What is to be said of the new Minister of
Education? This first, that there is no more popular, or deservedly popular, 'Irian in the House of Commons than George Tomlinson. He is the Lancashire trade unionist, or any other trade unionist, at its best. Everyone would wish him well in any office he might fill. He has ability, personality, and a quiet, good-natured humour that constantly de- lights the House. He has educated himself to good purpose, and as Chairman of the Association of Education Committees some years ago he gained considerable familiarity with the educational system of the country. None the less, his selection for the Ministry of Education is surprising. Manifestly it was not easy to fill the place left vacant by the late Minister's death. The only men (though one woman might have been indluded) available on the Labour side are already doing work from which they cannot well be spared. Wnether the Master of Ballicil, Lord Lindsay, was offered the post I don't know ; with an efficient Parliamentary Secretary, Mr. David Hardman, in the Commons, an Education Minister in the Lords cotild have been accepted for once. To put the Ministry of Educa- tion, concerned as it is with the whole range of secondary schools, grammar, modern and technical, as well as the primary schools, in the hands of a man who left a primary school at the age of 12 and has had no other formal education at all—that, it must be said again, is a surprising proceeding which raises disturbing questions as to what the conception of education in the present Government's view is. That George Tomlinson will do better at this new post than ninety-nine out of a hundred men with his opportunities and experience may be true, and almost certainly is. And if background, familiarity with different grades of schools and with the universities, where the products of the schools are put to the proof, count for nothing, no doubt the appointment is all right.
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