Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable first came to QE in 2016, a few months after losing his Twickenham parliamentary seat and more than a year before he won it back in the 2017 General Election.
Appropriately, then, during a lecture on his second visit, he urged on the boys the need for stamina and resilience.
His lecture came at the invitation of the School’s Politics Society. He duly gave afficionados of British Politics plenty to ponder on, giving his assessment of the likely result of the forthcoming General Election, while addressing the “more interesting questions” about what happens afterwards.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Sir Vince is a substantial figure in the British political scene, with a lifetime of experience to draw upon. We are grateful to him for visiting and sharing with the boys his valuable insights and advice.
“He stayed to answer further questions after the end of the formal session and was candid in his views with students. He was also generous with his time, and kindly donated a copy of his book, How to be a Politician, to The Queen’s Library.”
Earlier in the year, the Politics Society welcomed Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Chipping Barnet, Dan Tomlinson, and it has previously hosted Theresa Villiers MP, who has held Chipping Barnet for the Conservatives since 2005.
Sir Vince announced his intention to retire from front-line politicis in 2019 and stood down at that year’s General Election. In July 2022, he was announced as Vice President of the European Movement.
His afternoon visit to QE was led by the society’s Rishabh Bhatt, of Year 12. Before taking questions from an audience drawn from all year groups in the Main School Hall, he gave some brief advice to any aspiring politicians. They should understand the importance of:
- Being a good communicator – across all channels, including broadcasting and social media, yet without neglecting the skills required for speaking to people in person on the ground;
- Building a team – recognising that even though the focus can often be on individuals, politics is ultimately a team game, so one needs to build a team and work cooperatively with others to get things done;
- Developing persistence and resilience, cognisant of the fact that any politician is likely to face many setbacks.
With regard to the final point, he recalled that it took five attempts at running for Parliament before he first became an MP: he eventually won his Twickenham seat in 1997. His two-year hiatus from Parliament began as a result of the near-wipeout of the Lib Dems in 2015, yet after he won his seat back, he went on to become his party’s leader, serving for two years before retiring from front-line politics.
He also gave the example of Yvette Cooper, likely to be the next Home Secretary if Labour win the forthcoming General Election. Although she has always retained her own seat, she has seen her party lose four elections since she was last in the Cabinet from 2008–2010 under Gordon Brown’s premiership.
He noted that the UK’s first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system is very significant and makes life difficult for smaller parties to break through, with only two parties ever really being in contention. The Lib Dems were aiming to get back to being the third party in the Commons, with the opportunities that presents, such as being able to ask regular questions at PMQs. But, he said, this will depend on what happens in Scotland with the SNP.
Assessing how the General Election may go overall, he said that a Labour government seems the most likely at present, but that it was entirely possible that it would not have the big majority that some, taking their cue from opinion polls, are assuming.
He focused on two questions relating to the election’s aftermath. Firstly, what would become of the Conservative Party if it did suffer the predicted heavy defeat. Would the Conservatives move to the populist right, closer to, or perhaps merging with, Reform UK? Would they attempt to position themselves as moderates in the centre-right – more like PM David Cameron’s coalition in which he served as Business Secretary? Or could the Conservative Party even cease to exist as an election-winning force – declining like the Liberal Party in the 1920s?
Secondly, he wondered, what would Labour actually do in power? They would face a difficult economic situation and the same long-term challenges as the current government, he pointed out, and it was unclear as yet as to how they would respond.
Sir Vince answered questions focussing on his career. These included: his move from Labour to what became the Liberal Democrats alongside the Gang of Four (a group of leading politicians who broke away from Labour in 1981); the 2010–2015 Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition (“a good, stable government… good for the country, but bad for the [Liberal Democrat] party”); the role of tactical voting in the next General Election (“always important”); the prospects in that election for the Lib Dems – they were targeting a return to 30-35 seats, he said; and the sale of Royal Mail when he was Business Secretary (it was necessary and not a bad deal at the time, he said, given that people now communicate electronically, not by letter, so the business model had to change in any case).
Dr Paul, author of the acclaimed 2022 book, The House of Dudley, delivered a lecture assembly to Years 8 & 9, before conducting a source-based workshop to A-level historians.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are tremendously grateful to Dr Paul for giving us her time and providing these insights into the family as we wrap up our anniversary year. It seems clear that without the Dudleys, not only would Queen Elizabeth’s School not exist, but neither would the Tudors – or not as we know them, in any case.”
John Dudley’s success in building up the Royal Navy, as Admiral of the Fleet. He prepared it for the successes it was to enjoy in the second half of the 16th century. He added to the fleet and to the armoury, while developing Portsmouth as a great port. His military experience and leadership were important at the 1545 Battle of the Solent against the French, which, Dr Paul said, was a greater threat to England than the later Spanish Armada. John Dudley was nearly on the Mary Rose, which famously sank, but had moved across to the larger Great Harry with the king, Henry VIII.
The boys asked many questions. One wondered why so many grammar schools like QE were established under Elizabeth. Because, Dr Paul said, men such as Robert Dudley and William Cecil, her chief adviser, had received a humanist education and sought to spread that widely. Another asked why Henry VIII had had Edmund killed, given that he had brought so much money into royal coffers. She concluded that Henry probably had no personal animus against him, but that Edmund’s unpopularity made his death a good political move.
The Conservative politician, who worked directly with four Prime Ministers, spoke to a packed house drawn from all year groups in the Friends’ Recital Hall. The optional lecture, part of QE’s Flourish extra-curricular programme, was organised by Year 13 pupil Anish Kumar and the QE Politics Society.
Lord Heseltine, who is 90, began his career as a property developer, before becoming one of the founders of the Haymarket publishing house. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001, when he was created a life peer.
In his lecture, he covered topics ranging from industrial strategy (a particular interest and area of expertise of his) and the revitalisation of the city of Liverpool (with which he has a special, and perhaps unique, relationship as a Conservative politician), to devolution. Famously a supporter of the European Union and opponent of Eurosceptics, he expressed his desire to see the UK return to the EU fold in the future.
Over the past 24 years, he has studied at Cambridge, Imperial and Harvard, qualified as a doctor, been recognised as a World Health Organisation digital health expert and won numerous awards.
He impressed upon the Year 9s the value of always holding on to hope, even in the toughest of times, explaining how his dream of becoming a doctor fuelled him during his studies, which culminated in him eventually getting a scholarship at Harvard Medical School. He now works as a Accident and Emergency doctor in North West England.
The festival featured academic tutorials and a lecture from Old Elizabethans, board games, a quiz, a meeting of QE’s Gresham Society for Economics and a special edition of the department’s periodical, 
Head of Economics Shamendra Uduwawala said: “Our events had huge turnouts and the festival may be regarded as a great success. I am grateful to everyone who contributed. The boys enjoyed the board games, the quiz and our visiting speakers, while our senior students have once again raised the bar with the festival edition of The Econobethan, which includes some really spectacular work.”
Another highlight was a talk by economist and academic Sandeep Mazumder (OE 1993–2000), who is Dean of Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, Texas.
He wrote: “As my predecessor, Dr John Marincowitz (Headmaster 1999-2011), explained at this year’s Senior Awards Ceremony, when discussing his new published history of the School, the fortunes of the School have repeatedly been shaped by the political, economic and social context of the time. He emphasised that much of the interest in the development of Queen Elizabeth’s, and its multiple reinventions over the centuries, can be found in considering not just the ‘what’, but in the ‘how’ and the ‘why’.
The School re-introduced Latin as a full curriculum subject in 2012, and all boys opting to study more than one language at GCSE are invited to take classes in Ancient Greek. The announcement follows QE’s inaugural Shakespeare and Latin Festival, which got under way towards the end of the Autumn Term.
The announcement of QE’s new role is one of a series of recent announcements from external organisations which have further underlined QE’s academic credentials. Earlier this month, the influential Sunday Times Parent Power survey confirmed that this year’s QE A-level results were the best of any state school in the country. Before that, Schools Minister Nick Gibb wrote to Mr Enright to congratulate the School on its “leadership in continuing to promote the teaching of languages”. All 191 boys in last year’s Year 11 were entered for at least one modern foreign language GCSE – a 100% rate which puts QE “amongst the top schools in England for the proportion of pupils studying a language at GCSE”, Mr Gibb wrote.
In her lecture delivered at the School, Dr Emily Pillinger, Senior Lecturer in Latin Language and Literature at King’s, looked at Decadence in New York and Ancient Rome. Her well-attended talk was open to senior Latinists and English Literature GCSE and A-level students. “Dr Pillinger drew out the links between Baz Luhrmann’s film of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s novel and the ancient Latin text, The Feast of Trimalchio,” said Mr Bonham-Carter.