The Tories need to ensure that grammars work for all – under a fundamentally new system
GRAMMARS were fantastic for the kids that got in but those that didn’t got a third-rate education
WE’RE all for the return of grammar schools — but only under a new system fundamentally different from the past.
Grammars were fantastic for the kids that got in. Those that didn’t got a third-rate education.
That arrangement cannot be exhumed. Nor, thankfully, would it get through the Commons.
Grammars should instead be part of a new mix of schools designed around pupils’ specific talents and with a much greater emphasis on vocational courses.
It will hugely benefit them — and the economy when they land skilled jobs.
But there must be safeguards to ensure grammars take as many bright kids from poor families as richer ones.
Few working-class children attend the grammars still surviving in England. They are magnets for middle-class parents delighted to save a fortune on private school fees.
The Left’s knee-jerk opposition to grammars is wrong. But the Tories need to ensure they work for all.
Remain positive
THE Remainers have surely hit the bottom of the barrel in their desperate and ceaseless search for Brexit gloom.
Australia won’t sign a trade deal with Britain for three years, they sneer triumphantly. Three years!
But how could the Aussies do it sooner? We intend to trigger Article 50 early next year. We are not legally able to sign new deals until we leave the EU at the end of that two-year notice period.
That’s nearly three years from now.
Is this the best the Remainers have? Will they never concede the golden opportunities we now have?
One of them, to her credit, does now reckon we can become “the global leader in free trade”.
If only a few more would follow Theresa May’s example.
Fire the fatcat
THE staggering indulgence towards failed NHS fatcat Katrina Percy grows more sickening by the day.
It was outrageous enough that after quitting over her disastrous running of the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust she was punted sideways into another lavishly-rewarded job.
Now we know the “advisory” role was simply made up for her. It never existed before. She was the only candidate — and kept every penny of her £240,000 chief executive’s salary and perks.
In other words, the Trust, in a blatant abuse of a quarter of a million pounds of public funds, just did Percy a favour.
Jeremy Hunt must put a stop to it. The NHS badly needs every penny.
Percy resigned over the Trust’s failure under her to probe hundreds of deaths.
She cannot keep her snout in the trough in some cushy non-job.