Class Warrior

‘MORE news now of how our politicians are aiming to get to grips with the country’s many problems by experiencing first hand as many sides to every issue as possible.

Hypocrite

From John Prescott’s selfless investigation into the state of our roads and Tony Blair’s Afro-Caribbean studies that recently took him to Barbados, the Telegraph brings us Diane Abbott.

Miss Abbott is the Labour MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington, an area that has schools, albeit some of the poorest performers in the entire country.

But working in the area she knows what the local facilities are like, and for this reason has embarked on a mission to learn just how the other half do it by enrolling her son at the £10,000-a-year City of London Boys School.

It’s clear she should be applauded for taking such a drastic step, sacrificing her son and her principles on the altar of private education. But no.

The Telegraph gathers some local opinions and hears talk of Abbott’s ‘gross hypocrisy’ from one Tory councillor, while Trevor Philips notes the ‘irony’ of the situation.

But why do they say what they do? Looking for an answer, the Telegraph recaptures a few bons mots from Miss Abbott.

She once said that Harriet Harman, the Solicitor General who sent her son to a grammar school outside her constituency, had ‘made the Labour Party look as if we do one thing and say another’.

So! We say go for it, Diane. It’s only through such selfless dedication that we will foster the equality and egalitarianism that is so lacking from our society today.

Let’s just hope your son survives his ordeal.’

Posted: 28th, October 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink