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Thursday 4 December 2008

IQ2 goes back to school

Lloyd Evans reports on the latest Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate

Next up was Fiona Millar. Blonde, beautiful and somewhat disengaged, Ms Millar (alias Mrs Alastair Campbell) told us that support for selection would mean a return to the 1950s. Back then, she said, ‘the price paid for exclusivity fell on the working classes’. Her suggestion that exam results had improved enormously in the last half-century drew polite explosions of mirth from the audience. Quoting statistics from Kent, she advised us to reject selection on three grounds. Selection fuels the private tuition industry. It’s a policy favoured by Ukip. And it divides rather than unites society. Not bad at pre-emptive attack, Ms Millar seemed short of positive arguments in favour of her policy. And very short of passion in forwarding them.

Norman Tebbit, by contrast, provided not just better arguments, but much better jokes. ‘I’m not a fascist,’ he began, referring to Martin Stephen’s opening quip. ‘There aren’t many left in this country. They’re all working in Brussels.’ He advocated the simple ‘go shopping’ approach. ‘Buy your children the education you want for them.’ Analysing Labour’s instincts, he detected a thread of mistrust laced with snobbery. ‘They believe some classes are unfit to select a school for their children because, after all, you can’t expect the poor and the blacks and the foreigners to choose the best for their children. No. Only the bureaucratic classes with their ring-fenced, final-salary pensions can do that.’ Massive applause. Even Joan Bakewell, in the chair, chortled merrily away. Lord Tebbit gave his policy solid contours and suggested that ‘the lapel of every child should have a voucher attached’. Problem kids would attract high-value vouchers, he said, while clever, obedient kids would merit more modest funds because they cost less to educate. Government subsidy and free-market dynamism would turn problem kids into profitable kids. Or as Tebbit put it, ‘There would be competition to attract these high-value, hard-to-teach pupils.’

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