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Jobs for the boys

I was going to write a lengthy piece about Toby Young's appointment to the Higher Education watchdog. There's plenty to get your teeth into. Young, a classic example of someone promoted far far beyond their ability due to being relatively well connected (Young "writes" for Spectator under editorship of Boris Johnson. Johnson's brother appoints Young to government role. Johnson and Gove immediately tweet their approval, just....eurgh) getting the job over people who actually have higher education experience ("he will bring independence" says Johnson, his ex colleague and brother of the bloke who hired him).

But then I just didn't, frankly, I didn't have the energy.

Because it's astonishing there's even an argument about this, it is such a palpably bad idea (Young has spent the day busily deleting tweets, most of which refer to breasts) and so clearly a case of a group of braying private school dickheads scratching each others backs that it hardly seems worth pointing out. For example, Boris praising his "caustic wit" ( I refer you back to the deleted tweets, one of which referred to a woman looking surpised at a party because Young had his "dick up her arse") as if that were somehow a qualification for an incredibly important HE position as opposed to, oh, I dunno, experience.

Now, in his defence it is worth pointing out that he has educational sector experience of sorts. He started up a bunch of free schools, and has been a strident advocate for them. It would be unfair to say that he doesn't care about education, or least how he can potentially make a quid or two from the eventual privatisation of state education (the logical endpoint of the free school project). But it would also be remiss not to point out that he quit, stating that it was "harder than I thought". One might also be tempted to point out that this volte-face, coming after a period of time when he'd slagged off "lazy" teachers is of a piece with the current administration's utter disregard for the entire public sector.

But I shan't. I can't be arsed. If you don't agree that Toby Young is a colossal bell-end who is manifestly unfit for this purpose then, well, I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. Life's too short.

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