When Andy Burnham arrived in No 10, even many Conservatives thought that there might be one positive feature about the new regime. There was hope that the second worst member of the Stumbler dégringolade - the worst being Rachel Reeves - would now be replaced. In office, Bridget Phillipson had shown herself to be an unpleasant, indeed venomous, creature. Kemi Badenoch described her as a spiteful class warrior. She took that as a compliment. It would be a suitable title for her memoirs, if anyone would publish them.
Introducing VAT on school fees was pure spite. No doubt some public school parents were comfortably off, but a lot of them were struggling and making sacrifices to pay the bills. Not only that: the changes were introduced in mid-year, giving parents virtually no notice. Indeed, Mrs Badenoch could be accused of understatement. La Phillipson is not only a spiteful class warrior. She is also a cruel one.
Alas, she did not receive her just deserts. Instead of being bin-bagged out of government, she was moved on to become Minister for Women and Equality. Poor women; what have they done to deserve that? As for equality, whenever our current masters use that word, it would be wise to beware. In Labour-speak, it presages new financial impositions and fresh attacks on personal freedom.
Even so, one assumed that she could surely do less harm in her pseudo department than she could at education. That turned out to be a grave miscalculation. Mr Burnham has taken the trouble to find someone who promises to be an even worse education minister than her predecessor. Lucy Powell deserves to be described as the minister for anti-education.
As everyone must now be aware, the UK has a serious problem with young people, a million of whom are now NEETs: not in education, employment or training. Dealing with this is one of the most urgent problems facing the country. So what does Mrs Powell propose to do? She wants to blame Michael Gove. She claims that he was guilty of imposing curricula and examinations that are too rigid and that children have suffered as a result. This is breath-taking. In crafting their rhetoric, politicians are entitled to a certain amount of liberty and licence. But there ought to be some contact with reality and truth. If Lucy Powell believes that, she must be half-witted.
Michael Gove was not a good Education Secretary. He was a great Education Secretary: the best since Rab Butler at the end of the War. This came about because of Michael's temperament and his moral convictions. He has a passionate belief in education. His parents - he was adopted - clearly gave him every encouragement. He won a bursary to Robert Gordon's in Aberdeen, one of those merchant schools which Scotland did so well, bringing a good education to lads and lasses o'pairts, one respect in which the Scots have always regarded themselves as superior to the English. That used to be justified, but alas no longer. The young Gove won his way to the second best university in the world (though it must be conceded that Lucy Powell was also at Oxford). He always felt immensely grateful for the education he received and the life chances it opened up. He is determined to spread those opportunities as widely as possible.
Compare and contrast Michael Gove and Alastair Campbell. Mr Campbell once referred to 'bog standard' comprehensives. It was a throwaway remark which revealed a universe of moral failure. Alastair obviously did not worry about the existence of bog standard comprehensives, as long as everyone went to one. To Michael, the thought of failing schools was almost physically painful. So he flung heart and soul into an assault on failure. He set in motion reforms which have worked, which Labour have inherited and which Lucy Powell might well try to reverse. At the end of the Tory years, England was top of the advanced world's league tables for reading and maths and fifth for science. As Mr Gove's remit did not run in Scotland or Wales, those nations which used to pride themselves on their educational standards fell behind.
The Gove strategy was based on academy schools, which are free from local authority interference. Eighty percent of secondary schools and forty percent of primary schools are now academies. At the same time, more teachers were recruited and salaries were increased with bonuses for teachers of maths and other subjects in short supply.
All this was working. Then came Covid, the great increase in NEETs, and lack of strong political leadership, for which the Tories must take a lot of the blame. But this is nothing to do with Michael Gove. He moved on from education well before Covid.
Mr Gove's academies could organise their own curricula and organise their own drive for higher standards. Most of them succeeded. By the end of the Tory years, ninety percent of English schools were rated as good or outstanding. So who could complain? Answer: the left-wingers who have come to dominate several of the teachers' unions. There is a phrase: 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.' While this is unfair to so many teachers, it ought to be extended. 'Those who can't teach, take over teachers' trade unions.'
The unions often seemed to hold their annual conference on the Isle of Man. The television news would often cover them, as one hairy Trotskyite after another denounced every form of educational common sense. In the process, they almost certainly convinced many parents that they would have to find the money to send the children private. It appears that these union leaders will have no difficulty in influencing Lucy Powell.
She thinks that a lot of exams are too tough. But without rigorous testing, how can we know whether the children are learning anything? Andy Burnham has said that he would like to broaden the curriculum for a lot of children, who might be better off with more practical subjects rather than a traditional academic diet. Fair enough, as long as the youngsters do learn something about their country's history and are exposed to some decent books, plus art and - real - music. But they too will need exams. If you are to be a craftsman, a plumber or an engineer, you will need to master your subject, otherwise chaos will be unleashed on the workplace, and the unexamined incompetents are doomed to join the NEETs.
Bridget Phillipson attacked the public schools. Lucy Powell wants to go further and make life awkward for all schools. Mr Burnham is still on a political honeymoon. When the voters realise what Lucy Powell is up to, and unless the PM prevents her, the honeymoon could rapidly end.