Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Successful government depends on direction more than policies. Policies only make sense to voters as part of a larger direction for the country and its citizens in the wider world. The Brown government has got its direction horribly wrong. Its defensive, centralising, ID approach to Britishness for a start and, well, I could go on and doubtless will. Just as big a problem is the opposition. That too is for other posts. This one is about why, when the government does act in a positive democratic way it still gets a bad press. Ed Balls is committed to keeping young people in education until they are at least 18, providing a framework for good education and ensuring as many of them as possible have qualifications that are respected. Finally! To achieve this he proposes a diploma that includes vocational aspects without dropping essential English language, maths and IT basics. A genuine qualification that breaks from a two-tier educational system that inscribes fatalism on those educated by the state. This ambition, it seems to me, is radical and serious in the best sense. But all the Minister could get from John Humphries on the Today program this morning was scorn that he couldn't describe what he was introducing in 30 seconds.
This poses an issue which effects the whole political culture of this country. Humphries, who boastfully projects himself as the scourge of 'dumbing down' and the flag-bearer of 'standards' demands the stupidification of a major proposal with loathsome ridicule and contempt in his voice. A proposal which is necessarily complicated, as anyone can see, because it is ambitious, pragmatic, transitional anti-elitist and seeking to raise standards, is treated as if it should be a gimmick. When it isn't, it is then dumped on for failing to be a sound bite!
A long time ago the analyst R.D. Laing developed the theory of the 'double bind' as one of the causes of schizophrenia. Put simply, it means that whatever you do - you are punished. A child growing up in a family of double binds finds itself always in the wrong. The only escape left is to go mad. Whereupon, it is punished for being mad.
The Humphries treatment is designed make madmen of our politicians. As serious, or more so, we the listeners are being worked over as well while the broadcaster walks off with his loot.
However, there is also a point to the Humphries line of questioning. he exploits a genuine political weakness in how Balls and his generation express themselves. They talk like good administrators when they need to be public leaders. (Not just them, The Prime Minister's 20 Feb speech on immigration was a dreadful example).
"What is the problem?" THIS is the question that a government must always put clearly and compellingly before it offers a policy as a solution. With immigration the problem they most fear is the tabloid press and public prejudice left to fester by Blairite weakness, so they can't be honest about it. With education, Balls wants to take the initiative and has had the courage to face the larger picture. Great - but he must then fight to get the public on his side and share an understanding of the problem if they are to be convinced of his vision of the solution. Then, when Michael Gove says don't threaten the "gold standard" of A-levels this will be seen as an inadequate response to a profound issue of educating all young people - without which most social problems from binge drinking to life-time of welfare dependency will never be solved (NB: education is a precondition not a magic wand, absolutely necessary but never sufficient).
