Yesterday I had the following letter printed in the Camden New Journal on Labour’s education failure in Camden:
The blame game and our schools
IT’S a bit rich for the Labour candidate in Kentish Town to attack the coalition government for the lack of school improvement in Camden.
In the 35 years of their previous administration, Labour didn’t build a single secondary school and closed one. I have heard Frank Dobson say that he has tried for 30 years to get a secondary school south of the Euston Road. He never delivered. So 40 per cent of Camden schoolchildren couldn’t find places in Camden secondary schools.
The Lib Dems opted for an academy in 2006 because it was the only type of new school that could attract funding and recognised the urgency to get a bid for funds in as early as possible.
It was the Labour-dominated Anti-Academy Alliance, guided by Fiona Millar, that forced a judicial review that stopped the application process for more than a year.
They hoped to stop Camden’s new school from being built. They then fought a protracted argument over the proposed scheme.
In the meantime, other boroughs like Islington and Westminster were submitting their plans. They have already received funding and their schemes are underway. It is Camden Labour’s education experts who have deprived Camden and its secondary schools of the funds that our neighbours now enjoy.
ROCKY LORUSSO
Fortess Road,
NW5
