The education secretary seems to have forgotten who’s been in power for 13 years

Editorial: Gillian Keegan’s response to the school building scandal has added to the grumbler’s lament that ‘nothing works any more’, from crumbling buildings and rail strikes to dirty rivers and NHS waiting lists. Her government must take its share of responsibility

Gillian Keegan seemed disappointed that parents hadn’t been showering her with praise for her handling of the crisis (PA Wire)

One small but telling indicator that the Conservative Party has forgotten how to “do politics” – let alone govern a medium-sized G7 power – is the latest “attack line” deployed on social media by the Department for Education.

Under the catchy tagline “RAAC UPDATE” (ie Raac scandal), it proudly declares: “MOST SCHOOLS UNAFFECTED”. As the swift Labour response suggested, it’s rather like the mayor of Amity Island putting “Jaws Update” posters up reading “Most beachgoers not eaten by big shark”. Like so much in this grim saga of bungles and botches, the great concrete crisis has given rise to some dark, gallows humour.

It is a strange, unedifying thing to see the department and its ministers indulging in such monumental chutzpah. The schools minister, Nick Gibb, hitherto one of the Tories’ few sensible types, claims that the government’s response to the school buildings scandal has been “world-leading”.

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, is now notorious for her “hot mic” moment when she seemed disappointed that parents hadn’t been showering her with praise for her handling of the crisis. Now she’s decided to double down on her earlier faux pas, and tells busy school heads to “get off their backsides” and fill in her questionnaire. She seems not to understand that schoolteachers are generally not well-versed in building materials technology.

Perhaps, in her delusional moment, Ms Keegan had forgotten which party has been in charge of education for the past 13 years, which chancellor-turned-prime minister said no to the department’s requests to renovate more affected schools, and indeed that it was her who ordered 150 schools to be closed or partially closed just before or, in the worst cases, after term started.

As things stand, only four of the schools in jeopardy have been fixed. That is not the kind of progress that earns the thanks of a grateful nation.

This latest crisis merely adds to a mounting sense of national malaise. Ministers, for all their green rhetoric, are unable or unwilling to do anything about the ever-worsening environmental crisis being faced. The levers of power are weak, and our country is being trashed with impunity.

There seems to be a quite widespread feeling in Britain that “nothing works anymore”. Our schools are crumbling, as are hospitals and, for all we know, courts, roads (already potholed), and public housing. And to add to that list – almost unbelievably, after what they endured during the pandemic – care homes have been asked to check for crumbling and dangerous concrete as well.

When we venture out we find our buses run less often and on fewer routes, and waiting lists in the NHS grow ever longer; food price inflation is still running at 12 per cent and energy is ruinously dear; there are shortages of every type of labour; our MPs look as sleazy as ever, and our ministers weak and incompetent; and decent affordable housing is simply out of reach for a depressing number of families.

Where public services such as the railways are nominally not being cut or running out of cash, they are hit by wave after wave of strikes. The National Air Traffic system collapsed without warning on a bank holiday weekend. The failures to manage migration and properly process asylum claims means hotels are commandeered instead, at great cost to the taxpayer. And now the great city of Birmingham has just gone bust.

This is not a promising background for a party that has been in power for 13 years to be seeking a fifth term in office. After such a long time in office, the government must take its share of responsibility for the state of the nation. It is perfectly fair to point out that many of these challenges stretch back decades – but not all of them.

The NHS, for example, was in a relatively healthy condition when Labour left office. Even where the roots of issues date back decades, as with the weakening concrete used widely in construction, the Conservatives have been in power for long enough to have made some impact; but all too often there has been complacency and neglect.

The Conservative-led governments that have run the UK since 2010 have had their successes. The pension triple-lock for example – an idea pioneered by their Liberal Democrat partners in the coalition – lifted many more pensioners out of poverty.

Arguably, free schools made a useful contribution to the educational ecosystem. Most substantively of all, and expensively, the furlough scheme during the pandemic saved the economy and prevented the country from sliding into a slump.

However, this lengthy period of Conservative government has inevitably been defined by Brexit, and the baleful social and economic consequences that have flowed from it. It has damaged the economy, and in particular blighted trade and productive investment, whence future gains in productivity and national wealth would have been generated.

Insofar as Britain’s problems stem from lack of money, then Brexit has been a factor. It may not be much argued about now, to the relief of many, but it sets the background to much else.

Even an energetic, effective government brimming with ideas would find it hard to regenerate Britain post-Brexit, so it can come as no surprise that one that has run out of ideas, talent and time has found itself struggling to get a grip on events.