ABSTRACT
Not everyone shares my fascination with history and politics so be warned: they are what this chapter is about. I need to discuss them because the statistics tell us that ill health amongst teachers began to increase from 1982 onwards, and in order to pinpoint the cause we need to find out what started to happen around that date. This, in turn, means a brief look at what went before. If you are prepared to take my word for it that over the past two decades things have got very bad for teachers and it is mostly the Government’s fault, then you can skip this chapter. If on the other hand you want to review my evidence and to gauge for yourself whether the argument stands up, then read on.
