Will someone explain devolution to the local Labour party.
There is a community council election campaign under way in Pontyclun and the Labour party are apparently putting out leaflets telling people that if they vote Conservative then they will lose their local comprehensive school as it will become a grammar school.
At the same time Pontyclun Labour Councillors Margaret and Paul Griffiths ,writing for the "District Diary" state:
"There is a proposal from the UK Government that there should be a return to Grammar Schools for 20% of highest achieving children and, inevitably, Secondary Modern Schools for the other 80%. Our local schools might become grammar schools in which case 80% of Pontyclun children would be bussed to secondary modern schools elsewhere. Alternatively our schools would go back 40 years to becoming secondary modern schools once again. This is a divisive proposal which will undermine the tremendous progress that has been made by our local comprehensive schools. At the moment this proposal has been rejected by RCT Council and the Welsh Government."
This is absolute nonsense. Education is devolved and is under the control of the Welsh Government. Neither RCT Council nor the Welsh Government has "rejected" the grammar school proposal because it has not been propose d here. Liberal Democrat Education Secretary in Wales, Kirsty Williams, has commented that Wales will not follow suit, not on her watch anyway, but to suggest that it is even a possibility is simply wrong . It is pure scaremongering and does nothing to help educate the general public as to where responsibility within government lies for the major things which affect their everyday lives.
AberdareOnline would add, is this typical Labour politics using scare tactics to gain votes in local election?
