Alumni to be proud of numbers 37 to 42 are the successive ministers for agriculture, fisheries and food who have served the causes of open government and rigorous support for public over vested interest so well over the past decade.
First in line was Michael Jopling (1983-87) who attended Newcastle University in its days as King's College. John MacGregor (1987-89) also attended King's College - this one being the London version - after obtaining his first degree from St Andrews. John Gummer (1989-93), pioneer of "try it on the kids first" food-testing, was at Selwyn College, Cambridge.
Finally come three Oxford graduates. Gillian Shephard (1993-94, St Hilda's); that famously safe pair of hands William Waldegrave (1994-95 Corpus Christi and All Souls) and the current incumbent Douglas Hogg. He, in spite of being a direct descendant of the founder of Westminster University, made the imaginative choice of following schooldays at Eton with a degree at Christ Church.