Lots of people make jokes about people in another part of the country being inbred, and none of them are in good taste.

This is worse, because it wasn’t a joke and it brought the UK’s schools inspectorate into disrepute.

How does David Hoare support his claim that “there has been inbreeding” within inches of a sailing club on the Isle of Wight?

How does he support his claim that the club is next to a “ghetto”, and what is his definition of a ghetto, in any case?

Perhaps Polly Toynbee is right in her appraisal: “According to Hoare’s logic, children are destined to fail, not because their schools are bad, with too few good teachers and too few opportunities to aim for after school – but because the genetic stock of their island breed is at fault.

“What’s the answer to their problem, then? Eugenics? Since the dawn of time, some groups of people have cast other regional or national groups as genetically deficient, innately stupid. This casual racism, or in this case classism, seeps out all too often from those who see themselves as effortlessly superior.

“‘Inbred’ perhaps more aptly describes his establishment, reproducing their own kind endlessly on to one board after another, each as ignorant as the next about the life of the country over which they wield such unthinking power. If you are a master or mistress of the universe, it’s comforting to think your place was earned through the inherent brilliance of your genes. There is always a tendency in those born into privilege to look for easy reasons why the rest fail. ‘Inbred’ is a very good excuse.”

The worst part of it is that the chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has said Hoare should keep his job, despite displaying a clear bias where he should not have any, and despite having brought Ofsted into disrepute by his remarks.

How can your children expect a decent standard of education when Ofsted’s chairman is spouting nonsense about their problems being genetic?

It seems clear that Osted’s faults are genetic, and this is perhaps why we should not be surprised at Sir Michael Wilshaw’s defence of Hoare.

These inbreds tend to stick together.

The chairman of education watchdog Ofsted should keep his job despite provoking outrage by describing the Isle of Wight as a ghetto suffering from ”inbreeding”, the chief inspector of schools has said.

Sir Michael Wilshaw said that David Hoare had gone “over the top”, but had apologised and should be allowed to remain.

And he said Hoare had been right to draw public attention to underachievement in rural and coastal areas like the Isle of Wight, where until recently school standards had been “terribly, pitifully low”.

Former City banker David Hoare was widely criticised after being caught on tape at a teaching conference making disparaging remarks about the Isle of Wight.

“Most people go there for sailing for two weeks a year. There’s a sailing club that is one of the best in the world, where there’s champagne,” said Hoare in the recording, obtained by the Times Education Supplement.

“But just within inches, there are people who live in a ghetto … They think of it as holiday land. But it is shocking. It’s a ghetto; there has been inbreeding.”

Isle of Wight council leader Jonathan Bacon denounced the comments as “truly offensive”, while Conservative councillor Chris Whitehouse said they were “absolutely inaccurate, inflammatory, unhelpful, unacceptable and frankly despicable”.

Green party education spokeswoman Vix Lowthion said the Ofsted chair should resign.

Source: Ofsted chair should not lose job over inbreeding comment, says chief | Education | The Guardian

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