Andrew Mitchell needs to resign.

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Honestly he does......calliing a serving police officer "a pleb".
What an utter twat of the highest order....spoilt rich scumbag.

Or geologists.

All a bit of a storm in a teacup. Surely there are more important issues in the world to get worked up about...

I find it possible to care about more that one thing at a time, though. Especially when chatting on a parenting website. I don't imagine I'm heading up a United Nations World Problem Prioritisation Summit.

Well I try not to.

Oh, I would say most people have the ability to multi-task. Maybe, I should be clearer; I would say that currently there are probably thousands of issues more important than this.

Plump middle aged man on fairly lowish income who thinks he is great shouts at the police and swears... there are a lot of them about. They litter all classes.

What I look for is people who are polite to others - that is what class is about.

But then he didn't go to Eton did he? Just Rugby.

LOL at the attempt to differentiate between Eton & "just Rugby"!!!! Does that make a difference?

It might do. Eton is academically superior and perhaps teaches better manners and when AM was there I doubt Rugby was that good. It has got a bit better recently although he is not a great example of the manners one hopes one pays school fees in part to engender.

Or you could argue that parents should have perhaps taught better manners? Surely, we are not expecting schools to have to do everything - even such esteemed insitutions as Eton & Rugby (despite any reservations about their actual ability to educate, even though the fees are extortionate)?

Andrew Mitchell's father was an MP himself, I can't believe he wouldn't have set a stirling example for his son to behave exactly how he himself would have done!

If Eton's so academically superior, how come Cameron didn't know what Magna Carta means? And thought Elgar wrote Rule Brittania (only a couple of centuries out...)

It is very hard to get into Eton and most of the boys are very clever. Rugby is a bit easier and was probably even easier in Mitchell's day.

Xenia, I'm just not getting the connection with cleverness & rudeness? I must be too thick - please explain?

Having spent most of my career amongst ex public school boys I can tell you that many have appalling manners (not talking about how to hold a knife and fork, but how to treat other people) - and old Etonians are the worst.

frilly, that's interesting. The OEs I have known mostly have beautiful manners but some are terribly arrogant. There are some who are aware that they are ridiculously privileged and try to contribute something to society, and some who take that privilege as their right and have contempt for anyone who doesn't have the same advantages.

My sister's old Etonian boss used to send her out for tomato sandwiches on Mother's Pride. He also gave her his PINs. Nice man. Emotionally and socially stunted. Bullied by his underling who'd been to Harrow. Both in positions of enormous privilege in the City. They'll be retired now but did more than okay.

Bears of average brain despite what anyone says.

It is academically much harder to get into Eton than Rugby. The best schools in the private sector and state teach children manners. Mr Mitchell should not be rude to policemen.