Musical chairs
Anastasia De Waal, 14 May 2010
Most of us mere mortals were sound asleep when the slightly sordid ménage a trois of sorts we were presented with on Friday quickly transformed into a happy, blossoming marriage between two men who appear to have been separated at birth.
Tuesday morning felt like walking down the practice room corridors of the Royal College of Music—a cacophony of would-bes singing from different songsheets.
There we were thinking the election was exhausting but then there was much more. Having spent a long weekend with my mouse poised over the ‘refresh’ button of the BBC News website, I was ready for some R&R, not to mention a visit to the GP to get my index finger seen to. But Parliament had other ideas in mind. On Wednesday Westminster turned into a local Job Centre. Cameron and Clegg readily took up the Robin Hood post of politics and yesterday put in motion a plan to cut child benefits for middle class families, possibly in order to facilitate a pupil premium for disadvantaged children without dipping into the schools budget.
I’m all in favour of a pupil premium which prioritises the economically disadvantaged, provided the pennies don’t get washed away with the tide of bureaucracy before they reach the pockets of the deprived. Cameron has kept Michael Gove in his band of merry men and hopefully he’s astute enough to realise, in practical terms, that using a pupil premium to reduce class sizes, a plan endorsed by both the Conservatives and Lib Dems, will result in another recruitment drive, only this time he’ll be filling thousands of classrooms with teachers, not a few comfy seats in the cabinet office. If the new ‘Department of Education’ website is anything to go by, Gove will have his work cut out: there’s not a colourful rainbow in sight, and he’s currently one of only four people holding ministerial posts in the department. We’re all aware that reducing the size of the government is a top priority in this coalition, but a four-strong team is a perhaps a little overzealous. So, top on the agenda for Mr. Gove is recruitment, recruitment, recruitment. Let’s hope he’s as good on the other side of the interview room.
Annaliese Briggs