The rise of Tony Zoffis

[Briar]

The rise of Tony Zoffis

Francis Beckett

The new-look humble, listening Blair hardly outlasted polling day. With the announcement that Andrew Adonis is to get a peerage so that he can become a minister at the Department for Education and Skills, we are back, with a sharp bump, to the old, arrogant, reactionary Blair.

Adonis has run education policy from the moment Blair entered No 10. Whoever happened to be the transient education secretary – Ruth Kelly is Blair's fourth, if anyone's counting – Adonis, immortalised by Ted Wragg as Tony Zoffis, has called the shots. And he has always been personally associated with divisive and reactionary policies, from top-up tuition fees to city academies.

...

Adonis is very keen on privatising schools. Early on, he found one kindred spirit at the heart of the education system: Sir Cyril Taylor, who had been appointed by the Conservative government to oversee the first unsuccessful attempt to privatise state education by setting up privately run city technology colleges. Together they masterminded the scheme to force comprehensives into becoming specialist schools and finding private sponsors. Together they planned to create city academies, which are city technology colleges under a new name. They have travelled the country together, visiting their schools like royalty, acknowledging the homage of headteachers who know where power really lies.

Now Lord Adonis is to be more in control than ever, directing civil servants and ensuring total obedience from his nominal boss, Ruth Kelly. It means branding more children as failures at the age of 11; movement towards allowing universities to charge what they like; a central role in state education for private fee-charging schools; and more privatisation. And all under the direction of a man who has never been elected by anyone, nor even been a member of the political party elected last week. What price the new, consensual Blair now?

More at:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1480942,00.html


(Apparently Adonis was behind the retention of Chris Woodhead as head of Ofsted. Since that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me, he is therefore responsible for my never having voted Labour since!)

[Vladimir]

1. A BBC profile of Adonis:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4530847.stm

Seems to me this appointment is a good thing... in the sense that it brings him out in the open, although of course as a Lord he remains as unaccountable as ever. Yet more democracy at work.