The Underclass of the Brown Years

However long Gordon Brown lasts as Prime Minister he will not be able to deny that he was one of the architects of the dumbing down of large parts of the population - and I'm not talking about Big Brother-type television programmes.

No, since the 1970s Labour dominated councils (and their associated Local Education Authorities) have created an educational system that has failed hundreds of thousands of people and condemned them to life in an underclass of under-achievement. His answer to that has been to create an incredibly complicated system of tax credits and welfare benefits - the so-called New Deal - which has only perpetuated their dependence on the State. He's now waffling about his passion for education but consider these facts: in 2006, 20,000 pupils who sat their GCSEs did not take Maths; 26,000 did not take English; and 46,000 did not take a science. Moreover nearly 60,000 students obtained no GCSEs at all. Multiply these figures by ten and you get a feel for the number of young people who have not had a good start to their adult lives. What will the New Deal do for them?

His record is not defensible and he can't shift the blame to Blair. He will have to answer for this disaster that he's helped create.