Proper State Schools

I overheard a fascinating little exchange between two of my freshers yesterday evening. One of them was talking about his beloved Blackburn Rovers, and was able to translate its motto, Arte et labore, “by art (in the older, fuller sense) and by work”. He then launched into a little bit of Latin verse that he had learned for his Latin GCSE, although he is now reading Maths. I had never before heard Latin spoken with a Lancashire accent, although I suppose that it must have been common liturgically before Vatican II.

Anyway, enter the other party to point out that there was none of that sort of thing at “proper state schools”. Her friend, you may have guessed, was a grammar school boy. Now, Lancashire County Council is under Conservative control. But that has only been the case since last year, the first time since 1981. From then until 1985, it was under No Overall Control. And then from 1985 to 2009, including the whole of my tutee's life until he was towards to very end of his time in the Upper Sixth, it was controlled by Labour.

It was Margaret Thatcher who, as Education Secretary, closed so many grammar schools that there were not enough left at the end for her record ever to be equalled. It was Margaret Thatcher, who, as Prime Minister, replaced O-levels with GCSEs, the one thing, above all others, for which my entire generation must never, ever forgive either her or her party. Between 1979 and 1997, not a single grammar school re-opened. Not one.

Whereas Ministerial defence of the grammar schools had come from “Red Ellen” Wilkinson of the Jarrow Crusade, and from George Tomlinson. Their academic defence had come from Sidney Webb, author of the old Clause IV, and from R H Tawney. Their vigorous practical defence, not least against Thatcher, came from Labour councillors and activists around the country, notably in Lancashire, and also in Kent, where their protection was long spearheaded by Eric Hammond.

They were restored by popular demand, as soon as the Berlin Wall came down, in what is still the very left-wing former East Germany. More recently, they were successfully saved by popular demand in the Social Democratic heartland of North Rhine-Westphalia. But in Britain, each party continues to believe something totally false about its own record with regard to proper state schools. Away with the pair of them, never mind the Lib Dems, heirs to Shirley Williams and her betrayal of Wilkinson, Tomlinson, Webb, Tawney and all the rest. Do not vote for any of them. Make alternative arrangements.