“Every school in the country should become an academy, David Cameron says in a move that would represent the most significant reform of the education system since the introduction of the national curriculum. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister says that the Tories will give all schools the opportunity to be free from the control of local authorities. Taking advantage of the disarray in the Labour Party, Mr Cameron uses the article to establish himself firmly as the voice of the centre ground in British politics, saying the only the Tories are “showing we are the real party of working people”.” – Daily Telegraph
“When Labour leadership contenders say they want to phase out academies, I say the opposite. I want every school in the country to have the opportunity to become an academy and to benefit from the freedoms this brings. So we will make it a priority to recruit more academy sponsors and support more great headteachers in coming together in academy chains. In doing so, we can extend educational excellence and opportunity to every school and every child in our country. 100 days in, we are showing it is a Conservative majority government which has the ideas to build the One Nation vision and to deliver real social mobility in our country.” – David Cameron Daily Telegraph
“One hundred days after throwing off the shackles of the Lib Dems, David Cameron has injected a new sense of purpose into a government that was paralysed by Coalition infighting, while laying the groundwork for what could be a great reforming administration. On the economy, he has put the emphasis firmly on making work pay, while pressing ahead with the vital task of redressing the imbalance between the bloated state and the wealth-producing private sector. Particularly welcome are the moves to lower the benefits cap and raise the thresholds for inheritance and income tax.” – Leader Daily Mail
“Under Tony Blair, Labour understood that the centre ground was the space to occupy; doing so appealed to voters from both Right and Left, and reshaped the political discourse. Today, standing astride the centre-ground, with all the authority that an election victory brings, is David Cameron. Of all the parties, it is only the Conservatives who can speak for all working Britons.” – Leader Daily Telegraph
“Left-wing Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn has brushed off criticism from his rivals, warning against the debate turning “puerile”. Ahead of an Edinburgh rally, he said he was “not really very bothered” by what others had to say about his campaign. Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham have all attacked his plans, saying they are not credible and will make the party unelectable. The row comes as voting opens in the contest to replace Ed Miliband.” – BBC
>Today: Adrian Hilton on Comment: Teachers for Corbyn need a lesson
“Gordon Brown will break his silence during the Labour leadership election on Sunday as he adds his weight to efforts to halt the Jeremy Corbyn bandwagon. The former Prime Minister, who enjoys more respect among Labour members than Tony Blair, will make a speech in London entitled “Power for a Purpose – the Future of the Labour Party”. Although Mr Brown’s office refused to comment, allies believe he will endorse Yvette Cooper amid signs she is gaining ground in her battle with Andy Burnham to be the “stop Corbyn” candidate, after a powerful speech on Thursday attacking the left-winger.” – Independent
>Yesterday:
“Acclimatising to life after power, four of the coalition’s most senior Liberal Democrats are turning their hands to writing. Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and David Laws are to publish their accounts of working at the heart of government, and Norman Baker, the former home office minister, is also due to a release a book lifting the lid on his disagreements with his Conservative counterparts before his resignation last year. An ally of the former deputy prime minister said that his book would be “something reflective about his time in politics”, but added that it was “not a kiss and tell”.” – The Times(£)
“THE Scottish Government’s former chief science adviser has warned that its decision to ban growing genetically modified crops could have “apocalyptic” consequences for Scotland and actually threaten the very assets it is supposedly aimed at protecting. Professor Muffy Calder, who stepped down from the role in December and has yet to be replaced, said she is “disappointed and angry” at the decision by ministers to opt-out of European Union consents for some GM crops.” – The Scotsman
“The long march of Europe’s radical left against the laws of arithmetic reached a foreseeable denouement this week. It failed. Greece’s parliament voted to accept tough conditions for a eurozone bailout of €85 billion — the country’s third in five years. Having been elected in January promising to resist austerity, Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, now champions a deal that reverses all that rhetoric….Only last month Jeremy Corbyn, the likely new Labour leader, urged his comrades to learn from Syriza and Podemos. So they should, but not in the sense that Mr Corbyn meant.” – Oliver Kamm The Times(£)
“I sometimes hear people say: “How could anyone allege such dreadful things if they were not true?” The answer, unfortunately, is “surprisingly easily”. The ninth of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” The Almighty would not have included it if it were not a common problem. Paedophilia is a good subject for false accusations because it is so hard to disprove once the suspicion is aroused, and because it raises such strong emotions of disgust.” Charles Moore Daily Telegraph
“After the general election, I went back to my dog-eared copy of Dangerfield and re-read it. The parallels between Labour’s situation and the fate of the Liberals were far more striking than the disjunctions. To pick just one, Labour’s great victory in 1997 now increasingly looks like what Dangerfield saw in the Liberal landslide of 1906 – a victory from which the party never recovered.” – Martin Kettle The Guardian
“At my proposals’ centre is my belief (also widely shared) that between “economic” and “asylum-seeking” migration lies a vast grey area that may embrace the majority of migrants in both apparent camps. People seek a better life. People try to escape distress. What ails their lives will often be a web of misery in which poverty, oppression, persecution and discrimination will be tangled up beyond even their own comprehension — let alone the judgment of some court or tribunal. Ambition and escape become part of the same urge to move. But they cannot all move. So how do we dampen these driving forces without extinguishing all possibility of escape?” – Matthew Parris The Times(£)