TORY

Education has become the sacred cow of British politics over the past 25 years. Since the 1944 Education Act was framed, it has won the unstinting support of parents who have come to regard it as the passport to success for their children — though rather more thought has been given to its effect on earning power than to its effect on the individual personality. There has been no disagreement between successive ministers over the sacred cow aspect of education. Not only has more and more money been lavished on education since the war but the actual proportion of the gross national product spent on education has been steadily increased by successive Tory and Labour administrations.