They didn't get their way, but it was another sign of how the Conservatives have changed since I was a young councillor - yes, I can remember when it was the Tories who repaired church roofs.
This happened so reliably that I started to wonder what the point of having a governing body was. Still, that's real Conservatism for you: you support figures of authority such as headteachers.
Today's Tories have convinced themselves that no one involved in schools cares about children's education of welfare - unless it's eccentric millionaires who chair multi-academy trusts. Certainly headteachers don't: they are part of the blob, along with classroom teachers and academic researchers.
It follows that we cannot trust headteachers to make decisions on the rules about phones in school. Instead, schools must be micro-managed from the Commons chamber. Which is at once silly and nothing to do with proper Conservatism.
Meanwhile, a recent survey of more than 15,000 schools found that 99.8 per cent of primary schools and 90 per cent of secondary schools have some form of ban on phones. Which suggests schools are quite capable of deciding how to handle this issue themselves.
I take your point about the collapse of Tory respect for institutional leaders such as head teachers (which I think is neo-Thatcherite, in its disdain for those who are unsympathetic to the ideal of cut-and-thrust buccaneering business people), but I don't see the politics of banning phones in schools as overly distinct from the Lib Dem policy of banning loud music on trains. Both are reactionary in a sense, appealing to voters who want to react against, hold back and constrain the behaviour of others, and are looking to government to exercise a big hand in the sky and intervene in the face of relational distrust and lack of confidence in society. Yes the targets are different. But I don't see the philosophy as being miles apart.
ReplyDeleteIf you think that because I'm a Liberal Democrat member I support the party's every policy, you haven't been reading this blog for long. As I happens, I have serious doubts about the one on loud music on trains.
ReplyDeleteBut what that has to do with my analysis of changes in the Conservative Party over the past 40 years, I can't begin to fathom. Was your comment a failed attempt at Whataboutery? That's not a game that interests me - especially on an unseasonably hot evening like this one.