Election '97: Etonian turns back on old school

Old Etonian David Rendel, Liberal Democrat candidate for Newbury, yesterday said his three sons had had a better education at the local comprehensive than he had received at the country's most prestigious public school.

Mr Rendel, the party's local government spokesman in the last parliament, said he had been educated in a "very strange and unusual way". Speaking at Greenham Court primary school, in Newbury, also attended by his children, Mr Rendel said: "The education they received here was rather better than the one I got.

"They have seen more of the world. They grew up with normal people in a way I did not. They are more worldly wise, they know their way in the world better than I did."

Mr Rendel, who was accompanying Paddy Ashdown on a visit to the school, said the facilities at Eton, where the fees are pounds 13,410 a year, were very good. "If we could have those advantages in the state sector, who knows what could be achieved?" Mr Rendel's sons are 18, 16 and 13. Asked by The Independent whether his education had made him a strange and unusual person, he replied: "Any child of any politician will find their father rather strange."

Mr Rendel is defending a 22,000 by-election majority, but his seat could be vulnerable to his Conservative challenger because of the boundary changes.

The headmaster of Eton kept his own counsel about the comments of the school's former pupil.

Later Mr Ashdown spoke in an "open circle" in Bath on education attended by teachers, lecturers, students and parents. Of the 23 guests who attended the meeting to give their views and hear those of Mr Ashdown, not one spoke in favour of selection at schools.

Asked what they would do if they could make one decision as Secretary of State for Education, many supported a reduction in class sizes.

The Liberal Democrat leader told the meeting that although all three parties claimed to emphasise education, the Conservatives had only devoted one press conference to the subject.