The psychopaths that make up the Blair government certainly know how to tear a country apart. Here’s the recipe:
1. Take something good, something that works but which links the present to a past you despise and hate.
2. Either let it fall into disuse or disrepute or, better still, be instrumental in its decline.
3. When the deed is done and said institution/tradition/habit is thoroughly discredited become its saviour.
4. Recreate it but in the image of your own depraved fantasies.
5. Throughout, use keywords (reform, improve, modernise) that, to the untrained eye, have positive and inspiring connotations.
6. Repeat as often as necessary until the past has been obliterated.
Targets include: the family, country (ie white, Anglo-Saxon) culture, the countryside itself, education, pride in our nation and so on…
In keeping with the above recipe for ’success’ Estelle Morris - another of Labour’s failed quota-women - suggests we abolish the A-level exam.
As I mentioned the other day, the A-level - once the gold standard of British education (only the top 5% took this exam - hence the disdain with which our Marxist government treats this elitist test) - is already so easy that almost everybody who takes the exam passes it anyway. So it’s already more or less abolished as a meaningful exam. In fact, the government’s record on education is now so awful they’ve nearly abolished the entire idea of learning as a means to improving the lot of yourself and your family.
“The 14-19 exam system is now ripe for modernisation, ripe for renewal. I think Ruth has the opportunity to be remembered as the Secretary of State for Education who actually had the courage to grasp that and move ahead.”
Such words… Who could resist?
Unfortunately, few actually do resist and that’s why these people have been getting away with the dismantling of the Great Britain - and England particularly - for the last 8 years. But ‘renewal’ and ‘modernisation’ are words that hide a multitude of evils, not least of all the removal of all means of independence and self-improvement and the simultaneous relegation of the UK’s lower classes into gibbering serfs of the ruling elite.
This freefall in educational standards hurts the most vulnerable, those least able to resist the demolition of the idea of the pursuit of knowledge. The aspiring middle classes can always find a way around the appalling lack of standards our children are subjected to - although they too are pulled down by the general degradation of our educational philosophy.
But the working classes have a much tougher time. Robbed of decent schools, uninspired at times by poor parenting and locked into a totalitarian educational system by a government machine which bans them from spending their own tax money on their own children’s education - ‘wise’ government spends it for them - they face a bleak future.
Labour’s project to create an inept, dependent and needy voting class for themselves continues unabated.

Couldn’t agree more Gary - it is the creation of an underclass that feeds off Labour.
Comment by David Vance — August 16, 2005 @ 3:13 pm
I agree with H. L. Mencken when he said:
“The only way to look at a politician is down”
But is it all the current governments fault? If things are in a bad way (health provision, educational standards etc) has it all been suddenly in the last eight years?
The worst aspects of policy in my opinion, PFI’s and a slavish devotion to ‘the market’ are not at all socialist, Blair has stolen the Conservatives clothes, and we’ve ended up with the worst of both worlds.
Someone who smiles and insists it’s for the best as he shafts you.
Comment by driverchris — August 16, 2005 @ 3:33 pm
It hasn’t helped that teachers have encouraged the spread of “Media Studies” and “Sociology” as A level subjects. These don’t mean diddly squat to most job sectors.
Comment by DE — August 16, 2005 @ 4:58 pm
I think this decline has been going on since before Labour took power, but with the majority he enjoyed, Blair could easily have taken on the unions and brought about some meaningful reform of the system. Instead he has opted for trying to convince everyone that the system is fine, or before that there was the whole debacle of downgrading loads of people and hoping nobody would notice. Remember that?
The best we can hope for is that the budget private education providers take off in this country as they have in some other places.
Comment by Bishop Hill — August 16, 2005 @ 7:59 pm
We are seeing a long decline in examination credibility which, I’m afraid, commenced with the Conservative Government. The National Curriculum Council was established to oversee the content and assessment of the national curriculum (for 5–16 year-old children) as part of the 1988 Education Act. Before the 1988 Education Act, schools throughout England and Wales were free to decide the content of their curriculum and the examination boards setting the exams. In 1997 under a Labour Government, control was handed over to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA); underpinned by the legislative framework set out in the Education Act 1997, as amended by the Education Act 2002. From the QCA website:
The 1997 Labour Government insisted that the English boards merge to form three major ‘one-stop shops’ incorporating A levels, GCSEs and the General National Vocational Qualifications. Any remaining control over standards by the Universities was lost. In March 1999, the Government announced the outcome of the Qualifying for Success consultation. This proposed: a new AS qualification (Advanced Subsidiary), a new broader A level syllabus, and a new ‘synoptic’ assessment at A level. A levels were subsequently revised following this pattern in 2001.
The most logical answer would be for the Universities to resurrect their examination boards for local A level examinations, those boards still exist & market A levels abroad. It would be a good idea to go back to assigning grades according to the percentage of candidates gaining marks ie the top x% getting an A, the next y% getting a B and so on. That way if the exam was easier or harder than usual the marks would be adjusted — as was the mechanism when I sat my A levels.
Comment by Thersites — August 16, 2005 @ 10:01 pm
The only thing to do to ressurect standards in education would be to adopt the International Baccalaureat as an educational benchmark. It’s recognised the world over and what is better, the standard is international and so Blair etc. can’t screw around with it. Just a thought.
Comment by Bill Sticker — August 17, 2005 @ 8:15 pm
I’m happy to accept that under Maggie - who wasn’t really a conservative, more an economic libertarian - education wasn’t a priority. I think Keith Joseph introduced the GCSE.
Regardless, the decline over the last 8 years cannot be blamed on the administration that came before. Labour’s ideology - equality of outcome, no elitism, all must have prizes - is ruining things for everybody.
Bill, sadly you’re right; the only way to preserve anything in this country is to keep Blair’s hands away from it.
GM
Comment by Administrator — August 17, 2005 @ 10:21 pm