Tag Archives: Balliol

The Rory Stewart I knew: why it was inevitable he’d be knocked out of the Tory leadership contest

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Alex Grant

I’ve been following the Conservative leadership race with uncommon interest: I knew Rory Stewart quite well about 25 years ago. We were students a year apart at Balliol College, Oxford, in the early 1990s, and though we moved in different … Continue reading →

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A word of advice to the National Trust’s new Director-General: urbanise

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Alex Grant

It’s been an eventful six years for the National Trust’s Director-General Helen Ghosh, who’s announced she’ll be stepping down in April 2018. She’s been constantly bombarded with criticism from right-wing newspapers ever since her appointment  in 2012.  When she suggested … Continue reading →

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The demise of Boris Johnson – the Quintin Hogg of our times – shows that the age of Balliol superiority is now over

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Alex Grant

The spectacular collapse of Boris Johnson’s Prime Ministerial hopes earlier today have a striking historical parallel. Boris is not – and never has been – the Donald Trump or Winston Churchill of contemporary British politics, or even the Falstaff or … Continue reading →

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Oxbridge applicants shouldn’t despair if they did not “get in” this week. For me, Balliol was an academic cul-de-sac

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Alex Grant

Over the next few days thousands of young people will  be watching their doormats, and email inboxes, with dread. From January 7th onwards Cambridge University – and from January 9th onwards Oxford – will be letting applicants know if they … Continue reading →

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