This week’s New Statesman is a special issue on education in which we chart a social revolution happening by stealth. Inside, Peter Wilby says that Michael Gove’s school reforms are just as far-reaching and just as risky as Andrew Lansley’s changes to the NHS.
Elsewhere, Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College, warns that British schools have become joyless production lines, Francis Gilbert explains why Michael Gove’s free schools launch is already in trouble, Laura McInerney warns that EMA reforms in England will force teachers to ration funding, and an exclusive New Statesman/ICD poll shows strong suppport for free schools but overwhelming opposition to £9,000 tuition fees.
Also this week, Jason Cowley meets the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, who warns of the risk of a second financial crisis, Mehdi Hasan says that it’s time to lay off Ed Miliband, John Pilger argues that Barack Obama’s record is violent, not valiant, and Laurie Penny says that the power rut of politics hides the truth about our sex lives.
All this, plus an interview with the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Geoffrey Robertson on privacy law, and Alice Miles on why we would all be happier if we lived in Canada.