At 11am today, Radio Four looks at the Tory school reform plan – inspired, apparently, by our recent cover story on Cameron’s schools revolution. I’m on the panel of Talking Politics, Dennis Sewell is hosting and my fellow panellists are Michael White from the Guardian and Anne McElvoy from the Evening Standard. We pre-recorded on Thursday, and I found myself in the unusually position of being a cheerleader for a Tory proposal. Michael said my youthful idealism set alarm bells off with him. CoffeeHousers have made a similar point – I’m becoming “ever more messianic” said TGF UKIP. So why am I so het up?
Education stirs passions in politics. Labour MPs who benefited from selective state education (Brown and Balls) normally make it their mission to deny this to everyone else. Tories who enjoyed selective education (too many to mention) are equally enthusiastic about extending it to everyone else – hence the huge rebellion over the decision not to roll out the grammar schools model.
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