At the previously mentioned meeting I attended on school autonomy, Christine Blower of the NUT said something that I think is highly important for the coalition government and Michael Gove. She described public sector schools as 'community schools'. This very deliberate and brazen attempt to hijack the term for schools where parents only get a say if they are one of a few to join the governing board, and then find they have almost no room for manoeuvre anyway, is in its own way quite brilliant. And it contrasts with the government's own poor communications on the issue.
This redefinition of the public sector to mean the same thing as community confirms David Cameron's point that the left seems to think that the state and society are the same thing. Ideologically debatable, but in communications terms it's a great move - cutting through the government's attempt to differentiate between communities' interest and that of the public sector that serves them, boosting the 'fluffy' factor of the public sector schools and trying to paint the government's plans as being against rather than for local communities.
This boldness with language and messages goes to show just how tough the union opposition to the coalition's plans will be for Michael Gove to overcome.
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