Minimum service levels represent the worst type of politics

Life, says Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Ever the English teacher, I hesitate to draw a parallel between such a bleakly elegant meditation on the human condition and something as tawdry as the government’s policy on minimum service levels, but it is a phrase that nonetheless keeps coming to mind.

Here’s why. 

On Monday night, via an announcement in The Sun (this, unfortunately, is the way the government goes about its business), it became clear that the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, intended to introduce mandatory minimum service levels during any future school and college strikes. A consultation was launched the next day which was such a dog’s dinner that it had to be hastily withdrawn and “updated” to address various design flaws.