As Ken Corsar, Glasgow’s director of education, was coming to terms with his authority’s closures debacle, John Mulgrew, his counterpart in East Ayrshire, opted for a simpler strategy. He fled the country.
Mulgrew’s plans for closing six schools, five of them denominational, have not gone down well with critics, especially in the SNP, who claim anti- Catholic bias. This has caused much amusement among those in the know about who calls the shots in the local education world.
So where was Mulgrew when his henchmen were out trying to persuade parents to allow them to rationalise provision? The unlikely truth is that he was off to Rome and an audience with the Pope, not to seek divine intervention but to join in a family celebration. Nice to have friends in high places.
