FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
LONDON – This time we can say they really did make a mistake at Eton. At the most famous and prestigious English school this week, students are in papa: But distance learning is not caused by any virus, but by the fact that the sewers have exploded. So clogged toilets and children at home.
It has to be said that the heavy rains of the last few weeks are to blame: in England it was the wettest Christmas ever and the bad weather put the sewage system to a tough test.
Eton's sewerage system is managed by Thames Water, the water supplier that has long been prone to disasters, often causing serious inconvenience to the population. In the case of college, however, the powerful metaphor is obvious.
This is a school that costs over 50,000 euros per year, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. and is attended by the children of the British and increasingly international elites: in history it has produced 20 Prime Ministers of Great Britain, the last of which were David Cameron and Boris Johnson (and let us bear in mind that there have only been around fifty Prime Ministers in London in three centuries , so it is a hegemony that is second to none).
Eton does not simply prepare brilliantly (indeed, that is not its strong point: several other schools, especially girls' schools, are academically superior to it), it instills a way of being in the world, a superhuman self. Self-confidence (accompanied by an excellent network of relationships that never hurts). In short, the breeding ground of tomorrow's ruling class.
But now it suffers a sensational retribution worthy of Triangle of Sadness's most abhorrent scenes (in the truest sense of the word) (for those who have seen it): the privileged children end up in their own sewage.
There's a lot to mock (at the risk of seeming jealous): even the conservative Telegraph published an editorial entitled “Eton Mess,” which is also the name of a dessert that originated in college. : The Duke of Wellington said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, but now Eton has been defeated by the Water (Loo).