Tony Blair, the promotion of the ‘active’ educational citizen, and middle‐class hegemony

Tony Blair’s period as Head of the Labour Government from 1997 until 2007 has been heralded as a period of increased parental power and growing choice within education. However, beneath the rhetoric, Blair’s legacy has been one of consolidating and re‐inforcing previous Conservative policies that stressed parental responsibilities whilst operating with a white middle‐class norm. As a result, inequalities between parents have grown under Blair as working‐class parents are positioned as failing, and middle‐class parents monopolise educational initiatives initially set up to benefit the disadvantaged.