Has Michael Gove denounced Margaret Thatcher, of whom the replacement of O-levels with GCSEs was the very worst domestic policy, and that is saying quite, quite something?
Has he explained why there is any remaining need for a qualification at 16 when the school-leaving age is in any case to be raised in the near future?
Has he asked why commercial schools, which are tax-exempt as charities rather than being taxed as the businesses that they are, hardly ever use anything like the export strength IGCSE favoured in Saint Helena and other old outposts, but instead content themselves with fleecing the gullible by being merely adept at getting people through exams that are largely rubbish anyway?
Has he stopped to wonder why in the case of examination boards the application of
“free” market principles to the provision of a public service has proved an unmitigated disaster, including for the business community more widely, raising the question of whether that might also be true elsewhere?
Most importantly, has he dared to mention that there is no conceivable parliamentary majority for this reform, since the people whose vote-splitting won it for Thatcher both in 1983 and in 1987 remain as devoted as ever to what Sue Slipman, one of David Owen’s closest allies, called
“the classless opportunities provided by Thatcherism”?
Yet Owen himself is now close to Ed Miliband, under whom Labour alone now represents the Union as a first principle, any concept of English identity, a universal postal service bound up with the monarchy, the Queen’s Highways rather than toll roads owned by faraway petrostates, Her Majesty’s Constabulary rather than the British KGB that is the impending “National Crime Agency”, the National Health Service rather than piecemeal privatised provision by the American healthcare companies that pay Andrew Lansley (another old SDP hand), keeping Sunday special, no Falkland Islands oil to Argentina, a free vote on the redefinition of marriage, a referendum on continued membership of the EU, the historic regimental system, aircraft carriers with aircraft on them, the State action necessary in order to maintain the work of charities and of churches, and the State action necessary in order to maintain a large and thriving middle class.
Let Labour alone also promise to legislate for the restoration of the O-levels that it voted to save in the first place. Let Labour alone promise that ultimate legislative reversal of Thatcherism. No one else could, even if they wanted to, which they do not.
Ed Miliband and Jon Cruddas, over to you.
Yet Owen himself is now close to Ed Miliband, under whom Labour alone now represents the Union as a first principle, any concept of English identity, a universal postal service bound up with the monarchy, the Queen’s Highways rather than toll roads owned by faraway petrostates, Her Majesty’s Constabulary rather than the British KGB that is the impending “National Crime Agency”, the National Health Service rather than piecemeal privatised provision by the American healthcare companies that pay Andrew Lansley (another old SDP hand), keeping Sunday special, no Falkland Islands oil to Argentina, a free vote on the redefinition of marriage, a referendum on continued membership of the EU, the historic regimental system, aircraft carriers with aircraft on them, the State action necessary in order to maintain the work of charities and of churches, and the State action necessary in order to maintain a large and thriving middle class.
Let Labour alone also promise to legislate for the restoration of the O-levels that it voted to save in the first place. Let Labour alone promise that ultimate legislative reversal of Thatcherism. No one else could, even if they wanted to, which they do not.
Ed Miliband and Jon Cruddas, over to you.
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