Sir John Major is right about education and privilege in modern Britain

Sir John Major is, of course, correct. It is depressing, though perhaps not surprising, that the British upper-middle-classes – that is, those educated privately – still dominate what he termed the “upper echelons” of “every sphere of British influence”. Depressing because no serious person can sensibly believe that talent is restricted to the minority of people educated in Britain’s excellent private schools. But unsurprising because elites – I use the word dispassionately – have a natural tendency to do whatever it takes to maintain their elite status. Ed West is right about this.

Still, Major’s remarks were hardly, as has been claimed in some right-of-centre quarters, “an attack” on private education. They were, rather, an off-hand observation that might not, ordinarily, be thought controversial.

But this is Britain and it still takes very little to start a fight about class, privilege and education. No wonder Dan Hodges, Iain Martin, Ruth Porter, Harry Mount, James Delingpole and Martin Stephen have rushed into battle.