IDS Club
‘DO we hear the hint of a chuckle in that famous cough? Does the most famous frog in politics have a certain spring in its hop this morning?
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| IDS receives news of the latest poll |
Is that the sound of The Quiet Man clearing his throat before shouting at the top of his voice, ‘I TOLD YOU SO!’?
For, the news in today’s Guardian is that the Tory party under Michael Howard is now every bit as unpopular as the Tory party was under Iain Duncan Smith.
The latest poll puts the Tories eight points behind Labour – the biggest gap since May of last year, when IDS was facing his summer of discontent.
If a doctor were asked the condition of the Conservative party, he or she would at least say ‘stable’ – but the same, it should be remembered, could be said of a corpse.
Sadly, the travails of the Tory party have not led – yet – to a clamour for the recall of Anorak’s favourite toper, young 14-pints-a-night William Hague, or indeed for IDS himself.
The Guardian says Howard is set to soldier on as leader until the General Election because two-thirds of the party cannot name a credible alternative.
However, the Government is not without its own problems this morning as the Telegraph reports that the country’s exam chief resigned yesterday.
Jonathan Ford, managing director of the National Assessment Agency, said he was leaving ‘to follow other opportunities’ after a damning into this year’s English tests for 14-year-olds.
‘I is off b4 u sack me, innit,’ Mr Ford wrote in his letter of resignation.
The Telegraph says the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) has admitted that the whole process – from the printing and distribution of the tests to the calculation and return of the marks – was ‘plagued with a myriad of issues and errors’.
And it has issued a personal apology to Jonathan Bircher, a 14-year-old schoolboy from Wales, who as a result became the first pupil in Britain in five years to fail to get full marks in a public exam.’
Posted: 18th, November 2004 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
