It is a month since Estelle Morris drank a last, sad drink with John Prescott in her Department for Education and Skills office. It was a last wish before the execution. “Two Jags” had been sent to escort her from the premises and from the corridors of power she had spent much of her life trying to enter. It must have seemed like the end of the world.
Since then, however, Estelle’s reputation has enjoyed a remarkable recovery. Guilty hacks have elevated her to sainthood, reporting praise from across the education world for a “minister who was too decent for high office”. A half-page ad in The TES, placed by staff at Whalley Range high school in Manchester, where she used to teach, saluted her for “vision, enthusiasm, commitment and honesty”. Perhaps more significant than all this, though, are reliable reports that Saint Estelle has been enjoying home cooking at Cherie and Tony Blair’s place since her “fall”. If Estelle can swallow Cherie’s pasta bakes, a swift comeback may be beckoning.
