England's failure was Thatcher's fault ...

[beorhthelm]

Er...yes

"... more comprehensive schools were established under Mrs Thatcher than any other education secretary...."

neatly missing the previous sentance...

Margaret Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education, and ended the compulsion on local authorities to convert. However, many local authorities were so far down the path that it would have been prohibitively expensive to attempt to reverse the process

oh whats the point, the Thatcher haters/lovers only see their side of history. but i have never before seen the comprehensive school system portrayed as anything other than a product of Labour, and im sure they wouldnt thank anyone for trying to claim it was Thatcher.

 

[Gwylan]

neatly missing the previous sentance...


oh whats the point, the Thatcher haters/lovers only see their side of history.

Because I think that's bollocks - Wikipedia isn't the gospel truth particularly when writing about politics.

My own school went comprehensive in Sep 1973, that's over four years after the Tories came in. I don't believe that the move to comprehensive education was so far down the line that it couldn't be pulled back within three years. You might as well say why give a government five years if that isn't time enough to reverse the decisions of a previous government.

I remember the Heath government very well and it was firmly in the Butskellian tradition of the middle path - comprehensive education fitted very well in the mores of the time. Even that Wikipedia entry says that she "went on to be a ferocious critic of comprehensive education" implying that she wasn't at the time.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I am ready to be corrected in a couple of weeks time, especially as I have them in the office sweepstake, but isn't it a tad RICH for a Spanish journalist to start pointing fingers in relation to World Cup failures?

Who would he blame for Spain's consistent World Cup implosions? General Franco?

 

[Gwylan]

I am ready to be corrected in a couple of weeks time, especially as I have them in the office sweepstake, but isn't it a tad RICH for a Spanish journalist to start pointing fingers in relation to World Cup failures?

Who would he blame for Spain's consistent World Cup implosions? General Franco?

I'm sure there are some journalists who have written exactly that in the past - it was the Franco anti-Basque and anti-Catalan policies that prevented non-Castillians from thriving.

Next week, the weakness of the Fifth Republic and France's failures pre-1984

 

[fatbadger]

more comprehensive schools were established under Mrs Thatcher than any other education secretary

Well, it's good to know she did something right.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

We've never won the WC under the Conservatives, FACT.