Eton College exam question asking students to justify the Army killing protesters resurfaces
An Eton College entrance examination question asking students to justify the Army killing protesters has resurfaced.
The paper, from the 2011 King’s Scholarship Examination, imagines riots on the streets of London in 2040 after an oil crisis in the Middle East causes Britain to run out of petrol.
In the scenario, the government deploys the army to stop the riots and succeeds - killing 25 protesters in the process of subduing the discontent.
The prospective students of Eton are then asked to imagine they are the prime minister and write a speech to explain how they would convince the public that they did the right thing.
The full question goes:
The year is 2040. There have been riots in the streets of London after Britain has run out of petrol because of an oil crisis in the Middle East. Protesters have attacked public buildings. Several policemen have died. Consequently, the Government has deployed the Army to curb the protests. After two days the protests have been stopped but twenty-five protesters have been killed by the Army.
You are the Prime Minister. Write the script for a speech to be broadcast to the nation in which you explain why employing the Army against violent protesters was the only option available to you and one which was both necessary and moral.
If you’re thinking “There’s no way that’s real…”, you can check for yourself on Eton College’s website.
You can find the paper here as “General Paper 1” in the 2011 section.
It’s also worth noting that the King’s Scholarship is for students between the age of 13 and 14, according to the college’s website.
So Eton appears to have asked young boys how to justify police brutality against the general public…
As you’d expected, people were amazed to find such a perfect example of what's wrong with one of Britain's most elite private schools.
An entrance exam for an elite school asking children to explain how they would get away with killing members of the public is beyond parody.
It makes you wonder what Boris Johnson and David Cameron were taught when they were at the college.