Status Anxiety: Trots ain’t what they used to be

I’m thinking of starting a political campaign. The idea is to draw attention to the rapid decline of one of the most treasured groups in British public life. Once a vital force in the Labour movement, they are now the political equivalent of an endangered species. The campaign will be called ‘Save Our Trots’.

Take the efforts of my local NUT rep, Nick Grant, to whip up opposition to the West London Free School. Grant makes no bones about being a Trotskyist — he’s out and proud, as it were — and therein lies the problem. Because everyone knows he’s a member of the Socialist Workers Party, few locals take his political views seriously.

If Grant had infiltrated a respectable organisation like the Labour party and perfected a mild, disarming manner, he would be a formidable opponent. As it is, hearing him rant and rave against ‘middle-class Acton parents’ is a little like watching a jihadist launch into an eye-popping rant against the state of Israel.

Two months ago I appeared before Ealing Council’s education scrutiny panel to answer questions about the West London Free School and debate with both Nick Grant and Mandy Golding, the head teacher of Acton High School. Participants were invited to submit evidence beforehand and Grant presented the panel with a lengthy document entitled ‘A Submission from Ealing Teachers Association (NUT)’. (Note the absence of an apostrophe after the word ‘teachers’. Syntax isn’t one of Grant’s strong suits.)

Paragraph 3.4 made for interesting reading: ‘This paragraph originally concerned Toby Young and the West London Free School,’ it read. ‘It was edited out by the borough’s legal department.’ Subsequent inquiries revealed that paragraph 3.4 contained a string of false and malicious allegations.