I agree with every word

of this letter which appears in today's 'Guardian'. What's more, as the impressive list of signatories suggests, it would command widespread support throughout the world of education. Only the pathetic politicians, and our simplistic, ignorant, lazy media (the 'Guardian' excepted, obviously) would disagree. Chief amongst the clowns lining up to spout garbage about our schools is Michael Gove who has a remarkable eye for madcap ideas, often from the U.S for God's sake, which will certainly make schools very different and bases his policies on these ideas whilst insisting that schools will be autonomous. Oh yeah? But Ed Balls isn't far behind. I see all the DCSF press releases. Most of them are recycled propaganda, and fortunately don't refer to anything that actually happens or is likely to happen, and some of the others are very similar to Gove's nonsense. One reason why I am quite excited by the prospect of a balanced parliament is that whoever is in, or supporting, the government will find it much more difficult to push absurd and extreme policies and may even be more inclined to look at sensible solutions like that put forward in this letter.