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A Lower School lecture about the role and experience of women led to lively debate amongst the boys.

Alice Fookes, an Awareness-Raiser for UN Women (the United Nations organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women), gave a wide-ranging talk on issues ranging from the limited access women and girls have to health care and education in certain parts of the world to the leadership & political participation of women. Amongst other topics she brought forward were: negative cultural practices; how to end violence against women and girls; economic empowerment, and HIV & AIDS.

She asked the boys at QE to talk to the women in their lives – whether mothers, sisters or cousins – about their experiences and to try to understand how they felt about issues.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Alice brought an important and thought-provoking contribution, which engaged the boys. We aspire for our boys to be among the leaders in their generation; to do so effectively they will need to be able to understand issues from a broad range of perspectives and to analyse how others are affected by them.”

Ms Fookes talked about the work of the United Nations and its flagship programmes for women, including promoting safer cities, providing decent work and social protection, and the development of female humanitarian programmes in refugee camps. She outlined the UN’s desire to end discrimination and violence against women and girls, to eliminate harmful practices, such as child marriage, and to encourage women’s participation and leadership in decision-making.

In the Q&A session, there was a discussion of what feminism means and whether there are different versions of it. She averred that men could be feminists, stating that her husband and son would describe themselves in that way, and that feminism does not have to be about being anti-male, suggesting it is more about genuine equality.

“This was also another opportunity for boys to practise asking effective questions,” said Mr Enright. “It enabled them to explore issues more deeply and to challenge an aspect of an argument.”

A pre-eminent political journalist took boys at the Year 12 formal luncheon on a journey through pivotal moments of recent British history.

George Parker, Political Editor of the Financial Times, was the guest speaker at the annual meal, which is arranged to give sixth-formers experience of the sort of formal social occasions that will become more frequent at university and in their careers beyond.

Mr Parker, who has previously been named in the top five of the Press Gazette’s Top 50 Political Journalists, looked back at the end of the Thatcher era and touched on significant political events right through to Brexit.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “He spoke entertainingly and in engaging fashion, relating anecdotes which kept the boys enthralled, and then answering their questions.”

Mr Parker told one light-hearted story about how a front-page story he had run with the FT on a new haircut of Tony Blair’s had sparked a minor media frenzy and a rebuke from No 10! He discussed weightier matters too, in particular talking about the Brexit negotiations, from the project’s very feasibility through to the possible economic benefits of a trade deal with the US.

He gave thoughtful answers to all the boys’ questions, which included whether the referendum had led to increasing xenophobia; whether the country is headed for a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ Brexit, and whether he thought Brexit would happen at all. The FT is a very pro-Europe newspaper, the most widely read in Brussels, and Mr Parker predicted that the advantages of Brexit would be meagre. Other questions related to specific issues such as the desirability of the Government pursuing a balanced budget.

“It was a real pleasure to welcome him to the School,” said Mr Enright. “The boys clearly appreciated hearing his insights and had some very pertinent questions. This was another opportunity for them to benefit from a guest speaker’s expertise.”

The luncheon followed a format of a three-course meal, with Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s volunteers assisting the School’s catering team. This was followed by toasts and speeches. School Captain Aashish Khimasia presided over the occasion as master of ceremonies, leading the toasts to The Queen and the ‘loyal toast’ to Queen Elizabeth I; as is customary, this was taken in silence. One of the Senior Vice-Captains, Aditya Ravindrakumar, introduced Mr Parker, with Vice-Captain Parth Gosalia delivering the vote of thanks at the conclusion of the event.

“Mr Parker declared that he had enjoyed himself and said he was heading off to go and think about tomorrow’s front page!” said Mr Enright.

An international expert gave boys fascinating insights into the worlds of security, foreign policy and defence in the latest talk in QE’s lecture programme.

 

In his wide-ranging address to Senior School assembly, Shashank Joshi, who works for a leading security thinktank, looked at topics including the scope of security, the importance of research and the psychological impact of a country acquiring nuclear weapons.

 

A Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, Mr Joshi focuses primarily on international security in South Asia and the Middle East, with a particular interest in Indian foreign and defence policy. He holds a starred first in Politics and Economics from Cambridge and a Master’s degree from Harvard, where he has also taught, and in 2007–2008 he was a Kennedy Scholar in the US. He has given evidence to the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs and Defence committees several times. His most recent book, Indian Power Projection: Arms, Influence and Ambition, published last year, was praised by the Financial Times as “admirably lucid”.

 

After being introduced by Nikhil Shah, of Year 12, Mr Joshi told the boys that security covers a broad range of issues and regions. It concerns not just weapons, but is about everything from climate change (insofar as it affects security) to investigating how a large bet against the value of Borussia Dortmund’s shares helped the authorities track the perpetrator of the recent attack on the football team’s bus.

 

In its work, the institute seeks to be policy-relevant, not just for the UK, but also for other countries and for organisations such as NATO, the EU and the UN. “The aim is to influence policy in some way.”< /p>

“Communication is absolutely key to what we do,” he said – he and his colleagues need to be able to get politicians and other decision-makers to understand the institute’s work and see its relevance.

 

Research is also important, and it was essential to gather views from diverse perspectives: “You can’t do this from your desk; you have to travel and speak to people,” he said, although he conceded that ‘open source’ research could also be valuable. “A lot of what we do is about making educated guesses… having gathered information from a range of perspectives.”

 

He looked at the case of North Korea and its ‘nuclear weapons’, explaining to the boys about the deep analysis of photographs, which involves carefully examining images to uncover clues about the North Koreans’ programme. For example, the size of a bomb in a photo with the North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un would be carefully studied to determine what it means in terms of how the weapon could be launched and the scale of damage it could cause. Examination of signs in the background of images helped to work out where photographs had been taken, while researchers were also on the look-out for subtle signals that could be revealing: in one photo taken by satellite over North Korea’s nuclear-testing facility, workers could be seen playing volleyball – possibly saying: ‘We are not currently preparing a launch, so don’t attack us’.

 

Mr Joshi then posed some questions around the psychological impact of countries having nuclear weapons, and inter-continental ballistic missiles, in particular. The acquisition of such weapons is considered a ‘game-changer’: it changes thinking in the US and UK, for example, if suddenly we think we can be hit. But, he asked, would we act to protect a third-party nation if we could be hit in retribution?

 

Mr Joshi also answered several questions from the boys in a Q&A session following his talk:

 

Q. What happens if you get it wrong?

 

A. There are significant consequences if signals are misread and incorrect interpretations given to governments, Mr Joshi said. He used Iraq as an example, where there was an assumption that the Iraqis were simply continuing to hide their nuclear programme before the invasion in 2003. The consequences of that action are still being felt today in the region and in our foreign affairs.

 

Q. Are we at risk of another global conflict?

 

A. It was difficult to say, according to Mr Joshi. Some are drawing parallels to the period before World War I, but there is a different context. There is uncertainty: “Things in global politics are very fluid right now… things are up in the air.” He gave one example: will the USA under Trump take on China, or strike an agreement with it?

 

Q. What about India?

 

A. India has big decisions to make in its approach to China, particularly in the context of the USA, said Mr Joshi .

 

School Librarian Ciara Murray, who co-ordinates the lecture programme, said: “Mr Joshi was an engaging speaker who put across the complexities of security and international relations issues in a way that was easy to follow and understand. There would have been many more questions if there had been more time!”