OK U-turn time, I met some *nice* OFSTED people today which was great. They sat about 6 of us down and asked questions about the state of the school, which was good because everyone was really positive on the whole. Although I did laugh when he described our multi-ethnicity as "smashing".

I would also like to quote from a Guardian column today:

"To all those on the left who think Tony Blair is a Tory, I wish you had been here to see the real thing. Note that Michael Howard made no mention whatever of poverty. Compare that to Labour's child-poverty pledge. He said nothing on childcare, nothing to woo back women voters. The whole array of policies on offer from the platform is strangely thin, with the feel of ideology devised in Central Office, lacking the substantial hard work Labour did to prepare for power. Labour is open to attack on various faltering policies, but the Tories do anecdotes, not killer research.

But when this party is eventually re-elected - and they will be back when they have done some of the above - it will show how far Labour has pushed the centre ground leftwards since Mrs Thatcher's day. Something else Labour's left might learn here: Blair's snatching of "choice" really has dished the Tories' best line. Conservatives' "choice" is money taken out of public funds for the better-off to spend elsewhere: it only highlights Labour determination to make services more responsive to everyone within the welfare state. The "choice" coup is just another example of how the Tories did not jump down into these depths all by themselves: they were also pushed by Labour, which still holds them down there."

Politics to make you feel better