Cameron's letter to Graham Brady

"Following Graham Brady’s resignation, Mark Francois will replace him as Shadow Minister for Europe and David Gauke will join the Treasury team.

In a letter to Graham Brady, David Cameron wrote:

“Thank you for your letter in which you submit your resignation as Shadow Minister for Europe.
 
I respect your decision, and would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all you have done in that role.
 
Two weeks ago you accepted that we should not continue to debate whether to introduce more grammar schools.
 
The reason for this is to allow us to focus on the real issues in our secondary schools - namely, giving head teachers the power to ensure discipline, the need to encourage more new, good schools, the importance of setting by ability, and saving our special schools.  These are issues which affect the children who go to the thousands of secondary schools up and down the country. They are also issues where we have clear differences with Labour.
 
As you know, it has never been our policy to undermine existing grammar schools.  As David Willetts and I have both said, they are good schools, and we support them.
 
As you said in your statement of a few weeks ago, the priority of the next Conservative Government will rightly be to ensure that children in all our secondary schools reach their true potential.”

Comments

[TomTom]

Not particularly polished but Cameron obviously didn't draft it. As you is a trifle repetitive and stilted.....really he should draft such letters himself.

[Traditional Tory]

Two weeks ago you accepted that we should not continue to debate whether to introduce more grammar schools.

Is that what he thinks? Now he knows that the vast majority of his party colleagues think otherwise.

The arrogance of the man is insufferable.

[MH]

Graham Brady is clearly a man of principle. Regardless of his position, such an act is rare in this day and age and should be applauded. However, on this matter, he is also right and Cameron is dead wrong. I know which of the two emerges from this with greater standing and credibility...and it's not Dave.

[Denis Cooper]

I'm sure supporters of grammar schools will be greatly reassured that Cameron describes them as "good schools" - even though they are middle-class preserves and impede social mobility.

Odd though that having stated that there is a need for "more new, good schools", and having admitted that grammar schools are "good schools", he cannot bring himself to accept that some of those "new, good schools" could be grammar schools - which is also what two voters out of three would like.

[Martin Cole]

Finally we have a shadow cabinet resignation to indicate that there are some small strands of conscience remaining in the minds of a few senior Conservatives.

The topic of Grammar Schools, albeit important, is insignificant compared to what is being planned by Blair and Brown for Berlin in just over three weeks time, yet the Conservative Party is totally distracted AND it is the previously little known shadow Minister for Europe who has now resigned.

Surely that must ring some alarm bells for you regular, somewhat navel gazing, contributors to these comment threads??????

Sarkozy and Prodi said WHAT???? this weekend? The recent Shadow Minister for Europe should have been commenting on those proposals on Channel Four News this evening methinks!

[Tory Lady]

Well done Brady. At least we know there "was" one Conservative in HM Opposition . You represent part of the 15% conservative lead which is not evident because of Camerons shameful sham as leader of a Liberal Conservative Group.
The time has never been right as now for a Right of center Party to come to fore, and knock into touch this sham of a cameroonie party within a party.
Camerons response to you is weak and shameful and has all the hallmarks of a weak leader.

[Richard Carey]

Camerons response to you is weak and shameful and has all the hallmarks of a weak leader.

Remind me again, which one of them resigned...?

[JWM]

Well done Graham Brady,

I do hope you visit this website and realise that real Conservatives support you 100%.

Who does 'Dave' think he is to deny aspiration and opportunity to ordinary children. Surely ALL REAL CONSERVATIVES do support grammar schools - after all, they don't cost £20k a year to go to...

[JWM]

Well done Graham Brady,

I do hope you visit this website and realise that real Conservatives support you 100%.

Who does 'Dave' think he is to deny aspiration and opportunity to ordinary children. Surely ALL REAL CONSERVATIVES do support grammar schools - after all, they don't cost £20k a year to go to...

[Og]

Should I be worried that a chap called Francois has been appointed Shadow Europe Minister?

[Henry Mayhew]

There's nothing wrong with Grammar Schools if the alternative provision really benefits less academic pupils. I don't like the sound of "City Academies". Academies for the un-academic?

Germany has proud tech. schools and as a result perhaps: BMW, Mercedes, Siemens, Krupp, etc.

[Jon White]

Well said JWM. Grammar schools don't help social mobility, unlike Eton etc? Rare that we find such agreement on CH. Well done Mr. Brady. Cameron take note, you cannot keep alienating your core support in the hope of stealing Bliar's clothes.

Remember what happened to Kinnock. He ditched every policy that he believed in in order to win an election. He lost two.

[Tory Lady]

Re Richard @ 20.40 who resigned?
Clearly Cameron resigned himself to letting one of his flunkies write the immature and unprofessional letter emphasising "you and yours".
It says a lot when the leader cannot be bothered to write a letter to one of his front bench team - or perhaps he did write this letter which is deserving of the standard of a 13 year old at a non Grammar School.

[Yet Another Anon]

Two weeks ago you accepted that we should not continue to debate whether to introduce more grammar schools.
That's an odd thing to say considering that it was David Cameron and David Willetts that raised the issue in the first place despite the fact no one single new Grammar School has been made in the state sector for decades.

[Chelloveck]

From UK Student Life:
"Entrance to Eton is competitive, based on a test at the age of 11..."

Seperating kids into goats and sheep at 11? 0% Female representation? Disgraceful. Get Cameron and Willets on to it straight away!

[Yet Another Anon]

Remember what happened to Kinnock. He ditched every policy that he believed in in order to win an election. He lost two.
Labour recovered a lot of support it had lost and gained more. I'm not advocating copying Neil Kinnock but after the 1983 General Election everyone expected that the Alliance would supplant Labour in 1987 and that the Conservative majority would go up. From 27.5% Labour went up to 30.5% in 1987 and 34.4% in 1997 on an increased turnout. They got 8.6 million votes in 1983, in 1992 they lost with more total numbers of votes than they got in both 1974 General Elections and in 1979.

If John Smith had succeeded Michael Foot in 1983, Labour probably still would have lost in 1987 although it would have been closer and they would probably have won in 1992.

[Richard Carey]

Germany has proud tech. schools and as a result perhaps: BMW, Mercedes, Siemens, Krupp, etc.

I don't think that you'll find the vast majority of Conservatives in any opposition to this at all, Henry. Indeed, while the number of those aged 18-24 and not in employment, education or training (the so-called NEETs) has risen under Labour, our Shadow Education team has done a great deal of work on this. (If you haven't already go to the Platform section of the site and look at some of the posts by John Hayes on his brief dealing with this).

I absolutely agree that academic education is not the be-all and end-all of education. I have a pure science degree, but I work as an engineer and all the key skills I use every day I have learnt "the hard way" on the job, and those are the ones that really matter when you go for that interview.

[Deborah]

Once again, it seems that willingness to stand up for your principles represents a barrier to success in the Conservative Party. Shame.

[johnC]

So Conservatives should not continue to debate whether to introduce good new secondary schools so that they can focus on the real issues in secondary education such as the need to encourage good new schools ?

Is there something in Cameron's letter which I have missed ? Or can you have bad good schools and good good ones ?

[cleo]

I really don't understand the debate about grammars but maybe that is because there were no grammars in my area when I went to school. But surely the issue has to be rescuing an unsatisfactory education system. Teachers teach the exam questions because they are worried about league tables rather than encouraging students to learn for themselves. There is insufficient emphasis on literacy, numeracy and other basis. There is a postcode lottery and business claims that school leavers don't know the basics.

[Chelloveck]

Rememeber this from last October when Boris went off-message?

Cameron:
"This is the Conservative Party. We are not New Labour, we don't mind if people go off message. We love it actually" David Cameron"

We love it actually? Grin, laugh, applause.

Well, if by 'people' he means fellow Bullingdon Club members of course, not those oiks from 'Grammars'.

(Thanks to Guido and Praguetory from dragging it up)

[Bill]

Just as I clicked on the sign on element of Post a Comment, to my right my eye caught, under "Addressing Climate Change" "Tory Mp Richard Benyon: Global warming is my generation's climate change". Which says it all really. The useless and spineless party (with extremely limited exceptions) has completely lost the plot.

[Bill]

Apologies; 21.46: should read "Global warming is my generation's Dunkirk" although the irony is not lost on me.

[anon-e-mouse]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN BY THE EDITOR.

[Henry Mayhew]

Cameron on UKIP supporters: "loonies and racists"

Cameron on Grammar School supporters: "delusional" "splashing around in the shallow end"

How many more constituencies can he afford to do without over the next few years? The Party hardly exists in much of the North, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall. Showing a bit of respect for sensible people who disagree with him could be a good start.

[Ted]

So two weeks ago Mr Brady undertook to stay on brief. He broke that committment, briefed the press against the leadership but expected to keep his job?

Two weeks ago a resignation would have shown a man of principle.

[Richard Carey]

Agreed, Ted.

[Henry Cook]

Good lord, I don't remember so many kicking up a fuss when Mrs Thatcher closed most of the grammar schools. I suppose the fringe need to find bandwagons every now and again otherwise their existence would be, well, pointless.

[Scotty]

Totally agree with Ted and Henry Cook.

[Paul Kennedy]

Surprised it wasn't a two word letter, the second being....... off. ;)

On a more serious note, let's stop scoring own goals and get stuck in to Labour and ensure Mr Brown has a very uncomfortable start to his Premiership.

[ted foan]

All this use of words like 'principle' and 'conscience' seems a little over the top. Brady has an 'opinion' about the relative merits of grammar schools and backs this with some inconclusive statistics to refute Willetts's opinion that creating more grammar schools reduces social mobility in urban areas. It's time for the debate to move on. (PS: I have voted Tory for 40 years and went to a grammar school in the "leafy suburbs" so I'm not a typical "moderniser"!)

[Goldie]

Francois went to a comprehensive and Gauke was state-educated.

[TomTOm]

On a more serious note, let's stop scoring own goals and get stuck in to Labour and ensure Mr Brown has a very uncomfortable start to his Premiership.

Posted by: Paul Kennedy | May 29, 2007 at 22:52

How ? By having Osborne say that Conservatives are true Blairites ? Brown's job starts to look so easy...just dump the Blair Mess onto the Tories and say he was a True Tory which is what many Labour MPs and voters think.......with Blair's reputation why do the Conservatives want to be associated with him ?

[CJ]

What utter tripe from Cameron! At no point did he or Willetts say that the existing grammar schools are good schools which they support - the whole point is that they said the exact opposite! If Willetts and Cameron had confined their comments to stating the policy that there would be no more grammar schools this whole thing would never have been an issue as it has been party policy for yonks - what has caused this whole farce is Willets and Cameron launching an ideological attack on ALL grammar schools (not just potential new ones). Shame on you. I am one more wrong move by Cameron away from cutting up my membership card.

[Denis Cooper]

Henry Cook @ 22:23 - "Good lord, I don't remember so many kicking up a fuss when Mrs Thatcher closed most of the grammar schools."

As I understand Mrs Thatcher did not seek to close any grammar schools.

In 1965 Crosland in effect ordered local authorities to convert to comprehensive schools, to fulfil his outrageous intention:

‘If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to destroy every f*****g grammar school in England. And Wales. And Northern Ireland.’

Just ten days after she became Education Secretary in 1970 Thatcher removed the compulsion, but by then in most cases the plans were too far advanced.

When Labour returned in 1974 they took up where Crosland had left off and by 1979 there were only 150 grammar schools left.

And there was a hell of a fuss about it, spread over more than three decades.

There's an account of these events starting on page 80 here:

http://www.reform.co.uk/filestore/pdf/030428%20A%20Better%20Way%20Chapter%203.pdf

Note on that page:

"His Tory predecessor, Edward Boyle had actually presided over the beginnings
of this change. In 1963, Tory-controlled Leicestershire started to set up middle
schools as a prelude to ending selection. Boyle stated: ‘The essential point is that all children should have an equal opportunity of acquiring intelligence, and
developing their talents and abilities to the full’"

which suggests that he was working on the then increasingly fashionable (and now politically correct) assumption that intelligence is 100% "acquired" - only nazis being prepared to consider that it might in part be inherited.

Also, on page 81: "Harold Wilson claimed that the change to a comprehensive system meant ‘a grammar school education for all’."

[simon]

The beginning of the letter from Cambo to Brady says it all: 'Thank you for your resignation letter'!!! A dire letter to send out. At the very least it could have started:'With regret i recieved your...' The letter was an insult. Simple as that. If i were Brady, i'd frame the letter and hang it in the local association's office!

[richard]

Obviously not written by Dave. Even he is more gracious than this dismal tract. Some lickspittle has bunged it out on e-mail. To quote Terry Thomas, 'What an ab-so-lute show-er'!
It's a toss up which organisation has made the most cock-ups of late, the Tories or the FA.

[Richard Carey]

The letter was an insult.

Because of course we want to be considerate to the feelings of members of the front banch who decide to ride rough-shod over Party policy outside their brief while still "accepting" collective responsibility and on their second warning from the Chief Whip.

Give me strength...

[Iain Murray]

This is not a letter to a colleague. It is a press release, and a pretty poorly drafted one at that.

Shameful.

[Editor]

Yes, Iain, a press release - not a letter to a colleague.