Conservative conference: Boris attacks rap music projects
Monday, September 29, 2008
London Mayor Boris Johnson has pledged to open 10 City Academies during his mayoral term and taken a swipe at rap music projects in a typically wide-ranging and rumbustious address to the Conservative Party conference.
The academies pledge will be part of a youth strategy to be unveiled in November. “I am afraid I can’t promise that they will all teach Latin and Greek, though it won’t be for want of trying,” he said on Sunday. “But I hope they will offer an educational and vocational discipline that is lacking in so many of our schools.”
Johnson hailed shadow children’s secretary Michael Gove’s bid to usher in 5,000 state-funded independent schools, modelled on a scheme in Sweden. He said: “I welcome the Gove’s radical new thinking about education and we will change London’s planning policies to help the supply of new schools.”
On the issue of providing young people with things to do, he said “I will not be frightened about saying some crusty-sounding things. People have invested a lot of money in expensive sound equipment intended to turn youngsters into rappers and DJs but I’d like to see some more going into basic literacy and mathematics.”
And on efforts to tackle violent youth crime, Johnson said he made “no apology” for the extension of police powers to stop and search, saying 2,000 knives had been “lifted from the streets” since May. He added: “If stop and search is done sensitively and in accordance with the law then it is vital.”
