Monday 21 July 2014

Education for A Year

With Gove packing his 'I Hate The NUT' mug and his marble bust of Margaret Thatcher away and shipping off to don the party gimp suit to become Chief Whipper, the education system is left at the helm of Nicky Morgan, previously Minister for Women and Equality (so she obviously knows what real power feels like. In fact, it's such an important job that she still has it, despite being Education Secretary). Now, we shouldn't paint Ms Morgan with the same colours as SeƱor Gove, as she has only been in the job for five minutes, but there are certain things about her past that are rather... disconcerting.

The first, and possibly most disconcerting, opinion of Ms Morgan is the fact that she voted against the legalisation of gay marriage. Although some people, and members of our own school, will agree with her, on whatever basis, religious or otherwise, we do live in a society of freedom, and even if you don't agree with something, you shouldn't stop others from doing it. It is very easy to not get married to someone of the same sex if you are against it, and very easy to allow others to if they so wish. Even the Tories have realised this point of view is, even for them, a bit too right wing, and have instated Nick Boles as Education and Skills Minister (whatever that means), who is also openly gay, to pull her and her grip on education into the current century.

The irony is that, not only is she the minister for Equality (I know, leading to the accusation that she is merely "minister for straight women"), she was famously the minister that said in January that the Tories needed to 'hate' less, when she is one of very few hating on same-sex marriage. She has said "we're against this, we're anti-that, we don't like them, we don't want them here, we don't want them doing this", which is all heinous and vile unless it is to do with holy matrimony, in which case she is definitely against it, anti-it, she doesn't like them, she doesn't want them here, she doesn't want them doing it.

Similarly to Mr. Gove, Nicky Morgan has never worked in education her entire life (and look where that got him). She is a born and bred lawyer and solicitor, who moved into politics to work at the Treasury. Perhaps rather than telling teachers what they should or shouldn't do, she should be telling politicians what they can and can't do, or, in light of recent event, who they can and can't sleep with (choir boys watch your nether regions). Equally to this, Ms Morgan has never spent a day of her life in state education, which calls into question her ability to govern it. She spent her school years in a fee-paying private school (Surbiton High), not only reaffirming that she fits the Tory stereotype, but that she has no idea how a school is run if the money is not rolling in (which in the case of Hampstead, is not).

As we said, we thought we would not treat Nicky Morgan MP as an iteration of Gove, but unfortunately her past and her mentality do not paint her in a good light to fulfil her newly-appointed post. Instead, we give her the benefit of the doubt, and allow her to, if she so chooses, be hoisted by her own petard.

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