John le Carré, who taught at Eton for a time, once said the trouble with that school was that it taught people to win, but not to rule.
Now, as my Greek master used to say, one should beware of generalisations. Nevertheless, in the case of two recent Old Etonian prime ministers, I think le Carré’s observation was spot on. I refer, of course, to David Cameron’s monumental misjudgment in calling the 2016 referendum that landed us with the mounting cost of Brexit. And to Boris Johnson’s role in that fiasco, not least in wrecking Theresa May’s attempt to save something from the ruins by staying in the customs union, if not the full works of the single market.
