Is it morally right to cheat for your child? For those who follow the eleventh middle class commandment "Thou shalt get thy child into a good school by hook or by crook" there's no moral dilemma at all and Tory leader David Cameron, it seems, is one of them.
Asked by the Times about parents who fake Christian beliefs to get into church schools, he replied: "I think it's good for parents who want the best for their kids. I don't blame anyone who tries to get their children into a good school. Most people are doing so because it has an ethos and culture. I believe in active citizens."
You can't imagine Gordon Brown being so insouciant about breaking the rules of the Kirk, but Cameron has a feel for middle class voters in the same way that Tony Blair was prepared to offend many in the Labour Party by sending his son to a school that had opted out of local authority control - a key Conservative policy that was being hotly contested across England. Wanting the best for his kids was the justification then too.
Cameron, as the Times noted, had another reason. "Mr Cameron will learn this year whether his own daughter has won a place at a state-funded Church of England school in Kensington, West London."
A surge in late baptisms among Roman Catholic parents has also been reported recently and with the government's enthusiasm for faith schools. Perhaps it won't be long before parents are seeking out the local imam or Muslim parents complain about bias towards Shia or Sunni families?
On the blogs, Sandwell Labour councillor Bob Piper notes sourly: "Cameron says, like the Blair clone he has become, these middle class parents with sharp elbows are really only parents doing the best for their children. OK, by it's by lies and deception, but so what? Weren't the Great Train Robbers only doing their best by their children?"
