“Number 10 are not deliverers, they don’t deliver a damn thing. They think of an idea and then buzz off and think of another and I always used to say to them, ‘Hang on, I am busy delivering the last set of proposals.’”
Estelle Morris reveals her frustrations as education secretary, 2004
“I think Mr Blair has done well with education. Standards are up, new school buildings have sprouted from Penzance to Thurso, discipline is better, and teaching a more respected and better rewarded profession.”
Anthony Seldon, Mr Blair’s biographer and master of Wellington College, 2007
“I am beginning to see how teachers feel like a circus act, having random objects hurled at them by a ringmaster and being expected to catch them,” Peter Hyman, Mr Blair’s former speech writer, who went on to work as a teaching assistant, sees things from the other side of the fence, 2005
“The Blair generation has the potential to be world leaders. There are no excuses with this generation because they will have benefited from all the primary and secondary programmes and we know they have achieved more than any other generation up until now and we’ve got to carry on.’’ David Miliband, then schools minister, 2004
“Dark forces are at work to put every school, every teacher in thrall, mind-slaves to the Supreme Controller, the Prime Minister, Tony’s Office, official codename: Tony Zoffis.” The late Ted Wragg, 2005
“Good education makes a difference. Good teaching changes lives. Educate a child well and you give them a chance.” Tony Blair, 2006
