School bullies

Tony Blair has always had the remarkable ability to give the appearance of engaging in an heroic struggle with the intransigent Left of his party — while on closer inspection his proposals present at best a minor departure from old Labour dogma. He promised to ‘think the unthinkable’ on social security: the unthinkable result being that we now have record numbers of citizens — including almost all parents earning less than £60,000 a year — claiming state benefits. He promised to bring market reforms to the NHS, yet it has ended up even more of an unwieldy monolith than before; the main ‘market reform’ being that its doctors now sting taxpayers for Harley Street rates of pay.

This week the Prime Minister proved that he has lost none of his talent for deceiving conservative-minded folk. His news managers cannot have been more pleased with the headlines: ‘All state schools to go independent’ and ‘Blair takes a cane to the Left over school reform’.