Open Secret

Since at least the nineteen-eighties, when the education brief was beslimed by the oozing batrachian Kenneth Baker, the extent of the Government's reverence for teachers has been on fairly plain display. It is more or less on a par with the Government's reverence for NHS staff, transport workers and unpaid carers; which makes it all the stranger that people are acting all surprised over messages between Gavin "Stupid Boy" Williamson, who was Minister for Profitable Pedagogy at the time, and the ever-appealing Matt Hancock, in which the usual respects are paid with the accustomed degree of professionalism. The relevant spokesbeing for the Deputy Conservatives expressed relief that Williamson had once again shown himself slightly worse than anything appointed during the coalition; while the Minister for Mere Schools pointed out that Williamson is married to a primary school teacher, so there is no excuse for the rest of the profession refusing to put up with him. Williamson himself said that his crudities were not directed against teachers, but against some unions which work to defend the interests of teachers and which may happen to have a few teachers littering their membership.