To the blockheads who are calling for the abolition of private education as a result of John Major's comment that "The dominance of a private-school educated elite and well-heeled middle class in the “upper echelons” of public life in Britain is “truly shocking” - I have a few more policies I'd be willing to suggest they might like to advocate:
1) We could introduce a road-damaging policy whereby we wreck all the decent motorways and force everyone to drive on congested, single lane A and B roads.
2) We could introduce a travel-shafting policy whereby we close down our best railway links and get everyone back on the manky Victorian railway lines.
3) We could introduce an abrogation of technology-increase and insist everyone with memory sticks and mobile phones reverts back to floppy disks and phones that feel like a brick.
4) We could eliminate all the 'back to work' schemes designed to help the unemployed get back into the employment market, and leave those out of work to rot on the dole.
The calls for the abolition of private education aren't any less silly than the above polices I made up. No, what's needed is better State schools not fewer high quality private schools. Good education reform does not involve chopping down the good trees we have - it involves irrigating the dry soil and putting some life back into the barren land.
* Photo courtesy of oxford.university.press
