In a section from a book about his early life and schooling, Winston Churchill wrote that "headmasters have powers at their disposal with which prime ministers have never yet been invested".
The statement has relevance for a different age but that reverence for education still tends to cut across class divisions today. It may well explain Labour's belated decision to select Rector Lindsay Roy to contest the Glenrothes by-election (your r
eport, 2 September). He has a reputation for attainment and innovation in the learning sphere, but whether this will impress an increasingly volatile electorate is a moot point.
In what will certainly be a two-horse race with the SNP, Mr Roy faces in Peter Grant a fine tactical campaigner and one of the shrewdest brains in modern local government. The Kirkcaldy High School rector must be aware of the real disillusion with Labour among lower income groups, which make up a substantial part of the constituency.
His campaign has been given the worst possible send-off by the deleterious remarks by Chancellor Alistair Darling in a recent newspaper interview.
Surely the role of any finance minister is to exude confidence, even when economic fortunes are on the wane. A comparison with 60 years ago, when health and education standards were worse, when rationing and national indebtedness were severe, when expectations and material conditions were much lower, is facile and economically illiterate.
The Prime Minister needs not just a relaunch but a reshuffle if a candidate from his old school is to be successful in Glenrothes. The Chancellor may be an old friend, but his removal may be essential for the government's survival.
BOB TAYLOR
Shiel Court
Glenrothes, FifeThe full article contains 287 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
