Politics Watch

A few days ago, I mentioned plans to stop the government’s proposal to cut funding for second degrees and how ridiculous I thought this Labour initiative was. Unfortunately, the Conservative motion opposing the cuts was defeated by a margin of 53 votes, and as a result it looks as if the plans will go ahead, with the cuts starting to hit budgets in 2008-2009. A sad day for education, and yet another example of why we should give this Labour government the boot at the earliest possible opportunity.

Both the Guardian and BBC News are currently carrying stories about the Government’s plans to cut funds for UK students who are looking to study a second degree at the same or lower level as their existing qualifications. So for example, if I wanted to go back to university and do a BA in Ancient History (which is something I’d like to do at some point, though obviously not for the next few years), I’d have to pay the full cost rather than having my education subsidised by the tax payer.

This proposal is ridiculous for several reasons. First of all, it will seriously damage opportunities for people who want to take a different course in order to change careers, either because they want to or because circumstances require them to (e.g. someone who did a degree in physical education and then has an accident which prevents them from using the skills they obtained). It also creates a financial barrier to people looking to return to education, but then we know already that Labour isn’t shy of erecting such barriers—after all they introduced tuition and top-up fees. Finally, the proposal will disproportionately damage institutions such as the Open University, which expects to lose approximately £30m of its teaching budget as a result.

Thankfully, the Conservatives have got some sense for once and are putting forward a motion to try and stop this stupid proposal, and there will be a half-day debate in the Commons today about the issue. Hopefully common sense will prevail and the Government will be forced to rethink the proposal as a result (or abandon it altogether, which I would prefer).

According to BBC News, the latest Government advice to school teachers is that toy weapons ‘help boys to learn’, and therefore staff in schools should not discourage children from playing with toy guns, soldiers etc.—provided that ‘practioners [mainly teachers] help the boys to understand and respect the rights of other children and to take responsibility for the resources and environment.’ This all sounds pretty sensible, and it boils down to not restricting the opportunities for boys learn through play, whilst reminding them that some of the scenarios they encounter can have serious consequences in the real world. The teaching unions, however, are acting as if this is the thin end of the wedge, complaining that ‘the reason why teachers often intervene when kids have toy guns is that the boy is usually being very aggressive.’ Well I’m sorry to disappoint you Mr Sinnott (General Secretary of the NUT), but young boys sometimes are a bit aggressive, get into fights and occasionally upset other children—it’s all part of growing up. If they don’t learn that getting too aggressive is wrong when they’re young and when it doesn’t matter quite as much, when will they figure this out?

Let’s get another thing straight: playing with tanks and plastic soldiers does not turn your child into a gun-toting homicidal maniac. When I was younger, my favourite toys were my huge army of plastic soldiers (including tanks, barricades and hundreds of troops) and my favourite board games were Escape from Colditz (in which I always played the Germans) and Risk. Have I grown up into an aggressive and harmful person as a result? Of course not. I might occasionally display signs of being a control freak or a megalomaniac, and I still enjoy the board games which I was introduced to as a child, but I am in no way a danger to the general public or those around me.

As for the unions being up in arms about boys being aggressive, I can only assume that they’ve never seen girls at play. Whilst boys might push each other about, girls can be much more cruel to their classmates. Do we hear the NUT calling for dolls and wendy houses to be banned because of what girls get up to when they play amongst themselves? Actually, perhaps we’d better not give them any ideas…

For what is possibly the first time since coming into office, this Government is actually saying something sensible about education, and the unions immediately criticise it. I dread to think what would happen if these people ever actually started to run the country—we’d all be locked indoors and wrapped in cotton wool before you could say ‘nanny state’. Thank goodness the unions have less of a say in politics than they used to, we’d be up a certain creek without a paddle if they still had the power to influence government decisions.

Further reading

• Confident, capable and creative: supporting boys’ achievements