their own! John Major and Gillian Shephard thought they had the field to themselves when they began to whip up a backlash against comprehensive education.
Shephard began floating the idea of replacing the 11-plus exam and giving all secondary schools the right to select their entire intake, with the overt intention of destroving comprehensive schooling Major went further, urging the restoration of a grammar school in every townthough he is clearlv out of touch even with the true-blue electorate of his own Huntingdon constituency, who have thrown oul plans for une biggest local comprenensive to revert to grammar school status.
Gillian Shepherd, eagerly assisted by the servile Chris Woodhead, right wing Road on the MIl. SO: When did you get involved in the MIl road protest? Phil: I got hooked during Operation Roadblock which was a sustained month of direct action, occupying the building sites etc. It was so exciting, the sheer intensity of day to day campaigning. SO: Why did you see the campaign as important? Transport's a key issue and shows the connection clearly between green and social issues. The Intergovernmental Conference on Climate change pointed out the dangers to the world without a 60 per cent cut in carbon emissions by the end of the centurv (for Britain a rich countrv. this would mean a reduction of 92 per cent).
For me, the high consumption lifestyle is not the biggest thing and its more imnortant that a kid doesn't suffer asthma than I have a car. The car represents a triumph of bourgeois inalviqualism, not a mode or transport designed by a society, where the collective principle means anything. The car was designed by the bourgeoisie to get around fast. SO: But now most of the working class has a car - they see it as a 'need'! Yeh, people have become dependent, because the car, petroleum, rubber industries have made it like that. Alternatives have been run down. In the US, General Motors bought up buses, trams, the public transport system and closed it down. SO: It's happening in UK through rail Phil: Well, the Government's policy in lavour of roadbullding instead is short-sighted, even for them the knock on effects will outweigh the advantages. SO: But when they destroy industries like mining for example, they seem to have a blind eye to its effect on other moustres and don't care boss of the Office for Standards in Educanon. rasee me oamer or ramonal teaching, declaring war on the liberal methods being taught in teacher training colleges.
But just as the Tories worked themselves into a lather they were overtaken by Labour's terrible twosome, Blair and Blunkett Blair has called for greater selection in comprehensives, while making it clear that no grammar schools will be abolishea, nor will private schools be touched by "new Labour".
Blunkett has outflanked Shephard as the scourge of failing teachers, echoing Woodhead's calls for more traditional methods.
Road to resistance Capitalism cannot make the huge changes that are necessary about the social costs. Why was nonviolent direct action appealing to young people? Phil: Through direct action they could express themselves and they telt as individuals they could have an effect. Yet people could become too obsessed with building barricades and seeing the situation as a battle between us and them-the roads contractors-and not spend enough trying to draw in new forces into the campaign.
Non violence was a tactic. Few people were principled pacifists. Yet by practising non-violence, we could draw in youth who might have been put off by joining actions where we were often outnumbered and if violence had occurred we would have got a kicking. SO: What forces do you see changing Government policy on roads? Phil: We were always saying we need strong alliances with the working class movement. During the Tube strike we stood on the workers picket line Ther collected loads of money for the campaign in their canteen. SO: Shouldn't we put pressure on the wabour leaders to change their policies and try and encouragt the members to turn out to campaigns like the Mli? To Y
GEORGE THOMPSON spoke to Phil Mcleish, who was the last resident of Claremont