Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s refreshing honesty on schools

David Cameron has today told the News of the World that he is “terrified” about the prospect of sending his children to an inner-London state school. This is quite some statement, given how many tens of thousands of parents are in the same predicament. Isn’t it the classic politician’s error? To betray how his aloofness from voters by showing how he fears what ordinary parents have to put up with? That’s what Tony Blair thought – so he’d pretend to be happy with state schools while sending his kids to the ultra-selective Oratory School. That is hypocrisy.

What David Cameron has said represents honesty. After all, why shouldn’t he be terrified? As I say in my News of the World column today, the record is appalling. In inner city boroughs, just 41 per cent of boys achieved five A*-C GCSEs last year – markedly worse than the 48 per cent nationally. What parent would not be deeply uneasy about these statistics? Of course, there are several middle class ways to avoid this – as Blair did.

You can bet that, today, the pews of chuches across London will be filled with atheist mothers clutching their soon-to-be-school age children. Some advert for the welfare state: now, as in medieval times, churches are using education as a loss leader to lure parents into their sanctums. Another middle class cheat is to move into a good catchment area by paying a huge premium on your house. To do this, and then preach about how state education is fine, is the height of hypocrisy. In no other area of life (other than protection from crime) does the money spent on behalf of the poor buy them so much worse a service as the money spent on behalf of the rich.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in