Government Contempt for Democracy

The educational neglect of the unemployed and unqualified worsened towards the end of the last century; the consequence of the decimation of local democracy by the Thatcher and Major governments. Curriculum and the organisation of schools and colleges, previously accountable to democratically elected local authorities, were imposed from Whitehall. In the case of colleges, the control was through quangos (the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

It was expected, with the benefit of hindsight naively, that the trend towards undemocratic central control would be reversed when a Labour government was elected in 1997. In the event, the imposition of systems from the centre became even more emphatic. The eroding of democracy continued under Blair governments and the policies of the Brown government indicate that this erosion will continue.

The contempt of democracy was demonstrated in the closure of Bilston Community College, where I was chief executive 1984-99. The tactics and mechanisms used are an illustration of how central government now operates. Opposition to the closure, and to the crushing of the community education which had been developed over many years, was suppressed or ignored. There was no debate, just relentless pressure to implement a decision taken without reference to people working and studying in the areas served by the college.

The way in which well-established procedures were undermined, and opposition suppressed or ignored, has a chilling resemblance to the government’s handling of the war with Iraq and the related attacks on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

For obvious reasons the college’s opponents could not argue that it should be closed because there were too many black, or unemployed, or disabled students. Unconcerned about evidence, they alleged that there were criminal activities at the college and the police were urged to investigate.

This was not a situation where something suspicious had been found and the police called in to ascertain whether a crime had been committed. What occurred was a series of, completely unfounded, allegations fed to the press, along with the claim that dossiers of “evidence” were being submitted for investigation.

The papers submitted to the police in 1998 were, mostly, letters of complaint about education in the community for African-Caribbean and Asian students. They were from opponents of Bilston’s equal opportunities policies over a long period – 1985/97. The involvement of the police was initiated by locals but the FEFC joined in.

Almost two years after the investigation was initiated, the police reported that there was nothing “even to suggest” criminality in any of the activities at Bilston Community College. If there was nothing to suggest criminal activities, the allegations must have been invented to discredit the college.