The ultimate failing was the climate of self she shaped in us that has made it necessary for Prime Minister Cameron to need the Big Society, whose existence she denied. Yet she closed many grammar schools, insisted that teachers did at least some in-service training (90 per cent did not) and that all the staff studied what the school chose.

She corrected ideological criticism of performance in maths and reading. She gave teachers their first map - the national curriculum - “the best thing since sliced bread”, as many professionals believed, and which they still value. And recognising professional concerns as to scale, through Dearing she made it especially effective. Mr Cameron and his secretary of state Michael Gove propose its destruction.

Mervyn Benford, Oxfordshire.