History lesson
Sir: Lord Adonis says (Letters, 8 March) that ‘it doesn’t need the Conservatives to “bring the Swedish education revolution to Britain”’ because Labour reformers have already done so in the shape of the academies programme.
The academies programme is a typical piece of Labour rebranding — this time of the Conservative city technology college programme introduced in 1986 by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher and secretary of state for education Kenneth Baker.
In the teeth of Labour opposition it was Conservative, not Labour, reformers who, in Lord Adonis’s words, ‘sought to introduce independent state-funded schools into England’ — concentrated in precisely the areas of low standards highlighted by Mr Nelson.
Andrew Mitchell MP
House of Commons, London, SW1
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