UNELECTED Pal of David Cameron & Tory Donor To Influence Your Child's Education!

Sebastian James
Prime Minister, David Cameron's
Old Etonian Buddy.

Oh "spiffing" what a surprise. The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, that great "bastion of intelligence" orders a review headed by Sebastian James who is a Tory donor and an ex school buddy of the Prime Minister, David Cameron. Yet another *unelected* crony of Cameron's brought in, this time to influence what kind of school building our children are educated in.

The James review has reported and is saying that the previous Labour government's school building programme wasted as much as £2.5bn a year in bureaucracy and design costs.  Straight away I have a problem with this Sebastian James is head of group operations at Dixons, so I feel I'm justified in asking what Seb James actually knows about building and building contracts and architecture and planning etc?  Surely if such a review was needed would it not have been better for Michael Gove to order it from a independent neutral person and someone that actually knows and understands all the complexities of contractors,  contracting builders, architecture, design and planning of schools?  I feel I am also justified in pointing out that if they did this then perhaps Gove and Cameron would not have got the kind of answers they actually wanted. Does this feckless government not realise that every single time they use one of their Tory doning cronies they open themselves up to accusations of cronyism and corruption? I could ask what is in this for Seb James, but the clue is in his company - Dixons. The Dixons who sell computers, televisions, wifi equipment etc, assuming of course that "institutionalised" state schools for the poor who cannot afford private education will have enough money to modestly equip themselves with all kinds of electronic technology?



 Seb James has reported back with a report that quite frankly any one of us could have written, it is risible and quite laughable, but this is what you get when you put someone that knows nothing in charge of such an important review.

"The days of swanky new flagship academies operating in "truly world class" school buildings are over, according to a government review published yesterday. Instead, the schools of the future will be built to a more standardised design which can be replicated across the country".

This just about sums the report up. It is plainly obvious that this over privileged millionaire pal of the prime minister's does not want ordinary kids to be educated in excellent state of the art schools, I mean God forbid they are given anything decent in life to adhere to and aspire to. (Seb James is an ex Etonian and ex Bullingdon Club member just like Cameron) What kind of message is this sending our children? That we do not think they are worth an excellent school? Where is all the big ideas that head teachers will be handed control over thier school buildings and budgets gone then? More lies from this lying prime minister? Or is this another way of forcing schools to opt out of the state system into academies in order to boost yet another "flagging" Tory flagship policy?  The PM made so much of "Britain being Broken" over the past few years, (although he seems to have conveniently dropped that soundbite since assuming office), however of course Britain was never broken, and what this Tory led government dishonestly and conveniently forgets to tell us is the previous Labour Government launched the BSF scheme in 2003 with the aim of refurbishing or rebuilding every secondary school in England by 2020. By March this year some 310 schools had benefited from BSF investment and a further 700 would have been rebuilt or refurbished by 2015. This review now throws this all up in the air.

The Bullingdon Club
Bet Eton Isn't made To Conform To
A State Controlled Uniformed Standard!

What Seb James is advocating that we have some kind of national institutions the state laughably will call schools, they will be uniformly built all resembling each other, maybe if they are lucky the school will get a chance to pick from a couple of different designs, no individuality, no spontaneity, no involvement of teachers, children and parents in choosing the design. Who gets the contracts to supply sports halls, refectories, class rooms, staff rooms, toilets, showers washrooms, kitchens etc. etc. etc? and IT? Private companies offering one size fits all discounts for quantity? A sort of Tescos mentality, pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap? While the government and Gove are busy forcing the same school designs on all of our state schools, is the same criteria going to be applied to these so-called "free schools" run by over privileged rich people with time on their hands for their over privileged rich off-spring? Will they be capped and limited to what kind of school design they can have and how much it will cost? Will local authorities be prevented from shelling out millions on school buildings for just a privileged few children to have their "private" education paid for by the state?

 Meanwhile in order to justify this government's attack on our children and their education, they have let all their little minions loose to try and trash the exam result achievements by decrying the huge efforts our children and their teachers have put into passing their exams, we see and hear this nonsense all the time. David Cameron even lied when addressing the Tory Conference 2007 when he Told a *false* story about a pupil attacking a teacher which he said he witnessed. Anita Harrison said: "It is an appalling allegation" it's not true, the college demanded an apology. Is there no depths this liar of a prime minister will not stoop to?

While we are still on the subject of these lies, lies and more damned lies and unsightly uniformed state school buildings, when is the Tory-led government going to come clean about the number of contractors who are suing them for breach of contract?

If Gove and this government get their way, this awarding of contracts to all their mates who are already hovering and inevitably it will lead to accusations of corruption. As it already stands now Tory donors are now already dominating the department of education!

Two *UNELECTED* Tory donors, John Nash and Theodore Agnew, have been appointed to the board of the Department for Education and have been given the power to sack senior civil servants and totally override any decisions.

John Nash is the man who still has his fingers in Care UK, hovering waiting to take contracts out of the NHS and into privatisation under the government's preferred "Any Willing Provider" scheme.

John Nash (amongst other fingers in other lucrative government pies) is the person who subbed Andrew Lansley the Health Secretary to the tune of £21.000 during the 2010 general election. See the connection Care UK and Lansley.

John Nash also is chair of a Hedge Fund and hedge "funders" are those that short sell and make money out of people's misery, especially in times of recession.

John Nash and his wife Caroline have given the Tories at least £182,500. Fellow Education Department director Theodore Agnew has donated £134,000 to the Conservative Party.

Now why are they doing this? Out of the goodness of their hearts? Or do they sniff the smell of new and very lucrative government contracts?

This whole school building programme has been plunged into chaos and confusion and just like any other department this government has tried to change, it has become one big huge mess beset with problems and pitfalls, in this instance all brought about by the Education Secretary, Michael Gove an education secretary that cannot even add up and who was forced  to present his white paper no less than 6 times because of appalling mistakes still failing to get it right.  Michael Gove is the minister who told some schools their new buildings were safe, then told them they were not, then told they were, and then told they were not, leaving heads, teachers, and the children and parents totally bewildered, distressed and confused. he said he would go and meet some to apologise in person, but then changed his mind, presumably he did not want to run the gauntlet of justifiably angry parents and pupils upset at his incompetence, he made a select couple travel to London instead.

 I would put it to Gove and this hopelessly incompetent government, that the only bureaucratic nightmare that has occurred, is one that they themselves have created and which simply did not exist before they started to meddle with a school building programme that was well under way, working very well  and delivering the best of schools to our deserving children, teachers and parents! Gove and this government have just meddled for the sake of meddling and in the end they will not save any money because they will have to pay compensation to the contractors whose contracts they reneged on, quite apart from the fact that for every £1 bn saved by Gove, he spent £2 bn saving it - where is the sense in that? Once again we see a totally inept incompetent government run by inept people totally and utterly out of their depth and once again we see Tory cronyism, Tory donors and the prime ministers Etonian mates at the centre of it all.

Cronyism...Cronyism...Cronyism...