Government’s education policy hits our area hard

PAUL Routledge’s comments about what is wrong with our schools and how to put it right were spot-on (Examiner 10/1/18), but he missed one important fact.

The government is cutting school budgets in areas like Kirklees and re-distributing the money to southern schools in rich, leafy suburbs.

This disregards the greater needs of schools in areas like ours. In addition, it makes a nonsense of Tory claims to be putting more into education, especially when a lot of the money goes to open grammar schools in parts of the country where there is no shortage of school places.

The only change this government. holders survive because of her weakness.

She wanted to remove or move sideways the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary and the Health Secretary for England, but they hang on and one even gets more responsibility placed on his department.

A few changes at Minister of State level in an attempt to make it look like the government better reflects the make-up of UK society. A damp squib if ever there was one.

No longer can Mrs May hide her culpability for the state of our country.

She has had three chances to remove the Health Secretary for England and each time has spurned the opportunity. In fact, with the latest round she gave him more responsibility.

The policies this government are pursuing haven’t changed from those her predecessor put in place.

Her promise to take care of the ‘just about managing’ looks more threadbare by the day.

For 90% of the population, prices rise, incomes stagnate and public services are starved of funding. Meanwhile, the top 10% of the population as defined by wealth and income enjoy rising prosperity.

The UK is living through a period of private affluence and public squalor, which Mrs May and her party refuse to acknowledge as being unfair to the vast majority of the population.

The problem for the electorate is that they have no means of removing her government from office until 2022.

Only if enough of her own backbenchers rebel and vote with the combined opposition is there any likelihood of a change of governing party – and turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.