It started so well: the Tories’ challenge to take Chris
Huhne’s former seat of Eastleigh launched with a poll lead, the first party to
confirm its candidate, and the chairman in attendance. And then Maria Hutchings
opened her mouth. This was too much even for Grant “Spiv” Shapps. Press were avoided. Photo-ops were curtailed. And the
candidate was kept quiet.
Well, make that more quiet than she had been. Ms Hutchings has
let it be known that state schools are not good enough for her 12 year old son:
“William
is very gifted which gives us another interesting challenge in finding the
right sort of education for him – impossible in the state system. He wants to
be a cardio-respiratory surgeon”. It would be interesting to see her
research.
It would be equally interesting to know how a 12 year old
can be so certain of their future career direction: many of the disciplines I’ve
majored in over recent years were totally unknown and unforeseen when I was
that age (and heart transplants, for instance, had not been successfully
performed, so had I been interested in medicine, I’d have had little idea of
future possibilities in cardiac surgery).
But back in Eastleigh, the latest Hutchings happening had
gifted the Lib Dems an opening: Ofsted has given a number of high schools
in the constituency an “outstanding”
rating, and council leader Keith House pointed out that candidate Mike Thornton’s
daughter had previously attended one of these, and was now at Imperial College
in London ... studying medicine.
And, remember, most of those pesky voters send their
children to state schools. This
gave Labour candidate John O’Farrell his cue: “Ten years ago, when I was oncerned about the lack of suitable local
schools, I organised with other parents to set up a new non-selective state
school. My own children went there and I served as chair of governors for eight
years”.
So that’s the supposed business person persona of Ms
Hutchings also slapped down. And the right-wingers throwing mardy strops over
the involvement of a 12 year old in this campaign have to remember one
inconvenient fact: it was the Tory candidate who put her child there in an
effort to try and rubbish an education system which is actually working very
well.
But this morning has brought respite for Maria Hutchings:
Grant “Spiv” Shapps has popped up on
Sunday Politics to say “It’s
perfectly reasonable to look for the best options for your children”.
That’s one to remember when he and his pals are laying into their opponents for
shelling out to send their kids to a private school. This Tory campaign doesn’t
seem to be going at all well.
So just think what a mess they could make of a General
Election. Wha-hey!
1 comment:
It must be the fish oil that's made her younger son a genius (Daily Mail): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-373833/How-fish-oil-unlocked-autistic-son.html
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Male_Fertility_-_The_Diet_for_the_Father-to-Be.html
As sold by the Hutchings' (now defunct)Little Acorns Academy: http://web.archive.org/web/20120707105229/http://www.from-little-acorns.com/nutrition.html
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