To set up our free school, we’re preparing to go into battle with the hard left

As you may have read, the West London Free School has been included among the ‘first wave’ of schools that have been given the go-ahead by the government to open next year. That’s an important milestone, but we haven’t yet arrived at our destination. In order to reach the Promised Land we’ll have to do battle with the praetorian guard of the educational establishment.

As anyone who read The Spectator’s cover story two weeks ago will know, the hard left is prepared to use any means necessary to defeat Michael Gove’s educational reforms. Take Nick Grant, the most energetic opponent of the West London Free School. As secretary of the Ealing branch of the NUT, Nick has taken it upon himself to contact the borough’s head teachers and warn them against supporting our proposal. Free Schools, he tells them, are profoundly undemocratic — which is a little ironic given that he’s a member of the Socialist Workers Party.