The Gove legacy juggernaut.
There's an awful of lot of wood being missed due to all the trees in the way over the sacking of Sally Morgan from her position as chair of Ofsted. First off, it's a rare government that doesn't ensure its supporters are ensconced in suitable position at the major quangos. Second, despite the claims this is just the latest in a series of non-Tories being defenestrated in favour of true blues, the evidence is far from clear cut. Third, the idea that the chair of Ofsted is in any sense as important as that of the chief inspector of schools in nonsense. Drawing far less attention last week was chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw's complaint that Michael Gove's minions were lining up to attack Ofsted as a whole, even if he later declared himself satisfied with Gove's insistence he was not behind the briefings.
The real issue of importance here that has been somewhat if not entirely lost is that it's just the latest sign of the Tories both looking for some sort of legacy should they be only a one-term government, and their continuing shift to the right. When they first came in, the Tories were keen to give jobs to Blairites, obviously those that could be trusted to come up with policies that were compatible were their own ideas, but Labour politicians all the same. None have exactly fared brilliantly: both Alan Milburn and Frank Field have seen their respective reports all but ignored, while those other luvvies on quangos such as Liz Forgan and Suzi Leather, both loathed by the Daily Mail, have lost their jobs. Not that they're keen on Forgan's replacement, Peter Bazalgette, the man we have to thank for giving us Big Brother, either. One man the Tories haven't managed to dislodge is Ed Richards from Ofcom, probably only thanks to the emergence of the phone hacking scandal and how Cameron had once seemed ready to get rid of the regulator the Murdoch papers loathed so intensely.
Gove it shouldn't be forgotten was the ultimate Tory Blair groupie. Once the Tories seemed to want to take all the lessons from Blair's memoir and act upon them; now they're happy to throw one of Blair's enforcers out after a mere three years in place. You do also have to wonder if the reasoning might have been even more prosaic: it must have been embarrassing for Morgan to often be on Newsnight's party political panel alongside Danny Finkelstein, the recently ennobled pal of George Osborne.
Frankly then, who knows whether Morgan's unceremonious dumping was a request from Number 10 or the work of Gove. One suspects it was the latter, if only because Gove seems determined that his works will be despaired over for years to come. Apparently completely unconcerned over the highly public failings of a couple of his pet free schools project, he seems to just want as many in place in time for the election lest he find himself on the opposition benches. Hence why Ofsted is in the firing line, and why those who he previously wooed are now dispensable in case they object to his plans. Breaking down the "Berlin Wall" between private and public? Exactly how many private schools have unqualified teachers working in them, one wonders? Gove's prescription is more testing, more making schools like prisons and more partisanship for the sake of it. Anyone who stands in the way is destined to get run down by his out of control juggernaut, regardless of who they are.
The real issue of importance here that has been somewhat if not entirely lost is that it's just the latest sign of the Tories both looking for some sort of legacy should they be only a one-term government, and their continuing shift to the right. When they first came in, the Tories were keen to give jobs to Blairites, obviously those that could be trusted to come up with policies that were compatible were their own ideas, but Labour politicians all the same. None have exactly fared brilliantly: both Alan Milburn and Frank Field have seen their respective reports all but ignored, while those other luvvies on quangos such as Liz Forgan and Suzi Leather, both loathed by the Daily Mail, have lost their jobs. Not that they're keen on Forgan's replacement, Peter Bazalgette, the man we have to thank for giving us Big Brother, either. One man the Tories haven't managed to dislodge is Ed Richards from Ofcom, probably only thanks to the emergence of the phone hacking scandal and how Cameron had once seemed ready to get rid of the regulator the Murdoch papers loathed so intensely.
Gove it shouldn't be forgotten was the ultimate Tory Blair groupie. Once the Tories seemed to want to take all the lessons from Blair's memoir and act upon them; now they're happy to throw one of Blair's enforcers out after a mere three years in place. You do also have to wonder if the reasoning might have been even more prosaic: it must have been embarrassing for Morgan to often be on Newsnight's party political panel alongside Danny Finkelstein, the recently ennobled pal of George Osborne.
Frankly then, who knows whether Morgan's unceremonious dumping was a request from Number 10 or the work of Gove. One suspects it was the latter, if only because Gove seems determined that his works will be despaired over for years to come. Apparently completely unconcerned over the highly public failings of a couple of his pet free schools project, he seems to just want as many in place in time for the election lest he find himself on the opposition benches. Hence why Ofsted is in the firing line, and why those who he previously wooed are now dispensable in case they object to his plans. Breaking down the "Berlin Wall" between private and public? Exactly how many private schools have unqualified teachers working in them, one wonders? Gove's prescription is more testing, more making schools like prisons and more partisanship for the sake of it. Anyone who stands in the way is destined to get run down by his out of control juggernaut, regardless of who they are.
Labels: Blairites, Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, education, Michael Gove, Ofsted, politics, Sally Morgan
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Exactly how many private schools have unqualified teachers working in them, one wonders?
Not the best angle - I suspect there are quite a few. It's a while ago now, but I remember asking after a posh boy acquaintance a year or so out of Cambridge, and hearing he'd gone to teach at a prep school. He'd never shown any inclination towards teaching & certainly hadn't taken a PGCE.
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Phil |
Tuesday, February 04, 2014 9:09:00 am
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