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World Service,03 Dec 2010,28 mins

26/11/10 Education white paper | Labour's policy review

Politics UK

Available for over a year

Education, education was Tony Blair's mantra, but found the task of reforming England's schools harder than he thought. Is England's schools system still broken? One teacher thinks it is. But will Conservative plans to put things right be defeated by the "Blob"? And how a blank sheet of paper could make all the difference to putting Labour back on the political map. Presented by Dennis Sewell. As thousands of students gathered in Westminster to hold their second protest over the increase in University tuition fees, Education Secretary Michael Gove was outlining his plan for the next stage of the Coalition Government’s overhaul of England’s education system. So will the plans work? We speak to Katherine Birbalsingh, former deputy head of a South London school, who in a speech to the Conservative Party Conference declared that the school system was “brokenâ€, and to two politicians, Labour MP Nicholas Dakin, a former head teacher of a sixth-form college, and Conservative MP Conor Burns. The new Labour Leader Ed Miliband announced a thorough policy review for his party, which he said would start with a blank page. The suggestion was ridiculed by the Prime Minister, David Cameron in the Commons. So how do political parties go about rebuilding their support after defeat? We discussed this with MP George Eustice, who was David Cameron’s press secretary when in opposition, and Will Straw, editor of the Labour supporting website ‘Left Foot Forward’, discuss this with us.

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