ABSTRACT
The election of the Labour Government headed by Prime Minister Tony Blair, on the fi rst of May in 1997 presaged changes to the world of education in England and Wales,1 which few working inside education had anticipated. Blair, describing himself and the politics he represented as “New Labour,” declared that the priority for the incoming government would be “Education, Education, Education.” However his policies represented a radical departure from the traditional notions of education as a public service, publicly funded and locally administered which had dominated Labour Party thinking since its foundation at the beginning of the 20th century and more especially since the 1940s.
