Chris Patten

Chris Patten was the last governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and is chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Saturday

Chris Patten

How should Britain respond to the takeover of Hong Kong?

From our UK edition

The veteran British diplomat the late Sir Percy Cradock said that Chinese leaders may be ‘thuggish dictators’ but ‘they were men of their word and could be trusted to do what they promised’. Well, the past year has put an end to the latter half of that statement. From coronavirus to the brutal treatment of Hong Kong, the behaviour of the Chinese Communist party has made it clear that the approach of liberal democracies to China must change. Last week, when the West’s media was distracted by the chaos in the US Capitol, police in Hong Kong arrested 55 pro-democracy activists on the charge of subversion. It is the latest example of the consequences of the national security law imposed by Beijing on the city in June.

Chris Patten

Cleverly out of step

From our UK edition

In his second, revised edition of a history of Balliol College, John Jones — vice-master, chemist and archivist — shows the same sure touch that distinguished his earlier work as he carries the college’s story beyond the second world war. He writes with easy authority and the book rattles along to its final genuflection to the college’s benefactors, beginning of course with the Balliols of Barnard Castle and above all Dervorguil- la, the lioness of Galloway. The foreword to this edition by the university’s recent vice-chancellor and Balliol’s quondam Master, Colin Lucas, draws attention to Balliol’s ‘recurrent capacity for being out of tune with the prevailing orthodoxy of the times’.

Saturday

Chris Patten

L’homme qui dit non

From our UK edition

The study of history is a subversive calling. All countries make up a story that suits their idea of themselves. Authoritarians stamp out independent historical scholarship; extreme nationalists simply vilify those who try to tell the tale of what really happened. Charles de Gaulle stands at the heart of what France likes to think about itself; Winston Churchill plays a similar role on this side of the Channel. Even a Francophile like me concedes that there is a deal more fiction about the French story than the British. The distinguished historian Robert Gildea has helped to tear the covers of what he has called the ‘redeeming, unifying heroic story’ of France’s wartime years.

Saturday

Chris Patten

Westminster politics has nothing on Oxford’s battles

From our UK edition

In the last month, another respected international survey placed Oxford and Cambridge joint second to Harvard in the league table of world-class universities. This confirms what others have suggested in recent years. Moreover, other British universities — most notably London’s Imperial College and University College — came out high on the list. There are, alas, too few areas of our national life — the armed forces, the City of London, our diplomatic service — where we do as well in global comparisons. And it matters. There is quite a lot of clichéd nonsense talked about the knowledge economy. But there’s some truth in it as well. There really is a relationship between the quality of education and research and future economic wellbeing.

Saturday

Chris Patten

I am a Tory to my toes

From our UK edition

It is modestly flattering to find one's views the subject of occasional comment by contributors to The Spectator. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is the latest to have a run at it ('A question of loyalty', 31 May). Perhaps I could assist future exegesis by setting out what my views actually are. First, I agree with Arthur Balfour that most human beings are capable of embracing a number of loyalties and identities at the same time. It is possible, for the sake of argument, to be a Canadian-born citizen with a British passport and a seat in the House of Lords. Churchill went further, arguing in 1930 that as international structures became more complex such overlapping loyalties would become not just possible but necessary.