"Cameron letter suggests he wants to explore selling places at UK state schools to foreigners" says Tim Montgomerie, referring us to an article by Sam Coates in today's Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3807521.ece
The article says it is "a controversial plan pushed by David Cameron" but I think Sam Coates misunderstands how the civil servants in Whitehall and Downing Street operate.
These are politicians in all but name, and pursue policies of their own devising, usually without the government knowing what they are up to.
The letter was not from David Cameron, it was from the Prime Minister's Private Secretary - and I would guess that the Prime Minister did not know of its existence.
Indeed, is it likely that such a crazy internationalist policy would be advanced by a Conservative Prime Minister?
Is this not a textbook example of David Goodhart's argument that an internationalist pro-liberal elite is controlling immigration policy against the wishes of the democratic majority?
The letter in full is worth reading carefully. The only mentions of the Prime Minister are a conventional expression of thanks in the opening line and an innocuous reference (in Point 4) to a discussion the Prime Minister had about foreign universities opening in the United Kingdom. Otherwise the "we" in the letter could be anyone - the wording does not indicate in any way that these ideas are coming from David Cameron himself.
Also note that the letter is copied to other senior civil servants, not to Cabinet Ministers (and remember that civil servants in Whitehall departments answer to the civil servants in Downing Street NOT to the minister that heads their department).
Read the letter for yourself:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00428/FOR_SAM_428564a.pdf
The article says it is "a controversial plan pushed by David Cameron" but I think Sam Coates misunderstands how the civil servants in Whitehall and Downing Street operate.
These are politicians in all but name, and pursue policies of their own devising, usually without the government knowing what they are up to.
The letter was not from David Cameron, it was from the Prime Minister's Private Secretary - and I would guess that the Prime Minister did not know of its existence.
Indeed, is it likely that such a crazy internationalist policy would be advanced by a Conservative Prime Minister?
Is this not a textbook example of David Goodhart's argument that an internationalist pro-liberal elite is controlling immigration policy against the wishes of the democratic majority?
The letter in full is worth reading carefully. The only mentions of the Prime Minister are a conventional expression of thanks in the opening line and an innocuous reference (in Point 4) to a discussion the Prime Minister had about foreign universities opening in the United Kingdom. Otherwise the "we" in the letter could be anyone - the wording does not indicate in any way that these ideas are coming from David Cameron himself.
Also note that the letter is copied to other senior civil servants, not to Cabinet Ministers (and remember that civil servants in Whitehall departments answer to the civil servants in Downing Street NOT to the minister that heads their department).
Read the letter for yourself:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00428/FOR_SAM_428564a.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment