Three into two
Well this has been a week rightly dominated by the Budget, but soon we shall be in local elections territory.
Yesterday evening Suffolk County Councillors voted to reverse a three tier schools system introduced in 1974, in favour of a two-tier structure. Many people are very upset about this. The vote was based on a recommendation of a cross party Liberal-Labour-Conservative group of councillors. However, last night, Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors voted against it. Two days ago a letter appeared in the East Anglian Daily Times from the Labour Group leader in the Council, criticising the silence of the county’s Conservative MPs. What I can unhesitatingly say is that the MPs have worked extremely hard on this issue both in public and in private – the assertion truly is rubbish.
However, political advantage is sensed, ahead of those elections. Whatever the merits of the three versus two tier system, the entirely predictable manoeuvrings of Labour and Liberal councillors in Suffolk tell us just how nervous they are about 3rd May.
Anger over middle schools or not, I do not think they will be enjoying the day.