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What Blair means by choice...

Posted May 23rd, 2006 by Tom

We all know that in Blairspeak 'mandate' means 'under 80% of the electorate oppose me', 'voluntary' means 'compulsory' and 'democracy' has been redefined as 'incipient sectarian civil war', but a new addition to the lexicon made its debut in the Commons tonight:

Ministers saw off a rebel amendment to the Education Bill which would have given parents a veto over secondary schools becoming independent trusts.

Saw off a rebel amendment. Very Alamo. An amendment which would have given parents a choice. Um. With Tory support too (I thought they liked parental power, anyway? Confusing). This sits rather uneasily with the some recent pronouncements:

Education Secretary Alan Johnson said his plans would provide greater choice.
Parent power will be the driving force behind improving England's schools, says Education Secretary
Ruth Kelly,
October 2005
Higher Standards,
Better Schools For All
More choice for parents and pupils

Front page,
Schools White Paper,
October 2005
Parents are getting involved, making sure that what is delivered is right for them and their children. In schools, well-informed and engaged parents must also be at the centre of everything we do.

Schools White Paper,
Section 5.2

Evidently the word 'choice' is now shorthand for 'you can pretend to choose, and we can pretend to listen to you'. Familiar story. Oh, and there's at least one sentence in the White Paper that starts with a preposition. C-, see me after class.

Oh, and a belated Mystic Meg Award goes to an old friend of this site:

Ex-Cabinet minister David Blunkett said he also did not think the government would need the votes of Tory MPs to win the vote on 15 March.
[Blair] got his Bill last night, but at an enormous cost to his moral authority within the party. Relying on Conservative votes has created deep undercurrents within the ranks.

Daily Telegraph, 16th March 2006

The rebels numbered 67 this time against 52 back in March and include an ever-growing list of former ministers - Clare Short, Glenda Jackson, Michael Meacher, Angela Eagle. There's something very odd about the left-wing firebrands standing up for parent power against the Blairite/Tory Nanny-Knows-Best brigade. Watch this space.

It is not grammatically

On May 24th, 2006 Ellis (not verified) says:

It is not grammatically erroneous to start a sentence with a prepositional clause. Blairwatch is no position to offer advice in this matter as it has an appalling standard of spelling and grammar. The mis-spelling of Seymore (sic) Hersh being a recent, but by no means, isolated example of the general lack of rigour and intellectual firepower. Edukashun. Edukashun. Edukashun.

If this is the only pedantic

On May 24th, 2006 vervet says:

If this is the only pedantic piffle you have to offer Ellis, I suggest you toddle off to http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/ and leave us to our (however grammatically imperfect) interesting political discourse.

IMHO your written style is (however grammatically perfect) pompous and outdated.

Ellis, It should be noted

On May 24th, 2006 ringverse says:

Ellis,
It should be noted that most of the spelling and grammatical errors are mine, not Tom's, and surely you can find a more recent example of bad spelling than Seymore / Seymour Hersh from nearly 2 months ago.

Also, if you want to demonstrate the lack rigour and intellectual firepower here, you could probably do better than picking on spelling or grammar. [I'm not sure we have ever made claims to our intellectual firepower or rigour.]

The premise of Tom's post was the irony/lunacy of the government voting down an ammendment designed to give parents a choice about their children's education, in the name of parental choice. The comment about the correct use of English was an aside, but doubtless easier to knock.

C- could try harder...;)

Bleagh. I've got an

On May 24th, 2006 Tom says:

Bleagh. I've got an engineering degree and stopped English language at GCSE, so I ort 2 b abul to spel as badly as I liek.

I don't, however, as I was brought up to be rather a stickler for good English (I'm still annoyed at getting 29/30 in a school spelling test for spelling 'profit' as 'prophet'). In the course of researching this piece (and others) I had to read a lot of absolute garbage from people like Jacqui Smith, not to mention the accursed White Paper, so you'll kindly excuse me for going off at their linguistic inadequacies. I might knock the asides on the head in future, since people are tending to pick on them rather than debate the actual issues. Keep it short and sweet and eschew obfuscation.

ringverse - I can find lots of grammer/spelling oopsies of yours, but I was too busy actually reading the articles to point them out. Do let me know if you want a bulletin every time you forget a double-l.

The rebellion is at:

On May 24th, 2006 goatchurch says:

The rebellion is at: Division 247.

For those who are starting to think the Tories are turning moderate, there's Division 248: "The Secretary of State and all local education authorities in England shall exercise their functions with a view to encouraging all maintained schools to become self-governing, and to acquire a foundation."

And Division 249 is a weird one about headmasters making up whatever rules they want.

Up with this I will not put.

On May 24th, 2006 Kimpatsu says:

Up with this I will not put.