Andy Burnham may have booted the Starmerites out of the cabinet, but at the Department for Education, it’s a case of meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell has replaced Bridget Phillipson as Education Secretary. The pair share the same haircut, same generic northern accent, and same ideological commitments. So the question is, will anyone notice the swap?
Under Bridget Phillipson, the line between education and indoctrination grew thinner than ever before
As Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson seemed far more interested in waging class warfare than in what was actually going on inside England’s classrooms. How else to explain her decision to impose VAT on school fees midway through an academic year, disrupting the education of thousands of children and, ultimately, leading to the closure of many highly-regarded schools? Little revenue was generated to pay for more teachers in the state sector, but at least Phillipson got to sock it to the rich!
This same phoney anti-elitism was there in the decision to cut funding to the Latin Excellence Programme that gave state-school pupils the opportunity to learn a subject they may not have had a chance to study otherwise. Again, cuts were made halfway through the school year, leaving children and teachers in the lurch. But they were probably posh, if they had aspirations to learn Latin, so why should Phillipson care?
