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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Michael Gove attacks schools' 'low standards' in Labour-led inner cities | Michael Gove attacks schools' 'low standards' in Labour-led inner cities |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| Michael Gove, the education secretary, is writing to all MPs in areas where schools are said to be underperforming – mainly schools in Labour-led authorities – demanding that they side with him to open up the education system "to the new providers who can raise standards". | Michael Gove, the education secretary, is writing to all MPs in areas where schools are said to be underperforming – mainly schools in Labour-led authorities – demanding that they side with him to open up the education system "to the new providers who can raise standards". |
| Gove has started his campaign against "the forces of conservatism" by writing to MPs in Leicester and Derbyon Tuesday asking them whether they want to "keep the door closed to new solutions and stick rigidly to the status quo, which is failing the children in their areas". | Gove has started his campaign against "the forces of conservatism" by writing to MPs in Leicester and Derbyon Tuesday asking them whether they want to "keep the door closed to new solutions and stick rigidly to the status quo, which is failing the children in their areas". |
| He says in "both of these areas, standards are far too low, with too many primaries which are judged by Ofsted to be unsatisfactory, or which have performed below national expectations for many years … 2012 results for 11-year-old pupils in each region are lower than the national average, lower than the average for the east Midlands region, far lower than pupils and parents have a right to expect". | He says in "both of these areas, standards are far too low, with too many primaries which are judged by Ofsted to be unsatisfactory, or which have performed below national expectations for many years … 2012 results for 11-year-old pupils in each region are lower than the national average, lower than the average for the east Midlands region, far lower than pupils and parents have a right to expect". |
| In Derby and Leicester, key stage 2 results in English and Maths have been below the national average for each of the past five years, education department officials said, and children in primary schools underperform many inner-city London areas with higher deprivation. | |
| The initiative follows the decision of David Cameron to position himself as the champion of an "aspiration nation" in which excellence in education is central to economic recovery. | The initiative follows the decision of David Cameron to position himself as the champion of an "aspiration nation" in which excellence in education is central to economic recovery. |
| The Conservatives are clearly trying to expose divisions in Labour over its approach to academies and free schools, and to pin responsibility on mainly Labour-run areas for inadequate school standards. | The Conservatives are clearly trying to expose divisions in Labour over its approach to academies and free schools, and to pin responsibility on mainly Labour-run areas for inadequate school standards. |
| In a speech to the rightwing thinktank Politeia, Gove said: "There are hundreds more underperforming primary schools, many concentrated in other disadvantaged communities, where we need to act." He said he was writing to MPs in areas of educational underperformance "outlining why we need to act and drawing attention to the failure, so far, of those in positions of power in local councils to move fast enough in improving our schools". | In a speech to the rightwing thinktank Politeia, Gove said: "There are hundreds more underperforming primary schools, many concentrated in other disadvantaged communities, where we need to act." He said he was writing to MPs in areas of educational underperformance "outlining why we need to act and drawing attention to the failure, so far, of those in positions of power in local councils to move fast enough in improving our schools". |
| He added: "In a number of communities the local forces of conservatism have worked against reform and have thrown every possible obstacle in the path of potential academy sponsors and free school founders trying to make a difference." | He added: "In a number of communities the local forces of conservatism have worked against reform and have thrown every possible obstacle in the path of potential academy sponsors and free school founders trying to make a difference." |
| He says the MPs "have a simple choice: stand with those in the academies and free schools movement who want to put children first, or stand with the adults who are blocking school improvement". | He says the MPs "have a simple choice: stand with those in the academies and free schools movement who want to put children first, or stand with the adults who are blocking school improvement". |
| Gove tried to increase Labour discomfiture by lavishing praise on Lord Adonis and Tony Blair for starting and championing the academies movement. Adonis holds a frontbench role in the Lords and oversees Labour industrial policy review. | Gove tried to increase Labour discomfiture by lavishing praise on Lord Adonis and Tony Blair for starting and championing the academies movement. Adonis holds a frontbench role in the Lords and oversees Labour industrial policy review. |
| Gove also vented his frustration at the forces blocking progress inside the civil service and parliament: "Far too often the Whitehall machine is risk-averse. Media commentary rarely allows early errors to be seen in context as experiments which will generate improvements. And the National Audit Office and public accounts committee, the most influential watchdogs in the country, are some of our fiercest forces of conservatism. | Gove also vented his frustration at the forces blocking progress inside the civil service and parliament: "Far too often the Whitehall machine is risk-averse. Media commentary rarely allows early errors to be seen in context as experiments which will generate improvements. And the National Audit Office and public accounts committee, the most influential watchdogs in the country, are some of our fiercest forces of conservatism. |
| "Time after time the NAO and PAC report in a way which treats any mistake in the implementation of any innovation as a scandalous waste of public money which prudent decision-making should have avoided. And yet at the same time it treats the faults of current provision as unalterable facts of nature – like the location of oceans and mountains – which should be accepted as the design of a benign providence. | "Time after time the NAO and PAC report in a way which treats any mistake in the implementation of any innovation as a scandalous waste of public money which prudent decision-making should have avoided. And yet at the same time it treats the faults of current provision as unalterable facts of nature – like the location of oceans and mountains – which should be accepted as the design of a benign providence. |
| "What we need, across the Westminster village, is a decisive shift in the culture in favour of risk and openness and away from small-c conservatism." | "What we need, across the Westminster village, is a decisive shift in the culture in favour of risk and openness and away from small-c conservatism." |
| He complains of the blockages put in the way of his education reforms, saying: "Whenever we press for faster action to help those children, there are always adults urging delay – time for consultations, audits, reviews, impact assessments, stakeholder management, securing professional buy-in, assuring ourselves of compliance with EU procurement rules, getting counsel's opinion, assessing sector feedback, monitoring noise in the system, and so on." | He complains of the blockages put in the way of his education reforms, saying: "Whenever we press for faster action to help those children, there are always adults urging delay – time for consultations, audits, reviews, impact assessments, stakeholder management, securing professional buy-in, assuring ourselves of compliance with EU procurement rules, getting counsel's opinion, assessing sector feedback, monitoring noise in the system, and so on." |
| Gove also used the speech to mount an assault on Ed Miliband, saying it would be a category error to describe the Labour leader's "one nation" speech as a shift to the centre. | Gove also used the speech to mount an assault on Ed Miliband, saying it would be a category error to describe the Labour leader's "one nation" speech as a shift to the centre. |
| "Blue Labour thinking – Ed Miliband's thinking – is not then a continuation or refashioning of Blairism, it is a critique and rejection of Blairism. It was an explicit disavowal of the centrism practised under Tony Blair and a celebration of an older, more solidaristic socialism of the kind which would have found favour with Tony Crosland or even Tony Benn. | "Blue Labour thinking – Ed Miliband's thinking – is not then a continuation or refashioning of Blairism, it is a critique and rejection of Blairism. It was an explicit disavowal of the centrism practised under Tony Blair and a celebration of an older, more solidaristic socialism of the kind which would have found favour with Tony Crosland or even Tony Benn. |
| "Where Tony Blair used his speeches to identify the forces of conservatism and declare war on them, Ed Miliband has used his speech to celebrate the forces of conservatism and declare he wants to become their leader. | "Where Tony Blair used his speeches to identify the forces of conservatism and declare war on them, Ed Miliband has used his speech to celebrate the forces of conservatism and declare he wants to become their leader. |
| "And the speech confirmed rather than changed Ed's ideological trajectory. It was another step in his emphatic embrace of those who want to keep society closed rather than open." | "And the speech confirmed rather than changed Ed's ideological trajectory. It was another step in his emphatic embrace of those who want to keep society closed rather than open." |
| The education secretary also ridiculed Miliband's portrayal of his secondary school, saying he presented "Haverstock secondary – Hampstead's principal educational establishment – as though it were some sort of school of hard knocks, a nursery of social solidarity and home of class-consciousness to rank with Durham's mines or Clydeside's shipyards. | The education secretary also ridiculed Miliband's portrayal of his secondary school, saying he presented "Haverstock secondary – Hampstead's principal educational establishment – as though it were some sort of school of hard knocks, a nursery of social solidarity and home of class-consciousness to rank with Durham's mines or Clydeside's shipyards. |
| "For some reason, as Ed talked of Haverstock, I was reminded of William Woodruff's memoir of growing up in 30s Lancashire, the Road to Nab End – quoted, incidentally, in Jack Straw's recent autobiography – where Woodruff talks of the 'intellectual socialists' he met at university: people who 'collected working-class experiences as others might collect stamps or butterflies'." | "For some reason, as Ed talked of Haverstock, I was reminded of William Woodruff's memoir of growing up in 30s Lancashire, the Road to Nab End – quoted, incidentally, in Jack Straw's recent autobiography – where Woodruff talks of the 'intellectual socialists' he met at university: people who 'collected working-class experiences as others might collect stamps or butterflies'." |