Educational Underclass

Now that Libya has been freed from the evil grip of Tony Blair's ex-chum, the Secretary of State for Taming and Training has been having a bit of a burble about the Government's spiffing plan for all those armed forces personnel whose unparalleled bravery and dedication Daveybloke is rewarding with a redundancy notice. As is fashionable these days, Michael Gove dragged his own background into the discussion: Daveybloke's pet educational underclass was born to a single mother and adopted at the age of four months into a family whose ethical values were so rock-solid that he grew up into a leader-writer for the Murdoch Times and, by sheer hard work, intelligence and moral force, penetrated to the upper echelons of that Juggernaut of social responsibility which is the modern Conservative Party. Apparently there are those who consider this a success story. Fortunately, in the case of children who are not Michael Gove and thus may grow up to be rioters instead, the solution to the problem of providing an appropriate fate is a little simpler. Former members of the armed forces will be "encouraged" to take up teaching, though it is as yet unclear whether the encouragement will be virtuous and bigsocietal or grubby and financial; since yes-men with guns are ipso facto virtuous, this will present children with positive male role models who will be, if not encouraged, then at least permitted to resort to physical violence should any of their charges show signs of joining any "vicious, lawless, immoral minority" which is not affiliated to News International or the modern Conservative Party.