Department for David Beckham Studies
Gove's sharp elbows
Good post by the Indy's John Rentoul on Cameron's interview in the Times this morning, when he seemed to condone such middle class sharp practice as pretending you're a God-botherer in order to get Jemima and Sebastian into a decent church-run state school. Cameron said this:
“I think it’s good for parents who want the best for their kids. I don’t blame anyone who tries to get their children into a good school. Most people are doing so because it has an ethos and culture. I believe in active citizens.”
Rentoul reads that as a bit of a rebuke to Gove's quote a month ago, when he said this about choice in schools:
“If you have nominal parental choice over school admissions, but an undersupply of good schools, you will find that the sharp-elbowed middle-class parents get access to excellent schools, but those trapped in deprived areas do not.”
We said much the same last week. But Cameron, apparently, believes this is the kind of thing people do, and his policy should accommodate it. So Rentoul rightly asks: what is the Tory policy on sharp elbows, aka managed choice in state education? File this next to the Lisbon Treaty under "what would Davey do?"
What's also interesting is the way Michael Gove is transmogrifying into David Willetts - a very ugly, very brainy right-wing person who keeps saying things which are intellectually true but politically short-sighted. Which makes for a telling comparison with Lord Adonis, who's been driving a lot of Labour's educational thinking for almost a decade. Most of what he says is politically attractive but intellectually bollocks. We think.
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