| |
This could be the greatest monument to electioneering
• THANKS to the leaked memo (New Journal, December 6) from Liberal Democrat councillor John Bryant, we now know some of the thinking that went on last summer inside the ruling LibDem/Tory administration, while the public “consultation” was carried out. (The inverted commas are due to the fact that various elements that would have allowed the public to make an informed decision were not disclosed at the time.)
I have to admit to some sympathy for Cllr Bryant’s fear of a new Christian or Muslim school in Camden, supported by the public purse.
The experience of Northern Ireland has convinced many of us that faith schools are divisive, in spite of public assurances by various leading members of those religions.
Tony Blair also believed that faith schools are a good thing, and I only hope that his new role in the Middle East, where two different communities are divided by an 8m wall constructed by the Israeli military, will give rise to second thoughts in the former prime-ministerial mind.
I am obviously less sympathetic to Cllr Bryant’s observations as regards to timing.
In essence, it now appears that the kind of school that Camden is going to get does not depend so much on the needs of the children in various parts of the borough, nor on the kind of school that is likely to benefit children most, but simply on speed of delivery.
For a speedy delivery will apparently maximise the Lib Dems’ and Tories’ chances of winning the next local elections due in 2010.
The new University College London-sponsored academy will therefore be known to posterity as perhaps the greatest ever monument to electioneering.
LUCA SALICE
Mansfield Road, NW3
|
 |
|
| |
