A decision most cannot afford

So Tony Blair has decided to secure the services of a private tutor from the equally private school of Westminster, alma mater of at least a dozen Prime Ministers, and at least one of the current incumbents of the Downing Street Policy Unit - and Tony Benn. This is not a decision of the moment by the way; it was taken some time ago. The PM's spokesman says "the Blairs' children are entitled to carry out their schooling free from intrusion" and their education is a matter for the family. Well, up to a point Lord Copper.

Several years ago, the Labour Party had a policy which promised to strip charitable status from Britain's private schools. This eminently sensible policy was fiercely resisted by those same schools which preferred to be known as " public schools". And leading the crusade against the battalions from Eton, Harrow and lesser fry was none other than David Blunkett, then Education Spokesman. When this policy was unceremoniously dropped - almost overnight by Tony Blair - and seemingly without Mr Blunkett's agreement or knowledge, he became very agitated. He told me he hadn't spent his whole life fighting against privilege to become a Minister obliged to defend it. The measure went through. Mr Blunkett has prospered in government. Nor has he ever had cause to phone me again.

This story is instructive because it shows the premium that Mr Blair attaches to education. He famously intervened to rescue the party's new education policy from the hapless Ann Taylor when she held the brief. His vision of a new meritocracy included many of the ancient institutions that Labour had been at war with for the best part of a century - and these included the private schools and the remaining grammar schools, whatever Mr Blunkett may also have said about reading his lips and there being "no selection under a Labour government".

When the Prime Minister and his wife decided on the selective London Oratory for one of their children, his famously pugnacious press secretary, Alastair Campbell courageously demurred telling Blair that he was on his own on that one. Today, the shock factor of discovering-that the PM of a party that proudly created a comprehensive system for the vast majority of Britain's schoolchildren has now gone a step further and enlisted the services of a private tutor has given way to the resignation factor.

So what? say some. The Blairs aren't the first, nor will they be the last. Tony Benn may have opted for Notting Hill comprehensive for his offspring, but that was then and this is now. Middle class, liberal London would like to love the comprehensives, if only those schools were good enough. The difference between "succeeding schools" and "failing schools" has developed into a yawning gap as parents leap borough borders and write cheques that they can't really afford. Except that at the end of the day, they can. Most Londoners cannot.

And most Londoners do look to a PM who obviously cares about schooling, who can boast of substantial improvements in primary education and new streams of funding from a popular budget to provide for them what he would want for his own. The trouble is that his private decision to go partly private sends a hugely public signal - that the only way to get on is to get out.