In 2011, applicants competing for a place at Britain’s elite Eton College were asked to consider the following question on their entrance exam:

The year is 2040. There have been riots in the streets of London after Britain has run out of petrol because of an oil crisis in the Middle East. Protestors have attacked public buildings. Several policemen have died. Consequently, the Government has deployed the Army to curb the protests. After two days the protests have stopped but twenty-five protestors have been killed by the Army. You are the Prime Minister. Write the script for a speech to be broadcast to the nation in which you explain why employing the Army against violent protests was the only option available to you and one which was both necessary and moral.

Absurd on its face given that the applicants were quite literally thirteen-year-old boys, the question’s premise is even more demented once you’ve paused to give it a second thought.