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OLD LABOUR CLASSES
The chalkface agitators, however, were mistaken in attacking the Education Secre- tary. The government's determination to tell all primary school teachers not only what children need to know but also how to teach it marks an unprecedented increase in the power of the state. At a stroke, it reverses the Conservative policy of delegat- ing decisions to individual schools and giv- ing local people control over the education of their children. Instead, officialdom will now dictate the progress of individual lessons in every state primary school in Britain. Leon Trotsky would have approved of the extension of state power, and admired the decision to announce the poli- cy at a conference where undisciplined agi- tators could be guaranteed to oppose it. This proposal is the latest step in Labour's campaign to ensure that taxpayer- funded schools are controlled, first by Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and ultimately by the Department of Education, whose functionaries were always hostile to Conservative attempts to give schools more independence. Since taking power, Labour has withdrawn from parents the right to decide which school their children should attend, scrapped the assisted places scheme, which helped some children to attend private schools, and curbed the autonomy enjoyed by grant-maintained schools.
Mr Blunkett's plan to limit class sizes has also given more power to LEAs, because Popular schools can be prevented from expanding and bureaucrats will be able to redirect children to unpopular institutions. Even the introduction of Education Action Zones, in which private companies will take over groups of failing schools, is a back- door extension of Whitehall's influence. Civil servants will dictate teaching methods within these zones, the private sector will teach as it is told, and parents and govern- ing bodies will be frozen out. Labour is sys- tematically undermining choice. Rhetorical references to traditional techniques and tough talking about failing teachers are inadequate camouflage. This is Old Labour in principle and practice, and New Blairite only in presentation.
The Prime Minister, whose sons attend the Oratory, a fine example of the advan- tages of giving a good school autonomy, must bring his Education Secretary under control. This government will be judged, at the end of its first term, on the extent to which it has met its commitment to educate a world-class workforce. Instead of extend- ing state control, it must reform the teacher training colleges, which continue to churn out graduates indoctrinated in the permis- sive disciplines of so-called progressive education. Parents and teachers should be given more choice and autonomy, at the expense of civil servants and LEAs. A cul- ture of excellence must replace envious anti-elitism. This is a test for the Prime Minister. We know he revels in peace talks in Ulster, handshakes in the White House and diplomatic missions to Israel. Now he must convince us that he is equally enthusi- astic about the detailed domestic policy that really matters.
Proposals are being considered to open the Houses of Parliament to members of the public. The man or woman on the Westminster omnibus will, for a certain remuneration, be allowed to gape at the Commons chamber, the Serjeant at Arms, etc., as if the place were a backstage lot belonging to some Hollywood studio.
This, alas, may not be so far from the truth. What indeed could be a greater sym- bol of the Disneyfication of government under Mr Blair than Parliament as a public theme park? This administration has already indicated its contempt of the Com- mons as an 'efficient' part of Cool Britan- nia's constitution. The Prime Minister is loth to attend debates there, let alone, as the Speaker has complained, announce so much as a single policy. Perhaps tourists visiting the chamber should be provided with an automaton premier in recompense: The carefully spun media 'leak' is now the favoured means of communication with the electorate and the television cathode is now the conduit for modern democracy. But convenient as this may be for the gov- ernment, all political parties will suffer. The Palmerstons and the Disraelis, the Glad- stones and the Churchills rose from the Commons floor, not the studio floor of Newsnight or News at Ten, where today their quirks and mannerisms would doubt- less condemn them to obscurity.
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