Damn right

about the suppression of thought and invention in primary schools - "utilarian and philistine times" indeed

NuLab's obsession with "standards" does not even succeed by its own theoretical criteria, because throughout their period of government they have been in hock to the very forces which do most to erode those "standards", even elevating the most powerful individual in that field to the level of honorary cabinet minister against whom all vaguely contentious policies must be checked and, accordingly, diluted beyond recognition.  They have in fact given us the worst of all worlds, regressing to the most depressingly narrow and rigid elements of pre-1964 education, only with far greater pressure on teachers and completely devoid of the contempt for the worst aspects of mass culture which both Reithians/Hoggartists and rock'n'rollers who thrive on the illusion of rebellion can agree was pre-1964 mass education's only real saving grace (and even if you are of the Brendan O'Neill "hating anything that is popular equates to hating the mass of the population for who they are" school, you must concede that rhetoric about "standards" makes no sense unless such views are also held, or at least accepted).  The only thing stopping me from saying that no government could be as morally low as this one is the knowledge that its successor will almost certainly be even lower.