GAVIN Williamson ought to be on the backbenches this morning, either sacked or having resigned over the fiasco that is the A-Level results.
Instead he remains responsible for education in this country,
ironic given the fact millions of students want him in detention.
Why? Because no-one resigns from Government anymore apart from
the former Chancellor Sajid Javid. Resigning was something you did from Theresa
May’s administration and so last year darling.
After all when you can bend the lockdown rules you helped
draw up as Dominic Cummings did why should anyone else stand down for their
mistakes?
But there is a darker art at work here, that of the ‘useful
idiot’. The Prime Minister and his inner circle seem adept at using it to shield
themselves from the worst of the headlines, sparing no-one in the process.
Cummings actions over lockdown could have become a debate on
the Prime Minister’s judgement at a sticky time for him. What followed was Useful
Idiot version 1.0 – Cummings.
The advisor broke all conventions, called a press conference
from a trestle table and met the allegations with a mixture of arrogance, denial
and contempt. The result, everyone was talking about Cummings, no-one about the
PM.
And so onto the A-Levels, by my reckoning there was just
over 100 hours between the PM’s ‘robust’ results soundbite and the u-turn. One
minute the system for moderating A-Level grades had a gold star, the next it
was being hauled before the headteacher.
The PM is becoming increasingly adept at saying something
which falls apart within days or at least a week. For the ‘robust A-Level moderation
process’ see ‘oven-ready Brexit deal’ and ‘free of COVID-19 by Christmas’. All
have required a back tracking or screeching u-turn.
This Brexiteer Government though cannot lose their leader,
their maestro, hence the need for human shields to ‘take one for the team’ –
the team being the PM himself.
You can have a job in Government
but you must be prepared to cop everything when, not if, the wheels come off.
Ask Cummings, ask Matt Hancock over PPE, ask Robert Jenrick over planning and
lockdown breaking.
Which brings us onto Williamson –
Useful Idiot 2.0. He won’t be sacked as the furore, together with his own unpleasant
pleasant personality with the media, will mean days and days of negative
headlines in his direction, not that of the PM.
I’ve watched him on the breakfast
shows this morning and his delivery was robotic with an air of ‘I’ve graced
your show with my presence’ not any form of mea culpa.
The line to take is seemingly he
discovered all was not well over the weekend with the controversial algorithm,
then why not scrap the results first thing yesterday morning, not at 4pm?
Nothing is going smoothly for
this Government now; in fact I would go as far to say its in crisis. Think about
that, a Government handed an 80 seat majority eight months ago is already in
turmoil.
While Coronavirus is not as
rampant as in the United States, the Government’s message is all over the
place. One minute its going to be cleaned up by Christmas, the next it’s
something we’ll have to live with for the foreseeable future.
The country is in a deep
recession and unless something changes in the next eight weeks our divorce from
the European Union will see us leave with nothing agreed. Far from the ‘oven-ready’
deal millions of hard-working Brexit voters were promised.
A second Scottish referendum
looks almost inevitable, while many say the Prime Minister will simply not grant
one he will find it hugely difficult if Sturgeon and her pals win a landslide
in May in the Scottish Parliament elections having made a new referendum the central
pillar of the campaign.
One could suggest Sturgeon demand
the Prime Minister listen to the ‘will of the people’……..
When will it end? Will the Prime
Minister, a man known for his lack of desire for detail, ever get a grip on
this chaotic Government?
Leadership is more than being the
country’s cheerleader, its about making the right decisions at the right time for
the benefit of all. If you are constantly performing u-turns you will never
move forward.
The keys to Downing Street for
Labour or indeed any ambitious Tory are on the hook marked ‘competency’. The
opposition mustn’t fall into the ‘rich Tories bashing the poor kids’ manta,
however true it is.
Show the British people this
Government is incompetent, if they can mess up Coronavirus, if they can mess up
exam results, what’s next? Brexit?
