It's the character, stupid

 

If the claim in the Times is true, David Cameron has made a serious mistake. According to its story, he has refused to criticise parents who pretend to be Christians in order to win places in church schools.

The Tory leader refuses to criticise the ‘middle-class parents with sharp elbows’. Asked for his views on the families accused of playing the system, he says: ‘I think it’s good for parents who want the best for their kids. I don’t blame anyone who tries to get their children into a good school. Most people are doing so because it has an ethos and culture. I believe in active citizens.’

Mr Cameron will learn this year whether his own daughter has won a place at a state-funded Church of England school in Kensington, West London.

I say ‘if’ it is true because, although there is a summary reference to this in the paper’s report of the actual interview with Cameron, it does not actually appear -- in the on-line version, at least -- and therefore I cannot see what Cameron actually said. But if he did endorse parents who cheat, that’s pretty appalling. Yes, it is a widespread practice for parents to use church schools as a principal means of getting their children into schools with higher standards; and yes, many of those parents are not Christians but pretend to be so in order to get their children in. But for a politician who aspires to lead his country to endorse lying and cheating is to give the public the message that he himself is not to be trusted. The implication that ‘active citizenship’ means securing advantage by not telling the truth is deplorable. It is possible to acknowledge the fact that so many parents are driven to play the system in this way by the appalling standards in our schools, and to decry the pressures that drive them to do this, without endorsing systematic deception. If Cameron has indeed crossed that line, this will be held against him by a public which already suspects that he is not a man of principle, and taken as proof that their instincts are correct.