Off the Record

It seems Kent will be centre stage in the debate about new grammar schools – a position it has become accustomed to in recent years. Labour clearly has it in its sights and at a sparsely attended debate at Westminster about the government’s crusade to open more grammars, the party’s former education spokesman Lucy Powell took aim with a couple of jabs.

Why, she asked, was the government intent on extending a system which, in her view, had not done well for Kent’s children? “Why not focus on spreading the good practice of London rather the poor practice of Kent,” she asked schools minister Nick Gibb.

It’s what is known as getting your retaliation in first but if these early skirmishes are anything to go by, it’s going to be an attritional battle.

Meanwhile Kent County Council its pledge to do more to open up grammar schools to brighter poorer children who can’t afford private tuition. This is proving rather more challenging than may have first seemed. One awkward issue is how to help with transport costs. School bosses say it would cost £500,000 to extend the existing arrangements and could expose the authority to significant risk of fraud…tricky.

MPs are not usually stuck for words but that seismic result in America seems to have done just that – probably because, like many, the outcome was so unexpected. Among those reacting to the result was the Dover MP Charlie Elphicke, who tweeted: “If this time last year you’d said (or bet) that we’d now have a new PM, be leaving the EU and Donald Trump would get elected President …”

To which the answer is probably “quite rich.”

The word seismic is rather over-played when it comes to momentous events, especially in politics.In the case of the victory of Donald Trump, Off The Record feels it passes the validity test.