Another Unworkable Initiative

Tony Blair's plans to give heads the power to carry out random drug tests on pupils surely has to be one of his most fatuous ideas. He literally wants teachers to take the p***. Given the UK teaching unions, the chances of this being implemented in more than a handful of schools looks near-zero.

This morning it was a hopeful soundbite on BBC news - and by the afternoon the teachers unions were already expressing doubts both in England and Scotland.

The last thing heads will fancy is administering these. Without going into the practicalities of obtaining urine samples too closely, the potential for claims of harassment and abuse looks pretty impressive. And I can just imagine the reaction of a head with for example large numbers of female Muslim pupils.

However there is a grain of sense in this initiative. Not the pupils but the teachers should be tested for dope. Admittedly this would lead to a mass exodus of English, Drama and Social Science teachers, but you can't have everything. The principle should then be applied to all State employees, including those working for the BBC. There must be some social workers and probation officers who don't take drugs - I've just never met them. I remember a probation officer friend complaining that he kept bumping into all his clients at parties, and I know from personal experience that many social workers are more adept at putting together a three-skinner than disentangling their clients troubled lives.

Such an initiative, enforced with draconian penalties such as loss of pension rights, would make Oliver Letwin's plans to reduce State employment seem petty in their scope. They would be tumbling out of the doors faster than you could print the P45s. Admittedly many of them are probably unemployable in the private sector, but they could over time retrain as plumbers, cockle-pickers or gardeners, all of which are in demand in twenty-first century Britain.

UPDATE - This isn't to say that I think all Blair's initiatives are wrong, even this one. It's just that the more likely ANY Blair or Blunkett initiative is to have an actual effect, the less likely it is to be implemented. This follows in that noble tradition. It's just another 'Blair gets tough' soundbite

Stephen Pollard supports the idea and has the traditional smack at the Lib Dems.