What is Tristram Hunt trying to say in the Times today? He seems to say that the teaching of British values is an important thing, except when Michael Gove or another Tory says so. When they advocate the teaching of British values, the concept becomes reactionary tosh, because Tories are restructuring the schools system in a Bad way.
He doesn’t actually argue with Michael Gove’s four-part definition (‘the values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs’). He just implies that these things are spun by Tories in an evil right-wing way, without quite producing evidence.
I think the whole debate is rather unhelpful. What we should be talking about, and schooling young people in, is the creed that unites the West as a whole.
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