School wars: Michael Gove, Fiona Millar and Andrew Adonis at Spectator conference

Three years ago, Dennis Sewell wrote a Spectator piece about the real enemy awaiting Michael Gove: ‘The Blob’. Carla Millar illustrated the point (below). Today in the Mail on Sunday, the Education Secretary extends the metaphor further:

‘School reformers in the past often complained about what was called TheBlob – the network of educational gurus in and around our universities who praised each others’ research, sat on committees that drafted politically correct curricula, drew gifted young teachers away from their vocation and instead directed them towards ideologically driven theory.

‘Some wonder if past reformers were exaggerating the problem in university education departments. Thanks to the not-so-Independent 100 we can see that, if anything, they were underplaying the problem.

‘In the past The Blob tended to operate by stealth, using its influence to control the quangos and committees which shaped policy. But The Blob has broken cover in the letters pages of the broadsheets because this Government is taking it on.