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State Schools (Independence)

I am delighted to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich (Mr. Carswell), who has made an excellent and thoughtful speech. He is right to use the mechanism of this alternative Chamber to have an alternative kind of debate in which we are less concerned with day-to-day politics and more concerned about developing long-term policy and, indeed, philosophy. I hesitate to use the word ““philosophy”” in the House of Commons, as I do not want to be accused of being an intellectual, which would be political death. My hon. Friend made an important contribution in the way that he introduced this debate. He was kind enough to mention a pamphlet that I recently penned, but I claim no particular credit for any ideas in it, as it contains nothing new. There is little that is new in the debate on education. Many of these ideas have been around for many years, but I believe that there is a new determination to question all existing orthodoxies and to be prepared to consider what happens in other parts of the world and, indeed, Europe. There is extraordinary diversity in educational provision in other parts of Europe. There is not a view in other European countries that there must be only one educational model. For instance, Sweden, which has a tradition of many years of social democratic government—centre-left government with short periods of centre-right government—has introduced a radical universal voucher scheme, which imposes controls on admissions. The scheme has resulted in an explosion of new, privately run schools that appear to be popular and to cater for a need. In Holland, which does not have a reputation for being a particularly conservative country, there has long been a tradition of the state, in effect, funding private schools. In France, the salaries of teachers in private schools are paid by the state. There is not a view in other European countries that there must be a great divide between the public and private sectors. In that context, I welcome the speech which I understand the leader of my party gave today in which he praised people who work in the public sector. It has always been the view of the Conservative party that we must mix and match. One cannot say as a general proposition that the public sector or the private sector is always best. We are prepared to advocate a public-private partnership, which exists in other countries but not in this one. In this country, where the fees of most private schools are way beyond what most ordinary people can afford, only 7 per cent. of children go to private schools. How can most of the people who work in the public sector, for instance, possibly afford boarding school fees of up to £18,000 a year, or private school fees of perhaps £9,000 or £10,000 a year, out of taxed income? The situation is different in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Holland, where there is extraordinary diversity. However, let us not discuss private schools only. Other European countries are moving away from central direction of state education, so let us discuss that for a moment. Speaking as a parent, I know a great deal about French education. I sent all my children to the French lycée in London for a time. My mother and father were brought up in France. That country’s education system has a reputation for being centrally driven. There is a joke that the Minister of Education in Paris knows that at 10.30 on a Wednesday morning, every child in France is opening the same geography textbook, but that simply is not true anymore. For many years, France has been moving away from a centrally driven education system. Incidentally, it is also instructive that most middle-class parents in France are happy to use state education, wherever they live. It is of an excellent standard, and we must ask why that is the case. I have alluded to the private schools in France and the fact that salaries in those schools are paid by the state. People use such schools for a particular purpose, but most people are happy with state education, which, increasingly, is not centrally driven. A point that must be considered in this debate is whether this country has taken a wrong turning since the 1960s. Did my party, when it was in power, make a fundamental error? There were two things that we could have done.