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
Pen Portraits of our monarchs 29th April 2024 A brilliant collection of them has been republished in an updated edition . Alistair Lexden reviewed it in Parliament’s magazine The House on 29 April. Gimson’s... Articles
The rebirth of Sutherland's portrait of Churchill 23rd April 2024 In a letter to The Daily Telegraph published on 23 April, Alistair Lexden drew attention to the existence of a copy of Graham Sutherland’s remarkable portrait... Articles
More boarding school places for children in care 19th April 2024 The number of children in the care of local authorities is rocketing - up from 64,500 in 2010 to nearly 84,000 today. But local authorities, strapped for cash... Speeches
How Queen Victoria hounded her Prime Ministers 17th April 2024 She gave them no peace. A marvellous new book gives the details of her tempestuous relations with them. Alistair Lexden reviewed it in Parliament’s magazine The... Articles
Labour's threat to Special Educational Needs 15th April 2024 Labour’s plan to slap VAT on independent school fees would hurt (indeed destroy) many schools and harm many pupils—in an attempt to raise money for extra public... Recent NewsSpeeches
A Conservative statesman and his portrait painter 5th April 2024 In March, a superb portrait of Arthur Balfour by the famous portrait painter, Philip de Laszlo, in Trinity College, Cambridge was seriously damaged by vandals... Recent NewsSpeeches
The wrong 1910 election 4th April 2024 1910 was a year of two general elections, the first in January and the second in December. At both elections the Liberal Party was led by Herbert Asquith, who... ArticlesRecent News
Women at the Carlton Club 26th March 2024 In mid-March the Garrick Club came under intense fire for excluding women from membership. Questions were asked about other well-known London clubs. Some have... Articles
Lexden on the 1923 General Election 26th March 2024 December last year brought the centenary of a General Election which had a double significance: it put an end to Stanley Baldwin’s short-lived first Government... ArticlesRecent News
