#worsthorne

It [liberalism] is also pretty rampant on the domestic front, at least in Britain, where the two restraining isms of socialism and high Toryism have been ground into the dust by the Thatcherite revolution. Politicians of all parties, including the Conservatives, are liberal now.

Then there is that other liberal fetish, meritocracy. Of course it made sense in John Stuart Mill's day to replace hereditary aristocracy, of which there was too much, with a system of careers open to talent, of which there was too little. But surely anybody looking at the subject with an open mind should be able to see that today, 200 years later, there is something quite other to worry about; and the new problem, which is getting worse all the time, is the deeply unattractive and unimpressive nature of an exclusively self-made meritocratic ruling class: a ruling class made up of men and women exceptionally gifted only in the horrible rat-race arts of elbowing their way to the top. Aristocracy may have its faults but ratocracy, which is what in practice a meritocratic system produces, is proving even worse.

The job of journalism is not to be scholarly. The most that can be achieved by an individual newspaper or journalist is the articulation of an intelligent, well-thought-out, coherent set of prejudices – ie, a moral position.

I’ve always thought the English aristocracy so marvellous compared to other ruling classes. It seemed to me that we had got a ruling class of such extraordinary historical excellence, which is rooted in England almost since the Norman Conquest.

Just read the 18th-century speeches  - the great period  - they’re all Whig or Tory, but all come from that [the aristocracy]. If they didn’t come directly from the aristocracy, they turned themselves very quickly into people who talk in its language. Poetic. If you read Burke, who’s the best in my view, it’s difficult not to be tempted to think what he says has a lot of truth in it.

It survived when others – the French and Russians and so on – were having revolutions. It was absolutely crazy to set about destroying that. There was something magical . . . the parliamentary speeches made by Burke and so on – this is a miracle! No other country has it apart from America in the early days. And I thought to get rid of it, to undermine it, was a mistake.

The principal purpose of politics is the evolution and maintenance of a securely established ruling class with a justified sense of its own honourable superiority.

- Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, ex-editor of the Sunday Telegraph

RIP. 22 Dec 1923- 4 Oct 2020

He was one of the most distinguished and outspoken editors of recent times – he worked at the Daily Telegraph between 1953 and 1961 and for 28 years at the Sunday Telegraph between 1961 and 1989, spending five years as deputy editor and three as editor. He was knighted in 1991.

He was widely considered among the most unpredictable and provocative columnists of his generation, as well as the most stylish. He was lauded as a fearless contrarian and an entirely original thinker. He saw himself as a romantic reactionary.

Born in Chelsea, London, on December 22, 1923, was the younger son of General Alexander Lexy Koch de Gooreynd, a Belgian banker who had served his country in World War One.

His mother was Priscilla Reyntiens, a London councillor and board member and supporter of mental health institutions, who was the granddaughter of the 12th Earl of Abingdon.

His parents separated when he was six and he scarcely saw his father again. His mother later married Montagu Norman, the then governor of the Bank of England. Norman couldn’t relate to children and so they put in a separate house with servants and butler on hand. 

He was educated at Stowe and not Eton, much to his chagrin. He claimed he he was seduced into a sexual tryst by George Melly, the jazz musician (a charge he denied) and he despised the common boys who were bright but had no social manners (talking about ‘mum and dad’).

He then went on to Peterhouse, Cambridge where he studied under great conservative and Christian historian, Herbert Butterfield. At Peterhouse he became part of small but influential High Tory intellectuals alongside Maurice Cowling and Herbert Butterfield.

The war interrupted his studies. Wortsthone was commissioned into the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, when he wanted to go into the Guards regiment. Another disappointment. But at least he had the benefit of also being educated at Oxford when recovering from an injury, under CS Lewis at Magdalen College.

He served well during the war. He took part in Operation Phantom during the Allied campaign in Italy and he served with and made firm friends with the future conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott and Hollywood actor David Niven.

Unlike his close conservative friends Maurice Cowling and Michael Oakeshott, he didn’t go into academia but journalism.

During his time at the Telegraph, Mr Worsthorne, a life-long Conservative supporter, showed support for a return to colonisation, mourned the decline of the British Empire and was criticised for his views on homosexuality. He spoke favourably of Senator Joe McCarthy, Rhodesia’s Ian Smith, President Nixon, and Chile’s General Pinochet. 

He wrote an editorial piece in 1982 criticising politician Roy Jenkins for his tolerance of 'queers' and clashed with Sir Ian McKellen during a BBC Radio Three debate - prompting the actor to announce that he was gay.

He also clashed with Andrew Neil, then the editor of the Sunday Times, after he wrote a column comparing modern editors to playboys - which centred on Mr Neil's relationship with former Miss India, Pamella Bordes.

It was essential not to take Worsthorne too seriously, because he delighted in mischief-making and wilful provocation – one of his targets for remorseless ridicule was Andrew Neil, when Neil edited the abrasively Thatcherite Sunday Times. He ended up suing Worsthorne, who was famous for his silk shirts and Garrick Club lunches, for libel; he was awarded damages of £1, the then cover price of the Sunday Times.

“I wrote that in the old days editors of distinguished Sunday papers could be found dining at All Souls, and something must have changed when they’re caught with their trousers down in a nightclub,” Worsthorne told me when we met recently. “I had no idea he was going to sue. I was teasing. I occasionally run into him and we smile at each other, so it’s all forgotten and forgiven.”

He was deliciously contrarian. Worsthorne admired Thatcher and believed that the “Conservatives required a dictator woman” to shake things up, though he was not a Thatcherite and denounced what he called her “bourgeois triumphalism”. He expresses regret at how the miners were treated during the bitter strike of 1984-85. “I quarrelled with her about the miners’ strike, and the people she got around her to conduct it were a pretty ropey lot.”

In contrasrt to the modern Conservative Party he was pro-EU and increasingly felt the magic of old England was being lost that was leading Scotland to leave the Union, “What’s happening is part of the hopelessness of English politics. It’s horrible. I can’t think why the Scots would want to be on their own but it might happen. The youth will vote [for independence]. This is part of my central theme: the Scots no longer think it’s worthwhile belonging to England. The magic of England has gone – and it’s the perversity of the Tory party to want to get us out of the European Union when of course we’re much more than ever unlikely to be able to look after ourselves as an independent state because of the quality of our political system.

He was scathing of the modern bourgeois Brexiteers, “The people who want to get us out are obviously of an undesirable kind. That the future should depend on [Nigel] Farage is part of the sickness. I mean the real horror is for him to have any influence at all. And when you think of the great days of the Labour Party, the giants who strode the stage – famous, lasting historical figures, some of them: Healey, Attlee, who was probably the greatest, [Ernest] Bevin. I’m well aware that Labour in the good days produced people who were superior.”

Even after retiring from journalism he remained a staunch defender of the aristocracy in public life, “I’ve always thought the English aristocracy so marvellous compared to other ruling classes. It seemed to me that we had got a ruling class of such extraordinary historical excellence, which is rooted in England almost since the Norman Conquest....Just read the 18th-century speeches – the great period – they’re all Whig or Tory, but all come from that [the aristocracy]. If they didn’t come directly from the aristocracy, they turned themselves very quickly into people who talk in its language. Poetic. If you read Burke, who’s the best in my view, it’s difficult not to be tempted to think what he says has a lot of truth in it . . .”

Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure.