Education, education, education ( redux)

I haven't written much recently, but this piece by Fraser Nelson in the Spectator deserves our full attention. In essence, it shows that despite City academies proving an enormous boost to education ( and don't forget it was Tony Blair and Lord Adonis who fought for them) Labour has now said it would effectively abolish them. If any clearer signpost was needed that the Labour party is merely a pawn for the big unions and in particular the teaching unions, Twigg's speech couldn't make it plainer. Brown tested throwing money at schools ( ie bribing teachers) to destruction, and British schools have plummeted in the rankings. The difference? Good teachers - which, I suspect, is why the unions don't want payment by merit - ie they KNOW how bad some of their members really are. Fraser's article proves the point that education not only helps the disadvantaged to escape, it also gives a huge boost to the economy. Work nowadays is brain, not brawn, and all the Poles, Czechs etc etc who come here prove it every day. As an example, if just the bottom 10% of bad teachers in America were disposed of, and replaced by merely average ones, the American economy would absolutely soar. So the next time anyone tells you the Conservatives a) aren't doing anything and b) don't care about the disadvantaged, re-read the article.