The elevation of Tristram Hunt MP, son of a meteorologist ennobled by Tony Blair, to Shadow Education Secretary means we have two clever fellows facing each other across the dispatch box. We know Tristram is clever because he got a first in history from Cambridge and he’s not afraid to to tell us. Former Tory minister George Walden recalls in his book Time to Emigrate? a green-room exchange on Today in which Hunt told him “the trouble with people like you is that you have no idea of the breadth and depth of my knowledge”.
Has Hunt forgotten where he went to school? Neither his Wikipedia entry nor his MP’s website enlighten us. All this says is he got a first and is “desperately proud” to represent the good people of Stoke. Remind us of your alma mater, Tristram. If you don’t, Michael Gove — adopted son of a fishmonger — most certainly will.
