Oh, But There Is An I In Gove

Oh, the bind in which the Conservative Party finds itself.

The IGCSE was supposed to have been harder than the GCSE, meaning that people with rich parents must have been cleverer than everyone else. Apparently. I cannot follow that, either. But question these people, and they just say the same thing more and more loudly until you give in. Then they think that they have won the argument.

Anyway, along came Michael Gove and supposedly made GCSEs harder, meaning that suddenly the IGCSEs were being set to rich thickies who had to be in school somewhere, but who could never have coped with the academic rigour of the comprehensive sector, its massive popularity confirmed by the unexpected loss of an overall majority on the part of the party that had hinted at bringing back its hated predecessor from well before most of present population was born.

This year's rich thickies, however, must be entirely unrelated to last year's master race.

Yes, of course it is all rubbish. Gove's silly GCSE numbers business will not last five years, but that will still make it his most lasting legacy, as GCSEs themselves are Margaret Thatcher's. Those who were 16 during these few, strange years are going to spend the rest of their lives converting their incomprehensible "levels" back into grades A* to G.