We expect the chief inspector to base his reports on evidence and not on prejudice.”Tomorrow, David Blunkett, the Secretary of State for Education, will publish LEA league tables and announce details of Government plans to ensure more money bypasses authorities and goes directly to schools. A Green Paper on the future of local authorities is expected later this summer.A Government source said that Mr Blunkett believed that there was a continuing role for education authorities in planning school admissions, in turning round failing schools and in caring for children with special educational needs.”In some authorities, political leadership is good Where it is poor, we are prepared to intervene. That is an important difference between ourselves and the Conservatives. We have done so without fear or favour, regardless of the politics of the controlling party.”. “There is only one way of fighting,” André Malraux once wrote, “and that is to win.” Sometimes, however, a defeat is worth a dozen victories.

History will record that President Robert Mugabe “won” last weekend’s elections in Zimbabwe. By capturing 62 of the 120 seats up for election, on top of the 30 MPs he has the right to appoint, his Zanu-PF party will have a numerically solid majority in the new parliament in Harare. However, Mr Mugabe, who hitherto has wielded absolute power over his once-thriving land, has, in fact, been humiliated. “There is only one way of fighting,” André Malraux once wrote, “and that is to win.” Sometimes, however, a defeat is worth a dozen victories. History will record that President Robert Mugabe “won” last weekend’s elections in Zimbabwe. By capturing 62 of the 120 seats up for election, on top of the 30 MPs he has the right to appoint, his Zanu-PF party will have a numerically solid majority in the new parliament in Harare.

However, Mr Mugabe, who hitherto has wielded absolute power over his once-thriving land, has, in fact, been humiliated.
These were not “free and fair” elections. Without the intimidation and violence, above all in the countryside, and unquantifiable but indubitable ballot-rigging, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of Mr Morgan Tsvangirai would certainly have won a majority of the contested seats – possibly the 76 that would have given it an absolute majority. Yet even having stacked the deck, Mr Mugabe came within an ace of losing.But for the moment the MDC should set aside its grievances, justified though they are. These elections signal the beginning of the end of the Mugabe era No longer will the president be able to rule as he pleases.