Tuesday, January 09, 2007

More on Ruth Kelly

Finally some tangible opposition to the rank hypocrisy of Ruth Kelly. Sadly this slating hasn't come from the elected politicians we would expect to be on hand to expose such double standards, it has been through the pages of national newspapers.

ConservativeHome is reporting that The Sun, through it's leader, has criticised Kelly's decision to send her child to a fee paying private school for special kids. They slam her, accusing the former Education Secretary as being a "fully fledged, ocean-going, two-faced hypocrite". Reading this on ConservativeHome was a little bit of a relief, because it finally presented me with the opportunity to see some form of Conservative outlet articulating my views.

David Cameron has distanced himself from the criticism, doubtless attempting to position himself as being warm, cuddly and representative of those who just want to do the best for their kids. It appears DC has temporarily taken leave of understanding just who he is. I am a small league politician (a local councillor) so I am totally at liberty to play the caring sharing card. I can see what Ruth Kelly's motivations are, but the simple fact of the matter is that she is part of a government that has led a concerted attack on anything outside state-funded education. They abolished the Assisted Places Scheme (which gave parents from all backgrounds the opportunity to send their kids to places like where Kelly has sent hers, without having to mortgage the house to afford the £15k a year fees) and worked tirelessly to find new ways of taxing us so they can pump billions into the State system. Mr Cameron is the leader of the opposition. He should be standing up to the government and exposing this hypocrisy, just as I would criticise my local council if they spent money on something that they had worked so hard to denigrate. It is his job!

Back to the core issue: What has all this money got us in this country? Well the cash soaked education sector is still unable to be trusted by Ms Kelly, a tantamount admission of utter failure by her government to deliver decent standards. The same is true of the NHS.

I just wish our national politicians had the guts to expose this. I desperately hope Cameron can start scoring some goals with the total shambles emanating from this government on an almost weekly basis. In my view he has missed an open goal here.

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