Another angry Yorkshire blog

Adele sent me this link:

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/michael-gove-playing-fields.html

Check it out. Here's how it starts:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 2012

Michael Gove's school privatisation bonanza

Despite opposition from school staff, students, parents and the wider community,
Michael Gove forced through the privatisation of Downhills Primary School

It has been revealed that the Coalition government have been lying about the amount of school playing fields they have sold off. In answer to a Freedom of Information request the education minister Michael Gove claimed that his department had sold off 20 playing fields since 2010.

That Gove was prepared to admit that every single application to sell off playing fields had been approved was bad enough, but just a couple of weeks later the Daily Telegraph revealed that the figures were false and that Gove had actually approved thirty playing field sell-offs. 

  .  .  .  .   .  .   .   .   . 

The scandal isn't that Gove and Hill have overseen the sale of 30 playing fields, it is that they have transferred nearly 2,000 secondary schools (and playing fields) into private ownership. In many cases schools have been forcibly converted to private ownership despite opposition from parents and staff. In the case of Downhills Primary school in North London, ownership of the school was transferred to the Harris Federation despite opposition from staff, parents and 94% of the local community.

Upon closer examination, it turns out that the Harris Federation is one of these sham charities, which is a ruthless private business in all but name. The "charitable status" is clearly just a front,  .  .  .

The business model for "charities" like the Harris Federation is simple, snap up the schools that Gove is handing out for free, soak up the taxpayer subsidies and take a large cut out for the directors. 

 Yes, Gove and Hill rubber stamped the sale of thirty school playing fields and then lied about it. Yes Gove and Cameron seem to be colluding to in order to eradicate sports education and playing fields in state funded schools. But the much more important issues are the facts that the Tories have already privatised thousands of schools, without even charging a penny for these £billions in taxpayer funded assets (which will remain subsidised with public cash) and that the Tories are planning to force local authorities to privatise the ownership of hundreds more school properties.

Do you check out the whole blog. And yes, be angry, in Yorkshire, In Worcestershire, In Lancashire, in everywhere GB.