The real reason why Michael Gove foisted a Sikh free school on a Buckinghamshire village
Gove…on his way to Downing Street – at our expense
The Slog: The residents of Stoke Poges are up
in arms about the DfE’s high-handed bullying tactics, and they have
every right to be. But further sleuthing by The Slog reveals why Michael
Gove has ignored localism, democracy and Green Belt laws to further his
plans for a Sikh Free School in the village: he knows there wouldn’t be
a cat in Hell’s chance of getting it through in Slough. Set out in this
piece is a sorry, sick case history of how political ambition and a
clash of outdated philosophies are perverting the very foundations of
our culture.
Education Secretary Michael Gove said on BBC News on 22nd May last
that “Free Schools are a brilliant example of local democracy”. But the
former Newscorp hack didn’t really mean it. Stand too close to
Rupert Murdoch for more than a month or two, and the serial mendacity
sort of rubs off: names like Piers Morgan, Andy Coulson, Rebekah Brooks
and Tony Blair spring to mind. Oh, and, um, David Cameron.
This is what seems to have happened in the quiet and law-abiding
community of Stoke Poges, a small South Bucks village. Gove’s DfE had
been hatching a scheme to place an SSET (Slough Sikh Education Trust)
Free School in StokePoges. They envisaged the acquisition of Pioneer
House, Hollybush Hill, an existing building….located on an 11 acre Green Belt site in the heart of the village.
Oddly enough, there are no Sikhs in Stoke Poges. This isn’t meant to be
a racist comment – on the contrary, (a) it is a fact and (b) such a
siting idea is diametrically opposed to professed Tory policy on
educational localism – which I support wholeheartedly – and, er, the
preservation of Green Belt land.
850 pupils and 100 staff will occupy the building – which will exist
solely to satisfy the religious educational needs of Slough in Berkshire
and related parts of West London – which, amazingly, do have a large
number of Sikhs living there. But doesn’t include Stoke Poges, as such.
In January this year, the finished proposal was pulled out of the hat
by the DfE. I understand, by the way, that not even local Tory MP
Dominic Grieve was told about it. Given that Mr Grieve is Britain’s
Attorney General, it does speak volumes about Gove’s respect for the
Law. But then, bullying AGs has become a national sport since Tony Blair
and Alistair Campbell pinned Lord Goldsmith against a wall before the
Iraq War, and told him smartly to button his lip – or else. And Mr Gove
would of course know all about the Iraq War, because his then employer
Rupert Murdoch ordered Blair to back the Americans.
But I digress. 400 Stoke Poges residents swiftly jumped all over
Dominic Grieve’s head, who told them their best course of action was to
make all objections known to the South Bucks District Council – for it
was they who would decide on any planning applications for change of
use. Such an application from the DfE duly turned up, but in the interim
the residents polled their community, and among 283 families
established that 93.25% were against the new school, and 6.75% were in
favour. This is what we Westminster wonks refer to as “a commanding
majority”.
On May 15th last, the Planning Officer’s report to the South Bucks
District Council Planning Committee was issued. It unequivocally
recommended refusal of the planned Gove Free School on the following
grounds:
* No special circumstances had been advanced sufficient to warrant an
exception to the normal operation of Green Belt policy. (The
application envisaged a massive extension to the current building).
*It constituted an inappropriate development – by definition harmful to the Metropolitan Green Belt.
* It was contrary to policies GB1, GB2, and EP3 of the South Bucks
District Local Plan Adopted in March 1999), and section 9 (Protecting
Green Belt Land) of the NPPF.
* It was detrimental to the character of the District.
* It would result in the loss of a key employment generating site.
* The site was in a unsustainable location, poorly served by public
transport – and not considered to be in a location easily accessible to
meet the needs of its primary intended users.
The Planning Committee was due to vote on it last May 22nd, but by
now it had dawned on the Goveys that they were going to lose bigtime. So
24 hours before the PC’s meeting, the DfE withdrew the application, and invoked clauses C and K of the Town and Country Planning
(General Permitted Development ) (Amendment) (England) Order 2013, due
to come into force following Royal Assent on 30th May. Passed in full
knowledge of what was happening by the Government, the gist of which is
“We reserve the right to tell you all to go f**k yourselves.
You see, this is the way ‘democracy’ works in Cruel Britannia today.
The democracy torpedoed by Margaret Thatcher (“I don’t like Ken
Livingstone, let’s abolish him”) and then scuttled by Blair (“The
Commons clearly isn’t going to buy the need for war, so let’s lie our
arses off about it”) is now having its sodden remaining cargo looted by
those who think Camerlot are “too nice”.
It seems the Secretary of State ordered this cynical black-op from
the start…rather as he overruled the Judiciary a month ago by giving a
kiddy porn addict his job back….as an infant teacher.
So to summarise here, Gove and his numpties have decided to flout
localism, flout Green Belt promises, flout local feeling, flout Planning
opinions, flout the 1999 SBLPC Law, and then flout the Council’s democratic
decision to reject….by inventing another law to get out of Jail free.
This is the sort of Constitutional vandalism of which Harriet Harman
would be proud.
It doesn’t say a lot about Mr Gove’s respect for the Rule of Law and
Citizen liberties, but in mitigation I am forced to remind Sloggers that
the Education Secretary did used to work at Newscorp, and their record
on personal rights and legality is not of the best. Is it? Like his ally
the infamous taxidermist Borisconi Jobsdone – and the unfortunate
typing slip Jeremy Hunt – Michael Gove is a great admirer of Newscorp
boss Rupert Murdoch – having once described him as “a great man who has
brought much progress to the UK media sector”. This is a tragic case of
epidemiology as the result of virulent bacteria: the Minister’s
unavoidable exposure to the flouting habit means he now suffers from
precisely the same ethical infection.
Regrettably however, there is more. Long before the Council’s
decision approached (and then got annulled) the DfE spent a whopping
£4.5m of public money buying the site anyway. So bashing
democracy on the head sort of became a pressing issue. The bid, by the
way, outshone the next highest one by £700,000….so they weren’t taking
any chances.
This piece of charmless bollocks from Dominic Grieve has since
emerged in a letter to one of his disenfranchised constituents: ‘The
power the Secretary of State is exercising will only allow the school to
be present there for twelve months. Because of this, the school will
only be operating at a fraction of its final size… and that he will then
find the school an alternative site which will have been arranged by
that time.’ Which must, of course, be why the DfE’s application asked
for a mega-extension….and they paid top dollar to get the building.
Frankly Mr Grieve, if we believe that, then we’d believe anything. But
today in politics, no fib is too fat or fatuous to be declared unfit for
purpose.
But that’s not all. You see, the school should be in Slough, but the
MP for Slough – and its local council – are vigorously opposed to the
Conservative policy on free schools. Mrs Fiona MacTaggart is the Labour
MP for Slough, and guess what her specialist subject is? Yes –
edukashun, edukashun and edukashun. From 2006 she ran the Education
& Skills committee in the Commons, and then from 2007-10 the
Children, Schools & Families Committee. She has consistently voted against school autonomy, and is implacably opposed to Gove’s plans.
Then there’s the local Council – also Labour, very pro-multicultural stuff, and no longer offering transport to school based purely on religious grounds.
Now note this interesting snippet ….something of a clincher, I would argue:
‘The
Government is prepared to offer [Slough] a £13m Secondary Free School,
which represents an additional 29% educational spending power in the
local area, offering places for 850 pupils and an additional 100 local
jobs. The fact that Slough Borough Council doesn’t seem to want it is a
matter of public concern, given their statutory obligations.’
Well, well, well: a Free School, for 850 pupils and 100 teachers. What an astonishing coincidence, hmm?
I am not a supporter of Mrs McTaggart’s
education philosophy or her politics, but I am in favour of localism.
And I think we can discern pretty clearly what went on here. Gove and
the DfE realised that their Free School concept would be squashed by
Slough (even though their Sikh residents do want one –
so Labour are no better at listening) and so to get another Free School
listed and demonstrate to voters and fellow MPs that his targets are on
course, the Education Secretary switched the venue to another community.
Flouting the law, he found, was much easier
than a throat-throttling battle with Slough Lefties, so Mr Gove then
forced his precious plan onto an unwilling community, and pulled every
dubiously dirty trick in the book to get his way. When Cameron finally
gets chopped by the Tory Newscorpers, we are going to get a lot more of
this. Put succinctly, the Education Secretary has put his own career
ambitions before educational localism, Green Belt policy, local
democracy, and the Attorney General.
It is a disgraceful episode; but it is a
portent. And it is not to do with ‘Tory scum and Lovely Labour’ idiocy
as trotted out by the other lot: when he was in power, Fatty Prescott
pulled stunts every bit as bad as this to nibble away further at the
Green Belt. We saw what Blair did over the Iraq War and the BaE Saudi
deal. We have watched as MP’s worked the expenses system, and Whitehall
mandarins illegally awarded themselves top hat pension schemes. We have
squirmed as Cameron licked Murdoch’s ring and then took the Building
Industry shilling after a donation of £3.5m to the Conservative election
coffers.
Apply your radical realism, citizens: this
Establishment is peopled by drones, liars, sociopaths, guzzlers and
neocon fanatics. It is fuelled by hubris, dirty money, Class A drugs,
and crooked lobbyists. And it is enslaved to the banks and the media.
They must be thrown out for good: and the internet is one of the few
weapons left to us.
You have been warned.
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