Yesterday, our latest prime minister, Rishi Sunak, announced that as well as tackling the state of the NHS and channel migrants, he would make it compulsory for school students to continue to study maths until 18. This was, he announced, necessary to combat poor maths literacy. His speech has impressed precisely no-one, and has been extensively torn to shreds by commenters like Owen Jones and Novara Media. After all, it’s the Tory policies of underfunding, cuts and stealth privatisation that have created the mess the NHS is in, in the first place. As for the channel migrants, they’ve been unable to tackle that either, except with Patel’s plan to send them all to Rwanda, a country suffering serious human rights abuses. That plan was condemned by the public and also, I believe, various judicial authorities.
Abbott in a tweet stated that Sunak’s plan for continuing maths education until the school leaving age was bogus because the Tories had cut teacher’s pay, as well as underfunding education generally. She’s absolutely right, as I can remember from my schooldays when schools were increasingly decaying thanks to cuts to funds. Except for the academies, of course, which were given more far more than state schools. Critics have also wondered whether Sunak will even have time to implement this reform before the possibility that he and his wretched party are voted out at the next election.
There’s also been an interesting opinion piece in the Groaniad by a lecturer in mathematical biology. He argues that it’s unnecessary, as maths is already the most popular A Level subject, far outstripping its nearest rival, psychology. He also states that making it compulsory would further decrease the numbers of people taking arts and humanities subjects, as they’d have to give up them as well as choose another STEM subject to harmonise with the maths. He also makes the excellent point that making it compulsory might put people off it even more by forcing them to study a subject they hate.
To me, it just looks like Sunak trying desperately to look like he’s actually doing and standing for something, whereas in fact he stands for nothing except the worn out Tory policies that have driven the public services into the ground and working people to desperation. The fact that he has nothing to say was shown very clearly just before Christmas, when he, or one of the Tories, announced they wanted to meet the railway unions, but wouldn’t talk about wages. As wages are part of the issue, this negated the whole point of any meeting. Again, it was just an exercise in public relations. He wanted it to appear that he was doing something and prepared to negotiate while the reality was the complete opposite.
Sunak is flailing about with nothing to offer, and it’s obvious.
Tags: Academies, Bath University, Biology, Channel Migrants, Conservatives, Cuts, Diane Abbott, Human Rights, NHS, NHS Privatisation, Novara Media, Owen Jones, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Rwanda, Schools, The Guardian, Underfunding
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 
January 5, 2023 at 2:30 pm |
Sunak’s speech is entirely an insincere deflection from the ghastly state that the Tories have left the country in. FYI I’ve read on the Beeb that Richard Tice’s Reform Party pledges to stand a candidate in every Tory constituency in 2024. I’m no great fan of Tice, even though I agree with him about Tory policies and Sunak’s tax hikes (so does Peter Stefanovich)- but that should scare the crap out of the likes of Priti Pitiless.
January 5, 2023 at 2:41 pm |
“Sunak is flailing about with nothing to offer, and it’s obvious.” Not obvious to most readers of our press! Most of the press will continue to endorse everything Sunak and his party does until it decides to turn king-maker and force an election.
January 5, 2023 at 3:27 pm |
I’m afraid you’re right.