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Gove aide damnsClegg for resisting curbs on school IslamistsA FORMER aide to MichaelGove has accused ministersand Whitehall officials oftrying to block efforts to tackleextremism in schools becausethey were “hamstrung bypolitical correctness” andfeared being labelled as Islam-ophobic.Condemning a failure in

governmenttoconfront Islam-ism, Jamie Martin describes

the deputy prime minister,Nick Clegg, as a “consistentsource of opposition”.Writing in The Sunday

Times,Martin,aspecialadviserwho worked alongside theformer education secretary forthree years, also suggestsWhitehall mandarins failed toco-operate with Gove as hesought to tackle the so-calledTrojan Horse scandal. Theaffair revealed how Muslimfundamentalists had sought toimpose an Islamist agenda on

some schools in Birmingham.“NickCleggwasaconsistent

source of opposition,” Martinclaims. “On one remarkableoccasion in June [he] askedwhy we were singling outIslamism above other forms ofextremism.He adds: “We succeeded in

avoiding government’s usualcycle of appeasement and in-action only thanks to an unu-sually talented and committedcivil service team at theDepartment for Education and

an education secretary of raremoral courage.”Martin’s anger about polit-

ical correctness hamperingaction against extremism fol-lows similar concerns raised inthewake of the child sex abusescandal in Rotherham, whereabusers of Pakistani descentescaped the attention of theauthorities.Martin, who left govern-

ment in JulyafterGovebecameTory chief whip, also criticisesMuslims for failing to confront

extremism which, he argues,has left Britain “as a weak linkin the fight against globalterror”.The controversy over the

Trojan Horse affair, whichwasfirst exposed by The SundayTimes in February, led to a riftbetween Gove and the homesecretaryTheresaMayover theinfiltration by Islamists of stateschools. An investigation bythe cabinet secretary SirJeremy Heywood into thefallout ultimately forced the

resignation of May’s specialadviser Fiona Cunningham.Martin also suggests an

“ingrained culture of appeas-ing” resulted in poor decisionsinWhitehall.He suggests PeterClarke, a former anti-terrorchief at Scotland Yard and theman asked by Gove to investi-gate the Trojan Horse affair,should be commissioned toleadabroaderinquiryintopos-sible extremism in schoolsacross the country.“Islamic societies in univer-

sities must be a key focus,” hewrites. “The grotesque spec-tacle of fascist preachersaddressing gender-segregatedaudiences in taxpayer-fundedinstitutionsmust end.”Martin also laments a failure

of “our governing elite” totackle Islamism which, hesays,“rejectseverytenetofourpluralistic society and will notcompromise on its belief in atotalitarian theocracy”.He says the extremist ide-

ology “bears no more relation

to thepeaceful religionof Islamthan Stalinism did to demo-cratic socialism”.A source close to Clegg said

the deputy primeminister hadnotheardofMartin andhadnointerest in his views. “Hesounds like a former advisertrying to show off and make aname forhimselfnowhedoes-n’thavea job,” the source said.Quivering Sir Humphrey

leaves it to parents,JamieMartin, page 30@richardkerbaj

Richard KerbajSECURITY CORRESPONDENT

£100m winterfuel payouts forretirees in sun

MORE than £100mhas beenspent onwinter fuelpayments to pensionersliving in some of Europe’shottest countries, officialfigures reveal.Record numbers of

pensioners living in sunnyspots such as Spain, Cyprus,Malta and Portugal, arereceiving the payout, worthup to £300 a year, despite itspurpose being to help theelderly with heating bills.Last night experts

described the situation as“farcical”.The figures, published by

the Department forWorkand Pensions, show that£101m of taxpayers’ moneyhas been spent on fuelpayments since 2005-2006to pensioners in Gibraltar,France, Greece, Portugal,Spain, Malta and Cyprus.The number of pensioners

not living in the UK but stillreceiving the handout hasjumped to an all-time highof 139,000, according tofigures for 2013-2014. Lastwinter overseas pensionersliving in countries fromNorway to Romania werepaid a record £21.7m.Jonathan Isaby, chief

executive of the Taxpayers’Alliance campaign group,said: “It is farcical that hard-pressed taxpayers are payingfor sun-kissed pensioners’winter fuel allowance. Thepayments should be forthosewho need help to getthrough coldwinters, not asan extra helping hand forretirees spending Christmason a sun lounger.”

From 2015-2016, thegovernment plans to axepayments to pensioners wholive in those seven countries— subject to the approval ofMPs. Countries with anaveragewinter temperaturehigher than the UK’swarmest regionwill bebanned.Ros Altmann, a

government adviser andleading champion of therights of the elderly, said:“Winter fuel payments are apolitical gimmick. It makeslittle sense to try to identifycountries that are hotter orcolder inwinter than others,because the reality is thatmany parts of the countriesthat are included arewarmer than parts of theexcluded ones.”At present the payments

aremade to pensioners bornon or before July 5, 1952,including thosewho do notlive here but have “a genuinelinkwith the UK”.A Department forWork

and Pensions spokesmansaid: “Winter fuel paymentsare intended to encourageolder people in Britain tokeep themselves warm.”

@beckymbarrow

Becky BarrowMONEY EDITOR

It’s a struggle to get byon £370,000 a year

IT IS the new inequality, thegrowinggapbetweenthehavesand the have-lots. Peopleearningbetween£160,000and£370,000 gross a year arestruggling to maintain theirlifestyle and resentful of thoseearning even more, accordingto a new book.The “squeezed upper mid-

dle” have scraped into thecountry’s top 1% of earners,but feel hard done by as theywatch the richest in that elitegroup leave them behind.Danny Dorling, a professor

of geography at Oxford Uni-versity, who has identified thephenomenon in his book Ine-quality and the 1%, to be pub-lishedbyVerso thisweek, said:“It would be very hard to findsomeone in London with ahousehold income of between£200,000 and £350,000 whotold you they felt comfortable,and that is remarkable.”People in the “squeezed

upper middle” group of ear-ners often mistakenly believethey are in the “squeezedmiddle”, even though theaverage annual UK salary lastyear was £24,596, says Dor-ling. He adds, however, thatthey are right to believe theyhave lost out — but only bycomparisonwiththeeliteatthetopof the 1%.Thegapbetweenthe top andbottomof the 1% ismuch greater than the rangeacross the whole of the re-maining 99%.Peter York, co-founder of

theSRUmanagement consult-ancy, and a social commen-tator, said: “People who aredoing very well considerthemselves hard done by, as inLondon and the southeast theyare squeezed out of the placestheywanttolive,squeezedintoprivate services they can’tafford and psychologicallysqueezed by the presencenearby of the luxury life.”Divyang Mistry, 50, was

earning£200,000 as a directorofacorporatecommunicationsfirm but decided to changecareer when he had to borrowmoney fromhis father to buy afamily home in Hertfordshire.He realised that so longashe

was paying the top rate of taxthere would be little moneyleft after school fees for threechildren. So he set up a coupleof online firms — leesman-index.com and accesssolic-itor.com—andsaid:“Whypaytop-rate tax for 10 years whenyou need pay only 10% taxwhen you sell companies?”How, then, can you check if

you are also a member of thesqueezed uppermiddle?If you grumble that you pay

hefty taxes, but the only publicservice you use is a fortnightlybin collection, then you areprobablyamember.According

to Dorling, you are also likelyto resent paying for otherpeople’s education throughyour taxes, while paying pri-vately for your own family.Members of the top half percent would not brood over it.Tick if you have had to ask

grandparents to help pay yourschool or university fees. Tickagain if you worry about theimpact of interest-rate rises onyour mortgage, because theseriously rich buywith cash.Tick a third time if you live

in London or the southeast,because so many people are

much better off than you. AsDorlingputsit:“Theymaybeinthetop1%oftheUKbutthey’renot in the top 1% of London.Outside London, anyone in thetop 1% nationally is acutelyaware that they are among therichest people in their area.”The squeezed upper middle

includes senior managers,lawyers, accountants, BBCexecutives, hospital consult-antsanduniversityvice-chan-cellors, who think they havesociallyuseful jobs.Tobeinthisgroup a childless couple wouldneed to earn £160,000 before

tax,or£200,00iftheyhavetwochildren. Themean for the top1%is£369,000.Above theminthe top half per cent are FTSE250 company board directors,bankers and a few hundredfootballers and entertainers.The backlash against Mark

Simmonds, the Foreign andCommonwealth Office min-ister who resigned last month,sayingheandhiswifecouldnotafforda family lifeona joint in-come and expenses of about£140,000, shows there is littlepublic sympathy for highearners.

Calculations by the Institutefor Fiscal Studies show thesqueezed upper middle haveenjoyed earnings growth inthe past 25 years well aboveinflation of 118%. Yet the priceof status purchases has risenfaster: a four-bedroom prop-erty in prime central Londonhas gone up by 523%; privateday-school fees in London by461% (nationally 429%), andboarding school fees by 439%.York suggests the upper

middles have developed an“unrealistic vision of theworld” because they compare

themselves to the super-rich,andthis“senseofgrievance” isbad for society.“It matters if you don’t

realise that you’ve never had itsogood,and itmattersifpeopleno longerwant to go intomoreworthytypesofwork,”hesaid.

@nicholashellen

Nicholas HellenSOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR Squeezed incomes

1989-2013

118%

Inflationincrease

Mark Simmonds, pictured with his wife, Lizbeth, resigned as a juniorForeign Office minister, complaining he couldn't afford a family life.The couple received around £140,000 in income and allowances

School feesper term

1989 2013-14

Price of four-bedroomproperty in primecentral London

1989

£800,0002014

£5.1m

Source: SavillsIncrease

523%

£760 £4,019

£783 £4,325

£873 £4,899

£1,780 £9,596

UK

Southeast

London

Boarding for UK

Day school

Increase

429%

Increase

452%

Increase

461%

Increase

439%Source: Independent Schools Council

Net householdincome toenter top 1%

1989 £42,000£91,800

£64,400£140,800

£28,000£61,200

Couple,no children

SingleCouple, 2 children,aged 14 and 10

2009-10 £121,400£138,300

£186,200£212,000

£80,900£92,200

2012-13 £124,100 £190,300 £82,700

Source: Institute for Fiscal Studies

In today’s terms

In today’s terms

Warmfront

29,535

2,065

3,305

49,870

1,685

8,170

315

France

Greece

Portugal

Spain

Malta

Cyprus

Gibraltar

*Between 2005-6 and2013-14 ** Pensionerswho claimed the winterfuel payment in 2013-14

Total winter fuelpayments*

Number ofpensioners**

£29.8m

£2.1m

£3m

£55.9m

£1.6m

£8.5m

£307,000

Total£101.3m

Total94,945

Generation Z go-gettersshrug off geeky imageTHE image of Britain’s youngpeople as insular geeksobsessedwith Twitter andFacebook has been challengedby research that found theyprefer reading to social mediaand cooking to computergames.A survey of 1,800members

of Generation Z, a term givento those aged 16-25, foundalmost two-thirds (62%)aspire to run their ownbusiness or create theirown brand but that 38%fear failure above anythingelse.According to the study,

entitled Gen-erators Z, thevast majority (91%)think society has apoor opinion of youngpeople.However, almost

two-thirds (62%) ofthe 1,000 people agedover 25whoweresurveyed for acomparative poll saidthey envied Generation Z,who are better travelledand have a greaterawareness of domesticand foreign events thanthey do.

The research,commissioned by themakerof the sports drink LucozadeEnergy, found reading (54%)was amore popular pastimefor Generation Z thanengaging on social media(51%), and cooking (43%)was preferred to playingcomputer games (39%).After failure, the group’s

biggest fears weredisappointing people and nothavingmoney (both 24%).Leonie Owiredu, 18, afashion blogger andphotographer fromLondon, said: “Failure issomething no onewantsto encounter. It’s

embarrassing, youfeel like you’vewasted yourtime.”Bejay

Mulengas, 19,also fromLondon, whoco-founded SupaAcademy, anorganisationhelping teenageentrepreneurs,said: “In schoolthere is toomuch focus onexam results.

We come from a culturewherewhenever you fail you think,‘That’s it’, but sometimes it’sa great thing. You can learnfrom it.”Whilemembers of

Generation Z have visited anaverage of seven countries and10% say their knowledge ofcurrent affairs is “excellent”,double that of those aged over25, more than two-thirds(69%) feel undermorepressure than their parents atthe same age.Lesley Stonier, marketing

manager at Lucozade Energy,said: “The research shows thenegative perception of youngpeople is wrong.”The survey also questions

the portrayal of Generation Zas shirkers.One in three of those in the

survey put their work-lifebalance at 50-50 and 36%claim theywork 75% of thetime.Ed Hardy, 17, from London,

who co-founded EdgeMobile,a firm that creates apps, said:“Running the business keepsyou focused ... I can’t imaginenot being busy all the time.”Find out more about the study at

generatorsz.tumblr.com

Hazel Shearing

Churchill’s War Office to be hotel

ONE of Whitehall’s mostfamous buildings — the OldWar Office where WinstonChurchilloncehadhisoffices—isbeingrebranded inasale thatcould raise more than £300mfor the government.Developers arebeingoffered

the chance to turn the buildinginto a hotel and residentialcomplex. It is being marketedas an “exquisite building, anunparalleled location”.The Ministry of Defence

property, which covers sevenfloors and has more than twomiles of corridors, has beenrenamed 57 Whitehall. It isthought developers are un-likely to wish to retain the OldWar Office name.Barney Hillsdon, a director

of GVA, the property consult-ancy handling the sale, saidtherehadalreadybeenconsid-erable interest, including fromforeign buyers, since the prop-erty went on the market lastweek. “It is in prime positiononWhitehall and is a chance tobuyapieceofhistory,”hesaid.The sale is part of a govern-

ment drive to cut the size of itsestate. Central and local gov-ernment own property worth£370bn, with annual runningcosts of more than £20bn.Designed byWilliamYoung,

work started on thebuilding in1901. It took five years to com-plete and used 26,000 tons ofPortland stone, 3,000 tons ofYork stone and 25m bricks.During the First World War,

LordKitchener, thewar secre-tary, and David Lloyd George,munitions minister, workedthere. TE Lawrence — Law-rence of Arabia — was em-ployed there to produce alarge-scale map of Sinai inEgypt and a military guide tothe region. Churchill workedthere as secretary of state forwar and air in 1919, as did JohnProfumo from 1960, when hewas war secretary, until 1963when he resigned over hisaffair with Christine Keeler.Itwas originally thought the

sale would raise about £100mfora250-year leasebutexpertsnow believe it could fetch atleast £300m. Any buyer willface checks because thebuilding is in the governmentsecurity zone.In 2012, another historic

government building, Admi-ralty Arch, was sold for £60mto a Spanish developer, whichplans to convert it into a five-star hotel.AnMoD spokesman said the

sale should save about £8m ayear in running costs. Headded: “Wewill seek to securethe best deal for the taxpayer.”

@jonungoedthomas

Jon Ungoed-Thomasand Kate Mansey

Churchill worked at the Old War Office after the First World War

HULTON ARCHIVE

Hardy: runs a business

HEAD GIRLLENA DUNHAMON LOVE, SEXAND SURVIVINGLIFESTYLE

A BUGG’S LIFEWHY ROCK STARJAKE BUGG FINDSIT HARD TO LETGO OF THE PASTMAGAZINE

ST DIGITALAre you a member of thesqueezed upper middle?

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