Michael Gove has embraced the idea of "Boot Camps" to sort out disaffected young people. There's been a lively debate on the Guardian's "Comment is Free" website, to which I just had to respond:
Just shows that the Tories haven't changed at all. Still the Nasty Party. The Thatcherite "short sharp shock" re-emerges as the Govian boot-camp. Just as prisons breed criiminals so boot-camps will breed either thugs or suicides. I was amused by the comment that Gove probably gets a semi at the mention of "boot camp".
Seems to me that the current crop of Tories put problems into two categories. First come "the problems that affect me". These need careful analysis and complex schemes of action. "How do I get to be filthy rich?" "How do I keep the bloody Oiks off my land?" "How do I find a little man who will do all the jobs I can't be arsed to do myself, preferably for virtually no money?" And "Where shall I keep all the money I hope to make?" (This last question is perhaps the most important.)
Then there are "the problems which affect society at large". These are easy to solve; they require no depth of analysis or thinking; a short phrase will get us off the hook here! So the problem of inequality in society? "Tell the proles we're all in this together". Economic woes? Huge budget deficit? "Throw another million out of work to drive wage costs down." Disaffected and disruptive youth? "Boot Camp".
But then the hacks in the various Ministries get hold of the soundbite and may even try to act on it. God help us if they take Gove seriously.
Kenneth Baker, Tory Education Minister in the late eighties and architect of the National Curriculum, said in a Guardian interview in 2008 "I think anybody doing educational change should begin slowly." Would he please talk to Gove?
Just shows that the Tories haven't changed at all. Still the Nasty Party. The Thatcherite "short sharp shock" re-emerges as the Govian boot-camp. Just as prisons breed criiminals so boot-camps will breed either thugs or suicides. I was amused by the comment that Gove probably gets a semi at the mention of "boot camp".
Seems to me that the current crop of Tories put problems into two categories. First come "the problems that affect me". These need careful analysis and complex schemes of action. "How do I get to be filthy rich?" "How do I keep the bloody Oiks off my land?" "How do I find a little man who will do all the jobs I can't be arsed to do myself, preferably for virtually no money?" And "Where shall I keep all the money I hope to make?" (This last question is perhaps the most important.)
Then there are "the problems which affect society at large". These are easy to solve; they require no depth of analysis or thinking; a short phrase will get us off the hook here! So the problem of inequality in society? "Tell the proles we're all in this together". Economic woes? Huge budget deficit? "Throw another million out of work to drive wage costs down." Disaffected and disruptive youth? "Boot Camp".
But then the hacks in the various Ministries get hold of the soundbite and may even try to act on it. God help us if they take Gove seriously.
Kenneth Baker, Tory Education Minister in the late eighties and architect of the National Curriculum, said in a Guardian interview in 2008 "I think anybody doing educational change should begin slowly." Would he please talk to Gove?