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By Hasan Suroor
The report in the latest issue of the pro-Tory magazine, The Spectator, was widely seen to have "politics'' written all over it as it came barely a week after the Tory chief, Ian Duncan Smith, was taunted by the former Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, for sending his son to Eton, Britain's most snobbish private school. The Spectator is edited by a high-profile Tory MP, Boris Johnson, and the controversial story was written by his sister, Rachel, who admitted that it was Mr. Cook's attack on Mr Duncan Smith that provoked her to "spill the beans''. ``This was started by the Labour Party'', she told the Tory flagship Daily Telegraph which led with the story on Friday morning. The report, which got prominent play in most newspapers, is politically embarrassing for Mr. Blair who never tires of his Government's "commitment'' to state education. The disclosure that he pays private tutors to supplement his sons' studies even though they attend one of the best-known Government schools, was seized by his critics to accuse him of "hypocrisy'' and undermining public confidence in state comprehensives, particularly as only last week the Education Secretary, Estelle Morris, acknowledged that some schools were so bad that she "wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.'' ``The Prime Minister's actions display an astonishing lack of confidence in the state education system,'' the Liberal Democrat spokesman on education, Phil Willis, said accusing Mr Blair of "sheer hypocrisy''. The Prime Minister, he said, was encouraging private education through the backdoor. "At least Ian Duncan Smith sends his kids in through the front door'', he remarked. Representatives of various teachers' unions echoed the criticism, saying while it was for individual parents to decide what sort of education they preferred for their children, the fact that the Prime Minister himself opted for private tuitions pointed to a crisis in the state-run education system. It also sent a wrong message to other parents and intensified class consciousness. What about parents who could not afford private tuitions and must, therefore, put up with Government schools? they asked. ``What stinks is the pious pretence that all is well with the state sector when in fact, he (Prime Minister) is buying tuition for his own children even though he got them into one of them of best schools in the capital,'' Chris Woodhead, former chief inspector of schools told a newspaper. Rachel Johnson, who admitted hiring a private tutor for her own son, said for the Blairs to do it, however, was "more of a surprise''.
"One or possibly more young male teachers at league-busting-table-busting Westminster School...a cricket ball's throw away from Downing Street, have been traipsing in and out of the family flat, where Cherie keeps them supplied with at
Downing Street declined to comment, saying that issues relating to the Prime Minister's children's schooling was "entirely a matter for the family''.
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