Culture

Fear and Loathing on Newsnight

September 25, 2008
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One last thought about Ruth Kelly... Was she any good? I mean, everyone keeps going on about how hard-working she was as a cabinet minister, how young she was, what a great mind she has. Will Hutton could not have been more complimentary and that may not be a big deal to you, but it means a lot to me. And journalists have looked at this from every angle: Did she jump? Was she pushed? Did this push-me pull-you thing happen at 3 in the morning or at 3.30? Was it all because of David Grossman's (from Newsnight not the Israeli novelist) brilliant scoop about the cabinet reshuffle the night before? I mean, really every angle.Was it good for Gordon? Bad for Gordon? Good for Miliband? Good for Cameron? Good for backbenchers I'd never heard of and will never hear of again (if I can help it). We're talking lots of angles.

But no one that I heard -- on Newsnight, The World at One, Channel 4 News, The Ten O'Clock News, Newsnight (again) -- said whether she was any good at what she did. No one looked at British education while she was education secretary or the state of British transport. No one crunched any figures. Grade inflation? Number of teachers or headteachers retiring early? Stats on classdroom violence. Failing schools. Number of illiterate and innumerate children leaving primary school? Number of illiterate and innumerate children leaving secondary school? Number of employers stuck with kids who can't read or write but have GCSEs worth nothing? Not a word. What about transport? How about those rail line closures we kept reading about in the summer? Those unbelievably expensive rail fares? Anything to do with the minister of transport? Is the Eurostar still going slower in Kent than in northern France? Just wondered. Terminal 5? Airlines going bust? Is that transport?

Just wondered. Curious that Jeremy Paxman, Martha Kearney and Jon Snow didn't.