I must be doing something right. In her column in today's Guardian, Polly Toynbee takes a swipe at me in the course of attacking the coalition's educational reforms. "Forget the things the chattering classes never knew about," she says, referring to George Osborne's decision to axe the Every Chid a Reader and Every Child Counts schemes, "and focus on parents creating their own little schools to suit their foibles or their faiths or the Toby Young school of ethics or whatever."
Not quite sure what she means by that, but it's clearly not a ringing endorsement. What amazes me is that Toynbee has the gall to attack free schools when she sent two of her own children to private schools. Why should a first-class education be the exclusive preserve of the privileged elite? The only thing the parents and teachers in my group want is the same educational opportunities for their children – and all the children in Ealing who's parents can't afford to go private or move to within the catchment area of a high-performing comprehensive – that she managed to secure for hers. (To read more, click here.)
