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January 25, 2006

Whale dies; UK Education Bill in death throes?

Firstly, I am sad to say that the whale in the Thames has died -- apparently, after getting lost it suffered from "dehydration, muscle damage and failing kidneys".

A less cute casualty may well be our Government's Education Bill -- the Education Select Committee of MPs have suggested radical changes to the bill (placing far more restrictions on the extent to which schools can select their pupils, and giving schools much less independence from local government). To make matters more complicated the Conservative minority on the Committee have released a dissenting report insisting that the Government should stick to the plans in the Bill.

So far as Blair is concerned, this means he is left with a very awkward choice -- either he can push through his legislation by relying on votes from the Conservative opposition party, all he can seriously water down his plans in order to win the Labour Party's approval. Relying on the Conservatives to get the Bill through would make Blair a lot less popular with his own party -- to the extent that it could seriously shorten his time as Prime Minister. Blair has very publicly made clear how important this legislation is to him, so is in a very awkward situation. We may now be watching the death throes of the Education Bill, the Blair Government, or even both.

Posted by jon_mendel at January 25, 2006 11:33 PM