Form 7 Politics essay competition winners

Congratulations to Form 7 pupils Henry and Eleanor who were crowned winner and runner up respectively in the Internal Politics Essay Competition 2024.

The essay competition was sponsored and judged by Barrow, Hepburn and Gale the official supplier of the famous Red Box.

Participants selected one of the two following scenarios:

‘You are the monarch’s Private Secretary dealing with a popular newly elected (with a landslide) majority government, whose radical agenda includes, abolishing the House of Lords and all hereditary and life peerages. These actions will require royal assent, Enactment may ultimately undermine the sovereign’s symbolic and constitutional position. What advice will you give the monarch? How will you deal with the elected government on behalf of the monarch?’

 

Or

‘You are accompanying the monarch on a state visit arranged by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to a former colony of the British Empire. The visit is beset with controversy because the country was commercially exploited by a company formed by royal charter. Recent research by historians of the country has unearthed documents showing the direct benefit to the monarch’s ancestors from the activities of the company. These benefits include slave labour, mining, deforestation and possibly genocide of the original inhabitants of the country. As Private Secretary, you must draft a speech for the monarch that addresses these issues.’

 

Henry’s entry received these dazzling comments from Barrow, Hepburn and Gale:

“This was a classy effort, fluently written and comprehensive. It contained the essential element of apology which was rightly unqualified and phrased in emotionally personal terms. A shrewd piece of distancing “it was discovered”. The “just a few of my proposals” is double-edged; on the one hand it leaves the way open for a continuing dialogue, but it may promise more than can eventually be delivered. I hope that (bullet 1)HM’s PS has cleared this with the museums! Legislation will almost certainly be necessary in order to de-accession the items involved.

Overall, this is professional, contentful, pacy and well thought out.”

 

Barrow, Hepburn and Gale gave similarly complimentary feedback on Eleanor’s entry:

“This has the emotional content required. It is personal, direct and contains the necessary apology in explicit terms. But I think it goes too far: HM’s great-grandfather (King George V) is brought into play. Apart from it being extremely unlikely that he did benefit personally, this will encourage the media, keen to make comparisons between the Windsors and King Leopold of Belgium (who was a real exploitative monster).

At the beginning of the third paragraph, I think the speech misses a trick. The downside of colonialism is correctly criticised, but its replacement by the values of the Commonwealth (close to HM’s heart) could have been advocated as the counter-weight and the source of reconciliation.

This is well written, and sensitive to the issues involved. It does the job effectively (although there may be some push-back from HM when he reads it!)”

Congratulations to both.

 

Find out more about Politics at Oakham School.