The anti-academies club

‘Anyone here from the Spectator?’ Last night a packed meeting at Downhills Primary in Haringey began with this ominous query from the chairman, Clive Boutle, who leads a local campaign against academies. Seated at the side of the hall I kept quiet. ‘No one?’ said Boutle, ‘Great, we’re safe.’

The meeting had attracted about 800 protesters and activists who oppose Michael Gove’s decision to force Downhills – a failing multi-ethnic school – to become an academy. ‘Michael Gove really hates us,’ continued Boutle, his manner urbane rather than menacing. ‘The government doesn’t like Haringey. There hasn’t been a Tory here since Noah was in short trousers. So we’re no risk.’

The Haringey protestors see themselves as lab rats in an evil Tory plot to privatise the entire education system. ‘A deep-set and incoherent ideology’ is behind the reforms, according to David Lammy, the local MP and an old boy of Downhills.