Blair’s Labour said education was its biggest priority… current government is focused on teaching political propaganda

WHEN Tony Blair was asked what his priorities were for government back in 1997, he was very clear: “Education, education, education,” is what he replied.

Now, OK — that was a bit misleading. It would have been more accurate if he had said, “Education, illegally invading a country and causing a civil war. And letting millions of immigrants into the country.”

But that didn’t have quite the same ring to it.

In fairness to Blair’s New Labour government, they did improve schooling quite dramatically in London.

Those improvements never quite reached beyond the M25, but still, it was a good start.

Now Labour is back in power. And under the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, they plan to “shake up” the curriculum.

Well, OK. But what does this mean, exactly? Start getting tough with the kids who don’t turn up? Raising the standards so that exams are a little more testing? Making sure every kid is familiar with the greatest bits of English Literature.

And is familiar with the important parts of our history? Nope.

Exactly the reverse.

Ms Phillipson has surrounded herself with a blob of numpties from trades unions, universities and civil servants. And they are advising her to make the curriculum “more relevant”.

They want it “decolonised”, for a start. This is because they are self-hating liberals who cannot bear the country in which they live. They are ashamed of our history, rather than proud of it.

And so you can bet your bottom dollar that the kids will be told more about slavery and how wicked the Brits are than they can possibly take in.

But “decolonising” and “making more relevant” stands for something else, too. These advisers think that the true greats of English Literature no longer have anything to say to the kids of today.

So let’s junk Shakespeare, cos the Bard of Avon is a bit too difficult for da kidz to understand. And while we’re on it, let’s forget about Tennyson and Keats and Eliot and Shaw. Because aside from anything else, they were all racists.

The idiots have also told Phillipson that the children must learn to appreciate the enormous benefits of living in a multicultural country.

That’s not education, that’s political propaganda. The children will be indoctrinated. Just as they have been told of late that there are more than two genders. (There are not.)

It is ironic that all this is happening just as the rest of the world is running away as fast as it can from the progressive teaching methods that have ruined the educations for so many children.

And the truth is, the more diverse a society — and ours is very diverse today, like it or not — the more you need to teach kids the basics of British history and British writing, and to be proud of that enormous legacy.

But Bridget seems determined to ignore all that.

She has already infuriated many parents by putting VAT on school fees. She is the enemy of aspiration.

Britain’s best schools — the ones that get the best results — are our free schools. Places such as the Michaela Community School in London.

All of these schools show the pupils tough love. The kids are expected to be polite and obedient. And to have a working knowledge of the greats of literature.

Will Phillipson be going to war against the heads of these institutions? It looks as if she might. Instead of improving education, she will be dragging every pupil down to the lowest level.

And it will be the working-class kids who are the worst affected, because the middle classes can still afford to get the hell out of the system.

Don’t do it, Bridget. Call the bluff of the trade unionists. And make our schools great again.

I’m putting life on ice with Squid Game

WE’VE been snowed in for the last four days.

Drifts so large we can’t open the doors. Dog doesn’t want to go out anyway, so it’s no great loss.

Thing is, we moan all year about how we never get snow any more and how we all wanted a white Christmas. And then it snows and we moan like buggery because we can’t get out to buy the usual tat from the shops.

Anyway, we’re OK.

There’s plenty of stuff in the freezer and lots of wine.

And we can binge watch Squid Game and dream of summer.

ABOUT FACE IS NEEDED

THE counter revolution is under way at Facebook!

Boss Mark Zuckerberg has already binned Nick Clegg as president of global affairs. Getting shot of Clegg is always a good thing to do.

Now he’s getting rid of the fact-checkers. These are the people who many felt objected to stuff posted by anyone more right wing than themselves. They ended up making Facebook a deeply biased institution.

On several occasions they prevented people from posting about the crimes committed by Joe Biden’s awful, criminal son, Hunter.

Now Zuckerberg has seen the error of his ways perhaps the BBC will follow suit. Its own “Verify” team is deeply biased.