The Daily Telegraph - 26.08.2019

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1

M

any politicians rightly take

plaudits for the 1998 Good

Friday Agreement. Yet without

the contribution and, in too many

cases, sacrifice of members of our

Armed Forces and the Royal Ulster

Constabulary, that agreement would

never have happened. For me, they

will always be the true heroes of the

peace process.

Of course mistakes were made, and

where this occurred it is right that the

state apologises. It is also the case that

some members of the security forces

at times acted unlawfully. There is no

excuse for this; it should always be

investigated and the law should take

its course. From my long experience in

Northern Ireland, however, including

working there during the Troubles,

I am in no doubt that the vast majority

who served did so with tremendous

courage and professionalism.

The legacy of the Troubles

continues to cast a dark shadow over

Northern Ireland’s present. Across

Northern Ireland there is a general

view that the current mechanisms for

addressing the legacy of the past are

not delivering satisfactory outcomes

for anyone. Taken as a whole, they also

disproportionately focus on former

soldiers and police officers.

Finding a better way forward,

however, has eluded successive

governments. The 2014 Stormont

House Agreement was a sincere

attempt to address the past in a fair,

balanced and proportionate way,

reflecting the fact that some 90 per

cent of deaths in the Troubles were

caused by terrorists. But nearly five

years on, we are some distance from

achieving consensus on a package that

would command support in Northern

Ireland while standing any chance of

passing through Westminster.

I do not believe in drawing a line in

the sand, still less a general amnesty.

It would not receive widespread

acceptance in Northern Ireland,

particularly from the victims and

survivors of terrorism who still seek

justice for what happened. It would

be a brave politician indeed who said

to families that, despite new evidence,

which does sometimes turn up, no

more prosecutions could take place.

In addition, I do not support

proposals for a statute of limitations for

members of the Armed Forces alone.

It would risk undermining much of

what we sought to uphold during

the Troubles, principally the rule of

law. The focus must be not on what

clothing people wore but on what they

did. It would be a propaganda coup

for those who seek to rewrite history

by enabling them to portray the

British state as the principal aggressor,

thereby giving legitimacy to what was

always unjustified terrorism. I have

no doubt that it would also be used by

dissident groupings to recruit more

“volunteers” into their ranks.

Perhaps there is an alternative

approach. There is no moral

equivalence between someone who

sets out to do his or her duty upholding

the law, but who in the course of that

duty might discharge a firearm with

possibly fatal consequences, and the

action of someone who deliberately

sets out to commit murder.

There might be a way of translating

that distinction more clearly into

law – the distinction between what

amounts to a split second error of law

on the one hand, and the execution of

an act of studied illegality on the other.

This would be based on a modified

application of Section 3 of the Criminal

Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 and

the common law on self-defence, and

jonathan

caine

E

ight years ago, Katharine

Birbalsingh was poised to

achieve her dream. Her

application to set up a

school was lodged with the

Department for Education.

And government officials had found

her a building: a former secondary

school around the corner from the

Oval, in Lambeth, south London.

Everything was ready to go.

Lambeth needed a new school,

and Birbalsingh’s ambition – to help

underachieving black kids – suited the

local community to a tee. But she had

not counted on the ideological hatred

of free schools from her opponents.

Lambeth council sold the plot of land

to a property developer, and she was

forced to take her proposal elsewhere.

After more difficulties finding a site

in Wandsworth, Birbalsingh eventually

got what she wanted. At the third

attempt, Michaela Community School

opened in September 2014, a stone’s

throw away from Wembley Stadium.

Five years on, Birbalsingh has been

vindicated emphatically. Last week,

Michaela’s first GCSE results were

published, and they are four times

better than the national average.

Fifty-six per cent of Michaela pupils

speak English as a second language,

and 47 per cent have recently been

on free school meals – compared with

29 per cent of pupils nationally – yet

they performed brilliantly. Eighteen

per cent of GCSEs awarded to Michaela

pupils were graded a 9, compared with

4.5 per cent nationally, while 54 per

cent were graded between 7 and 9, the

equivalent of an old-fashioned A or A*.

It is an extraordinary school. When

Ofsted came calling, all its inspectors

could find to criticise was physical

education, which needed to become

as “strong as other curriculum

subjects”. Everything else – leadership,

teaching, learning, behaviour and

pupil welfare – was rated outstanding.

Birbalsingh is succeeding for the

same reasons that the ideological

Left sought to stop her. She insists

on a “no excuses” culture. She

demands impeccable discipline, and

punishes pupils if she does not get it.

She believes in traditional, didactic

teaching methods, which aim to instil

knowledge – not ephemeral skills – in

her pupils. And she expects nothing

but the best. Michaela pupils read

five Shakespeare plays in three years,

and are expected to write complex

academic essays every year.

The school rules declare war against

the low expectations that have become

normal in many other inner city

schools. “If a school is too permissive,

allowing too many exceptions,” they

say, “it risks creating helplessness,

selfishness or dependence in its

pupils rather than responsibility,

consideration and agency. If a school

reduces its standards for poorer pupils

because of their poverty or difficult

home life, it does them a disservice...

it doesn’t believe in them enough.”

That Birbalsingh was able to found

this incredible school, and test her

neo-traditional ethos, was down to

the free school programme. Yet free

schools are detested by complacent

and ideological elements within the

education establishment. Labour

smeared them as “freaky schools”.

But they are nothing more than new

schools, set up by teachers, community

organisations and parents armed with

an educational vision and a plan to

deliver it. Like academies, they are

free from local authority control and

free to manage their finances and set

their own admissions, curriculum and

disciplinary policies.

And they are successful. Thirty

per cent of free schools are rated

outstanding, compared with 19 per cent

of schools overall. They outperform

other types of state school at key stage

one – during primary school years – in

each subject. They are top of the GCSE

league tables. And the performance

of free school sixth-form colleges is

superb. There, 30 per cent of students

get AAB at A-level compared with a

national average of 20 per cent. At the

London Academy of Excellence this

year, 93.3 per cent of A-level entries

were A*-B. At King’s Maths School,

more than a quarter of students won

places at Oxford and Cambridge.

Increasingly, parents are voting

with their feet. Free schools attract

more first-choice applications from

parents of both primary and secondary

school-age children than any other

kind of school. This year, Dixon’s

Trinity Academy in Bradford received

1,527 applications for just 112 places.

And we should not be surprised.

Dixon’s Trinity is one of four free

schools – along with Tauheedul in

Blackburn, Eden Girls in Coventry and

William Perkin in Ealing, London – in

England’s top 10 state schools. Free

schools like Jane Austen College in

Norwich and the West London Free

School are among the best schools in

their communities.

The Tories must take up

the fight for reform again

to protect one of their most

successful innovations

nick

timothy

melanie mcdonagh

My plan to give justice to Troubles victims

Enid Blyton was

a genius, and a

great force for

social mobility

T

here was something
grimly unsurprising
about the Royal Mint’s
decision not to issue a
commemorative 50p coin to
mark the 50th anniversary
of Enid Blyton’s death last
year. Without even being
told, you know why the
advisory committee – whose
minutes were obtained
this weekend by a Sunday
newspaper – sucked their
teeth and decided they
wouldn’t want to go there:
“she is known to have been
a racist, sexist, homophobe
and not a very well-
regarded writer”. More to
the point, they registered
“concern over the backlash
that may result from this”.
In other words, because
they were worried that
there’d be a big deal about
it from Twitter (and, with
Twitter, Caliban has found
his medium) they chose
not to acknowledge the
extraordinary contribution
that this remarkable writer
made to the enjoyment
of reading and the spread
of literacy around the
English-speaking world.
I’d argue, myself, that
Enid Blyton was one of the
greatest forces for social
mobility in the 20th century.
Because reading books
and enjoying books, which
starts as a child, means
you’re at home with stories
and words. One of the most
dispiriting differences
between prosperous homes
and poorer ones is that
the middle classes tend to
have books – of varying
quality; the poor tend not
to. Whether you read or you
don’t matters for your life
chances, and still more for
your stock of pleasure.
Blyton was a genius;
she had few equals as a
storyteller – just try her Sea
of Adventure – and I couldn’t
care less if the literary
quality wasn’t remarkable.
Neither is J K Rowling’s. But
she could create memorable
characters in a few words.
One of them, obviously,
was George of the Famous
Five, who would nowadays
unhesitatingly be assigned
an initial: intersex,
bisexual, trans? In happier

was raised in a recent lecture by the

Attorney General for Northern Ireland.

Section 3, and common law, together

address circumstances as varied as the

shopkeeper who tackles a thief and the

use of lethal force by police officers

who believe their lives are in danger.

The law could be modified to apply

the principle that no investigations or

proceedings into suspected Troubles-

related offences could commence or

continue without a certificate being

issued by a senior legal figure.

A certificate could only be issued

if that legal figure were to conclude

that a person potentially under

investigation or facing trial had not

honestly believed that the action he or

she took with lethal or injurious effect

was reasonable in the circumstances.

If no certificate were to be issued, the

investigation or proceedings would

cease. Should a certificate be issued,

the investigation or proceedings

continue in the normal way.

This would not be a perfect solution,

but it is founded on the broad moral

sense of the community, goes with the

grain of existing law and focuses on

conduct, not categories, of persons.

I would like to test it.

Lord Caine was an adviser to six

secretaries of state for Northern Ireland

A free school army will end the

Left’s stranglehold on education

Yet the free school programme is

now at risk, and not only from local

authorities refusing to make sites

available and using planning laws

to thwart them. In recent years, the

Treasury has cut the free school

capital budget, meaning fewer can

open. The Department for Education

has tightened its rules, encouraging

free school applications only from big

school chains. And worse, it has made

it difficult to open free schools unless

there is a shortage of school places in

the community. In other words, it has

discouraged free schools from opening

even where existing provision is poor

and failing local children.

The new Education Secretary,

Gavin Williamson, has vowed to

restore the free school programme

to its original purpose. To do that, he

will need to win extra funding from

the Treasury not just for day-to-day

school spending, but to build more free

schools. He will need to change his

department’s rules, to allow more free

schools to be built where there might

be “enough” school places, but where

those places are not good enough. He

will need to encourage more novel

and innovative free schools to open,

rather than relying on the same old

big players. He will need to get good

sponsors into the system, such as

independent schools and universities.

He will need to open more free schools

outside London and the South East.

And he will need to threaten legislation

that forces local authorities to set aside

land for new schools, and compels

developers to fund free schools as they

build new housing.

If he does these things, schools like

Michaela will not be a one-off success

in a losing war against defeatism and

low expectations. They will be the

start of an unstoppable revolution.

An army of school reformers awaits.

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days, you didn’t need to

know. Here was a character

who could declare: “I hate

being a girl. I won’t be. I

don’t like doing things that

girls do. I like doing the

things that boys do.” In fact,

you could probably give

George one more initial:

F for Feminist.

Actually Enid Blyton’s

values, friendship and

kindness, have worn pretty

well. As George observed:

“I used to think it was best

to be alone. But now I know

that was silly. It’s nice to be

with others and share things

and make friends.”

So what if Noddy didn’t

end up on a 50p piece? He’s

still one of the immortals.



Today, I’m heading

for Heathrow, too

soon, alas, to benefit from

the exciting new scanners

which mean that we won’t

have to hand liquids over

100ml to security. The

frisking and scanning

takes in things you’d never

imagine. I had a Marks &

Spencer shepherd’s pie

taken off me (when’s the

last time someone used

mince to set off a bomb?),

a jar of marmalade (ditto)

and butter knives with the

cutting quality of dessert

spoons. Air travel is hell;

let me recommend the

train and ferry.



Right now, I have a

new set of scars on my

arm to add to the ones that

make me look like I’ve got

a self-harm habit: the result

of grazing my flesh on hot

oven racks when I’m taking

buns out of the oven. (Yes, I

do possess rack guards; they

just came off.) So The Great

British Bake Off will be a

chance to marvel at Prue

Leith, completely unscarred

by flesh wounds after a

lifetime in the kitchen.

The woman is a genius.

If anyone can get Brits to

embrace old-fashioned fruit

cake, rather than revolting

muffins, she can.

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follow Lord

Caine on Twitter

@ JMCaine;

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