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PM leaves voters turning to extremists for comfort
WILL he? Or won’t he?
While Gordon Brown dithers, the housing crisis gets worse.
Those who expect him to complete a volte face – which, admittedly, politicians have executed in the past with enough grace to beguile the electorate – and plunge into a giant housing programme, administered by local government, will, we are afraid, wait in vain.
The Prime Minister and his cabinet are too wedded to the free market, right or wrong, to change course.
The leaked proposals to bring in housing associations to help families facing repossession while allowing local councils to build some new developments don’t, on analysis, add up to much.
In the PM’s eyes they may seem enough to steady his administration as the economy slides, but it is unlikely the electorate will be seduced by them.
A year ago government ministers would have laughed their heads off at the suggestion that financial help be given to councils to build new homes.
But a collapse of public support accompanied by a great deal of imaginative lobbying by the campaigning body, Defend Council Housing – which is rooted in the borough – has changed the political scenery. But only slightly.
Meanwhile, a political vacuum widens as a disaffected and disillusioned populace are left stranded.
The Home Secretary worries this will all lead to extremism. New Labour ought to have read the runes two or three years ago. It’s a bit late now. Into such a vacuum will step the British National Party.
Already, they are mounting a challenge in the coming Hampstead Town by-election (See page 2). This has far reaching significance.
WHAT’S Ed Balls up to?
The education secretary has decreed that unless 30 per cent of pupils at a school gain A to C levels in GCSE subjects, especially English and maths, the school is doomed.
Sounds reasonable at first glance. But not when you realise he is not willing to take into account special factors facing some schools – such as in case of Hampstead School where 48 languages are spoken (See page 20).
Catastrophe now faces both Hampstead and Haverstock schools hovering above the 30 per cent threshold!
The fault line in Mr Balls’ reasoning seems pretty
obvious. Both to this newspaper and teachers and school governors who are opposed to it.
But has Mr Balls a hidden agenda? To close down community schools and turn them into Academies much loved by New Labour?
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