Failing to invest? The roof will cave in – on schools, and the Tory party
Actions have consequences appears to be the grown-up lesson to take from the concrete chaos enveloping Britain’s schools, public infrastructure and indeed the Tory party.
The first two are easier to understand: decisions not to push ahead with capital investment eventually lead to things not working. Governments of all stripes will have no doubt been warned, but all will have calculated that the chickens were most likely to roost under somebody else’s watch. As a parable for the value of investment (and fixing the literal roof whilst the sun is shining) it takes some beating.
It is in that sense possible to have sympathy with Gillian Keegan, the education secretary.
Like most people in today’s Cabinet she’s had precious little time to make any impact of any note at all; transformation takes time, and a combination of ministerial reshuffles and entire governments toppling in much the same way as the local comp’s masonry has left few with the scope to make their mark.
In short: it really isn’t her fault. But it is still perhaps unwise to say that whilst being filmed by the nation’s largest private broadcaster, standing in the middle of 4 Millbank, a building crawling with political journalists.
Whilst Keegan’s hot mic faux pas will go down in political history (for the record, it’s less damaging than Gordon Brown calling one of his own supporters a “bigoted woman” but worse than David Cameron saying the Queen “purred” down the line over the Scottish referendum result), the lesson should be that putting off long-term investments for the sake of short-term gain inevitably falls over as a strategy.
For all the furore over the education secretary’s comments, the most insightful comment thus far on the matter comes from the Bank’s former economist Andy Haldane: to paraphrase, we shoulda seen it coming.