I cannot be the only one who is quickly revising their opinion of Nicky Morgan.
Little did we know when she was education secretary that we had someone at the helm who would stand up against the prospect of creating new grammar schools across the country. (In fact, she did support the proposal to establish a satellite selective school in Kent.)
Nor did we realise at the time that she had fought a battle - and won - against a proposal to treat the children of illegal immigrants as second-class citizens and send them to the bottom of the pile when it came to deciding on priorities for school admissions.
The proposal would have meant them congregating in the country’s failing sink schools - thus punishing them for the perceived sins of their parents. Honestly, it’s not a huge step from there to asking them to identify themselves by wearing a yellow star.
That battle was with Theresa May, who proposed the idea when she was home secretary, and may well have been a determining factor in deciding Ms Morgan’s fate as a Cabinet minister following David Cameron’s resignation. The former education secretary could not have known that at the time, but one has to applaud her courage in threatening to resign if the proposal went through.
No, she came across - certainly in the early part of her reign - as a “safe pair of hands” who would do little to draw attention to herself or education - as was the Government’s requirement in the aftermath of Michael Gove.
In fact, she reminded me of a sketch on the 1960s BBC TV satire programme That Was The Week That Was when David Frost unveiled a range of Christmas dolls exhibiting the character traits of world leaders at the time. One of them was known as the Dwight Eisenhower doll (he was the US president during that period) and it did nothing.
Mrs Morgan has, of course, gone into overdrive with her criticism of the £995 leather trousers the Prime Minister wore for a photo-shoot with the Sunday Times. They were not the sort of item of clothing that she would be seen wearing in Loughborough Market, she scoffed. As a result, has found herself barred from meetings at Number 10 by Mrs May’s chief of staff, Fiona Hill, who texted a fellow Conservative MP who had attended a meeting with Mrs Morgan, saying: “Don’t bring that woman to No 10 again.” Red rag to a bull again. “Nobody brings me to meetings,” retorted Mrs Morgan.
As far as that spat is concerned, I am tempted just to say you couldn’t make it up - and move on.
But on the other point - that of the new Nicky Morgan that is emerging from the shadow of her reign at Sanctuary Buildings - had I known the nation’s education system was in the hands of someone who opposed the idea of bringing back grammar schools and believed in giving a fair crack of the whip to the children of illegal immigrants resident in this country, I would have supported her. Certainly some of the comments that I wrote as then education editor of The Independent would have looked much more kindly on her policies.
But there’s the rub. We may be in the same situation again with the current incumbent as education secretary Justine Greening sharing reservations about the grammar school plan but feeling constrained about saying so in public.
Oh, for an education secretary confident enough to openly speak their mind and say what they really thought. Of course, we had one of those recently - Michael Gove. Be careful what you wish for.
Richard Garner was education editor of The Independent for 12 years and has been writing about education for more than three decades.
Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow TES on Twitter and like TES on Facebook
