I have remarkably low hopes of Antonia Romeo. I see no reason to have anything else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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
Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89975"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90016,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89975\/revisions\/90016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}