CAPITALISM is dead. Socialism is for dinosaurs. New Labour is poised to embrace Peoplism, a concept first expounded by Sir Alec Reed, the man brought in by Tony Blair to solve the teacher recruitment crisis. Unfortunately, his ideas were so brilliant they never saw the light of day and hence the crisis remains.
Peoplism disciples include Tom Bentley, director of New Labour’s favourite think-tank, Demos. Bentley believes it can deliver a new world order if only schools taugh more enterprise education.
At last week’s No 11 seminar he was promoting the work of the National Federation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an American organisation which used to be admired by the Thatcherites.
Bentley’s mentor, Alec Reed, has set up his own Academy of Enterprise to promote the creed. Peoplism, as defined by him, is an economic state where individuals own and carry round with them the most important factor of production: brainpower. Got it?
