FraserWords

What is ‘freedom’?

‘Free’ schools are one of the pillars of the education reforms proposed by this coalition government (we have been worrying about the dangers these reforms pose to small schools in rural areas like Cornwall).

To education minister Michael Gove, who given his looks and background has to be a Tory minister by law, ‘freedom’ means casting aside the shackles of local authority control (never mind all that democracy and accountability stuff, so 20^th century) and allowing staff, parents and governors to control their own budget and make their own decisions.

This ‘freedom’, of course, comes at a price to the taxpayers who are still shackled – the state must give ‘free’ schools more money as a carrot to tempt them down the primrose path. ‘Free’ schools will then get generous cash settlements straight from government – amounts which will be deducted, of course, from the pot the rest of us get to share in the areas concerned.

Some freedom.

Anyway, in the least surprising development of the year so far, it was revealed yesterday that the majority of schools applying for this freedom are in affluent, middle-class areas: of 32 to set up in the coming year, 13 are in the south and just two are in the 10% most deprived areas of the country. Less than a fifth are in the north.

Hopefully, there may be trouble ahead… Some headteachers are warning that they will seek judicial reviews, or take other court action, over ‘free’ school applications in their areas because of budgeting (unfair loss of cash) and selection (‘free’ schools targeting brighter children from better-off families) issues. Some governing bodies are now running scared at the idea that they will bear responsibility in employment law, personally and financially.

Which is all great. The more difficulties the government faces, the better for the majority who wish to continue their children’s education in a fair, reliable, accountable way. These proposals are dogma-driven, not driven by the needs of our children, and they are proposals to set up state-funded private schools at the expense of the majority.

The part that bothers Cornwall, of course, is the survival of our 118 schools which have less than 120 pupils, and on that issue, the availability of funds to provide for children in a rural area with particular needs, Mr Gove remains, strangely, silent. I thought the Conservatives stood up for old English values?

His colleagues, of course, make much of ‘freeing’ us from the shackles of the state in other areas too, though so far they have not managed to achieve this.

The proposal to ‘free’ publicly-owned forests to enable private owners to yell “get orf moi land” at us peasants foundered on the rocks of mass public protest, for in some areas we still prefer the cold dead hands of the state.

Such as the NHS, where confusing, confused, botched proposals to introduce free market dogma where it’s not needed, wanted or helpful are meeting similar difficulties. In both areas, the internet-based campaign group 38degrees (www.38degrees.org.uk ) has been doing a great deal of what the opposition should be doing.

Most of all, the ardour of the right to ‘free’ us all from the state very quickly dampens when the wallets of the wealthy are at risk – when the banks faced meltdown, dogma was very quickly abandoned in the mad panicked rush into the welcoming arms of the state, which mopped the bankers’ fevered brows and bailed them out, leaving us in the financial pickle for which Mr Cameron wishes us to pay. Again.

Moving on… thanks to those of you who responded to the bit last week about new mutant strains of E coli.

Is the alternative name for the lethal Sudden Oak Death affecting our forests ‘tree coli’? Would a urinary infection be called ‘Wee coli’? If you’d got over the disease and caught it again would it be ‘Re coli’?

And finally…. Never thought I’d be polite to the owner of a camper van, but I enjoyed Numbers4Me’s comment on parking last week.