Alright, I did allow Colin Noble to get to me just a touch over the whole manifesto thing. After all, attacking your opponent is designed to draw attention away from your own failings, so it's natural that he should take such an approach. I didn't need to respond though, even if it did end quite well, with our manifesto pledges getting rather more coverage than they might otherwise have attracted.
Colin still doesn't like our manifesto, a point he feels necessary to broadcast, although I do wonder under what circumstances he would say anything different. We'll put it down to his ideas about political campaigning and coalition building...
I am puzzled about their five key pledges though. None of them have anything to do with education, which is intriguing and disappointing in turn.
Intriguing, because the county does spend 46% of its budget on children and young people, most of which presumably goes on schools. Disappointing because the county's performance relative to the rest of England and Wales is desperately poor...
148th out of 151 at primary school level
141st out of 151 at secondary school level
Those are the latest figures for Suffolk, demonstrating what the impact of cutting council tax in real terms year on year is. And if spending is not an issue, as I'm sure the Conservatives will argue, then it seems like a failure of leadership might be to blame.
Given that Suffolk is a rather nice place to live, without many of the problems that impact on teacher recruitment in heavily urban areas, or social issues, language barriers etc. it is hard to suggest that Suffolk has any particularly unique problems. Yes, the middle schools are unusual, but they only exist in part of the county anyway, and achievement in them would have to be catastrophically bad to have caused such poor performance. And if they are the problem, why is the decline only recent?
Under such circumstances, you would expect the county administration to want to do everything in its power to improve things - it would be a major priority. But not, it seems, one of the five key issues for Suffolk Conservatives.
Of course, given that the decline has taken place entirely on their watch, you can understand why they wouldn't want to draw your attention to it. So, when your Conservative candidate arrives on your doorstep, wherever you are in Suffolk, do ask them what they're going to do, and why they don't see your children's education as a priority.
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Excellent point. I actually think very sadly that Suffolk Tories have washed their hands of education regarding it as a problem for "the market" and the DfE as market regulator. They have divested themselves of the problem or so they would like to think.
Interesting that the current "raising the bar" initiative actually came from Deborah Cadman the CEO rather than the Administration.
Kathy Pollard has also written about the Suffolk Tories record on education at http://kathypollard.mycouncillor.org.uk/2013/04/21/suffolks-education-results-a-question-of-political-priorities/
She concludes asking how they sleep at night. She has a point. It ought to be the number 1 issue on their agenda.
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