Few topics ruffle more middle-class feathers than private education. Why do public school-educated boys continue to exert an influence in public life out of all proportion to their numbers? Only around 7 per cent of children go to independent schools, but you would not know it from the frequency with which they pop up in board rooms, the judiciary, the Cabinet, even at the Oscars. How do they do it? Should they be able to do it in skirts? (More on which later.) And who can now afford the eye-watering fees?
That particular hoary old debate recently acquired a fresh edge, thanks to research carried out at King’s College, London, which will have alarmed parents who have just written out a fat cheque...