Saturday, November 19, 2005
Blair needs our support
Tony Blair has launched a robust defence of the government's plans to shake up schools in England, saying he is "restless for change".
He said the reforms would help poor children reach their potential.
His key speech - in Sedgefield - comes amid warnings of a possible rebellion by up to 100 backbenchers when the plans come to the Commons next year.
He wants schools to take on greater powers over their finances, staff and - most controversially - admissions.
Blair needs our support?!? Have I gone mad?!? No, although I would say that.
These education reforms are sure to accompanied by the usual New Labour regulation and bueracracy, and won't be great. But will they be improvements on what we have now? It seems likely. Giving schools greater independence is the way forward. The Conservative Party needs to be a party of principle, and we should vote with Blair if that is the correct thing to do.
The conservative temptation may be to let Blair fall from a backbench rebellion, since he is especially "weak" at the moment. This ignores the fact Blair has been through patches of "weakness" on and off for 3 years, and has always recovered. (I would not even rule out Labour begging Blair to stay for the next election, stranger things have happened). Therefore I think its naive to think he will fall any time soon, and if we vote against him for that purpose alone we will expose ourselves to the criticism of being nothing more than opportunists, and that will be a correct assessment of what we are.
Besides, even if Blair did fall, would Brown not be worse? Conventional wisdom is that he is to the left of Blair, and the last thing this country needs is to go further left. Remember, we still have 4 years of Labour, and thats a lot of time for Brown to kick this nation in its proverbial testicles repeatedly
# posted by Chris Hughes @ 6:14 am 
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I don't care what happens with Blair, we must support our views, and although i hate to say this a good policy is a good policy, anything we agree with we should vote in.
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