His declaration of support will come to be seen as an historic
His declaration of support will come to be seen as an historic turning point, the moment when the Conservatives mastered the threat posed by the apparently invincible Labour leader. Last night they made Blair vulnerable once more with their support.
The debate that preceded the vote was the most vivid illustration of the transformed political landscape. It was as if the exchanges had been choreographed wildly by a drug- crazed director from another planet. Labour MPs agonised about what their government was doing while the Conservatives hailed the implementation of a Thatcherite vision Blair can survive a Labour revolt. He is diminished by the Conservatives’ support.Since his election in 1997, Blair has been a determinedly centrist leader with an instinct to lurch rightwards at pivotal moments. Until the election of Cameron, he had occupied a distinctive place because the Conservatives moved further to the right in response.
Their discontent sets the scene, but they are for once the peripheral players in a bigger drama. What has made Tony Blair incomparably more exposed since the autumn is the Conservatives’ support for his schools reforms. Last night’s vote on the schools Bill is the latest manifestation of an already dramatically altered political situation Some Labour dissenters voted against the Bill Some gave it their provisional support. It is the extreme social polarisation of Britain’s playgrounds. The children of the rich and the middle classes are educated in broadly successful schools that select by mortgage price.
The children of the poor, by contrast, are ring-fenced away in warehouse schools, where they mostly falter and fail. Because there is little academic selection, this system is called “comprehensive”, and all sides accept this label as if it was true.
More from Johann Hari. The biggest problem with Britain’s schools has only been hinted at in dark whispers over the past six months, by government and rebel alike. Not in the sense that Straw is like Pinochet, although they do share a similar delight in themselves. It is just the thought of how much time has passed and how many illusions have been shattered since General Pinochet was arrested in Britain on a Spanish warrant six years ago.
More from Adrian Hamilton.
The real education bill, the one that affects the school at the bottom of your road, is about to sink into a swirling sea of gossip and trivia – how has this affected Blair? is Cameron up or down? But before this Westminster Village blather wins out, it’s worth picking through the debate that ended last night, because its failures will shape Britain’s failures in the decades ahead. Listening to the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, this week, denying that there was any collusion between the British and Israelis in the withdrawal of monitors from the Jericho prison, and then again earlier this week trying to say how much we loved the Iranian people while leading a campaign to impose UN sanctions on them, I was reminded of General Pinochet. I think it’s fair people should buy a school place; you think it’s fair people should get a priest’s chit for a school place; they think it’s fair to buy a house near a good school for a school place What’s fair?
More from Simon Carr. “Let’s be honest with each other in this debate,” that ass Barry Sheerman said yesterday, “admissions have to be fair.” He stressed with great saloon-bar emphasis the word “fair”. For what it was worth, he might as well have said, “admissions have to be purple.” You don’t have to be a philosopher to see the use of the word “fair” isn’t fair It’s more a sign of advanced mental decay To be fair. Most historians rank him in the “near great” category of presidents, behind only George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Just conceivably, history’s verdict on George W Bush will be equally kind Alas, however, events stand still for no man..
