Adam Boulton: The revolving door of education secretaries has created an environment as stable as crumbling concrete

Published

2 years ago

September 10, 2023

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The career of Education Secretary Gillian Keegan looks precarious following the sudden disruption of the start of the school year.

After days of hesitation, the government confirmed last week that RAAC concrete – which can cause buildings to collapse – has been identified in 146 schools, of which at least 43 were unable to begin face-to-face education as normal.

Potentially thousands more schools, as well as other public buildings, may be affected.

Ms Keegan’s handling of the situation has not endeared her to her colleagues or the general public.

In spite of receiving warnings over months, if not years, she gave schools no notice before announcing – just days before children returned after the holidays – that they would have to shut facilities immediately.

As the controversy raged she was on holiday, unavailable for interview and, allegedly, unable to return from one of her homes in Spain because of the air traffic control breakdown.

She made things worse for the government when she got back to Westminster.

On camera for a TV interview, she let off a four-letter strewn tirade, complaining: “Does anyone ever say you’ve done a f***ing good job, because everyone else has sat on their a*** and done nothing?”. Later she laughed when the footage was played back to her on Sky News.

Meanwhile, there were reports that she “blindsided” fellow ministers with her drastic announcement. Labour raised questions about a recent £34m revamp of the Department for Education headquarters and about £1m from the schools rebuilding fund paid to a company linked to her husband.

Yet in comparison to previous hue and cry against other beleaguered ministers, Ms Keegan seems to be getting off lightly.

The Labour leadership has not yet demanded her sacking or resignation. This appears to be less of a comment on her performance than an expression of exasperation that her departure would not make much difference.

10 education secretaries in 13 years

There have been no less than, a shocking, 10 secretaries of state for education in the 13 years since the Conservatives took power in 2010. Would another one now make much difference to the state of schools?

Naming the 10 education secretaries is too difficult for a pub quiz or an A-level politics exam. In order they have been: Michael Gove, Nicky Morgan, Justine Greening, Damian Hinds, Gavin Williamson, Nadhim Zahawi, Michelle Donelan, James Cleverly, Kit Malthouse and Ms Keegan.

On average each minister has not stuck around long enough for a child to complete two years of primary or secondary school.

Given that politicians of all hues never tire of telling us that children are our the nation’s future, this turmoil betrays an extraordinarily neglectful attitude to ensuring a stable environment for children to acquire the life skills they need.

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In further evidence of carelessness in this policy area, there have also been 10 ministers responsible for higher education and universities since 2010. Jo, now Lord, Johnson fulfilled the role for two separate terms.

Much of the rapid turnover is down to the rolling chaos of four prime ministers in the past five years.

All were determined to appoint a team loyal to them, as each positioned themselves in the raging Tory ideological civil wars. Since Boris Johnson took over in 2019 there have been six education secretaries.

The Department for Education is one subject to systemic instability during these Tory governments.

Since David Cameron became prime minister there have been 12 culture secretaries – including Michelle Donelan and Ms Morgan who also had goes at education, and 11 lord chancellors in charge of the justice system – including Mr Gove.

Job seen as stepping stone

The roster in those posts regarded as more senior has stayed in single figures: is now the eight foreign secretaries (including former education secretary Mr Cleverly), seven defence secretaries (including Mr Williamson) and five home secretaries (Suella Braverman has been appointed twice).

This gives away which jobs ambitious politicians really want. A stint as education secretary is increasingly being regarded as merely a stepping stone to something better.

The revolving door at the Department for Education has been spinning faster and faster, leaving some secretaries of state barely time to locate the toilets.

Education has seldom been treated as a key department but there is no modern precedent for the recent turmoil. A minority of education secretaries on both sides have even displayed genuine interest and left a mark on the education system they are supposed to oversee.

As a member of the wartime coalition cabinet, the Conservative R A Butler enacted the blueprint for education reform in the UK from 1945 onward. From 1950, the last time before this when the Conservatives were in power for 13 years, only six people held the job.

Labour’s Harold Wilson needed just four in his first seven-year government and only three in the five years he shared with Jim Callaghan second time round. Anthony Crosland and Shirley Williams are remembered for their implementation of comprehensive schools to replace grammars and secondary moderns.

In between those two Labour governments, the Conservative prime minister Ted Heath’s sole education secretary was Margaret Thatcher, ultimately to his regret.

She too shut a lot of grammars and abolished free school milk for children. In government for 18 years, she and John Major only appointed seven.

Kenneth Baker was the most notable reforming secretary of state, introducing standard attainment tests in primary schools.

There were six in new Labour’s 13 years from 1997 to 2010. David Blunkett was the first blind cabinet minister. He brought in university tuition fees and took on the teaching unions in support of Mr Baker’s basic standards.

Estelle Morris deserves special mention for resigning voluntarily after just one year saying she didn’t feel up to it after failing to hit literacy and numeracy targets.

Education secretary for a mere 36 hours

What of the current Tory 10?

Ms Donelan is back in the cabinet as science secretary in spite of holding the all-time record for the shortest ever cabinet post. She was education secretary for a mere 36 hours – collateral damage in the Tory implosion last summer when Mr Johnson appointed a new cabinet after he had been forced to quit.

Also leaving no impression on schools beyond uncertainty in the Johnson-Truss-Sunak interregnum: Mr Cleverly who did two months as Mr Johnson’s education caretaker, Mr Malthouse who served Ms Truss, and Mr Zahawi, who was dropped in for 10 months after Mr Johnson sacked Mr Williamson, who had previously been sacked as defence secretary. Mr Johnson brought him back to education.

Mr Williamson’s handling of schools and exams during the pandemic resulted in several U-turns and was heavily criticised. Mr Hinds paid attention to Catholic education. His 18 months as education secretary were ended abruptly by Mr Johnson.

Ms Morgan and Ms Greening were each in the job for about two years. They were both made women and equalities minister at the same time.

This left the impression that their bosses regarded both portfolios dismissively as not really proper jobs, best given to women. Both fell foul of the pro-Brexit leadership. Ms Greening was purged from the party and now campaigns on social mobility. Ms Morgan survived and is in the House of Lords, where she chairs the committee on public commemoration of COVID.

Confronting ‘the left-wing blob’

Mr Gove was the first, the longest serving, and the most significant of these Tory education secretaries. UK school pupils are now higher up international tables for literacy and numeracy. Conservatives give Mr Gove credit for his insistence on conventional teaching methods.

He was the first elected politician to bring the radical campaigner Dominic Cummings, later called a “career psychopath” by David Cameron, into government as an aide.

Mr Gove and Mr Cummings promoted free schools and academies and confronted what they called “the left-wing blob”. The teaching unions voted no confidence in Mr Gove. In 2014, ahead of the approaching general election, Mr Cummings resigned amid controversy about his behaviour towards colleagues. Mr Gove was demoted – for the time being.

In one of his first acts as education secretary, Mr Gove cancelled the previous Labour government’s “Building for the Future” schools regeneration scheme.

The opposition are pointing to that as the source of failure to deal with RAAC concrete in school buildings. Ms Keegan is carrying burdens passed on to her by her nine Conservative predecessors. In her terms probably more of them “sat on their a***s” than did a “f***ing brilliant job”. That may be the best reason for Mr Sunak to keep her on as education secretary.

Politics

DeFi security and compliance must be improved to attract institutions

Published

6 hours ago

April 9, 2025

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DeFi security and compliance must be improved to attract institutions

Opinion by: Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch

Institutional players have been closely watching decentralized finance’s growth. Creating secure and compliant DeFi platforms is the only solution to build trust and attract more institutions.

Clear waters attract big ships

Over the past four years, institutional DeFi adoption has gone from 10% of hedge funds to 47%, and is projected to rise to 65% in 2025. Goldman Sachs is reaching their arms to DeFi for bond issuance and yield farming.

Early adopters are already positioning themselves in onchain finance, including Visa, which has processed over $1 billion in crypto transactions since 2021 and is now testing cross-border payments. In the next two years, institutional adoption will speed up. A compliant regulatory framework that maintains DeFi’s core benefits is necessary for institutional adoption to engage confidently.

DeFi’s institutional trilemma

It is no secret that many DeFi security exploits happen every year. The recent Bybit hack reported a $1.4 billion loss. The breach occurred through a transfer process that was vulnerable to attack. Attacks like these raise concerns about multisignature wallets and blind signing. This happens when users approve transactions without full details, rendering blind signing a significant risk. This case calls for stronger security measures and improvements in user experience.

The threats of theft due to vulnerabilities in smart contracts or mistakes by validators make institutional investors hesitate when depositing large amounts of money into institutional staking pools. Institutions are also at risk of noncompliance due to a lack of clear regulatory frameworks, creating hesitation to enter the space.

The user interface in DeFi is often designed for users with technical expertise. Institutional investors require user-friendly experiences that make DeFi staking possible without relying on third-party intermediaries.

Build it right, and they will come

Institutional interest in bringing traditional assets onchain is enormous, with the tokenized asset market estimated to reach $16 trillion by 2030. To confidently participate in DeFi, institutions need verifiable counterparties that are compliant with regulatory requirements. The entry of traditional institutional players into DeFi has led some privacy advocates to point out that it can counter the essence of decentralization, which forms the bedrock of the ecosystem.

Recent: Securitize to bring BUIDL tokenized fund to DeFi with RedStone price feeds

Institutions must be able to trust DeFi platforms to maintain compliance standards while providing a safe and seamless user interface. A balanced approach is key. DeFi’s permissionless nature can be achieved while maintaining compliance through identity profiles, allowing secure transactions. Similarly, transaction screening tools facilitate real-time monitoring and risk assessment.

Blockchain analytics tools help institutions to maintain compliance with Anti-Money Laundering regulations and prevent interaction with blacklisted wallets. Integrating these tools can help detect and prevent illicit activity, making DeFi safer for institutional engagement.

Intent-based architecture can improve security

The relationship between intent-based architecture and security is evident; the very design is built to reduce risks, creating a more reliable user experience. This protects the user against MEV exploits, a common issue of automated bots scanning for large profitable trades that can be exploited. Intent-based architecture also helps implement compliance frameworks. For instance, restricting order submissions to clean wallets and allowing resolvers to settle only the acceptable orders.

It’s well understood that in traditional DeFi transactions, users rely often on intermediaries like liquidity providers to execute trades or manage funds. This leads to counterparty risk, unauthorized execution and settlement failure. The intent-based architecture supports a trustless settlement that ensures users commit only when all conditions are met, reducing risk and removing blind trust from the picture.

DeFi platforms must simplify interactions and UX for institutional investors. This system bridges the gap between. Through executing offchain while ensuring security, the intent-based architecture makes DeFi safer and more efficient. However, one of the challenges to this includes integrating offchain order matching while maintaining onchain transparency.

Late adopters of DeFi will struggle to keep up

For the early adopters of DeFi, there is a competitive advantage in liquidity access and yield advantages, whereas late adopters will face more regulatory scrutiny and entry barriers. By 2026, the institutional players that have failed to adopt DeFi may struggle to keep up. This is seen in the examples of early adopters like JPMorgan and Citi’s early tokenization projects. TradFi leaders like them are already gearing up for onchain finance.

The way forward

Regulatory bodies, supervisory agencies and policy leaders must provide clear, standardized guidelines to facilitate broader institutional participation. Uniform protocols underpinning wider institutional involvement are underway. DeFi platforms must be prepared beforehand to provide all the necessary pillars of compliance and security to institutional players who want to embrace mainstream adoption. Executing this shall require combined efforts from regulators, developers and institutions.

Opinion by: Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Politics

Kalshi accepts Bitcoin deposits in bid to woo crypto-native users

Published

6 hours ago

April 9, 2025

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Kalshi accepts Bitcoin deposits in bid to woo crypto-native users

Prediction marketplace Kalshi has started taking Bitcoin (BTC) deposits in a bid to onboard more crypto-native users.

The company that lets users bet on events ranging from election outcomes to Rotten Tomatoes film ratings has seen a strong uptake among crypto traders, Kalshi told Cointelegraph on April 9. For instance, event contracts for betting on Bitcoin’s hour-by-hour price changes have seen $143 million in trading volume to date, a spokesperson said.

Kalshi is a derivatives exchange regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As of April 9, it listed some 50 crypto-related event contracts, including markets for betting on coins’ 2025 highs and lows, as well as on headlines such as US President Donald Trump’s proposed National Bitcoin Reserve.

The platform started accepting crypto payments in October when it enabled stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) deposits.

Kalshi relies on ZeroHash — a crypto payments infrastructure provider — for off-ramping BTC and USDC and converting the deposits to US dollars. The exchange accepts BTC deposits only from the Bitcoin network.

More accurate than polls

Launched in 2021, Kalshi rose to prominence ahead of the US’s November elections.

It became a top venue for trading on 2024 political events after winning a lawsuit against the CFTC, which tried to block Kalshi from listing contracts tied to elections.

The regulator argued that political prediction markets threaten the integrity of elections, but industry analysts say they often capture public sentiment more accurately than polls.

For instance, prediction markets, including Kalshi, accurately predicted Trump’s presidential election win even as polls indicated a tossup.

“Event contract markets are a valuable public good for which there is no evidence of significant manipulation or widespread use for any nefarious purposes that the Commission alleges,” Harry Crane, a statistics professor at Rutgers University, said in an August comment letter filed with the CFTC.

As of April 9, Kalshi traders peg the odds of the US entering a recession at 68%, according to its website.

In March, Kalshi partnered with Robinhood to bring prediction markets to the popular online brokerage platform. Robinhood’s stock rose some 8% on the news.

Kalshi competes with Polymarket, a Web3-based prediction platform. Polymarket processed more than $3 billion in trading volumes tied to the US presidential election despite being off-limits for US traders.

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Politics

No crypto project has registered with the SEC and ‘lived to tell the tale’ — House committee hearing

Published

7 hours ago

April 9, 2025

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No crypto project has registered with the SEC and ‘lived to tell the tale’ — House committee hearing

United States securities laws are not flexible enough to account for digital assets, as evidenced by the parade of crypto-native companies that have tried and failed to get into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) good graces, Rodrigo Seira, special counsel to Cooley LLP, told a House Committee hearing on April 9.

The hearing, titled American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets Aligning the U.S. Securities Laws for the Digital Age, featured Seira, WilmerHale partner Tiffany J. Smith, Polygon chief legal officer Jake Werrett and Alexandra Thorn, a senior director at the Center for American Progress.

“It is clear that the current securities regulatory framework is not a viable option to regulate crypto. It fails to achieve its stated policy goals,” Seira said in his opening remarks. “[T]he idea that crypto projects can come in and register with the SEC is demonstrably false.”

Seira acknowledged that crypto promoters who raise capital for a new enterprise should be subject to federal securities laws.

“In practice, however, virtually no crypto projects have successfully registered their tokens under federal securities laws and lived to tell the tale,” he said, adding:

Projects that tried to comply with [the] SEC’s current regulatory requirements expended significant resources and effort only to fail or survive in a state of regulatory uncertainty. Moreover, registration is not a simple one-time process. Registering a token in the same manner as a stock triggers an obligation to operate as a publicly reporting company […].”

Righting the ship

In introducing the witnesses, Representative Bryan Steil, who heads the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence, acknowledged regulatory roadblocks, which he said were put in place by the previous administration.

Under President Donald Trump, lawmakers are attempting to right the ship by passing sensible legislation, said Steil.

One of the first steps occurred last week when the House Financial Services Committee advanced the STABLE Act, which is designed to regulate payment stablecoins tied to the US dollar and other fiat currencies.

A month earlier, the Senate Banking Committee advanced the GENIUS Act, which aims to regulate stablecoin issuers by establishing reserve requirements and requiring full compliance with Anti-Money Laundering laws.

The next step is “advancing the second half of this agenda: comprehensive digital asset market structure legislation,” said Steil.

Representative Ro Khanna told a digital asset conference last month that a market structure bill will cross the finish line this year.

The purpose of such legislation is to establish a clear regulatory framework for digital assets, including their legal categories and the enforcement jurisdiction of agencies such as the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom