Labour's schools tax raid sums don't add up Monday, 16 June, 2025 The following letter was published in The Daily Telegraph on 16 June in slightly edited form. SIR – At the spending review, Rachel Reeves boasted proudly that she had ended “the tax loophole which exempted private schools from VAT”, a grossly misleading description of the tax exemption that those independent schools which are charities had always enjoyed. She and her party believe they can squeeze... Articles
A Scum Club? 30th September 2021 Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, got herself widely noticed (as she intended) by calling Boris Johnson and his colleagues “scum” during her party’s annual... Articles
A church without integrity 18th September 2021 Alistair Lexden prepared the following text for a short debate in the Lords on 16 September on the Church of England’s Safeguarding (Code of Practice) Measure... Speeches
Righting wrongs for more gay people 17th September 2021 On 7 September, Alistair Lexden spoke of the injustices done in the past to homosexual members of the Armed Forces ( see below). Exactly a week later, on 14... Speeches
Independent schools: answering the critics 17th September 2021 Writing as a guest columnist in the September issue of The Independent Schools Magazine, Alistair Lexden set out some of the points that supporters of... Articles
Preserving England's historic counties 16th September 2021 There are 39 counties which have been in existence since Norman times, a thousand years ago. As a result of local government changes in the 20th century, new... Speeches
9/11 attack - Historical reflections in 2001 and 20 years on 13th September 2021 Alistair Lexden (then Alistair Cooke) wrote to The Daily Telegraph about Afghanistan in September 2001. The paper asked him to reflect in a further letter on... Articles
The Great Duke as Prime Minister 10th September 2021 The following letter was published in The New Statesman on 10 September. Philip Collins (The Public Square, 27 August) states that Wellington “became prime... Articles
Reparation for gay servicemen 8th September 2021 Over several centuries, many homosexual members of the Armed Forces – it is impossible to know exactly how many — were convicted and punished under appalling... Speeches
Falsifying history - the BBC and the Nuremberg trials 3rd September 2021 The following letter was published in The Daily Telegraph on 3 September. SIR - Charles Moore (Notebook, August 31) is right to castigate the playwright who has... Articles
