Ed Balls gets it wrong, wrong, wrong

Never let it be said that The Spectator makes no space for dissenting views. Ed Balls makes the case for his school policy today – worth reading. It is a powerful tour of the arguments and half-truths which compose Labour’s education policy. To Fisk this would end up in an article four times the length of the original, so I will confine myself to his criticism of Tory policy.

Okay, just one other point. “On each of our key reforms — education to 18, diplomas, school admissions, raising standards and tackling underperforming schools — there is a clear difference between the two main parties” says Balls. Note how he says “education to 18” without the word “compulsory.” This is because Labour seeks to misrepresent this as them being in favour of education to 18 and the Tories being against. “Education to 18 should not be for everybody, they say” as Balls puts it.