It’s all coming up roses

Quizmaster Henry Eliot has some thorny questions to mark Richard III’s defeat

Each answer gives you a letter. Put them together to spell out a famous line.

On August 22 1485, the Battle of Bosworth Field brought an end to the Wars of the Roses. Can you name the authors of these rosy novels?

__ __ __ __ __ __

Le Roman de la Rose

The Rose and the Ring A Rose for Emily

The Name of the Rose Snow White and Rose Red Rosemary’s Baby

ANSWERS

Ira Levin

Umberto Eco

William Faulkner

Guillaume de Lorris and

Jean de Meun

N The Brothers Grimm

Y William Makepeace Thackeray

G I K M

Richard III died at the Battle of Bosworth. Can you identify these actors, all of whom have played the villainous king?

ANSWERS

D Laurence Olivier

F Kevin Spacey

M Sir Ian McKellen

O Ralph Fiennes

O Antony Sher

R Benedict Cumberbatch

Can you match up these broken quotations, all of which are from Shakespeare’s plays set during the Wars of the Roses?

Now is the winter of our discontent __

Why, I can smile __

Out of my sight! __

I am determined to prove a villain __

The first thing we do __

Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? __

ANSWERS

A Made glorious summer by

this sun of York.

E And, live we how we can,

yet die we must.

R And hate the idle pleasures

of these days.

O Thou dost infect mine eyes. H And murder whiles I smile. S Let’s kill all the lawyers.

Henry Eliot is the author of The Penguin Classics Book

The thesis of David Goodhart’s latest book is that since the Second World War universities have expanded dramatically and graduates with cognitive ability have acquired a disproportional esteem, more political influence and much higher financial rewards than those who work with their hands or with their hearts as carers. The balance has got out of kilter, with significant social and political consequences.

Goodhart’s previous book,

The Road to Somewhere, argued that graduates were the elite who could live Anywhere and the rest lived Somewhere, in rooted communities. Somewheres had been forgotten, neglected, overlooked and under-rewarded: that’s why they voted for Brexit; why Trump was elected in America; Salvini in Italy; Orbán in Hungary; and Bolsonaro in Brazil. The Road to Somewhere has become a classic and I think that

Head Hand Heart will become a classic, too.

Goodhart’s analysis is right, for when I joined the House of Commons in 1968 graduates were in a minority. The Labour Party had many manual workers from the pits, railways, and steelworks. The Tory Party was full of middle-aged men who had built up local businesses as retailers, garage owners, timber merchants, farmers, and even funeral directors. Today nine out of 10 MPs are graduates. Several, like David Cameron and George Osborne, studied politics, worked in politics, and went straight into the Cabinet. It is more an oligarchy than a democracy.

The target of all secondary school head teachers is to get as many of their students as they can into universities. This was all very well when there was a mass of professional, managerial middle-class jobs, but Artificial Intelligence has cut a swathe through those and already we have the phenomenon of underemployed and unemployed graduates. Our biggest problem will be the coming tsunami of youth unemployment, for when expectations are dashed the mood changes to annoyance, resentment, and disengagement with the democratic process.

Goodhart calls his book a diagnosis, but he also suggests a cure: a fundamental change to the English school curriculum. Since

2010 schools have had to teach eight academic subjects known as EBacc and Progress 8 – it is word-for-word the curriculum of 1902. This has led to technical, traditional craft and artisan skills, and cultural subjects not being taught to those under 16. Goodhart argues that “in our robotic future a broad education that includes plenty of music, sport, dance, drama, and art is more necessary than ever”.

The tide is beginning to turn his way. Some universities provide Degree Apprenticeships. Some primary schools are teaching coding – Wombridge Primary School in Telford, Shropshire, has had a total of 138 children leave the school with a GCSE in IT. All schools, including primaries, should have 3D printers, as they stimulate creativity and the imagination, quite apart from transforming our manufacturing businesses.

University Technical Colleges

(which I have been promoting since 2010) are Head, Hand and Heart institutions. Students spend two days a week making and designing things with their hands: 30 per cent become apprentices (five times the national average); 43 per cent go on to university and 75 per cent of those choose STEM courses (science, technology, engineering and maths), which is twice the national average. The Government should give a cash discount to encourage students to study STEM.

The Covid-19 pandemic reinforces Goodhart. My wife and I are in our 80s and during lockdown we needed the help of key workers – a plumber, an electrician, a computer repairer, a roofer to seal a leak, a carer to buy food, and delivery people for our post and newspapers

– not a degree among them: they used their hands and hearts to fix things. Covid-19 also cancelled exams and led to the grading algorithm fiasco

that helped the brightest and the best at the expense of the disadvantaged. This was not only political madness; it was morally unacceptable, and it crashed.

Goodhart wants to arrest the drift to the South East by enhancing a greater sense of belonging to one’s local area.

One way to help this would be to support digital and artisan craft skills. The market is beginning to go the Goodhart way. The rising popularity in the media for gardening, repairing things and baking has turned cheffing into a fashionable profession, and in Sussex I have come across youngsters who have now taken up gardening for £20 an hour. In London gardeners can earn

£35 an hour – that’s well over £50,000 a year.

Employers are willing to pay £20,000 or more for an 18-yearold higher apprentice who has just one A-level in maths or science and a BTEC Extended Diploma, and the Royal Navy will pay £32,500, which is more than the average graduate wage after three years of degree study.

Goodhart wants to train the “Intelligent Hand”, a phrase coined in 1820. It is exactly what Matthew Boulton, the great entrepreneur of the Industrial Revolution asked, when he was recruiting a man for his factory. “Shall we find him among the unlettered Birmingham handicraft men, or shall we find him amongst the speculative theorists whose knowledge has been drawn from Books, no neither will do: he is one that is both.” So, when today we talk of a skills shortage we are talking of a shortage of Intelligent Hands.

MPs should read this book and take a greater interest in what is not being taught in their schools.

Lord Baker of Dorking was Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1986 to 1989. Call 0844 871 1514 to order Head Hand Heart for £20