With friends like this (part 2)
When Neil Kinnock - the man who laid the foundations for New Labour - publicly challenges Tony Blair you know he's got a problem.
Tonight Lord Kinnock described school reforms as "at best a distraction and at worst dangerous". He said: "I make this stand with great reluctance, partly because Tony is my dear friend. Partly because I've got great admiration for him as the leader of my party and my country. But the day was reached - which I hoped would never come - when there was an issue of such profound and lasting significance that would affect not just our generation but others, on which it was important to make my opposition known."
He said he's warned the prime minister that he'd be going public, and urged him to back down. "Politics without compromise", he said, "is like a car without a gear box. It can look quite elegant but you won't get anything out of it."
Doesn't he remember that his leader's car has "no reverse gear"?
I'm 
Comments
Why stop at school teachers? Should the government be extending the exclusion list to professionals such as doctors + dentists?
If Neil Kinnock is against the education bill, then that convinces me that Tony Blair is on the right track. Neil Kinnock was always the reluctant moderniser, and never convinced the electorate, or me, that he was serious about changing the Labour Party. Blair has always been serious - but there is still a large number of Labour MPs desperate to drag Labour back to comfortable inelectabilty.
I remember when Neil Kinnock used to a 'firebrand' and a great speaker before he became 'windbag in chief' and leader. THis sounds like the old kinnock and (older as I now am now) I am glad to hear it.
I am a parent with children a year or two away from secondary school. All I want is for schools just to be allowed to get on with with teaching. I do not want any radical changes. But instead Blair wants to subject are teachers to even more of the constant stream of syllabus revisions and managerial changes. STOP IT. JUST STOP IT.
I think no legislation should permitted for schools with complete cross bench support. THis is too improtant for doctrinaire politcs.
On paper, Neil Kinnock doesn't have that much power at all. However, in reality, when 'the man we should all thank for the change to New Labour' opposes what Tony Blair thinks are ground-breaking ideas, that's a serious blow to the credibility of this government's education policy, especially in light of what else is happening in the department. How many people will listen to Kinnock? Well he is unlikely to stop the proposals; if Blair wants these reforms badly enough he will get them, but this is yet another crack in the face of New Labour, this time coming from the very one who is given the credit for starting it.
You don't get to be in Blair's position if you're not capable of compromise. The question is has he got anything to gain by it at this stage of his career.
Some of his recent actions suggest he doesn't think so.
Tony Blair has finally realised after eight years of simply pouring in money that state schools are in a serious, serious state. Look at the GCSE results. Only 43 percent of state school pupils get five C grade and above including english and maths. 57 percent don't. And these exams have been simplified over the years to make more sense to working class children.
The new GCSE science questions are a case in point, proving that with every year, the bulk of pupils are starting just that bit further back - meaning we are being left further and further behind globally.
I went to a comp the year after the local Catholic grammar was closed. I know the difference in outcome between the education I received and that of pupils who went to the grammar. When I went to Polytechnic to study Industrial Design, I saw just how far ahead of me my fellow public-school students were.
Blair realises the answer is to kill the LEAs and feed all the money allocated per head straight to the school. Let schools run themselves and let as many pupils as possible get ahead. Then you can concentrate on the less able. Britain needs this to happen.
He knows things are at a very serious turn as the 'comprehensive effect' starts to compound itself and the general population becomes ever more self-confident but ever more slighly incompetent. If not, why else do we need to import huge numbers of skilled people from around the world?
And up pops Old Labour: 'We can't let the brightest streak ahead.' John Prescott has objected that if good schools were built, people would want to go to them. Quite.
Is this finally end for the Old-New Labour pact after 12 years?
Tony, this is the big one. Push it through with the Tories. This is your legacy.
I just want to know,why has the PM delayed the cabinet reshuffle so long?Is he waiting to see if he survives the education vote?Is he trying to persuade certian ministers to take early retirement,eg Margaret Becket or Jack Straw?Or is he so incompetent he doesnt have a clue how to do a reshuffle anymore? Another problem he has is that the post of Chancellor of the Duchy has been left vacant so long its obvious its a non job and no minister worth their salt will want to do it!
What I can't understand is why Tony Blair is trying to introduce these reforms into schools. There was little or no consultation. No matter what he says it looks like a rehash of an old Tory policy. He has a drastically reduced majority and has announced his retirement. What is he doing? If he wants to be remembered with affection in Labour circles surely it's in his best interests to go quietly and to hand over a smoothly run ship. It would be like the Captain of the Titanic handing over the watch to one of his officers after she had hit the iceberg.
This is nothing to do with Mr Kinnock. This legislation effects only England and Kinnock does not represent England in any way shape or form. It's as much his business than a Spanish or French MP.
He should keep out of legislation that doesn't effect him.
Why is selection in schools such a anathema for mainstream political parties? Politicians are always demanding excellence in schools but shy away from the difficult and electorally painfull steps that are required to achieve this. I myself was educated in French state system at a french lycee in London. They practised selection in a different way by refusing admission to students who failed to make a set grade each school year. This ensured that students passed through the school system having acquired the set competencies at each stage. Generally you don't find school leavers in France who can't read or write. I repeated a year when I was 11 which though upsetting at the time allowed me to get my written French up to scratch so that when I got further on in the school system I did not sink. The French government kept a good control on what the national curriculum contained meaning that students could transfer schools easily without loss of academic momentum. There were faults in the French system but it works much better than the mess we have over here.
'The trusts would consist of outside bodies such as universities, faith groups or businesses, or successful schools which oversee other schools.'
大象传媒 news online, 10/01/06.
Its about time someone from the traditional left took a stand against these presidential edicts , particularly when nobody can see through the fog of rhetoric and badly written spin.It might be 'New', but it is still the Labour Party. That's why Blair is worried.That's why Ruth Kelly is looking over her shoulder. 'You have my full support, Ruth!'Kinnock's opinion reflects the view of a large number of people in education, teachers and parents, who are profoundly concerned with this 'prizes for all' codswallop.
Blair continues too far with these reforms. He's like a bad workman, constantly tinkering, changing things for changes sake and sometimes never completing the job. Education and health in particular are constantly being spun around. It's time for consolidation now. After all Blair's legacy will always be the Iraq mistake, he's not going to change that now.
I am not sure how significant this is. How relevant is Kinnock these days? A large portion of the electorate will barely remember him (I am 31 and my strongest abiding memory of Kinnock is the spitting image puppet) It may be one of the straws that breaks the camel's back, but hardly a fatal blow. I am also wary of why he has chosen now to speak up, surely it would have been more important to have an elder statesman of the party point out what a disastrous idea invading Iraq was?
PS Don't normally comment on blogs, but sounded like you needed a bit of encouragement. Great Blog
Here's a theory. As a Labour activist, I want Blair to hang on as long as possible so that Brown gets a honeymoon period which will carry him through the next election. And here you are suggesting Blair's position is under threat. Blair leaving soon, would I believe, greatly benefit the Conservatives. And you seem to be pushing for this outcome. Is there something you're not telling us Nick?
I can't believe I am typing this, I agree with Neil Kinnock; I am consoled in the fact that this is for a different reason.
The removal of competition from the education system at pupil level only to replace this at school level in the form of league tables is a cynical manipulation of such policies as 鈥渘o selection by testing.鈥
Competition in examinations and sports have been removed from the education system to prevent damaging the child by indicating they have failed.
Failure carries as much educational information, often more than success; imagine where this world would have been today if all the greatest scientists had given up when their experiments first failed.
We do not need to create elitist schools to feed the egos of parents, we need to create streamed schools to fit the education requirement of the pupils.
A simple plan to make school admissions fairer:-
Bar secondary schools from using proximity as an admission criterion and tell them if they are oversubscribed they must take the pupils with the lowest prior attainment first.
What we've just witnessed is a glimse of life after Tony. The Red brigades out in force. Kinnock like Gordon Brown are all Red Labour in a closet. Every now and then you have flash of what stuff they are made off. Tony has given them clout for the past nine years, with the end of his reign in sight they are all coming out of wood works.
It does not take a genius to know that when you put a bright pupil and a slow one in the same class, the bright child's progress is curtailed. This great country needs the correction of this imbalance as flowers need rain.
While Tony recognise this imbalance, the Kinnocks of Great Britain wish the future of this country on a very, very slow red lane to third world class.
I am impressed with Nick Robinson's analysis of political events. At least he is making observations & trying to delve into the background scenery without attempting to make the news himself. A fault all too common these days with so many 大象传媒 correspondents. I urge Nick to keep to the straight & narrow: Inform us of what has happened, direct us towards what is likely to happen & reveal the views of those it is happening to, and lastly, never, ever opine that this or that is what you personally have decided.
Well, the Goverment is certainly in quite a tight spot. If the number of rebel MP's grows to 100, then it will be impossable for Blair to continue. As it stands it could turn out that way. Now that Kinnock has broken cover Blair knows that this is a pretty tricky situation to deal with. There is no third way, he cannot concede any more to the rebels without making the reform pointless, but cannot use the tory vote for fear of the backlash from the backbeanches. I can see what some people mean when they say Blair wants to beat Maggie's record stay at number 10, but wouldn't be ironic if he was forced out in the similar way? Roll on the labour spring conference....
The idea that Gordon Brown will be carried to election victory on the back of a 'honeymoon' period is ludicrous.The longer Blair stays in office the further ahead the Tories will go in the polls..that is unlikely to be reversed just because this tax and spend chancellor has taken over at no 10 a few months before the election.For Brown to make an impact in the polls and reverse the damage Blair has done and is still doing he will have to take over at no 10 no later than the spring of next year,and quite probably this year.My gut instinct is that brown will engineer a coup to oust Blair by this autumn.If he does not he may have missed his chance.
The crucial point is this: when parents hear about 'choice' in education they hear 'we can choose a school for our children', when what is actually on offer is the chance for some schools to 'choose their pupils'. Quite different, and Kinnock is quite right to intervene.
Possibly Tony Blair ought to tell Kinnock to politely mind his own business, afterall John Major's premiership was ruined by Thatcher's constant criticism of his Government.
I totally agree with Steve Guy. I find it impossible to believe that any school would deliberately admit pupils who would drag down their standing in the league tables. That's what selective education is all about - disenfranchisement.
Yet more school reforms and a re-ignition to the endless debate on selection. All of tinkering at the margins.
All schools need to succeed is good teachers, a good curriculum and well behaved attentive pupils. How we get these fundamental ingredients is the debate we should be having.
Now that Kinnock has popped up to oppose these reforms, I know that Blair, dislike him though I do, must be on the right track.
Blair should always listen to Kinnock - then smile politely and make sure he does the opposite.
The country was very fortunate indeed that he never made it to Number 10.