Knowledge matters

Way back when the Conservative government was shiny and new, the most exciting reforms were in education. People have written most about the structural reforms – academies, free schools. But there was also an attempt to inject knowledge into the curriculum.

I’m not going to rehash all the arguments for this piece - you should read Daisy Christodolou if you want to know more. I’ll just put down one of the quotes Daisy uses from Dan Willingham (a well-known cognitive psychologist in education) to make the point.

"Data from the last thirty years lead to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts…critical thinking processes such as reasoning and problem solving…are intimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory."

In other words, knowing stuff matters. However brilliant you are as a chess player, if I dump you in a cancer research lab it’s going to take you a while to be useful.

My point, for the purposes of this blog is, the Conservatives really care about this! They’ve been talking about it, and trying to inject it into schools, for over a decade. They are convinced of its importance.

Except when it comes to running government.

I made a very rough chart of the experience in the department they are running that the new Rishi cabinet has. Yes, they are ‘old hands’, but not in their actual subjects (apologies for any errors – do point them out). The very best record, in a government of over 12 years, is 3 years in post.

I’ve tried to be generous and add in junior ministerial experience in that department, or highly relevant professional experience before becoming a politician. It’s still pretty dire.

And they’ve chosen not to put people in with direct experience – Mel Stride knows about the Treasury. Therese Coffey was an effective DWP Secretary of State. Grant Shapps actually likes transport and knows about it. Why not put them in there? Or maybe be really brave and put in William Hague into the Foreign Office and Theresa May into the Home Office.

To be clear, Rishi’s is way way better than most of the previous reshuffles in this regard. No wonder we never get anything consistently done.

I am completely befuddled by commentators saying we have ‘consistency’ and stability in positions when people have been in the job for a few weeks. They don’t know anything yet.

I often wonder if one of the reasons decentralisation works is because people like Andy Burnham and Andy Street actually hang around with the same team for more than five minutes.

I really hope Starmer doesn’t make the same mistakes. Put people who did the job in opposition into government. Keep them there unless they’re manifestly incompetent. Maybe then you’ll make progress.