Which was lovely, refreshing and revitalising.
I'm in danger of repeating myself here, as this is a point I've pressed elsewhere. However I'm listening to The News Quiz while tidying my room and have just heard Sue Perkins describe David Cameron as a 'sweaty-faced Old Etonian'. I can't comment on his sweaty face (only to say that I don't imagine he's the only person to ever have sweated). I've never understood why 'Old Etonian' is such a negative point though. Here's a list of some Old Etonians, from the Eton College website:
Hugh Laurie (actor, comedian, star of House)
Eton and Selwyn College, Cambridge
Damian Lewis (actor, star of Band of Brothers)
Eton and Guildhall School of Speech and Drama
Dominic West (actor, star of The Wire)
Eton and Trinity College, Dublin
George Orwell (writer, 1984 and others)
Eton and the Imperial Indian Police service
John M. Keynes (economist)
Eton and King's College, Cambridge
Humphrey Lyttelton (musician, radio presenter)
Eton
Hugh Dalton (Labour Chancellor, 1945-47)
Eton, King's College, Cantab and LSE.
Now you can of course make the argument that Cameron has maintained his upper-class prejudices while those men I've just highlighted shed theirs where they existed. Certainly Humphrey Lyttelton proclaimed himself a 'romantic socialist' after the experience of working in a mine in Wales after he left school. While I was an admirer of Humph's though (and believe me a devoted Clue fan), I'm not sure what makes his political views better grounded than the P.M's. Humph spent his life as a cartoonist, musician and radio presenter, while Cameron has spent his as a political operative and PR consultant before becoming a full-time politician.
Disagree with David Cameron all you want, you are perfectly entitled to and should always be able to. To dismiss him as simply an 'Old Etonian' though is, in my humble opinion, simply lazy.
I'd like to add too that the same goes for all conservative commentators who are pointing out that David and Ed Miliband's father (Ralph) was a Marxist. Your parent's opinions certainly influence your own, but political philosophies are not uniformly inherited. My father is an accountant, and I love him dearly. However I think that on the question of whether income tax returns are a suitable topic for conversation his views are delusional at best. Strangely enough, like the Miliband brothers, I am capable of thinking for myself.
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