New Times,
New Thinking.

  1. Politics
18 May 2007

No brownie points for grammar

Adam finds that the Tory turn around on grammar schools has not gone unnoticed in the blogosphere th

By Adam Haigh

With all the ‘hoorah’ of Gordon Brown imminently taking over as Prime Minister, it was smart thinking for the Tories to introduce a significant change in education policy this week. But bloggers far and wide were not all convinced by the recent shift in attitude towards grammar schools.

Last Ditch got down to the nitty gritty of the arguments. Concluding, he wrote: “To compete in the world, we need to maximise the potential of every pupil. Even the Socialists know it in their hearts. Even as they ranted against us, they would be secretly, guiltily glad that we had saved their grandchildren from Crosland’s evil legacy.”

And then the flood gates opened across the blogosphere as partisan bloggers from the main parties got in on the action.

At Labour of Love, Chris Paul, said: “Ha ha ha. The Tories are in trouble on this one. Our great grammar schools and (now) independent schools were in many cases set up expressly to educate the ragged underclasses. Their world has turned upside down.”

Never one to miss out on a good debate, Iain Dale was sharp and to the point on this one. He said: “This is an argument we didn’t need to have. Instead of attacking the concept of grammar schools we should be encouraging diversity in education – and grammar schools are a part of that diversity.”

At Liberal England, there were some musings from a Lib Dem representative who seems to have got stuck when everything got a little difficult. Two years ago, he tells us that he said: “There is a need for new thinking in education: a need to go beyond the unthinking defence of the comprehensive principle. And the Liberal Democrats should be leading it.” So are the Lib Dems now leading the debate on the future of our education system?

It might just be the case that the Conservatives have the upper hand looking towards the next General Election. But unveiling such policy directives as this will do little to spur the momentum that David Cameron has instilled in the party.

Give a gift subscription to the New Statesman this Christmas, or treat yourself from just £49

And Ellee Seymour has devoted one daily post on her blog to missing children in the light of the huge media attention surrounding the kidnapping of Madeline McCann in Portugal. She said: “I am doing my little bit to remind everyone about the missing people in our world who have simply vanished without trace, perhaps in the clutches of evil people, their fate unknown. This is the cruelest agony for families to endure.”

But I leave you with news this week that the social networking site Facebook now has 71,726 people who have joined together, saying Jeremy Clarkson should be the next Prime Minister. Perhaps Gordon does have some competition after all.

Content from our partners
How Lancaster University is helping to kickstart economic growth
The Circular Economy: Green growth, jobs and resilience
Water security: is it a government priority?