The issue of grammar schools has such a power to damage political parties. Now Harriet Harman is running for Labour Deputy Leader the columnists are bringing out her decision to send her own son to a grammar school. We can smell hypocrisy from a long way off, and the behaviour of Tony & Cherie, Ruth Kelly, Diane Abbot and Harriet Harman stinks of it.
The fact that their party is so fanatically opposed to selection makes their hypocrisy more galling for me, a supporter of both the Labour Party and of choice in state schools (which I believe cannot exist without selection). The reality is that local comprehensive schools can be diabolically bad, or these Labour politicians would be happy to send their own kids to them. But rather than fix the schools they decide to opt out of the system. They would not opt to be treated at a private hospital, but they realise that the standard of education offered by our allegedly brilliant state schools is dire.
Every time I read this kind of article I want to resign from the Labour Party, but then I realise that all the mainstream parties are united in having absolutely no vision on education. About the only politician who ever has anything sensible to say on the subject is Boris Johnston, but I can't see how he can last much longer if he continues to state his mind.
Fiona Millar's article on why she will not be supporting Harriet Harman
