The Peterhouse connection

Some of Westmonster went to Peterhouse in Cambridge, and a more right-wing, masonic, weird place it is hard to imagine. So we were surprised to discover, in the latest of the Telegraph's list of Gordon Brown's biggest influences, that Number 10's two lead press men, Michael Ellam and Damian McBride, both went to Peterhouse.

Statistically, this is astonishing - Peterhouse only has 210 undergraduates. Politically, it's just as astonishing - under Maurice Cowling, Peterhouse was a hotbed of neoconservative thought, and spawned a bunch of right-wingers, not least Michael Portillo.

Unsurprisingly, the Telegraph has always had a mild obsession with Peterhouse (former editor Charles Moore's fragrant wife Caroline was a fellow there), so they may just be overexcited.