A speech at the Confed confab by Fiona Millar, the education commentator and partner of spinmeister Alastair Campbell, got off to a delayed and somewhat undignified start when her mobile phone started ringing. The unfortunate Millar then spent five minutes scrabbling around under the table trying to locate it in her handbag. One wag muttered: “It’s Alastair - he’s ringing to say she’s off-message already.”
But it was a gem of a metaphor in Millar’s speech that still has us scratching our heads: “Schools aren’t like tins of baked beans - you can’t expand them or contract them at will.” Does anyone know what she’s talking about?
